System Summary
Here are the final system configurations for this month's Mid-Range Guide. We stuck with the recommended parts on the base AMD and Intel configurations, in order to keep overall price comparable. The AMD PCIe alternative uses most of the alternative parts in order to get improved performance, although we have also listed all the alternative parts in a separate table for reference. If we were looking for a good value in a computer purchase for ourselves, a relative, or a friend, all of these systems provide a great computing experience.
AMD AGP Athlon 64 System
| AMD AGP Athlon 64 System |
| Hardware |
Recommended Component |
Price |
| Processor |
Athlon 64 3200+ 512K 2.0 GHz 90 nm for 939 (Retail) |
215 |
| Motherboard |
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (NF3 250Gb) |
139 |
| Memory |
Corsair Value Select Dual Pack 2x512MB DDR PC-3200 CL2.5 |
145 |
| Video Card |
XFX 6600GT AGP 128MB GDDR3 |
209 |
| Hard Drive |
Seagate 160GB SATA with NCQ |
105 |
| Optical Drive |
NEC DVD+RW 3520A |
64 |
| Floppy Drive |
NEC/Sony/TEAC/Samsung/etc. |
8 |
| Case |
Antec SLK-3000-B |
76 |
| Power Supply |
Fortron Source Blue Storm 400W Model FSP400-60THN-R |
59 |
| Display |
Samsung 997DF 19" |
211 |
| Speakers |
Logitech X-530 5.1 |
56 |
| Keyboard and Mouse |
Logitech Optical Desktop Combo |
25 |
| Bottom Line |
|
1312 |
Intel Pentium 4 System
| Intel Pentium 4 System |
| Hardware |
Recommended Component |
Price |
| Processor |
Pentium 4 540 (3.2 GHz) for 775 (Retail) |
215 |
| Motherboard |
ASUS P5GD1 (915P) |
116 |
| Memory |
Corsair Value Select Dual Pack 2x512MB DDR PC-3200 CL2.5 |
145 |
| Video Card |
Leadtek Winfast PX6600 GT TDH PCIe 128MB |
190 |
| Hard Drive |
Seagate 160GB SATA with NCQ |
105 |
| Optical Drive |
NEC DVD+RW 3520A |
64 |
| Floppy Drive |
NEC/Sony/TEAC/Samsung/etc. |
8 |
| Case |
Antec SLK-3000-B |
76 |
| Power Supply |
Fortron Source Blue Storm 400W Model FSP400-60THN-R |
59 |
| Display |
Samsung 997DF 19" |
211 |
| Speakers |
Logitech X-530 5.1 |
56 |
| Keyboard and Mouse |
Logitech Optical Desktop Combo |
25 |
| Bottom Line |
|
1270 |
AMD "Upgraded" PCIe Athlon 64 System
| AMD "Upgraded" PCIe Athlon 64 System |
| Hardware |
Recommended Component |
Price |
| Processor |
Athlon 64 3500+ 512K 2.2 GHz 90 nm for 939 (Retail) |
334 |
| Motherboard |
ASUS A8N SLI |
197 |
| Memory |
Patriot/PDP XBL Dual Channel Kit 2x512MB DDR PC-3200 2-2-2-5 |
224 |
| Video Card |
Leadtek Winfast PX6600 GT TDH PCIe 128MB |
190 |
| Hard Drive |
Maxtor 300GB SATA-II with NCQ and 16MB cache |
194 |
| Optical Drive |
NEC DVD+RW 3520A |
64 |
| Floppy Drive |
NEC/Sony/TEAC/Samsung/etc. |
8 |
| Case |
CoolerMaster Cooler Master Cavalier 3 model CAV-T03-WW |
112 |
| Power Supply |
Fortron Source Blue Storm 400W Model FSP400-60THN-R |
59 |
| Display |
NEC/Mitsubishi FE991SB-BK 19" |
259 |
| Speakers |
Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 THX Certified |
153 |
| Keyboard and Mouse |
Logitech Optical Desktop Combo |
25 |
| Bottom Line |
|
1819 |
Alternative Equipment
| Alternative Equipment |
| Hardware |
Recommended Component |
Price |
| Processor |
Athlon 64 3500+ 512K 2.2 GHz 90 nm (939) |
334 |
| Motherboard |
Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 (NF4 4X) |
146 |
| Motherboard |
ASUS A8N SLI |
197 |
| Memory |
Patriot/PDP XBL Dual Channel Kit 2x512MB DDR PC-3200 2-2-2-5 |
224 |
| Video Card |
Leadtek A400GT TDH 256MB GDDR3 |
377 |
| Hard Drive |
Maxtor 300GB SATA-II with NCQ and 16MB cache |
194 |
| Hard Drive |
Western Digital Raptor 74GB with NCQ and 10000 RPM |
177 |
| Optical Drive |
Pioneer DVR-108D |
79 |
| Case |
CoolerMaster Cooler Master Cavalier 3 model CAV-T03-WW |
112 |
| Display |
ViewEra V172D Silver 17" LCD |
264 |
| Sound Card |
Creative Audigy 2 ZS |
75 |
| Sound Card |
M-Audio Revolution 7.1 |
98 |
| Speakers |
Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 THX Certified |
153 |
| Keyboard |
Microsoft Natural Multimedia Keyboard PS/2 |
29 |
| Mouse |
Logitech MX1000 Laser Cordless |
63 |
Conclusion
That wraps it up for this Mid-Range Guide. We'll also have an Overclocking/Enthusiast Guide targeting a similar price range in the near future, which will address some of the areas that we didn't get to here. There is really no point in upgrading your computer unless you are unhappy with its current level of performance. The ideal time to upgrade is whenever you feel that way, although it may or may not be necessary to purchase an entirely new system. If you like to stay close to the top in terms of performance, selling your current system for a moderate price can lessen the impact of trying to keep up with the latest developments in technology.
In the end, we're still waiting for better availability, pricing, and performance of Athlon 64 platforms with PCI Express. Three months ago, we were sure that all would have been taken care of before Christmas, but as with so many other recent product launches, retail availability has lagged far behind the initial launch and preview dates. There are reasons for the delays, of course: nForce4 had some silicon problems with A03 and they only released the initial SLI batches to Tier 1; VIA launched the K8T890, but no one picked it up right away; and ATI had problems getting Tier 1 and Tier 2 vendors to adopt the Xpress 200 chipset, particularly in non microATX form. We're not particularly happy with the delays, and we hope that the future will bring fewer paper launches. Everything mentioned in our Guides should at least be attainable were you to go out and try to purchase the parts today, which is about the best that we can do in trying to tame the dreaded paper launch.
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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.