High End Buyer's Guide - September 2004
by Wesley Fink on August 30, 2004 12:22 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Networking
Recommendation: Onboard networkingPrice: $0
The two onboard Gigabit ports that you will find on our recommended motherboard is all that you will need for a high end system. One of the gigabit LAN ports on the MSI K8N Neo2 is the on-chip nVidia gigabit LAN that removes at least one of the Gigabit LAN options from the PCI bus. Our Intel alternative, Asus P5AD2, also moves the LAN off the confines of the PCI bus and onto the much faster PCI Express bus. In fact, both gigabit LAN ports on the Asus are of the fast PCIe variety. This makes both recommended motherboards capable of the best performance that you can achieve with Gigabit LAN - with no confines of a PCI bus. The practical reality is that you will likely find no real difference in the Gigabit LAN provided by either MSI or Asus unless you have specialized networking needs. Broadband won't be any faster than the 10/100 solution found on almost any motherboard these days, but on-chip Gigabit can be useful when transferring large amounts of data to and from multiple networked computers in an office or within a home network.
Keyboard and Mouse
While not a major item, it's still important that you purchase the right keyboard and mouse. Reality is that different people have different preferences for a keyboard's feel and look, and the same goes for a mouse. Therefore, we suggest that you personally try out a keyboard and mouse. To recommend purchasing these items online is misleading, as there are too many users with different preferences for this type of thing. Visit your nearest PC outlet to try out a keyboard and mouse; a PC Club, Best Buy, CompUSA, or Circuit City store will do. We suggest that you start with Microsoft and Logitech keyboards and mice. Make sure you also check out optical mice from these manufacturers as well. A good solid optical mouse from either should run about $20, but in some cases, can run as little as $10 if you can find the right deal.There are also some great wireless optical mice out there, but it really depends on whether you care at all about a wireless mouse and are willing to spend the money to acquire it. It is also no value to buy a cheaper wireless mouse or keyboard just to find that you hate the feel of it. Wired or wireless, make sure you like to type on the keyboard or like the feel of the mouse before you buy it. Most will be satisfied with a standard optical mouse from Microsoft or Logitech for gaming, as it offers similar or better precision and feel compared to most wireless mice. Whichever you decide to get - wired or wireless - stick with what makes you most comfortable. It is no fun to fight a keyboard or mouse that you hate every time you use your computer
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 - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#17 -Thanks for the info on Apple's updated interface. While I agree the picture on the Dell is a bit gainy with smearing on analog, I have found the 2001FP to be outstanding on DVI. With this size flat panel I assumed no one would run anything but digital input.
Hikari - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
On the Apple displays and ADC. That is no longer true, they use DVI now.There is some new 23" HP that is based on the same panel as the Apple, and I think it is a better deal. Although the Apple is prettier. ;)
danidentity - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Few mistakes I'd like to point out:Page 3, CPU and Motherboard Alternatives:
"When Socket 775 was launched a few weeks ago, it did not appear that any of the new 925X/915 motherboards would ever become a recommended Overclockers board."
***Socket 775 was launched two months ago, not several weeks ago. Looks like a copy/paste mistake.
Page 6, AGP Video:
"We ended up relaxing our rules by including the Gigabyte 6800 Ultra because several vendors are showing availability in the first 2 weeks of July."
***July??? This is August, almost September.
JonathanYoung - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
kherman,Who's complaining about advertisements? That realtime pricing engine is hardly an advertisement... it's a long list of prices and vendors in plain text and zero differentiation between vendors. Again, that's hardly an advertisement.
I'd read AT's disclaimer on the subject if I were you, particularly the following lines:
"We select vendors to appear in our Price Guides based on two requirements: solid consumer feedback and having the lowest possible pricing."
"AnandTech does not sell positions on the Price Guide."
Note the "We select" and "AnandTech does not sell positions."
Sincerely,
"#5"
Aelius - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Actually I own a brand new Apple 20" Aluminum Cinema Display. Dispite the site telling you that it can take a month to ship one to you I got mine in 4 days.The stand is increadibly solid. No way to simply knock it over. It's gota be solid metal and most of the weight of the monitor comes from the stand.
It's very light at around 7 1/2 lbs.
It's not dinky at all. You can adjust the way the monitor points up and down and it stays the way you leave it. That part is also very solid.
There are no vents anywhere because the power brick is not built-in and the entire casing is made out of aluminum which absorbs the heat so the top gets fairly warm to the touch after long use.
The whole thing is increadibly high quality.
A cool feature of the monitor is that you can adjust the backlight through a + and - touch pad on the right side and the power button is also a touch pad found on the right.
Far as I know the Apple's come with very few dead or stuck pixles but mine came with 3 dead and 2 stuck blue pixles. Honestly I can't even notice even when I look for it unless it's a black background.
It's so sharp and bright that it makes my old Viewsonic PF CRT look like an ancient wreck.
Is it expansive? Oh God yeah and it's worth every penny as far as I'm concerned.
P.S. There seems to be a quality control issue with 23" displays but mine seems fine and couldn't find any issues with it that others reported on the 23" ones.
Any questions just PM me as I won't monitor this page.
ksherman - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#17- agreed, and according to apple, have a response time of 16ms, so maybe it is worth doing a review of, even though it is several hundred dollars more... and is it just me, or does the stand on the apple display seem like it not be able to support the screen?shuttleboi - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
#9: your information is outdated. Apple introduced new monitors a few months ago that have DVI. Check their website. Their new 20" LCD is selling for $1299, which is in line with the equivalent Samsung and Planar models. From what I've read, the Dell 2001fp is extremely grainy with a crosshatch pattern on the screen, so I'm avoiding that.behemoth68 - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
I Just put a BFG 6800 ultra into my system and am currently using an antec true power 480 and you seriously need the antec true power 550 especially since its only 20 more online its the smart move my system voltage was fluctuating a little at 480 but i put the 550 in and it worked great!phray - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
about the price engine thingy:i agree with kherman on this. if you want this site to stay free, get used to it.
if you don't like scrolling down all that much, try pressing the 'End' key on your keyboard.
SMOG - Monday, August 30, 2004 - link
Great article, I continually am impressed by the quality of the articles here, and find the buyer's guides particularly helpful.I did find one strange comment in the artical,
"We ended up relaxing our rules by including the Gigabyte 6800 Ultra because several vendors are showing availability in the first 2 weeks of July." Are these cards still hard to find? (quick search told me that both Newegg and ZipZoomFly had some in stock, but were sold out on many brands)
Thanks,
SMOG