Weekly Buyer's Guide: Entry Level System - May 2004
by Evan Lieb on May 15, 2004 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Sound Card
Recommendation: Onboard AudioPrice: $0
There is no need to waste money purchasing a separate sound card with an entry level system, so the obvious choice is going to be the onboard sound that comes with the ASUS A7N8X-X that we recommended as the motherboard of choice today. Integrated sound onboard the A7N8X-X is courtesy of Realtek's ALC650 codec, which is a standard 6-channel solution that will fit basic Windows, gaming, and music requirements.
If you choose ABIT's NF7-S Rev.2, our alternative entry level motherboard this week, you should realize that because this motherboard has an MCP-T South Bridge, you can bypass its onboard DAC by using the optical out port on the I/O panel of your board, giving you much better sound quality basically for free. However, this requires speakers with the appropriate receiver, which we do not end up recommending for our speakers today, but if you feel like spending a few more bucks, it's not a bad way to upgrade to better sound.
Speakers
Recommendation: Creative Labs SBS270 2.0 SpeakersPrice: $20 shipped
Speakers are a basic requirement for any entry level system, but they aren't that important overall. However, Creative Labs makes a great pair of 2.0 speakers, dubbed the SBS270. These are excellent entry level speakers for users who also want to have at least decent sound quality for video games and music listening. It also comes with a headphone input. There's no subwoofer or anything like that, but that's totally unnecessary unless you're keenly interested in a more powerful listening experience. Overall, a very solid pair of speakers with no real alternative worth mentioning.
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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jensend - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
This statement from the cpu alternative page needs work: "All this adds up to noticeably better performance that, depending on what applications are run, you may or may not notice."The audio page also needs to be changed to say "Recommendation: Onboard audio" rather than "Recommendation: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (6.1) OEM", which it currently says.
GP40X - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
Yep, I've been going through withdrawl waiting for the overclocked system. Hope it didn't get lost in the shuffleDismal - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
woo, i'm glad these are back.. I was beginning to think they stopped doing them.l3ored - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
you skipped the overclocking system...blckgrffn - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
Why are we insisting on WD hard drives and Sony opticals? Both have been very unreliable, in my opinion. I really like samsungs for both now. At least none of them have fail so far, and they are much quieter.Other than that, I would upgrade to 512 or at least 384 for ram and call it good! I would also got the Abit motherboard, too, its feature set is worth the $11.
Nat
Grelk - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
Why are there repeating pricing lists for the processors but none for the motherboards?DanDeighan - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
I think you suggested the wrong budget cooler for the Athlon XP200+. The Cooler Master DP5-5G11A is only rated for Athlon's up to 850Mhz, according to Newegg.