Weekly Buyer's Guide: Entry Level System - May 2004
by Evan Lieb on May 15, 2004 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
CPU and Motherboard Recommendations
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ OEM (no heatsink)Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-X (nForce2 400)
Price: CPU - $52 shipped (OEM). Motherboard - $69 shipped
The AMD Athlon XP 2000+ continues to be AnandTech's runaway favorite for Entry Level Systems month after month. This month is no different. We had originally favored the Athlon XP 1800+, but AMD decided to level its prices off on Athlon XP processors at the 2000+, so it only made sense for us to upgrade our recommendation from an 1800+ to a 2000+ with the negligible price difference. Both the Athlon XP 1800+ and the 2000+ are absolutely identical to each other feature-wise, save for their clock speed; the 2000+ operates at 1.67GHz while the 1800+ operates at 1.53GHz. As we mentioned before, this CPU offers excellent performance in today's business applications and games while being very light on the wallet. $52 is a steal and will satisfy even the cheapest of cheap systems. There aren't many 2000+ processors available in retail, but any old CPU cooler will do. We suggest the Cooler Master DP5-5G11A, which is just $10 shipped from several online vendors, if you like a cheap, but effective, cooling solution. If you're looking for something quieter, we suggest mounting a Panaflo L1A fan to reduce noise. The retail version of AMD's Athlon XP 2000+ is only $5 more, so you may just want to skip purchasing the Cooler Master CPU cooler to save a few dollars. Either decision will suffice.
We suggest that you read up on AnandTech's very own Budget CPU Shootout from last December for detailed information on how your Athlon XP 2000+ might perform. Keep in mind that the 2000+ isn't listed in our benchmark charts there, but you can still get a good idea of how the 2000+ performs by approximating how their siblings performs.
The ASUS A7N8X-X and its older derivatives have been a favorite among the editors here at AnandTech for quite some time, and continue to be a favorite to this day. We have written extensively on ASUS' nForce2 motherboards in the past, namely about their exceptional reliability, feature sets, and excellent price points. The performance that the nForce2 400 chipset brings to the ASUS A7N8X-X is an especially nice bonus considering the price tag, as this is basically the exact same chipset that you'll find in high end Socket A motherboards minus the dual channel DDR memory support that is totally unnecessary for budget user needs. We've had lots of personal experience with this particular ASUS model, and simply put, we love this motherboard to death. And due to the type of chipset used with this motherboard, you will be able to upgrade to the best Athlon XP processors in the future, namely the 400MHz FSB kind.
All in all, we can't think of much that will go wrong with this motherboard, especially considering how mature BIOS support is at this stage in its long life.
Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on the AMD CPUs and motherboards 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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Zebo - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
You can get a way better system for a similar price here----------------
Not only is this hyperbole its spam as far as I'm concerned. Prove you can build a better system for cheaper. Burduns on you to List parts from this vendor and price then list same parts and price from newegg. We've had this discussion and comparison numerous times in the forums. Never does retail exceed building your own.
SxRxRnRx - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
You can get a way better system for a similar price here:http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/
I could not build a computer with individual OEM parts cheaper than they are selling them for. Anandtech mihgt as well just recommend some of their specials for the Budget and High End Buyer's Guides.
The default Athlon XP System there has very similar specs for only $424 w/o monitor.
Hard to beat. If you can find a site that is cheaper, please let me know.
Thanks.
gherald - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
The topic of integrated video has come up before, the problem with that is really crappy 2D IQ and text. And since 2D is very important for an entry level system, you want to have at least a Radeon 9000. Perhaps Evan should mention this in the article.I agree an SLK1600 would be a better entry-level case/PSU combo... but AT seems to like strange cases. I have six SLK1600's in a cluster -- all tacked directly on top of each other, quite an interesting sight :) -- and they take standard ATX boards just fine. You won't be able to use your bottom 5 1/4" bay, but who needs that these days now that we all use combo drives?
Anyway, at least check them out: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?desc...
You don't hear many complaints about Chaintech because no one buys them. Very few, anyway.
You hear a lot of complaints about Asus because every man and his dog owns at least one, including a lot of stupid dogs who take no anti-static precautions and end up with a dead board a few months after intallation.
But if you are worried about board quality, get the Abit. I own three different abit models (four boards in total, two are of that same NF7-S model) and they are fantastic. The only A7N8X-X I bought died on me, though strangely enough I think it was my tricked-out 9500 NP that killed it, since I quite thoroughly voided the warranty on that li'l beastie and it had been showing signs of failure when my A7N8X-X died :(
Zebo - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
Another thing Evan you should really check out Dynatron Copper CPU Cooler Model "BH-610" For only $8 at newegg.It absoluty stomps any sub $20 cooler. Read the user reviews at newegg.com all five stars. My son is running a overclocked 2400 barton to 2.34 Ghz off it and stays below 50C.
Zebo - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
$62 for a processor oouch$70!! for a case really ouch
$69 for a motherboard ouch
Duron 1.8Ghz = $40
POWMAX Case with 400W PSU = $22
Shuttle AN31N = $55
Now go buy some decent amount of ram and a RAPTOR hardrive with the savings.
EPAstor - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
I think this is a matter of what you define as an "entry-level" system... but wouldn't integrated video, as available in either nForce2 or Via's KM line, be both more appropriate and cheaper? Saves roughly $40-50.Also, for another example of price savings, your case specs out at $71 with power supply... if you're willing to get a MicroATX motherboard, which at this point barely impacts the price for Socket A, it's very reasonable to get the Antec SLK1600, with a 300W Antec PS included, for $42.
Oh, and blckgrffn mentioned reliability issues - I know this will sound strange, but I've heard of more problems with Asus boards lately than positive comments. On the other hand, Chaintech sells cheaper boards at the same feature point (several of which are MicroATX as well), and surprisingly, I've never heard a serious complaint.
Just a few ideas.
gherald - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
The statement:"All this adds up to noticeably better performance that, depending on what applications are run, you may or may not notice."
...sounds increadibly silly. You can't go saying it "adds up to noticeably better performance" thereby implying it *DEFINATELY* does so, and then say in the same sentence "may or may not notice"
I suggest you replace the entire sentence and those that follow it with :
1) A clear explanation of which situations the performance *WILL BE* noteiceably better.
2) A clear explanation of which situations the performance *WILL NOT BE* noticeably better.
As things stand, your statement sounds like typical reviewer double talk, that is, unwillingness to take a clear stance on which situations a product performs better than a similar one.
Evan Lieb - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
DanDeighan, that cooler is rated past a 2000+, it's good. Either way, you can get a retail 2000+ for just $5 more anyway, as I mentioned.Grelk, we have corrected that error, thanks.
blckgrffn, neither product has been proven to be more unreliable than their competition. That's true in our own experience as well. I'd be interested in knowing where you got the impression the Sony/WD products I recommended are unreliable.
l3ored, yes, we are currently in the middle of adding guides and switching responsibilities among editors. We will be adding an SFF and gaming guide, and Wesley Fink will be handling the high end and overclocking guides now.
Dismal, we only skipped last week's guide, for good reason. :)
jensend, thanks for the audio correction. I'm not sure what you are referring to in your cpu alternative note.
cosmotic, the nForce2 board we recommended is single channel. nForce2 400. The alternative board is nForce2 Ultra 400 though, yes.
KillaKilla - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
JenSend, rather than that why not look for where they're getting their Sound Cards... after all, a free Audigy 2 is a relatively good deal, compared to the Audigy at $35.cosmotic - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
You should recomend using dual channel memory. 2x128 will be a lot faster then 1x256 in an nForce2 MB.