Weekly Buyer's Guide: High End System - April 2004
by Evan Lieb on April 30, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Sound Card
Recommendation: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 (6.1) OEMPrice: $71
If you're a big gamer, love watching movies, or are just someone who wants quality sound, the Audigy 2 is one of the best add-in sound cards on the market to fit those needs. This version of the Audigy 2 supports 6 channels of sound and will deliver a great listening experience in any game, and especially ones that support the Audigy 2's special features like EAX. Simply pair the Audigy 2 with the right set of speakers and you'll have the necessary tools for an exceptional listening experience. Other special Audigy 2 features include 24/96 analog playback and recording and "add-ons" like FireWire.
Alternative: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS (7.1) retail
Price: $86
The Audigy 2 ZS differs from the regular OEM Audigy 2 mainly in its support of 7.1 channels of sound instead of 6.1 The benefit of going to 7.1 isn't really all that huge, as there's a point that you reach where continually adding more channels yields diminishing returns; that is, your surround sound experience doesn't get a whole lot better going from 6.1 to 7.1 channels, or for that matter, 5.1 to 7.1 channels, depending on how sensitive your ears are. The Audigy 2 ZS is also a retail package instead of OEM, meaning you get additional bundled features, such as video games and a FireWire header.
As we've said before, there are inevitably going to be people who don't need this kind of audio processing power. For those users, we simply suggest that you use your motherboard's onboard sound controller. Some people could care less about their system's sound as long as there isn't any interference or crackling. If that description fits you to a tee, then use the onboard sound controller and forget about the Audigy 2.
Speakers
Recommendation: Logitech Z5300 THX Certified 5.1 speakersPrice: $148 shipped
Logitech, yet again, tops our speaker recommendation this week with their popular Z5300 5.1 THX Certified speaker system. Besides obviously supporting 5.1 channels of sound, the Z5300 is able to boast such features as a 100W subwoofer and a greater than 85 dB signal to noise ratio. The surround sound gaming and movie experience is tremendous, especially paired with a good Audigy 2 sound card. These speakers can also get impressively loud, and best of all, we didn't encounter any sort of crackling or distortion as volume was turned up to excruciatingly loud levels. For the price, these speakers are unbeatable.
Alternative: Creative Labs Megaworks THX Certified 6.1 speakers
Price: $248 shipped
This speaker system justifies its value versus the Logitech Z5300 speakers with:
- 6.1 surround sound instead of 5.1 surround.
- 99 dB signal to noise ratio instead of "somewhere" over 85 dB.
- 150W subwoofer instead of 100W subwoofer.
- 70W per satellite and 75W for the center instead of 35W and 39W center.
- Positional audio support.
If, for whatever reason, you're not interested in high end sound and will be gaming or watching movies mostly with your headphones on, obviously an expensive surround sound system will be pretty useless. If that's the case, you may just want to opt for 2.0 or 2.1 speakers, such as the ones recommended in our last Entry Level Buyer's Guide.
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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Murst - Thursday, May 6, 2004 - link
I am looking to build a new system, and I have used this article for a lot of guidance. However, some points I disagreed with. Here is what I have come up with. The case I'm not too sure about yet, as there are also many great choices from other top manufacturers. This does not include a monitor, and I will be looking for an LCD with a fast response time (something good for gaming). Sorry if I left out anything. The prices include shipping.Processor
AMD Athlon 64 3400+
404
newegg.com
Motherboard
MSI|VIA K8T800 K8T NEO-FIS2R
126
newegg.com
Heatsink
Thermalright SLK-948U
43
newegg.com
CPU Fan
Vantec Tornado
15
newegg.com
Power Supply
Antec TruePower 550W
106
newegg.com
Case
Cooler Master Wave Master
153
newegg.com
1 GB RAM
OCZ Gold Revision 2 (2x512)
284
computerhq.com
Sound Card
Sound Blaster Audigy 2
76
newegg.com
Graphics Card
ATI X800XT
500
not out yet
Speakers
Logitech Z-5300 5.1 THX
153
newegg.com
Hard Drive 1
WD Raptor 10k RPM 74GB
215
newegg.com
Hard Drive 2
Seagate SATA 160 GB 7200 RPM
122
newegg.com
DVD RW
NEC 8x DVD RW #2500a
87
newegg.com
Total:
$2284
cK-Gunslinger - Tuesday, May 4, 2004 - link
D'oh! Looks like I missed the boat on this one. Where have I been the past 3-4 days?Anyway, this is a pretty good guide, but I agree with quite a few of the other posts here. I keep up with my own system guides just for kicks, and they have always pretty much mirrored Anand's. The biggest differences seem to be in Storage and Monitors.
