Weekly Buyer's Guide: Entry Level System - May 2004
by Evan Lieb on May 15, 2004 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Networking
Recommendation: Onboard networkingPrice: $0
Nothing more than onboard networking is needed for an entry level system like the one we're building today. Pretty much every onboard network controller is the same nowadays, so there's usually no need to worry about Internet speed/download issues. This is why a 10/100 solution like the one onboard the A7N8X-X (and NF7-S Rev.2 if you so choose) will suffice for your Internet needs. Gigabit or 802.11a/b networking just isn't necessary unless you have a home network that transfers a lot of data to and from multiple computers, or if you already have an AP (Access Point) setup in your home for wireless Internet.
Storage
Recommendation: Western Digital 400BB (40GB) 7200RPM (2MB cache)Price: $57 shipped
Western Digital continues to make well priced budget drives that are noticeably faster than the 5400RPM variety. Depending on what type of office tasks you perform, a 7200RPM drive like the Western Digital 400BB is going to be faster than pretty much any 5400RPM hard drive on the market, and for not much more money. 40GB should be more than enough if you're just storing mostly Outlook or Word/Excel/PowerPoint documents, a few games, and some MP3's. Of course, as we preached at the beginning of this guide, reliability is always a big deal when you're talking about important data, and luckily, this particular series of Western Digital drives has gained wide acceptance around the industry as extremely reliable. We, here at AnandTech, share this same sentiment, as we have used several WD drives (Caviar series) not only for our personal systems, but our test systems as well.
Alternative: Western Digital 800JB (80GB) 7200RPM (8MB cache)
Price: $69 shipped
A very nice upgrade for $12 can be had with a WD 800JB hard drive. The 8MB cache and additional 40GB of space are both excellent reasons to upgrade to this hard drive. We've been lucky enough to receive several quiet versions of the 800JB, and in our research, we have found that it's one of the quieter WD Caviar hard drives. In other words, you may have less of a chance of encountering the infamous WD "whine" sound from your hard drive if you purchase this model and not, say, a 1200JB. If you're sensitive to noise, a very good alternative to the 800JB is Seagate's 80GB (8MB cache) Barracuda hard drive. Performs almost as well as WD's 800JB and is usually quite a bit quieter.
Optical Storage
Recommendation: Sony 52x32x52 CD-RWPrice: $32 shipped
There aren't too many differences between CD-RW's nowadays, save for reliability among various manufacturers. For the most part, Sony has done a good job with their high-end CD-RW drives and we have had great success with them in the past, which is why we decided to recommend them today. You can burn music CD's in mere minutes, and even a full 700MB or 800MB (with the appropriate media) can be burned in a matter of 15-20 minutes depending on exactly what type of files you're burning. At $32 shipped, you really can't go wrong with this solution.
Alternative: Lite-On 52x32x52x16 Combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive
Price: $49 shipped
If you want to be able to watch DVDs, then 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 you burn CDs, which isn't possible with the combo drive. In the end, the decision is up to you as to how you want to configure your optical storage.
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.
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Tostada - Monday, May 24, 2004 - link
Yes, most people prefer the name "ASUS" to the name "Biostar," but this is a budget system. Are you honestly suggesting you'd rather have a system with half the memory, half the storage, no dual-channel, and no ability to read DVD's?We're talking about best bang for the buck here.
guitarizt - Friday, May 21, 2004 - link
I'd rather have the asus than the biostar.Tostada - Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - link
People seem to absolutely love Samsung drives. It looks like the SpinPoint 80GB with 8MB cache has almost identical performance to the WD 800JB, but I can't even find anybody selling the ATA Samsung drive with 8MB cache. Having a 2MB cache shouldn't make much difference, though, so I'll have to try one.It is pretty stupid that WD isn't using FDB like everyone else, and they actually list the 800JB as a 2-platter 4-head design, which would really hurt its transfer rate compared to modern 80GB-platter drives, although WD does change configurations without changing the model number, so you never know what they're using.
Hitachi's SATA drives all have a 3-year warranty and 8MB cache, and I use them whenever I can. They're the fastest 7200RPM drives around -- almost as fast as the new Raptors and even quieter than Samsungs.
Zebo - Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - link
I with Tostada. Excellent work.:)Especially the Biostar mobo combo. I would change the HD to Samsung spinpoint simply because they are quieter:)
XRaider - Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - link
Good point Tostada. I will have to agree with you on the entry system that you have proposed. Parts are alil better.Tostada - Monday, May 17, 2004 - link
Seeing as I just built one of these, I'll post the entry-level system I would make. Let's compare the prices without speakers or monitor.AnandTech Entry Level system:
Athlon XP 2000+ OEM
Cooler Master DP5-5G11A heatsink
ASUS A7N8X-X nForce 2 400 motherboard
Sapphire Radeon 9200SE 64MB
Western Digital 40GB WD400BB, 1-year warranty
256MB Kingston ValueRAM, PC-3200 CL3
Sony 52X CD-RW drive
CasEdge 3GTS-01 Black ATX case
That's $382.00 listed in the guide. The parts are currently $368.99 delivered from NewEgg.
