Weekly Buyer's Guide: Entry Level System - July 2004
by Evan Lieb on July 7, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Monitor
Recommendation: Samsung SyncMaster 17" Flat-Tube (model 763MB)Price: $150 shipped
Samsung's SyncMaster series of monitors are very popular for price-conscious buyers. With a 0.20mm dot pitch, 1280x1024 max resolution, and 3-year manufacturer warranty, you're getting a good bang-for-your-buck monitor. You can pick up this monitor at your local Best Buy if you don't feel like waiting several days for your monitor to arrive in the mail. We suggest calibrating your monitor for maximum clarity if you do a lot of desktop work. Consult your manual or an online guide on how to calibrate a monitor.
Monitor Alternative: NEC Diamondtron 17" CRT (model FE771SB)
Price: $166 shipped
This NEC model is one of the lower end models of the famous Diamondtron series of monitors. Max resolution is just 1280x1024 and dot pitch is a mediocre 0.25mm. However, the clarity and viewable area (16") of this monitor are better than the Samsung SyncMaster 763MB, and at just about $16 more, it is a nice little upgrade if you're willing to spend the extra dollars.
Computer Case
Recommendation: CaseEdge TS1 Mid TowerPrice: $40 shipped
You can purchase this case online at www.pcclub.com or go to a local PC Club to pick it up. Not only is the black and silver edition of this case very good looking, but the set-up is very easy to use and convenient in general. For one, the motherboard mounting screws come installed in their proper holes, a welcome change from having to screw them in by hand. Secondly, the hard drive and optical drive bays contain plastic clips that allow you to install your drives simply and easily without screws. All in all, this case basically comes completely "pre-installed", and even includes a 300W PSU (power supply unit). Any AMD or Intel approved power supply will do for a budget system, considering how little power a system like this draws, but if you're feeling extra cautious (thinking about future upgrades), picking up a Sparkle 300W PSU is a fine choice. The price of a Sparkle 300W PSU is about $23 shipped online.
Alternative: Foxconn Super Case 100-G2-P4 Mid Tower
Price: $45 shipped
While this case isn't quite as easy to use or as aesthetically appealing as the CaseEdge TS1, it is still a fine computer case with all the space that you'll need for your budget system. It comes with an AMD approved 300W PSU, but as we said before, you can always opt for a better 300W power supply if you feel like you need an especially good PSU for future upgrades. Still, a free PSU is usually never a bad thing.
In the end, as long as you purchase a case that accepts an ATX motherboard, the choice of computer case is completely up to you, the consumer. There are many aesthetically appealing computer cases out there, so don't let our preferences stop you from exploring other computer cases online or at a local retail outlet like PC Club, Best Buy, CompUSA, etc.
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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Z80 - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
Watch the Hot Deals forum and you can probably shave another $100 off the cost of this system as long as you don't mind hassling with rebates. I agree with Cocophone on using the Shuttle AN35N-Ultra instead of the Asus MB. It's $10 cheaper, supports dual channel memory and overclocks very well. Take that $10 and upgrade from an XP 2000 to an XP 2100, a proven overclocker's CPU.Cocophone - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
For a budget system why should I pick the Asus motherboard over a Shuttle AN35N-Ultra.Neither board has firewire.
I don't think a budget system would be overclocked, so alot of bios setting would not be used. I plan on dropping a 2000XP CPU and either 256 or 512 of ram and run with that.
computerfan - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
I can't wait for the overclocking and SFF guides. I just bought an Antec Aria, but haven't been able to find an amazing microATX mobo. I am very curious what you'd suggest. Something more high end that supports 400/400 MHz fsb dual channel.I'm actually thinking that with the SFF buyers guide, you'll need to make it low/mid range and then have the alternatives be for a high end SFF PC.
Keep up the good work
Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
canadianfbiYou read our minds :) We will eventually have a SFF buyer's guide, but we're waiting to build up a few more SFF reviews before introducing it.
Take care,
Anand
canadianfbi - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
I'd like to add a vote for an SFF guide. The SFF system I want to build (with TV-out and possibly TV capture, using it as kind of a video/audio server for a home theater) is too specific to be in a guide I believe, but I'm sure there are plenty of people building SFF systems in general, and a guide would probably be especially helpful here given the relative newness of that area.Anand Lal Shimpi - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
The overclocker's guide is coming, but it won't be published until the end of July. We wanted to get to it sooner but we've got a couple of big motherboard roundups that have to be published first which unfortunately pushed that buyer's guide back to the end of the month.On the bright side, since it'll be published at the end of the month the overclocker's guide will be able to be even more up to date with its recommendations as more parts should be available by then.
Take care,
Anand
lazerasa - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
I vote we need another overclocker system guide ASAP!StormGod - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
I agree that these guides (especially the entry-level) are an excellent addition to AT but there is one very obvious omission from them. Specifically, a lack of actual benchmarking. We all know that AT has these parts being recommended on hand from previous reviews. Why not take the extra time to assemble both the primary and alternative recommended machines and run at least a small battery of benchmarks? Let us see first hand what spending $546 instead of the mid-level price means to real-world performance. At the very least, try it for a month and see what kind of response you get. I suspect that AT readers will overwhelmingly prefer to see actual performance data than to make a pick basically blindly.gimper48 - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
WHERE IS OUR OVERCLOCKER GUIDESU4EA - Wednesday, July 7, 2004 - link
I built a system based on this guide a few months ago (interestingly enough, barely anything has changed in the guide) and am very happy with it... barring the borked WD harddrive which I had to get changed for a Seagate.
I love these guides btw .. I think Anandtech is doing a terriffic job on them. My only gripe is that we keep hearing about the new guides that will be included once the schedule is finalized etc, but for the past 2 months or so, all we've seen are the high-end, mid-range and entry-level guides.