Buyer's Guide: High End System - May 2004
by Wesley Fink on May 26, 2004 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Video
Recommendation: 256MB Radeon X800 ProPrice: $425 shipped
While the dust hasn't settled in this round of the video wars, we do know that the new generation of video cards from nVidia and ATI are twice as fast as the previous generation in many benchmarks. Knowing that, you simply can't ignore the new cards when building a high-end system. The only one of the new cards that we could actually find for sale right now is the ATI Radeon X800 Pro. The X800 Pro will eventually settle into the price range around $400, which is a good deal, cheaper than the $500 that you will pay for the X800 XT or nVidia GeForce 6800 Ultra when they are finally available in the marketplace. Consider this round a victory for ATI for availability, but the war (or the best choice) is far from settled.
You will never have to apologize to anyone for choosing the X800 Pro for your new high end system, since it is an excellent performer that can hold its own - especially considering it is one slot, one molex connector, and can be used with most any quality power supply. For more information on the relative performance of the new generation of video cards, check out the AnandTech review of the X800.
Alternative: 128MB Saphire Radeon 9800 PRO 256-bit, DVI, TV-out
Price: $192 shipped
There really isn't very much difference in the performance of the 128MB 9800 PRO and 256MB 9800 XT, so we certainly would not recommend spending the $370 it would cost for a 9800 XT, when you can buy a Radeon 9800 PRO 256-bit (not the more limited 128-bit LE) for $192. What a bargain, if price matters somewhat on your high-end system. On the other hand, the X800 Pro is so much better than the 9800 XT that we would recommend spending the extra $50 if you had thought of the 9800 XT, and get a X800 Pro instead.
With the introduction of the new generation of video cards, there are clearly some real bargains available at what was the old high-end. You can also find an nVidia GeForce 5900XT for about the same price as the 9800 PRO, but the 9800 PRO is generally regarded as the better performer in a comparison of these two cards. Like the 9800 XT, the comparable 5950 Ultra is selling in the $370 range, another case where the difference in performance hardly justifies double the price.
We recommend that you stay away from the 9800SE video cards. With the 9800 PRO so reasonable these days, there is absolutely no reason to settle for a 9800SE that, at best, performs on par with or often even slower than a 9600 Pro in 3D games. Don't be fooled - - a 9800SE performs nothing like a full-blown 8-pipe, 256 bit memory interface 9800 Pro.
Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on ATI video cards 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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roostercrows - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
The article was excellent, thank you Wesley, and considering all the informed comments it received I'm not alone in looking forward to reading more of them. Not to add yet another category to what must already be a lot of work for you guys but is there somewhere I could see the entire dual processor systems that have been suggested by some advanced members, after they are built and running of course, including performance/prices and why they feel they have assembled a better "bang for the buck" high-end system?roostercrows - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
Sparkywonderchicken - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
Sorry I hit send too fast. I have heard many complaints about DVD-R burning from these units.Ma10n3 - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
I agree with #44--A high-end system and an overclocking rig should not be classified as the same.Sparkywonderchicken - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
Don't you mean NuTech DDW-082?? for the DVD??bigtoe33 - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
Overclocking is mainly about what boards and cpu's will do the high fsb's, also what is the most bang per buck as overclockers mainly buy cheap and clock up to gain the speed.I would expect Wesley will show some 300+fsb action on A64 as well as the cheap 2.4a prescott running 180fsb+....these are things you will find on an overclocking rig and not a high end ;-)
azndelite6983 - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
Thanks for the response, Wesley. I appreciate that you guys do these guides at all, considering the monumental task of trying to keep up with new hardware.What I don't quite understand is that any high-end system would be a terrific overclocking possibility, and although u supposedly have a different guide for that, it might be nice to see some suggestions on oc settings for the high-end system as well as possible mods (cooling mostly). I'm not sure I see the necessity of having an "overclocking system" when the parts remain very close to the high-end system. Also the fact that anyone willing to spend anywhere close to $5000 on a computer should really know what they are doing, but may want some advice on how to get the most out of their already quick setup.
markz - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
I agree with #40.That is all.
Ma10n3 - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
To correct what I said in #39, more games support SMP now than I had previously thought...Link for FAQ:
http://home.swbell.net/m3tech/hard/smp_games.html
Murst - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
Wesley & Evan,First of all, thanks for the guides (this is my favorite part of anandtech and its probably the reason why I've been visiting this site more than any other lately). I do have some reccomendations, however.
It seems to me that your definitions of low/mid/high are rather difficult to understand. It actually kind of reminds me of intel's new naming policy. Why use words that don't really mean anything when you can give numbers which are descriptive? Here is an exmaple of what I'm thinking (my goal is clarity).
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Old name: New name:
entry-level System for under $800
mid-range System for under $1500
high-range System for under $2500
.......... System for under $4000
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I think this would make your goals in these articles much more clear, as people would understand exactly what goes into making the decisions. Also, my numbers may not be accurate, as I don't have much experience with pricing systems.
Overall, good work on this article, and I do believe that it is much closer to what "I" believe is a high-end system as compared to the last article.
I'll be looking forward to the next system reccomendations, especially to what 939 will bring.