The machine I would build:
Athlon XP 2000+ Retail
Biostar M7NCG 400 nForce2 IGP dual-channel
Western Digital 80GB WD800JB, 3-year warranty
512MB Mushkin PC-3200 CL2.5
Lite-On 48X CD-RW / 16X DVD-ROM combo drive
APEX TM-163 Black Micro-ATX case
That's currently $372.00 delivered from NewEgg.
Upgrades I recommend for a silent system are the EnerMax Noisetaker 325W power supply and the Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2TC Rev2 heatsink.
Maybe you could argue that 2D quality is a little better on the Radeon, but the 9200SE is a 64-bit card with a 200MHz core, it is only a DirectX 8 card, and it doesn't perform any better than the on-board graphics on nForce2 IGP boards.
The guide has chosen to use an older model 40GB hard drive with a 1-year warranty, when it is only $13.50 more for the 80GB model with a 3-year warranty and 8MB cache. They have chosen to use 256MB of CL3 Kingston ValueRAM, when it's only $37 more for 512MB of Mushkin CL2.5. They have chosen to get a plain CD-RW drive when it's only $15 more for a combo DVD-ROM. In light of that kind of hardcore penny pinching, it's very questionable to spend an extra $40 for a Radeon 9200SE.
Tostada - Sunday, May 16, 2004 - link
SxRxRnRx: That places prices are certainly decent, but you don't get a monitor or an operating system, so you're not doing better than building it yourself.The parts in CyberPower's $424 system you speak of would cost $342 delivered at NewEgg. That's everything but the case and speakers, which you can certainly get for less than $82.
Athlon XP 2600+: $90.00 (Retail)
ASUS A7N8X-X: $76.00
256MB PC3200: $46.00 (Apacer)
80GB 7200RPM drive: $67.00 (WD800BB)
Nvidia GeForce 64MB Video: $36.00 (GeForce2 MX400)
52X CD-RW: $27.00 (Samsung)
It would be much better to build a system yourself, because that thing is stupid. Why would you get a Barton 2600 with only 256MB and a GeForce MX? The Anand guide has things a little more in perspective.
Personally, for an entry system, I would go with the 2000+ (or maybe the Mobil 2000+) like the guide says. I would go with an nForce2 board. I would usually go with 512MB. I can understand saving $45 on memory, though, if you really think you won't need it. I would always get a HDD with a 3-year warranty. I also think it's ridiculous to build a new system that can't read DVD's.
I have to agree with the guys suggesting onboard video for an entry-level system. There's nothing wrong with the nForce2 IGP. You guys complaining about 2D quality are confused. Most people using entry-level systems are running their desktops in 1024x768 at the most. Often they just use 800x600. These are the types of people who are more than happy playing games with the horrible "Intel Extreme Graphics." Any "SE" or "MX" video card with a 64-bit memory bus will not significantly outperform the nForce2 integrated GeForce4 MX. It's just a waste of $35.
If you're that concerned about perfect 2D quality, you should at least spend the extra $5 to get a Radeon with a DVI connector. Then if you get a good monitor you actually will be able to notice the difference.
The Biostar M7NCG 400 is a great nForce2 Micro-ATX board. It's $64.00 delivered. It has the onboard GeForce4 MX. It supports dual-channel memory. It fits in cute cheaper Micro-ATX cases that everybody likes. It also uses the same Realtek 6-channel audio as the board in the guide.
Speaking of on-board audio, it is still something you have to consider. A lot of boards now have cheaper sound chips and totally unshielded jacks that give a constant hum.
gordon151 - Sunday, May 16, 2004 - link
Athlon XP 2500+ Retail - $80ABIT VA-10 KM400 mATX mBoard - $53
In-Win Black mATX Tower Case - $50
Mid and full tower ATX cases are a little too bulky for my tastes in use of an entry level computer.
scuzzmaster - Sunday, May 16, 2004 - link
as an alternative, i've used msi's km4m with good luck for customers before, and it runs about $10 less at newegg. with decent (imo) integrated graphics, it's a popular mobo swap for aging customer systems.Zebo - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
Oh and don't forget to include shipping. Some guys promote Dells "specials" and fail to mention thier shipping is around $150 sometimes.