Weekly Buyer's Guide: Mid-Range System - April 2004
by Evan Lieb on April 22, 2004 7:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Networking
Recommendation: Onboard networkingPrice: $0
Nothing more than onboard networking is needed for a mid-range system like the one we're building today. However, a nice additional feature that the P4P800 Deluxe brings (in case you want to purchase our alternative) in terms of networking, is its onboard 3COM Gigabit controller, capable of 10/100/1000 transfer speeds. This isn't going to change your experience on the Internet, but Gigabit is very useful for transferring large amounts of data to and from multiple networked computers in, for example, an office or within a family of computers. Some will find the addition of Gigabit very useful for this purpose, while most will just stick to utilizing just the 10/100 capability.
Storage
Recommendation: Western Digital 800JB (80GB) 7200RPM (8MB cache)Price: $72 shipped
Western Digital's Caviar series of drives are still the best price/performance drives on the market, and literally the best in terms of price and performance. The "JB" in 800JB indicates that your WD drive has an 8MB buffer, which means that your drive is able to store more frequently accessed data than a 2MB drive, vastly increasing performance. Thankfully, if you buy from the right manufacturer, you will receive a 3-year warranty with your drive, which is very useful if you're the unfortunate victim of hard drive death (usually identifiable by the "click of death" sound).
Alternative: Western Digital 1200JB 120GB 7200RPM (8MB cache) ATA
Price: $92 shipped
For an extra $20, you can upgrade your WD 800JB drive to 120GB, which, as you've probably guessed by now, offers an additional 40GB or so in storage capacity. This type of additional capacity can be exceedingly useful if you're someone who stores endless emails in Outlook, plays lots of games, listens to lots of MP3's, or simply needs additional space for the next 12 or more months down the road. Overall, there aren't that many differences of which you need to concern yourself between the 800JB and 1200JB, as they both come with the same 8MB buffer and both perform almost identically. Be wary of WD drives that emit the infamous "WD whine" that continues to annoy users to this day. Depending on your vendor, you may be able to return your drive for a quieter version.
Optical Storage
Recommendation: Lite-On 52x32x52x16 Combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drivePrice: $51 shipped
If you want to be able to watch DVDs, you can always opt for a combo drive. Its function essentially integrates CD burning and DVD watching into one drive. The added benefit is that you're getting a better price for this combo drive versus purchasing an additional drive. The price difference isn't all that huge ($10-$15) if you were to buy a separate drive, plus that second drive allows you to watch DVDs while your burn CDs, which isn't possible with this combo drive. In the end, the decision is up to you as to how you want to configure optical storage.
Alternative: NEC 2500A 8X DVD+/-RW
Price: $84 shipped
One of the best "bargain" DVD burners currently available is, without a doubt, NEC's 2500A. NEC's 2500A is probably one of the best bang-for-the-buck high end DVD burners that you'll find on the market today, without spending over $100. It's able to play and burn just about every DVD/CD out there, and up to 8X DVD+/-RW to boot. You won't be seeing higher end DVD burners for quite some time (read: mid-summer), so this drive will last you many, many months.
Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on storage from many different reputable vendors:
If you cannot find the lowest prices on the products that we've recommended on this page, it's because we don't list some of them in our RealTime pricing engine. Until we do, we suggest that you do an independent search online at the various vendors' web sites. Just pick and choose where you want to buy your products by looking for a vendor located under the "Vendor" heading.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
24 Comments
View All Comments
GoatHerderEd - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
some how I posted twice. interesting. sorry.GoatHerderEd - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
9- WTF did you just copy and paste a newegg site? You think you could have at least edited so it would not take nearly that room. And we dont need anything past the total like the shipping info and other links.GoatHerderEd - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
9- WTF did you just copy and paste a newegg site? You think you could have at least edited so it would not take nearly that room. And we dont need anything past the total like the shipping info and other links.Fr0zeN2 - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
With the recent post of AOpen's nforce2 board with an agp/pci lock that works, I was pretty confident that I'd see the a64 2800+ here somewhere. Sure the half-meg cache hurts, but it can't hurt beyond the 200mhz premium that AMD has put on the upcomin Newcastle (also with half a meg), which you can compensate for by OCing anyway. Sure, the XP 2800+ is half the price, but it's also half the performance =/jensend - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
7- Motherboards these days are generally good for at most one cpu generation (if they don't get cut off in the middle of the generation because newer processors with the same core require a higher bus speed).Trying to organize the guides around tasks rather than performance/budget level would be counterproductive for two reasons:
1. Half of those tasks are undemanding enough that few noticeable differences can be seen between most machines of the past 6 years.
