Buyer's Guide: Mid-Range System - August 2004
by Evan Lieb on August 23, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
CPU and Motherboard Recommendations
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ retail (heatsink and fan included)Motherboard: MSI K8N Neo Platinum (nForce3 250Gb)
Price: CPU - $169 shipped. Motherboard - $126 shipped
Prices on Athlon 64 processors have gone down noticeably since the last time we recommended an Athlon 64 for our mid-range system. In fact, they've gone down enough that we are now recommending AMD's Athlon 64 3000+ instead of the 2800+ that we had recommended last month. The price discrepancy between these two processors is minimal, and the additional performance that you get from the 200MHz bump in core clock is well worth the small price increase.
Anyway, as we've extensively explained before, for mid-range systems, AMD's Athlon 64 line of processors have several advantages over Intel's Pentium 4 line of processors. For one, Athlon 64 processors have the ability to run 64-bit operating systems and 64-bit applications while also being able to run 32-bit applications and operating systems at full speed. Ever since Microsoft officially announced their support for AMD's move to 64-bit desktop computing, Intel has been essentially forced to adopt AMD's 64-bit technology (otherwise known as x86-64), a technology that may or may not be available in Intel's future desktop Prescott processors (it's currently available in their Nocona Xeon line). But for now, Athlon 64 is the only game in town for 64-bit desktop computing while also being the best choice for mid-range systems that run 32-bit operating systems like Windows XP.
Unfortunately, Socket 939 processors are not cheap enough to recommend to mid-range users quite yet, as they hover well above the $300 mark (3500+ version only). But have no fear, AMD's Socket 939 platform will be pushed further and further into the mainstream and will eventually phase out "inferior" Socket 754 platforms.
Epox offers a similarly great motherboard to MSI, and so to us, it was indeed almost a toss up between the two. However, MSI's K8N Neo Platinum was ultimately chosen because it offered a few extra BIOS features and a slightly lower price. Anyway, as you probably are well aware, the nForce3 250Gb chipset itself is easily the biggest feature that the K8N Neo Platinum motherboard carries. This one-chip solution offers native Firewall capability, 4-drive SATA/IDE RAID, and native GbE (Gigabit Ethernet). MSI adds in features like IEEE 1394 FireWire support, 8-channel sound and superb BIOS features and overclocking ability, making this, simply put, an awesome motherboard. MSI uses this same blueprint for their Socket 939 motherboards too, as well as for the nForce3 250Gb Ultra version (which adds official 1GHz HT support). As you saw in our Socket 939 Roundup last month, MSI has indeed produced the best Athlon 64 motherboards in two platform flavors that you can buy. This is a big step forward for MSI, whose image has been tarnished in the enthusiast community in recent quarters. For more information on the MSI K8N Neo Platinum, read here . For more information on Socket 754 motherboards, go to this link.
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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KristopherKubicki - Monday, August 23, 2004 - link
The 2510 is junk for dual layer burning. I think quality has gone up a bit in the last 4 months, but when it first came out it burned coaster after coaster.But then again, same for the QSI/Nutech stuff.
Kristopher
ceefka - Monday, August 23, 2004 - link
BTW, I like these guides. They have proven to be helpful in understanding what vendors are offering.Most vendors keep their total set price low with crappy mobo's, slow and/or <512MB RAM, el cheapo AGP-cards etc. Very different from what happens here.
I've been reading these guides and comparing them with fixed offerings. I know now I will build my own machine. 2 years ago I knew next to nothing of PC's and I would have bought a Dell blindfolded... Thank you AT!
Booty - Monday, August 23, 2004 - link
I was happy to see the Antec case recommended in this article. I think it's a much better case than some of the ones you've been recommending in the low-end and mid-range guides.ceefka - Monday, August 23, 2004 - link
So let's say1. I'll replace the DVD-burner with the NEC 2510 2. put in 2x512MB of RAM
3. stick to my old Dell 17" CRT monitor that can easily handle 1248 x 1028
4. stick to the rest of the summary. Would I be happy with a system like this editing my Mini DV tapes?
I especially wonder if someone would recommend another graphics card. I liked the connectivity of the Asus V9520 Home Theater, Geforce FX 5200, 128Mb,TV because it featured S-VHS in. That way I could also commit things from VHS-tapes to DVD. There is also de Studio 9 DV/AV from Pinnacle that you could add on later, but of course that will cost you extra.
Illissius - Monday, August 23, 2004 - link
I agree with most picks, but would have put the 9800 Pro as the default video card and perhaps a 6800 non Ultra as the alternative. An A64 3000+ coupled with a lowly 9600 Pro is among the more unbalanced gaming systems I've seen.RobertMcDonald - Monday, August 23, 2004 - link
What about the nVidia 5900XT? Its predecessor (the 5900SE) did remarkably well for bang-for-the-buck back on the Q4 2003 graphics roundup. It's a bit more expensive than the 9600 Pro, but I believe the performance difference justifies it. Granted, it can't keep up with the *really* high-end cards, but in the mid-range, its bang-for-the-buck seems hard to beat.CeilingHoles - Monday, August 23, 2004 - link
I agree with paxnot. Many people, including myself, have bought the NuTech DVD burner because of your recommendation. So far, all I've had is problems with this drive, and I'm not the only one.. The NEC 2150A is clearly the superior drive for the price range.paxnot - Monday, August 23, 2004 - link
I generally believe that AT does a great job at putting forth excellent recommendation, but there is one recommendation in this article that is simply ridiculuos. I am talking about recommendation of the NuTech DDW-082 burner. This burner has been recommended month on month in this guide. But quite honestly, it's a piece of crap. I purchase this drive based mainly on AT's recommendation and I have regretted it ever since. I have tried several different media with this drive and the performance is still awful. If I burn movies faster than 1x, the movies come out with pixelated scenes. Further, the drive has abysmal read speeds. My year old vanilla-flavored dvd consistently outperforms the Nutech drive by a 20-50 margin. I believe that the NEC ND-2510A burner is superior to the NuTEch burner. Not only does it support Dual Layer media, but it has better media support. NuTech is a second rate company. It's website support is awful and limited. Furthermore, AT's recommendation rest on a $6 dollar price differential. 6 bucks!. You lose DL support, (yes, dl media is rare) but for 6 lousy bucks you get a resonable future proof drive from a trusted company. Shame on AT for recommending this inferior burner.thebluesgnr - Monday, August 23, 2004 - link
Nice article Evan - well done. I really enjoyed this one.I have one small comment though (of course ;)
"We should also mention that you don't have to get two pairs of 256MB modules if you think you'll be making big memory upgrades in the future. That is, you can opt for a 512MB OCZ PC3200 EL stick in order to save an additional DIMM slot for future memory expansion. "
It should be made clear that this comment is specific to the main mobo/cpu pick (Athlon 64), and if you go with the alternative (Pentium 4) two sticks is highly recommended.
There's also a small typo there - it says "two pairs" instead of one.
Thanks,