Buyer's Guide - Entry Level, January 2005
by Jarred Walton on January 9, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Hard Drives
All of the motherboards that we have selected in this Guide include Serial ATA ports, and so we will confine our hard drive recommendations to that area. It's not that SATA is any faster than PATA in terms of real world performance; it's just that the cables are so much easier to work with and we're rather tired of the cumbersome, old IDE interface. The total difference in price is basically meaningless, usually coming in at less than $5. Of course, picking up the same drive with either interface is possible, so if you want an IDE model due to your motherboard/system choice, don't let the lack of SATA hold you back. In fact, overclockers can generally achieve better results with IDE than SATA.The only issue with SATA drives is that depending on how the SATA support is included on the motherboard, a floppy disk with a driver may be required to install Windows XP. For the Intel systems and the socket 754 option, that shouldn't be required, but the socket A platform may require the use of a floppy disk. Actually, since the NVIDIA MCP-S chip provides the SATA support, you're probably okay there as well - we haven't actually verified this, so we cannot say for sure - however, it's definitely something to pay attention to if you're looking at other motherboard options. Regardless of what platform you choose, though, it is our view that for the added $8-$10 that a floppy drive costs, it is still a useful inclusion. Some BIOS updates still require it, and we already mention the potential XP installation problem. You may only use it a few times a year (if that), but for the one or two times where you actually need it, we hate to scramble around trying to find a workaround.
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Hard Drive Recommendation: Seagate 80 GB 7200 RPM 8MB SATA
Price: $69 shipped
We've talked about this in most of the past guides, but to recap, the Seagate drives are a great choice. They come with the longest standard warranty (5 years), they use near-silent fluid dynamic bearings, they offer more than sufficient storage, and their price and performance are more than acceptable. You could save up to $5 by going with a Western Digital PATA drive, but those drives have a tendency to develop a high-pitched whine that we would just as soon not deal with. Maxtor, Hitachi, and Samsung also make similar drives, but the Seagate usually wins out in at least one area, at least with the 80GB SATA drives - their IDE models have started to go up in price, it seems.
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Hard Drive Alternative: Samsung 160 GB 7200 RPM 8MB SATA (or IDE)
Price: $92 shipped
Seagate still makes a good hard drive if you want something larger than 80 GB, but as the size increases, their price doesn't stay as low as competitors' offerings. Samsung is just as quiet as Seagate, and at about $20 cheaper than the Seagate SATA drive, we prefer their 160 GB offering. (The IDE version is available for the same price if you want to go that route.) When you get right down to it, the 160 GB Samsung makes a very good alternative to the 80 GB drives. It costs about 33% more, but doubles the storage capacity. Granted, many people won't ever use up even an 80 (or 40) GB hard drive, and that's why the 80 GB drive gets our recommendation. However, if you plan to store a lot of music, movies, images, games, etc. on your computer, it's definitely a worthwhile investment.
Those of you who have been around a while may remember the "good old days" where people used to talk about the price (in dollars) per MB of hard drive capacity. $200 for a 40 MB hard drive was once a bargain! Now, we have the 80 GB drives coming in at 86 cents per GB, and the 160 GB drives are only 57 cents per GB. How many more years until we begin to look at the price per TB of storage for a single hard drive? Technology is a wonderful thing.
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edlight - Sunday, January 9, 2005 - link
Warning for Corsair Value Select: If you want to run dual channel get one of their dual channel kits containing a matched pair. I bought one stick and another a month later, and they are totally different and won't run dual channel at all on my Asus A7V880. In fact, one is single sided and one dual sided. The memory isn't made by Corsair at all.justly - Sunday, January 9, 2005 - link
I really don't have a problem if you prefer the Nforce 3-250 chipset BUT to call the "performance and reliability" of either VIA and SiS "questionable" for a budget system seems a bit (actually quite a bit) narrow minded.If this where a overclocking or performance guide I would have less of a complaint, but for a budget guide I think you should elaborate on why these chipsets are so "questionable". Has Anandtech pionted out these "performance and reliability" issues in any reviews of either VIA or SiS, because the ony complaint I can recall had to do with overclocking.
You even mention that a Nforce 3-250 board (Epox) has "memory compatibility issues" so Nforce 3-250 is not void of "performance and reliability" issues either.
A BUDGET GUIDE is about two things "reliability and cost", performance is a "distant concern" (does this sound familiar? it should its on the first page). So when it comes to the motherboard why is "performance" now a concern (especially when performance differances between A64 motherboards seem trivial compared to other components)?
