Buyer's Guide: High End System - July 2004
by Wesley Fink on June 30, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
CPU and Motherboard Recommendations
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 FX53 1MB L2 cache (2.4GHz) - SOCKET 939Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo2 - SOCKET 939
Price: CPU - $829 shipped (retail heatsink and fan). Motherboard - $170 shipped
With Intel's recent introduction of Socket 775 came a new 560 Pentium 4, which runs at 3.6GHz. While the 560 is closer in performance than the previous 3.4GHz P4 or the 3.4EE, the FX53 is still the top-performing CPU. Furthermore, all current Pentium 4 processors can only run 32-bit code, so AMD's Athlon 64 is unique because it can run 32-bit code as well or better than the top competition in addition to 64-bit code for the future. All-in-all, the FX53 represents a good choice if you are building a high-end system today, whether in the newest Socket 939 or the older Socket 940.
This month also saw the introduction of FX53 in the new Socket 939. Socket 939 processors are available, but the motherboards are just starting to ship and are still very difficult to find. This should improve over the next couple of weeks. AMD increased the price of both the 940 and 939 versions of FX53 when Socket 939 was introduced, so both the new 939 and older 940 FX53 versions are more expensive than last month's Socket 940 FX53.
We chose Socket 939 for the future, since this appears to be AMD's primary socket moving forward. Socket 939 also has the added feature of being able to use any of a very wide selection of commonly available unbuffered DDR memory, instead of the harder to find and more expensive registered DDR required by Socket 940 motherboards..
If you have a difficult time finding the Socket 939 selections, you will get almost identical performance at almost the same cost with last month's selection of the Asus SK8V motherboard, the socket 940 FX53, and OCZ DDR433 Registered DDR memory. These selections are proven performers and are only very slightly slower than the Socket 939 in any benchmark. Both the Asus SK8V 940 and our new MSI K8N Neo2 feature adjustable multipliers, so the processor frequency can be adjusted up and down for those who want to squeeze a bit more from the processor. Both Socket 940 and Socket 939 are also Dual-Channel memory, so the differences in performance are very small.
We broke our own rule a bit to select the excellent MSI K8N Neo2 as the motherboard for our top system. The K8N Neo2 is expected to start appearing in the retail channel this week and we were very impressed with the performance in our Socket 939 launch review. The MSI K8N Neo2 also has the added flexibility of a working PCI/AGP lock if your high end interests include overclocking, a feature not available on the Asus SK8V.
The MSI provides everything that you would expect in a high end motherboard for the Athlon 64. The chipset is the much-updated nForce3-250 Ultra, which features 1000 HyperTransport speed capabilities. You can populate it with up to 4GB of Dual-Channel DDR memory, and the board also has the advantage of the on-chip nVidia Gigabit LAN, which moves high-speed LAN off the PCI bus. There is also a second Gigabit LAN connection on the K8N Neo2. MSI also supports nVidia's excellent "any-drive" RAID technology, which allows up to 4 IDE drives and 4 SATA drives to be combined in any RAID configuration. Support is also included for up to 8 USB devices and 3 Firewire devices.
The K8N Neo2 is also a Core Cell board with excellent adjustments for overclocking control, but also with simple automatic overclocking for those intimidated by manual adjustments. MSI has done a great job of integrating these "Core Center" functions, so you can have complete manual control of the board as well if that is your preference.
AMD also introduced a 3800+ Socket 939 processor with half the cache at a price of about $80 lower. However, if price is a concern, we would suggest going for the 3500+ at about $500 instead. Just keep in mind that while all AMD Athlon 64 processors can be adjusted to lower multipliers, only the FX CPU is completely unlocked.
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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Coherence - Thursday, July 1, 2004 - link
I'm a bit confused with the choice of hard drive setup. In this article, AT uses a RAID-0 setup ("2 x 74GB, 148GB total"), and yet AT follows up with another article that says RAID-0 is a waste of money due to the negligible performance gains and decreased reliability (due to halving the MTBF).I'd say future versions of their rig suggestions should just get rid of RAID-0, and suggest RAID-1 setups instead.
Just a suggestion, Anand may want to coordinate with his team a little better so these kinds of contradictions are avoided.
cKGunslinger - Thursday, July 1, 2004 - link
Is that really the best LCD for gaming? I thought the Dell 2001FP was still the top chioice? Did the Samsung de-throne the Dell when I wasn't looking?
mino - Thursday, July 1, 2004 - link
Just wanted to say taht this is the best giude published so far. Of course except the optical remends. Combo(or Plextor Premium for DAE-> best on the market) + LG 4120 would be preffered.ImJacksAmygdala - Thursday, July 1, 2004 - link
Wonderful article! I look forward to each and everyone from Anandtech. I usually see what Sharky Extreme has posted, but it always seems cooker cutter when compared to the indepth information Anandtech provides. I plan on building a HTPC around fall time and I plan on following Anandtechs recommendations to the letter. I only wish that Anandtech tech would also include a recommended HDTV in the high end article, $3000 price tag excluded. This way Anandtech gets to play on a 65" screeen and we get solid gaming performance and screen resolution information. HDTV is the future for high end gaming but it is hard to find the quality information such as the kind Anandtech provides. Thanks again for such a great informative article!crimson117 - Thursday, July 1, 2004 - link
I'd go with a dual-layer DVD burner, and a fast combo CDRW/DVD-ROM. I know dual layer DVD media isn't widely available yet, but those building a high end system won't want to have to go buy a new DVD burner in 3 months because their drive can't do dual-layer.Also, how about some real mouse/keyboard recommendations? I know it's more of an individual preference thing, but you could highlight some cool, innovative mice and keyboards. Like a stylish new wireless combo or a fast response time optical mouse. For me, I'm still using a slightly damaged compaq keyboard that I looted from my old job, so I'd love to be convinced that there's a keyboard out there with features I never thought about.
BalAtWork - Thursday, July 1, 2004 - link
The only thing I would change would be the flat monitor choice. What about the Apple new 30" lcd. High resolution and low response time. OF course this wuld push you over 6k ;)Calin - Thursday, July 1, 2004 - link
I saw once a 20 MB drive - 5.25" and full height, as big as a normal CD-ROM unit, and while working it became as hot as barely touchable.The computer industry surely advances in leaps :D
Calin
FishTankX - Thursday, July 1, 2004 - link
Yup, 148MB of total memory..Spuffin - Thursday, July 1, 2004 - link
Small suggestion: I would like to have the components individually selectable at the summary. For instance I could pick the alternative harddrives or sound card via drop down menu, and it would automatically update the prices. Just a thought, I'm probably the only one that wants it.TrogdorJW - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
#13 - both of the graphics cards are going to be very difficult to find, but if you're spending this much money, "settling" for anything less would just be stupid. It might take two more weeks to get the 6800U or X800XT cards, but I think it's a good recommendation to wait rather than buy an X800 Pro or 6800 GT.As for performance, it seems to be practically a tie between the two cards, but with the latest drivers, I belive the 6800U might have a slight edge. It certainly has more features than the X800 XT (although whether they're useful or not is a different question). IF (and that's a really big if) I were in the market for a $500+ graphics card, I would personally go with the 6800U over the X800XT (barely). Apparently, Wesley feels about the same.
Nice system, Wes. Too bad I will never buy it for myself! Unless I win the lottery.....