Buyer's Guide: High End System - July 2004
by Wesley Fink on June 30, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Hard Drives
Recommended: Dual Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA in RAID 0 ConfigurationPrice: $376 shipped
There are genuine performance advantages to a SATA RAID array, and a RAID 0 Array with two of the fastest SATA drives that you can buy makes for a blistering high end system. The storage capacity for two 74GB WD Raptor drives is a generous, but rational, 148GB of fast access storage. Compared to SCSI RAID solutions with similar performance, the Raptor RAID is a virtual bargain. The 74GB Raptors have double the storage of the legendary 36.7GB Raptors, an increase in speed, and the same 8MB buffer. We are also pleased to see a price drop in the 74GB Raptors of almost $50 for the pair this month.
The 5-year warranty for the Raptor drives makes this investment in high-speed storage a little easier to handle. All drives will fail at some point because they have moving parts, but you have warranty reassurance for 5 years that attest to the quality of these WD Raptor hard drives. Previously, 10,000RPM speeds or a 5-year warranty were features only found on enterprise/SCSI drives, but they have now reached our high end system desktop.
All of the High End recommended and alternative motherboards have built-in capabilities for SATA RAID, so it is relatively easy to enjoy this level of RAID performance. Those concerned more about data security than ultimate speed can configure the drives as RAID 1, or mirroring. In RAID 1, the drive capacity will only be 74GB, but you will have the assurance of a mirrored drive in the event of drive failure.
Alternative: Seagate ST3200822A (200GB) Baracuda 7200RPM (8MB cache)
Price: $130 shipped
While IDE drives, including our alternate Seagate Barracuda 200GB, are not as fast as the Western Digital Raptor 10,000RPM SATA drives, they are still plenty fast for most applications. Seagate offers the same 8MB cache as the Raptor drives and very large 200GB storage capacity for a small $133 price. While the well-known Seagate drives offer impressive specifications, the most important feature of the Seagate 200GB is not something that you can see. With hard drive manufacturers reducing warranties to one year, the Seagate 200GB still carries a 3-year manufacturers warranty. With Seagate delivering hard drive capacities at 66 cents per Gigabyte, this drive also delivers excellent value.
If 200GB seems a massive amount of storage, it will be just what the doctor ordered for users of Digital Cameras, Digital Video, and digital music storage. Those are the reasons why you want this High End system, right? You certainly don't need this kind of power to write the great American novel or handle emails.
We will be looking at SATA alternatives that support NCQ in future Buyer's Guides. If you prefer a SATA solution, there are excellent choices with a SATA interface instead of IDE. However, we see no real reason to recommend a SATA drive over IDE unless there are features like RAID or NCQ or warranty that make the SATA a better performer. There is also no reason not to choose SATA if you prefer the narrow cables, but please keep in mind that SATA connectors are still very fragile and more easily broken than the admittedly bulky, but durable, IDE connector.
Optical
Recommendation: NuTech DDW-082 8X DVD+/-R/RW OEM/RetailPrice: $65/73 shipped
The winner of the recent AnandTech Dual 8X roundup was the inexpensive NuTech DDW-081 DVD burner, and the 082 is basically a slight update of the same DVD burner. The NuTech proved to be one of the fastest, most reliable, and most flexible DVD dual-8X burners on the market. It is also very affordable and an easy choice for our High End Buyer's Guide. The latest optical drives really can do everything optical, with both high-speed DVD and high-speed CD burning.
This month, the price of the NuTech dropped even further to a very reasonable $65 for OEM and $73 Retail. The only reason to buy the Retail instead is if you need the Nero Burning software included in the retail version. If you don't already have it, $8 more for Nero and a DVD player is a good deal.
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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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.....