If I sound upset because of this then you are correct. I offen hear review sites hope for more competition in the chipset market (things like wishing some board manufacturer would try to make a performance board with a SiS chipset) and then I read things like this. If you really want to see some competition then the least you could do is not cut them from the market that they are targeting with their product without explaining why.
ChineseDemocracyGNR - Sunday, January 9, 2005 - link
"Intel has socket 478 parts, and these are often cheaper than the more recent platforms, but longevity is something of a concern."I agree that longetivy is a concern, but the socket 478 platform is not necessarily cheaper. Intel released the Celeron D in LGA775, starting with the 2.53GHz model (the lower ones are to be discontinued in Februrary according to the Inquirer). The LGA775 is a "J" version, which adds NX support for less than $5 more compared to the socket 478 version.
Given this, I would switch the Intel budget system to the Celeron D 325J, a little more expensive than the 320. There are cheap LGA775 motherboards available, like the ECS 661FX-M7 ($53.50) and the ASRock 775V88 ($57).
Another thing I would like to comment on is the Radeon 9600Pro suggestion. Newegg is selling 400/446 Sapphire cards as 400/600 (without saying it's an Advantage card) so be careful. I would suggest these for budget systems:
SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9000PRO Video Card, 64MB DDR, 128-bit $46 shipped
ABIT ATI RADEON 9550 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "R9550-Guru " -RETAIL $80 shipped
This ABIT card comes with 3.6ns and overclocks to 500/600 (9600XT) more often than not.
bupkus - Sunday, January 9, 2005 - link
I just bought the Biostar 210V and according to their website http://www.biostar-usa.com/ideqdetails.asp?model=i... this model does support a 400 fsb. Don't expect to overclock an AXP as there is neither a voltage nor a multiplier setting in the bios. The fsb for your cpu is set using jumpers which I hope also changes the AGP/PCI ratio as I'm told are unlocked. BTW, newegg had this model for fifteen dollars less than it is now, so look for possible sale prices. Currently $154.Avalon - Sunday, January 9, 2005 - link
You can get the Samsung 997DF 19" monitor for $202 shipped at techonweb.com, I bought it there two weeks ago. If the price hasn't changed....then I'd think $202 > $215 in terms of savings.Glassmaster - Sunday, January 9, 2005 - link
Great guide Jarred!Though I would rather not have seen the RAIDMAX PSU in there, it probably won't be as big a deal for the entry level budget system. It was good to see Fortron Source being mentioned too, as a cheap but reliable PSU alternative.
You might also point people in the direction of the excellent power supply guide by computerpro3 of the hardforums. http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=792566
He lists the brands to stay away from, and those worth buying, along with links to newegg for his specific recommendations.
Glassmaster.
Spacecomber - Sunday, January 9, 2005 - link
I always enjoy reading these system guides; so, thanks for this latest one.A couple of minor comments.
I don't think that the 120mm fan on the Antec SLK1650 cases is temperature controlled. At least one of the fans in the power supply is; so, perhaps that is what you were thinking. Nevertheless, the 120mm fan is fairly quiet and becomes virtually silent, if you use 7 volts for it.
I have been a big fan of the Seagate drives, because of their 5 year warranties (started at the time when there seemed to be a trend toward 1 year warranties on hard drives). While my initial experience of these drives was how quiet they were, I have been hearing other complain of getting drives that were not that quiet. My most recent Seagate purchase was a 120GB PATA model, and I too noticed that it seemed to buzz relatively loudly when it was seeking. I don't think it is so much how loud the noise is, but it has a kind of annoying quality to it.
Apparently, Seagate is involved in a lawsuit that alleges that Seagate stole their accoustic management technology from someone else. As a result, they have disabled this feature in their current line of drives. (You can use something like Hitachi's Feature Tool to see that accoustic management doesn't show up as an option on these drives.)
So, while Seagate continues to offer a 5 year warranty, which nobody else does (except the WD Raptors), they no longer should be looked to when a quiet drive is one of your criteria, imo.
Space
Pollock - Sunday, January 9, 2005 - link
I think you should forgo the SATA Seagate and go with the IDE version, which I've seen as cheap as $59-$62, saving you $7-10 for a pointless upgrade.bigpow - Sunday, January 9, 2005 - link
Entry Level Budget & Entry Level Performance labels should make the conclusion less confusing.kmmatney - Sunday, January 9, 2005 - link
Great review. The graphics section was very good, as well as the SFF section. Nice work.Although you did mention it, I think the Athlon XP-M is the best budget cpu, with a Barton core and unlocked multiplier. It is more expensive than the Sempron, but you can team it up with a $42 Asrock motherboard and overclock it 3200+ speeds easy, even with cheapo RAM.