Pre-AM2 Mid-Range Buyers' Guide, May 2006
by Jarred Walton on May 9, 2006 6:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Case and Power Supply
You can choose a case merely for functionality, or your case can make an aesthetic statement. If you don't like our case choice, you're more than welcome to choose something that you do like. The only comment we have is that we like cases that have 120 mm fans, as they tend to be a bit quieter overall. Of course, a high RPM 120mm fan certainly isn't going to be quiet, but you can usually get lower RPM 120mm fans that still move more air than a high RPM 80mm fan.For the power supply, we're going with a separate PSU rather than a case with one included. For the midrange sector, quality takes precedence over price, and bundled power supplies usually are pretty mediocre in terms of quality. They might still be sufficient, especially for a system that's not loaded up with lots of extras, but they will be noisier and less robust. That said, I haven't had a power supply fail in over 18 months, and that includes a couple of junk power supplies that came with $40 cases. If you don't have one, picking up a power meter like the Kill-A-Watt device isn't a bad idea. Even a cheap 400W power supply will often be fine for a long time if your system never draws more than 200W.
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Case Recommendation: Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW
Price: $61 shipped (Retail)
The Cooler Master Centurion 5 is a decent mid-tower ATX case. You get more external 5.25" bays than you need (5), one external 3.5" bay, and 4 internal 3.5" bays. The case is relatively attractive, and it comes with a tool-less drive mounting mechanism for all the drive bays. It also includes a 120mm rear fan, and you can add an optional 80mm front fan. The case is also available with a side window if you want to spend an extra $10. Finally, the case has front USB, FireWire, headphone, and microphone jacks. It's easy to work with, relatively quiet, and well made.
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PSU Recommendation: Enermax Liberty ELT400AWT ATX12V 400W
Price: $86 shipped (Retail)
I'm a big fan of modular power supplies, ever since OCZ released their first ModStream product. (And incidentally, the 450W ModStream is still going strong after a couple years.) Enermax has now joined the crowd of modular power supply manufacturers with their new Liberty line. As with many of the quality power supplies on the market, you might find the 400W rating seems a little low. Realistically, it's difficult to reach anywhere near 400W without multiple ultra high-end graphics cards, multiple hard drives, and a partridge in a pear tree. Unlike generic brand power supplies, the Enermax Liberty should actually be able to sustain 400W of power output, and it's extremely quiet.
I've got a few other modular power supplies around - OCZ, Kingwin, and Sunbeam - and they all work well for my needs. Not surprisingly, they also cost about the same as the Enermax Liberty, and the higher wattage models cost even more. As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for, and we would recommend sticking with power supplies that cost at least $60, unless you're trying to build a budget system. If you're looking at SLI/CrossFire as a potential upgrade, you might also want to bump the PSU up to a 500W or higher rating.
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Spacecomber - Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - link
Thanks for putting up an update to your buyer's guides. I always read these with interest to get other people's insights into what they think are the most useful criteria for selecting the best components to get the job done at a good price.For me, trying to sort through whose LCD monitors really offer the most in a given price range, such as the $290 to $300 range, continues to be one of the most frustrating areas of selecting components. The fact that manufacturers of LCDs seem to have no compunction about making up whatever technical specifications they think will best help them sell their products is maddening. Perhaps someone will eventually nail them with a class-action lawsuit similar to the one that got everyone to specify the difference between CRT tube sizes and viewable sizes.
Anyway, with regard to your recommendations, I'm skeptical that any of these LCDs, except the 24 inch Acer, are actually true 16.7 million color LCDs. As you said, it's easy to get to hung up on one specification, but all these LCDs, with the exception of the Acer AL2416W, appear to be using TN based panels. This means that in addition to them most likely really only being 6-bit + 2-bit with dithering panels, they suffer from the narrowed viewing angles that is the TN panel's other main weakness. Fortunately, while most manufacturers seem to have little problem with declaring all their LCDs to be 16.7 million color monitors, many continue to still be a little more honest about the viewing angles (though even these are often fudged, as well). The viewing angles on the monitors you listed are what seem to give away the true nature of these displays. They are relatively narrow, and they show smaller angles for the vertical compared to their horizontal angles, which as far as I know is very charecteristic of TN panels.
