Buyer's Guide - Mid-Range, January 2005
by Jarred Walton on January 21, 2005 11:09 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Sound and Speaker Recommendations
Even in the mid-range segment, we don't feel that an add-in sound card is a requirement. For most people, you would be hard pressed to notice a difference between integrated and discrete audio solutions. This is especially true if you're going to use a typical speaker configuration that costs less than $200. What we list here are strictly alternatives, and you might want to try the integrated audio before insisting on an add-in sound card. Half-Life 2 performance on a moderate system was virtually unchanged after upgrading from integrated audio to an Audigy 2 ZS, and to our ears, there was no major difference in sound quality.
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Sound Card Alternatives:
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZSPrice: $67 OEM, $75 Retail
M-Audio Revolution 7.1
Price: $98 Retail
The Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS and M-Audio Revolution continue to be the best options for discrete audio, and prices remain largely unchanged since the last time we looked. If anything, the price of the M-Audio has actually gone up a few dollars. If gaming is your primary concern, the Audigy 2 is more likely to have special support included in recent titles, while the Revolution has an overall better sound quality. The one area where integrated audio solutions due tend to fall a bit short is in recording quality. So, if you plan on doing any of that, you will probably want to invest in a sound card. The Revolution wins the recording quality comparisons. Note that the Revolution uses the VIA Envy chip, which is available on quite a few motherboards these days. Other than potential noise due to cheaper interconnects, there would be no difference in quality.
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Speaker Recommendation:
Logitech X-530 5.1Price: $56 Shipped (Retail)
For general computer use including periodic gaming and movie watching, a decent set of 5.1 speakers is the best option. The X-530 speakers have now replaced the Z-640 as a good all-around audio setup. There are better speakers out there, without a doubt, but they cost three times as much or more. Creative offers a comparable set of 5.1 speakers with their Inspire T5400 model, which some may prefer due to their less "futuristic" look. The Inspire P7800 are another possibility that adds 7.1 support, although you would need a proper environment to make use of such a configuration as well as one of the sound cards mentioned above.
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Speaker Alternative:
Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 THX CertifiedPrice: $160 Shipped (Retail)
If you want improved quality and power output, the Z-5300e is a great upgrade. This is definitely a case of diminishing returns as they cost about three times as much as the lesser X-530s, but some will want the improved sound, and we certainly prefer their look. They also have a separate control pod (a wired remote, basically), so you can position the speakers better around the room without putting the volume control out of easy reach.
You can spend as much money as you want on speakers, going all the way to home theater setups. For a Home Theater PC, connecting the PC to your existing sound system is relatively simple and would certainly beat any sub-$200 speakers that we might recommend. 2.0 and 2.1 speakers are also something to consider, if you're not concered with surround sound or lack desk space. A good set of headphones from Grado or Sennheiser is another possibility - and an especially good choice if you plan on attending LAN parties! If you don't already have good speakers and aren't looking to make a huge investment, however, the Z-5300e will get the job done.
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Rocket321 - Saturday, January 22, 2005 - link
Could someone explain what has changed between the NEC 3520A and 3500A. I checked the Anandtech Fall 16x roundup and it has the 3500A listed as DVD-R 16x.Dranzerk - Saturday, January 22, 2005 - link
Mmm, i bought my 930sb from Newegg about 6 months ago, guess they ran out fast. Oh well. :(N3cr0 - Saturday, January 22, 2005 - link
Well, I think I may go with the system described with the ASUS board but a 3000+ processor to save some cash. As it stands right now, anything is an upgrade from my Celeron 1.2 system. The XFX 6600GT is also available for dramatically less then the Leadtek (40-50$ less) 6600GT, so I'm going to be going with that also.Zebo - Saturday, January 22, 2005 - link
"The Diamond Pro 930sb Mitsubishi monitor is also a excellent CRT choice for 19inch."Too bad no one sells it:(
Zebo - Saturday, January 22, 2005 - link
KILLER CHOICES!!!'Another good mobo is epox 9NDA3J... it's $45 less than MSI..same clocks many say better with new bios. I post at 330 HTT now vs 315 before.. My mem OCs much more too..
JarredWalton - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link
20 - NEC and Mitsubishi "merged" on the monitor segment. The NEC FE991SB is almost the same monitor as the Diamond Pro 930SB. The 930SB did have a few advantages, like a 110 KHz hoizontal scan rate and a slightly higher max resolution, and perhaps a few cosmetic differences.Unfortunately, the 930SB is no longer available online as far as I can tell (and it did cost a bit more). That's why it's no longer in the Guide. If you can find one, it's still a great monitor, although I wouldn't pay much more than $285 for it.
Dranzerk - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link
The Diamond Pro 930sb Mitsubishi monitor is also a excellent CRT choice for 19inch. Very nice monitor, gets great reviews, and cheap to boot.I beleive it used to be Anandtech buyers guide..maybe another type? check it out
JarredWalton - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link
#17 - certainly something to think about, although there are so many possible causes that a lot of people don't tend to list in forums. For example, are they overclocking? What sort of PSU are they running (as a 300GB three platter hard drive inherently uses more power than an 80GB one platter drive)?Most of the posts seem to be related to having RAID issues. I won't even get into the subject of RAID, but having two of those drives running is going to further increase the power demands. What sort of GPU do they have, CPU, etc.? People looking at running two or even three $200 drives are probably putting in other high-end hardware as well, and a 480W PSU - even a quality Antec, Enermax, etc. - may not be able to handle the power demands.
Anyway, the Maxtor is merely listed as an alternative. Plenty of people are using them without any problems, but they're also not using two of them in most instances.
PrinceGaz - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link
Those are a truly excellent set of recommendations for systems in that price-range, Jarred. Compared with your first few guides which I considered to have quite a few poor choices; I read through this guide from start to finish, and without exception either agreed with your choices or would have went with something so close it made no real difference.I'm very close to building an nForce4/A64 box and regularly looking at my options (the only thing I'm waiting for now is the E0 A64 revision), and at some points what you wrote was so close to my own thoughts that I almost felt as if I was reading something I'd written myself!
The only bone I'd pick is with SLI. I'll probably get an SLI board, but not for the SLI capability but because they tend to have more PCIe sockets generally if you run in non-SLI mode and treat the second x16 as a x1. I'll never buy another legacy PCI card, so the two PCI cards I already have are all I'd ever want to put in a new PCIe system, therefore the more PCIe sockets it has the better. The MSI Neo4 SLI board fails miserably in that respect as it has no PCIe slots at all apart from the two x16 slots, so at most you can put a single PCIe x1 card in. I hope MSI gets suitably slated in the forthcoming review because of that.
mad nebraskan - Friday, January 21, 2005 - link
With all due respect, the recommendation of the Maxtor 250GB drive in combination with the MSI Neo2 MB might not be a good one. I helped a friend who had serious issues trying to get a RAID 0+1 to work using this board. We finally gave up and bought Raptors. A quick search of the net found this forum:http://forum.msi.com.tw/thread.php?threadid=63105&...
Now, the problem might be fixed with the latest BIOS, but I don't think it it.
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=368404
Just some thoughts from a guy who banged his head against this particular problem too many times.