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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Avalon - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
#30, the AMD system should be somewhat faster in gaming for you. As for 3D studio max, I'm not sure which.stevennoland - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
The vid card price list does not include the X800 XT! What gives? I've tried to find them, but I'm really beginning to belive they don't exist.stevennoland - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
jjkusaf - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
oh...and would an Intel system be better for gaming and 3D Studio Max?jjkusaf - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
OK...first of all thanks for taking your time in writing this guide.I am in the market of building a new computer and will pretty much use this guide to help make my decisions. My computer will primarily be used for gaming (Doom3, N2003, etc) and 3D Studio Max.
My first question is about the CPU cooler. I take it that the stock cooler was used (I do not intend on overclocking)? I do not intend on buying the FX...but just the plain ol' AMD 64 3800. If the stock cooler is not recommended...then what cooler is?
Also...any advantages of the N-Force3 over the Via chipset...and vice versa.
Thanks for the write up!
Wesley Fink - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#25 - As was stated on the last page (Final Words) of the Geil Ultra X 3200 review, the Geil tops out around 466 on AMD Athlon 64. That is why we selected a Micron chip memory for the A64 in the Guide.#26 - typo fixed.
gherald - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
The mid-range system from last month came to just over $1000. Now you are recommending a $3600 system as "high-end"C'mon Anand, that's too big of a price step. Three and a half "mid-range" systems for the price of one "high-end" ?!?
There should be a guide at around the $2000-2300 mark for this to be balanced.
danidentity - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Another small typo,Page 6, Storage:
"Anand has shown that there is little performance advantage to SATA 1, but striping is still useful for improving boot times."
I believe that is supposed to say "little performance advantage to RAID 0", as the link points to a RAID 0 article.
Andrevas - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
I'm surprised the OCZ Powerstream 520W wasn't chosen for both systems, IMO it is the best power supply, period.And I'd like to know how well the new Geil Ultra X DDR400 sticks fair with the AMD 64 platforms in OCing since they were able to hit DDR561 in your review on an Intel platform.
Plus no mentioning of the Logitech Z680s?
Other then those issues, I think the components chosen were great except for the case, but that's more of a matter of personal interest.
Wesley Fink - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#14 and #21 - That sentence was a cut and paste error and has been corrected on the AGP video page. The timeline for 925X/775 has also been updated by removing the time reference.