High End Buyer's Guide - September 2004
by Wesley Fink on August 30, 2004 12:22 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Computer Case
Recommendation: Coolermaster Praetorian (PAC-T01-E1) SilverPrice: $114 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.
Power Supply
Recommendation: Antec True Power 480WPrice: $89 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.
Alternative: Antec 480 watt 120mm fan ATX 12V v2.0 Model 'NeoPower'
Price: $124 shipped
The new Socket T boards include a 24-pin ATX power connector instead of the familiar 20-pin ATX on most current boards. While you can use a 20-pin connection in a pinch, the best choice for a new LGA 775 system is a power supply that complies with the ATX V 2.0 that specifies a 24-pin ATX connector. These power supplies are starting to appear in the market, but are still difficult to find. The Antec V2.0 Neopower is an ATX 2.0 480-watt power supply that provides the best of both worlds - a native 24-pin ATX connector plus a 24-to-20 pin adapter for other boards.
The Neopower 480 also provides customizable power leads to reduce case clutter and has quickly developed a reputation for quiet operation. This makes the Antec a good choice for either a top Athlon 64 system or an LGA 775 P4 system.
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, September 1, 2004 - link
Uff -The two FX53 I've tested both run fine at 2.6GHz (future FX55 spec) with stock cooling. While you will get more potential with better cooling, you are not locked out of using a higher multiplier just because you use stock cooling. The AMD Retail HSF does a decent job of cooling, though there are certainly better solutions available.
Uff - Wednesday, September 1, 2004 - link
My point with FX-53 and stock cooling was exactly that: the main bonus you get with FX-53 is that it's multiplier unlocked but to make any use of that you need proper cooling.Wesley Fink - Wednesday, September 1, 2004 - link
#40 - The DVD prices were pulled at slightly different times for the Recommended and Alternate systems. For consistency, both charts now show a $97 price for the Pioneer 108. Prices constantly change, so any published price will generally be off in a few days or weeks.Goi - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
Why is it that the DVD burner in the recommended high-end system costs $97 yet the exact same one in the alternate high-end system costs $96?krawl3r - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
every single time, these guides ignore 2 of the best PSUs on the market: the PC Power and Cooling 510Deluxe which is miles ahead of the antec. Also ignored is the Fortron 530s. In my experience, the Fortrons are at least on par with the Antecs of not equal.P.S. If you spend the money on an FX-53 you might as well get a server board and go with the 940pin version so you can plug in a SCSI RAID card and have an array of 73GB 15k drives....just my $0.02
neogodless - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
There is no "be all, end all" guide to anything, particularly in a rapidly changing technology environment. This guide is merely a guide. A place to start from, and go from there. They recommend getting the keyboard and mouse that is right for you, whether it be $70 or $10. However, I think there may be some logic in requesting that there's more of a reasonable scale from budget, mainstream, and high-end. This high-end guide tries to balance having enough money to buy the fastest computer with trying to make it affordable to a relatively wide audience, but really, I think there may be a different way to go about it. I think you could save a lot of money for a minimally slower computer, and by doing that, saving money for your next high-end machine. If you get the absolutely fastest machine, then there really should be no limits on money, and it should really be a no budget dream machine. If you're on a budget, even if it's $5000, you might want to be a little tiny bit stingier, and make sure that six months or a year from now, you still have a good budget for getting a high end rig.The only typo I saw was "could care less" in the audio section. Should be "couldn't care less".
The guides are a lot of work, and I think they are somewhat reasonable starting points. I appreciate them, even though I don't really use them for my own purchasing decisions. They are interesting, and hopefully helpful to some people.
jbritt1234 - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
How can you build a $3500 PC and then suggest a $10 mouse??? That's crazy! Lost a little respect for ya there.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
Uff - The improvements from Dual-Channel and 1024k cache vs. 512k cache are cumulative. So while either improvement alone is only 2 to 4% improvement, together the added cache and dual channel make the FX53 5% to 8% faster than the SC 512k 3700+ you suggest. If you want the top performance then the FX53 is the fastest.The FX53 is also completely unlocked, up and down, unlike the 3700+, 3800+, 3500+, or 3400+, which makes it possible to run at 2.6GHz for example at DDR400. All Athlon 64 are unlocked down, but only the FX is completely unlocked.
Uff - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
I'm just wondering why anyone in their right mind would buy an FX-53 and run it on stock cooling? Other than making more space in your room by taking out some of the spare piles of money, there is no real gain in it compared to say 3700+ (or even a 2.4GHz 3400+, since tests have shown little gain from the extra 512kb cache).Caligynemania - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
I am surprised that you reccomend mere computer speakers for a high end system. A receiver/speaker system (albeit more expensive) would be more appropriate for a high end system. I realize that this is outside the scope of a computer buyer's guide, but I think anyone who truly appreciates music/sound/noise would be willing to spend the $500 for a set of speakers that will last a lifetime (speakers dont go obselete or break). Combined with a good receiver (additional $100) you can output amazing sound from the radio, tv, computer, dvd. For $500 you can get the amazing NHT SB3 speaker system or the Klipsch RB25's.