2. In the range of machines these guides look at there are very few ways in which task-specific performance deviates from overall system performance enough to make a noticeable difference, and most of them are obvious (eg the importance of graphics cards for gaming tasks).
wolverinski - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
Hey DIYs,
for one thousand shipped to the door. Matching colors (beige), Antec case (two fans and 350W PS), faster performance than a nForce2/Athlon system, great overclocking potential and future HT upgrade. Don't hear much about the 865P dual channel chipset. For the price hard to beat!
Brand Category Description (Detail View) Description (Summary View) Welcome Guest,
login
Qty Product Description Unit Price Extended Price
ANTEC Performance Series II Mid Tower Case With 350W Power Supply, Model "SX835II" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16811129119
Save to Buy Later
Remove Item
$75.00
$75.00
qualifies for extended warranty
Samsung 52X32X52 CD-RW Drive, Model SW-252FRNS, Retail
Item# N82E16827151033
Save to Buy Later
Remove Item
$32.00
$32.00
qualifies for extended warranty
?Blow Out!
Western Digital Special Edition 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD800JB, OEM Drive Only
Item# N82E16822144122
Save to Buy Later
Remove Item
$69.00
$69.00
qualifies for extended warranty
Kingston HyperX Series Dual Kits 184 Pin 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-2700
Item# N82E16820144121
Save to Buy Later
Remove Item
$125.00
$125.00
qualifies for extended warranty
ViewSonic E90f 19" PerfectFlat CRT Monitor –RETAIL
Item# N82E16824116280
Save to Buy Later
Remove Item
$215.00
$215.00
Standard Warranty only
ASUS 865P Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU, Model "P4P8X SE" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16813131487
Save to Buy Later
Remove Item
$79.00
$79.00
qualifies for extended warranty
Intel Pentium 4/ 2.8B GHz 533MHz FSB, 512K Cache - Retail
Item# N82E16819116147
Save to Buy Later
Remove Item
$163.00
$163.00
qualifies for extended warranty
Logitech Z640 5.1 Speakers -RETAIL
Item# N82E16836121104
Save to Buy Later
Remove Item
$58.00
$58.00
Standard Warranty only
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "ATLANTIS RADEON 9600PRO" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16814102291
Save to Buy Later
Remove Item
$128.00
$128.00
qualifies for extended warranty
Extend My Standard Warranty on the above qualifying items for: $40.26
Product total: $944.00
FedEx International Economy - PR ONLY APO/FPO - Military ONLY FedEx Standard Overnight FedEx 2Day FedEx Express Saver Choose state AA AP AE ALASKA ALABAMA ARKANSAS ARIZONA CALIFORNIA COLORADO CONNECTICUT DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DELAWARE FLORIDA GEORGIA HAWAII IOWA IDAHO ILLINOIS INDIANA KANSAS KENTUCKY LOUISIANA MASSACHUSETTS MARYLAND MAINE MICHIGAN MINNESOTA MISSOURI MISSISSIPPI MONTANA NORTH CAROLINA NORTH DAKOTA NEBRASKA NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW JERSEY NEW MEXICO NEVADA NEW YORK OHIO OKLAHOMA OREGON PENNSYLVANIA PUERTO RICO RHODE ISLAND SOUTH CAROLINA SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE TEXAS UTAH VIRGINIA VERMONT WASHINGTON WISCONSIN WEST VIRGINIA WYOMING Shipping & Handling: $ 55.50
Total (Before tax): $ 999.50
how to calculate shipping:
select shipping method and choose state, then click "CALCULATE".
how Newegg.com determines shipping charges.
Note: any combo discount will not be shown until you check out.
tax instructions for resellers click here.
All Orders Must Be Placed Online(24/7)
All orders shipped within CA,TN and NJ will be charged sales tax.
FedEx express saver: 3-4 business days plus processing time.
FedEx 2nd day: 2 business days plus processing time.
FedEx standard overnight: 1 business day plus processing time.
Military APO/FPO: 2-4 weeks via USPS plus processing time.
no delivery on saturday or sunday.
FedEx does not ship to P.O. boxes.
No international/Canadian shipments.