Anyway, my only point is that the more information you can dig up and provide us about what's what with LCD panels the better. This continues to be one area of computer hardware where facts and reviews are skant and hard to find.
Thanks
Space
KorruptioN - Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - link
That BenQ FP202W 20" really is a TN panel. Some say it is a full 8-bit panel (16.7M) instead of a 6-bit panel (16.2M). I don't really know for sure. If it is indeed 8-bits, then I don't think I would hesitate to recommend it (for that price with rebate), even with the slightly restrictive viewing angles.That said, I would recommend people spend a little bit more and get the Viewsonic VX2025WM. It is a full 8-bit P-MVA panel from AU Optronics and offers the best of both worlds (response time, viewing angles, and colour depth). It can be had for just under $350. It has the height adjustment too.
kmmatney - Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - link
The BenQ web site always lists the correct number of colors a monitor supports. In this case the web site lists 16.7 million colors, so its an 8-bit display. Its also a TN panel, so viewing angle will not be as good as an MVA panel.Here's a review, though:
http://gear.ign.com/articles/699/699896p1.html">http://gear.ign.com/articles/699/699896p1.html
My experience with BenQ's is that it takes some fiddling to get the colors right, but they are very nice after that. They are not so good out-of-the-box.
Spacecomber - Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - link
Well, you might be right, but I remain skeptical about the BenQ FP202W being a 16.7 million color monitor. It seems like it would be big news if someone was successfully manufacturing TN panels with that many true colors.www.flatpanels.dk seems to think that this monitor is using a Chungwa panel (CPT CLAA201WA01) and that this panel is also found in the Acer AL2017. Acer lists their panel as supporting 16.2 million colors, typical for how 6-bit plus dithering panels are described.
Again, this just seems to emphasize how hard it is to get factual information that you can rely on when it comes to LCD monitors.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - link
I've got the 19" 2ms and the 20" 8ms both setup right now, and I couldn't tell you (with my eyes) whether they're 6-bit or 8-bit. I need better eyes, I guess (which is actually true). I've edited the display text slightly if you want to check it out.JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - link
Full reviews (with empirical data, rather than just using my eyeballs) will be coming soon.Spacecomber - Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - link
I look forward to those. With so much of the cost of a system potentially going into these monitors, not to mention their expected useful lifespan, more LCD monitor reviews will definitely be welcome.The trick will be how to go about getting those facts and then figuring out what they really mean. I know that ranslating numbers into users' experiences is easier said than done.
I'm sure that one of the reasons that there aren't very many in depth reviews of LCDs available is because this is such a difficult piece of hardware to get a good, analytic handle on.
Space
kmmatney - Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - link
I meant to put in a few more reviews:http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?page=45...">http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?page=45...
http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/BenQ_FP202W/4505-3174...
http://www.gamerz-edge.com/hardware/reviews/fp202w...">http://www.gamerz-edge.com/hardware/reviews/fp202w...
There is a review out there that compared the BenQ against a few other LCDs inlcuding the ViewSonic 20" widescreen, and the ViewSonic was deemed the better LCD.
punko - Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - link
Thanks for the Guide, Jarred.I guess sometimes its worth whining!
Punko
Yawgm0th - Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - link
I can't quite understand the recommendation of a 400W Eneremax power supply. There are more powerful modular power supplies in the same price range, with some being cheaper, even the ones from reputable brand names. There are even better PSUs in the same price range without modular cabling. A modular PSU is hardly a necessity for a mid-range computer, but a good power supply is. Enermax makes some great PSUs, but I wouldn't want to try using a 400W in a system like this, especially when there are good 500W power supplies in the same price range.