Weekly Buyer's Guide: Mid-Range System - July 2004
by Evan Lieb on July 16, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Monitor
Recommendation: Samsung 955DF (19") DynaFlat CRTPrice: $212 shipped
To this day, the 955DF is still one of the best bang-for-the-buck 19" monitors on the market. The .20mm dot pitch, max resolution of 1600x1200 @ 68Hz, and well known reliability, usability, low price and picture quality of this monitor are all reasons why we highly suggest taking a look at it. We've had extensive experience with this monitor, having done a review of it back in April 2002. To this day, we are still impressed with this monitor and can still confidently recommend it. As you may have guessed by now, CRT technology (especially in the bang-for-your-buck price range) hasn't moved much in quite some time, but that is the norm in this industry. So, don't be surprised if we continue to recommend this monitor for mid-range Buyer's Guides for some time.
Alternative: NEC Diamondtron 19" CRT (model DP930SB-BK)
Price: $326 shipped
This NEC model is one of the best mid-range models of the famous Diamondtron series of monitors. Max resolution is 1920x1440 and dot pitch is an excellent 0.24mm. However, the clarity and refresh capability of this monitor are much better than the 955DF. So, if you're willing to dish out the cash, this is more than a capable alternative.
Price: $40 ($72 shipped with 360W Enlight PSU)
While we recommended this case last week, we can't help but recommend it again because of just how good it is for the price. You can purchase this case online at www.pcclub.com or pick it up at a local PC Club. Not only is the black and silver edition of this case very good-looking, 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 "preinstalled", and even includes a 300W PSU (power supply unit). However, unlike last week's system, this week's system requires a higher quality PSU and slightly higher wattage. We suggest an Enlight 360W power supply (model # 8361934A1), which can be found for $32 shipped online or at a local PC outlet. This will supply the necessary amount of power and stable voltages for your mid-range system.
If you're looking to pick up this case from a local retail outlet, we suggest the nearest PC Club.
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.
Alternative: Antec SLK2650-BQE Mid Tower
Price: $79
Antec is one of our favorite manufacturers due to their superb track record for reliable and powerful power supply units (PSUs). They also make some excellent computer cases, though we've never felt it worthy of recommendation before. Still, they certainly make a case worthy of an alternative pick, especially when they include good fans for proper ventilation and relatively well organized interior space. It may or may not be aesthetically pleasing to some, though we are fairly fond of its style and attractiveness (black with silver grey side panels). Probably the best feature about this case is the fact that it's designed well for users who are sensitive to noise; its steel construction and large (120MM) case fans makes it an exceptionally silent system with mid-range hardware installed.
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KnightOwl - Friday, July 16, 2004 - link
I have to disagree with a couple of the recommendations. I don't think you've really identified what the target user is for the mid-level system.There are only 3 home user apps that really require an upgrade from an entry level system: 1) games, 2) video editing and 3) lots of MP3 encoding.
For the most part this means that users shopping for a mid-level system are really looking for a low end gaming rig and the components recommended should not be ones that will cause regrets in the future.
With this in mind there are 2 areas where the recommendations fall short:
1. Memory - IMO 1 GB is the minimum for a gaming PC today. There are games on the market now that use more than 512 MB, and most likely most in the future will. As everybody knows nothing kills performance more than when Windows starts swapping pages. For just a little more than you've spent on the 512 MB low latency RAM you can get 1 GB of regular latency RAM. Low latency will give you a modest performance gain when the 512 MB is sufficient, but running out of memory will cause an enormous performance loss.
2. Video card - while the 9800 Pro is listed as an alternative it really should be the primary (and only) choice. While the $75 increase is a 60% increase in video card cost it only amounts to about a 6% increase in total system price. A user will easily see more than a 6% increase in game performance. That alone should justify the higher price of the 9800 Pro but you should also know that some (many, most?) of the 9800 Pros on the market today actually have the R360 core and users have had good success overclocking them to 9800XT speeds. IMO that makes the 9800 Pro the card of choice for anything but high end gaming rigs
MemberSince97 - Friday, July 16, 2004 - link
Excellent job guys,keep up the good work...Evan Lieb - Friday, July 16, 2004 - link
rgreen83 and DigitalDivine, we've fixed the price, thanks.gherald, we recommended two 256MB modules because if you're a mid-range user, you may be the type of person that'll upgrade to dual channel systems in the future. Buying one 512MB makes the least sense, you have no way of taking advantage of the proliferation of dual channel technology in the future, if that's what that particular user has in mind. So, I'm not exactly sure what you mean when you say 256MB modules will be useless in 2-3 years.
gherald - Friday, July 16, 2004 - link
For once a decent hard drive recommendation, but getting the picture wrong is a pretty sad mistake. Myself, I'd be inclined to go with the Hitachi 160gb SATA for around $100 from newegg.comNice alternative case recommendation! I was begining to think you'd stick with that CaseEdge nonsense forever.
Superb motherboard recommendation! (I own two K8N, it's the best for the money right now, hands down.)
Why do recommend 2x256mb of RAM when socket 754 AMD64s have a single channel memory interface? Go with a 512mb folks... same exact price/performance. 256mb sticks will be next-to-useless 2-3 years from now.
DigitalDivine - Friday, July 16, 2004 - link
on the hard drive part, you guys put up a western digital 120GB picture instead of a seagate one.rgreen83 - Friday, July 16, 2004 - link
The raptor shown is 36.7gb with a price of $214, are you suggesting the 74gb raptor or should the price be about half that?