Military APO/FPO orders welcome! (Due to military APO/FPO box size, 19" and larger monitors will not fit. please remove them from your shopping cart and purchase locally.)
For HI and AK customers, fedEx can only ship via 2nd day or overnight, and shipping time will not be guaranteed. Therefore, Newegg.com will default to and charge for 2nd day air.
PR customers are responsible to pay any applicable duty tax and shipping method will default and charge for int'l economy.
All orders require 24-48 hours processing time before shipping. Newegg.com does not process orders during weekends. Newegg.com does not guarantee same day shipping.
Rush orders: some orders may be shipped the same day for a $2.99 service fee. click here for more details.
Qty Product Description Unit Price Extended Price
*Adding items to Your Wish List or saving it does not guarantee availability. subtotal: $0.00
Returns And Exchanges
Shipping Methods & Cost
Payment Methods
How To Order
Frequently Asked Questions
Credit Card Info Verification Buy Gift Certificates
Shop By Category
View Combo Deals
Shop Clearance Items
Shop Refurbished Items
Product Reviews
Warranty Info
Extended Warranty
Reseller Policy
Recommend A Product Sign In/Register
View Cart
View Wish List
Order Status
Print Invoice
RMA Request
RMA Status
Credit
Remove From Newsletter About Us
Awards
Contact Us
Office Hours & Location
Testimonials
Privacy Info
Newsletter Info
Careers
Home
Find It Code™
Track My Order
Sign Up For E-Mail Newsletter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
©2004 Newegg.com., All rights reserved.
Any use of this site is subject to Terms & Conditions.
lupis42 - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
While I personally am a computer enthusiast, and gamer, I am also a broke student, and so I tend to try and get 18 months worth of gaming performance out of a system, and I rarely have to put out any mony for displays, kb&mouse, speakers, etc. I've so far managed to get a good track record in gaming performance by spending 1800$, once every 2 to 3 years, but my last effort was slightly mistimed, and stuff is starting to kill my current gaming rig. Ergo, I was wondering, can we get a proposed system for gamers looking to maximize their time in the sweet spot, that is, not overkill hardware when they buy it, but that remains sufficient for over a year?Also, given that I still manage email, browsing, etc with no noticable difficulty from an 800Mhz Athalon, and that the only upgrades it has recieved in its 4 year life are 256MB of RAM, and an old 4 gig HD when it's origional (40 gig) died, I wonder what might be found that could replace this system for comparable performance, but with minimal power requirements, and as little waste heat, noise, and wasted space as possible, cheaply. The need for newer and faster hardware to run MS Word on is rediculous. Why not newer more efficient hardware instead?
I seem to have made this alot longer than I intended to, so ill go ahead and throw in the gist here:
Firstly, how about giving an estimate of a guide systems usable life, and what it will be usable for across that time?
Secondly, given that the midrange system seems to be underkill for gaming even 6 months from now, and is kinda overkill for desktop work, and not designed around workstation requirements, what is it for? For that matter, the high end machine also seems to be so totally generic that it's not incredibly useful. More specialized guides might be a better handle on this issue, for example, Budget guide, Gamers guide, Overclocking guide, Multimeda guide, or something. Since I suspect that end uses have a higher impact on most Anand readers than pure performance anyway, when they go to build systems.
aerobook2002 - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
I suggest you include comments in your systems’ buyer’s guides regarding the system’s upgrade-ability. I personally am interested to know if the recommended motherboards will operate the next generation of CPU’s. So 2-3 years from now when the P4 EE is ~$200 instead of ~$800(?) will my mother board run it? I.E., the ASUS P4P800 Deluxe runs the P4 Northwood and Prescott but will it run the Extreme Edition or whatever is next? Dito for the AMD products (will the AN7 board run the Athlon 64 CPU?). I realize I may have to upgrade other hardware as well, like the RAM.Additionally, it would be informative to state what the systems would be best suited for, i.e. surfing & e-mail, office application, moderate gaming, video editing (what I’m interested in), etc. Or maybe you could just orient the system for a specific task i.e. video editing, gaming, office application, e-mail, etc.
I am enjoying the ‘Systems Buyers Guides” very much, keep up the good work.
skiboysteve - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
i concur with 5Corsairpro - Thursday, April 22, 2004 - link
#4You obviously don't have budget constraints then. To me low end is free - $400, mid is $400-1000, performance is 1000-1500, and overkill is 1500+
There are infact computer enthusiasts who are poor.