Buyer's Guide: High End System - July 2004
by Wesley Fink on June 30, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Computer Case
Recommendation: Coolermaster Praetorian (PAC-T01-E1) SilverPrice: $110 shipped
While there are cheaper Coolermaster cases with Aluminum fronts and steel bodies, the Coolermaster All-Aluminum cases are still some of the best for build-quality that you will find anywhere. The Praetorian is a classic Coolermaster Aluminum mid-tower case with 10 drive bays - 4 hidden and 6 front accessible. Coolermaster still includes four additional fans for heat dissipation - 2 front fans, a top fan, and a rear exhaust fan. Due to the popularity of the case, we have also seen a decent $16 price drop in the past month.
There is also a sliding panel on the front protecting a great selection of essential front ports - 2 USB, firewire, headphone and mic. You will also find a handy removable motherboard tray for easier mounting and the case is a tool-less design for easy assembly.
The build quality of the Coolermaster is superb, and the reinforced chassis makes the Praetorian stronger than most aluminum cases. Kingwin also makes a great aluminum computer case, and you will find the Kingwin cases for a little less money. The Kingwin 424 with a window would also be a great match to the DFI 875B LAN party, but there is an optional windowed side for the Coolermaster.
Power Supply
Recommendation: Antec True Power 480WPrice: $85 shipped
The new high end video cards have even higher power requirements, so we have upped our recommendation a bit to Antec's True Power 480W PSU for $85 shipped. The Antec True Power series provides very consistent power to the rails and has performed very well in AnandTech power supply roundups. It provides extremely stable voltages, a good warranty, quiet operation, low operating temperature, and is a tried and true Power supply. The True Power series, in particular, is one of the most trusted power supplies among enthusiasts. While a good quality 350W or 400W power supply might do the job for processors and video cards just below the high end, you will have the comfort of some reserve for the ever more power-hungry processors and video cards. You will also enjoy rock-solid stability with the top FX53 Athlon 64 combined with the power-hungry nVidia 6800 Ultra.
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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Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
#6 - We will likely upgrade the DVD burner in our next guide to one of the new 12X (or 16X?) versions. Since I am still having a hard time finding 8X media or a 12X drive it seemed a little too soon to take the plunge in the guide.While I personally think the Audiophile 24/96 is an incredible sound card, and a great card for a home studio, I think it is most useful to a buyer who wants to do some recording on his computer system. It is clearly superior to my ears than either the Creative or lower-priced Revolution as a card for recording. The pro-grade converters made a real difference there.
My concern was whether most high-end buyers were really first concerned about recording quality, so I decided picking it would be too large a leap of assumption. The Audiophile is also 5.1 which is not a problem in my book, but might be for some. Frankly the Audiophile 24/96 coupled with the Klipsch Pro Media Ultra is an incredible computer listening experience - but you already know that.
mcveigh - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
audigy resamples everything, some people say they notice a difference. some say they don't.both cards are great and have ther own pluses and minuses.
9/10.....how bout a 12x dvd burner....and maybe a better sound card (i'm just playing devils advocate)
m-audio Audiophile 2496 perhaps?????
starmonkey - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
Enjoyed the article. Good choices. The only one that surprised me was the case; I was expecting you guys to recommend the Lian Li PC-V1000 that everyone seems to be so crazy about these days.RyanVM - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
The Audigy2 ZS' SnR is just as good (if not a bit better) than the M-Audio Revolution (108dB). It also supports 24/192. Where are the quality advantages of the Revolution?Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
#2 - It WAS changed in the last guide after posting, and slipped through again this time. We apologize. The 0 is changed to the correct 1.ir0nw0lf - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
Nice changes to the guide this time, although suggesting a video card that is harder than hell to currently aquire might be considered by some a bit questionable, but is still a good candidate for this level of system to be sure. But not to be too overly rude, do you guys actually proof read your articles? Yet again (was this way last high end buyers guide as well), you have on page 9, "Those concerned more about data security than ultimate speed can configure the drives as RAID 0, or mirroring." Can you puh-lease change that to RAID 1? It's killing me!GokieKS - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
Much improved choices over previous weeks. Good job. =)That said, still need to nitpick... though the only thing that I would change and isn't a matter of personal taste (as things like choice for a case are) is the DVD burner. Sony's DL drive and Plextor's 12x models are already both available, and though neither are as good a value, but this is the high-end system, and you're still a far ways off from your $5000 limit. It would also be useful to have a seperate DVD-ROM, for on-the-fly copying of discs. (And a good CD-RW for DAE purposes? 3 optical drives may be a bit overboard though. =P)
Once again, good improvement over previous editions.
~KS
SameOldJames - Friday, April 2, 2021 - link
Can't wait to buy this so I can play Half Life 2 at max settings! I already have my 6800 GT on me and now all I need is this! So excited.SameOldJames - Friday, April 2, 2021 - link
I'm just having a hard time finding some at MSRP....