With harddrives so cheap today, why do we still recommend only a single drive? You can get quite a bit of performance increase as well as flexibility by simply exploring multi-drive options. Yes, you may increase the total cost of the system by $100-200 dollars, but you'd probably be better off than you would by jumping up to those $250 speakers you recommend.
Also, I know these systems are primarily used for gaming, so CRTs are rather entrenched, but good LCDs such as the Dell 2001FP work beautifully for games as well as general desktop usage. Again, this adds to the total cost, but if you are going to be staring at your monitor for hours per day, a 1600x1200 LCD with 16ms response will be easy on the eyes.
Again, I know these guides are highly subjective, but you've done a pretty good job keeping things in order. I just wish you'd be a little more willing to experiment and explore other options. Keep up the good work!
cbcphotog - Monday, May 3, 2004 - link
1) You made several changes in your latest guide but didn't give any explanation. I'd be interested in knowing why...... The motherboard for the AMD 64 changed from the ASUS K8V Deluxe to the MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R?
... The alternate monitor from the Phillips 202P45 to the ViewSonic P225F?
2) I'm also wondering why you chose the NEC2500A optical drive for this system instead of the NU Tech DDW-082 that recently received you editors choice award.
Thanks.
NordicNINE - Monday, May 3, 2004 - link
There doesn't seem to be many CRT reviews lately. Esp for larger models. I'm looking to get a 21-22". I do play games a few times a week and every other week or so, I play games all night, so I want something that works very well for games, but mainly I want something with razor sharp text. I know that aperture grill monitors have brighter colors, etc but they have lower quality text than a good invar shadow mask. So, would the 1100df be a good choice? I was thinking of the NEC 22" Diamondtron monitors but again I'm worried about the text quality and it seems that anytime you see monitors setup somewhere they're running some stupid looping demo that doesn't show text AND they run through some crappy splitter so all the monitors look bad.Philotic - Monday, May 3, 2004 - link
I second, third, fifth, eighty-seventh...whatever the hard drive recommendation, but my real question is who only uses one hard drive for storage? I personally store my important data on multiple hard drives based on the type of data. I wouldn't store important information on the same drive as my operating system, that's madness! I would use a WD74Gb Raptor as the OS drive because of speed, but I would only use Seagate drives for storage. I also disagree with the speaker selection; I would recommend the Logitech Z-680s or the Creative Gigaworks 7.1s, perhaps the updated high-end Klipsch Promedia 5.1. Video card? I think everyone agrees that this is a poor time to purchase a video card but the guide must go on!Mackintire - Sunday, May 2, 2004 - link
Evan Lieb,Looks like you saw a couple of my posts. I suggested that Seagates 7200.7 drive would be a better drive. Yes, I frequently visit SR. But as someone who orders near 50+ HD's a month I can tell you my personal experience. With 10 hour a day operating time. I have near 70% of our WD based drives have displayed bearing disfunction, by either failing or grinding within a 6 month period. None of the Seagate 7200.7 series drives we have used have failed so far. We currently have a smaller percentage of Seagate 7200.7 drives in the field. And 3 sets of 30 are over the 6 month point with no apparent problems.
The 7200.7's appear to be slightly faster in general use. I personally own both types of drives and can confirm the Seagate 7200.7 is quieter and runs cooler then the WD 120g JB. This is again my experience.
Thank you for your response.
Mackintire
Mackintire - Sunday, May 2, 2004 - link
AtaStrumf,The drive you are refering to is Seagate's 120gig Barracuda V. The Barracuda V based drives are know to run hot. The Hard drive I am speaking about is from Seagate's 7200.7 series. The 7200.7 series are one of the coolest running drives on the market.
I know about vowing never to buy another XXXX brand drive again. After returning near 40+ drives to WD I was almost ready to count them out.
But I gave them another chance by purchasing a 74gig Raptor, and I couldn t be more pleased with it. For now I will stay away from WD normal drives untill they fix them.
Please be a little more specific next time about what hard drive model you had bad experiances with.
Mackintire
Evan Lieb - Sunday, May 2, 2004 - link
TrogdorJW, good call, we’ll include an Alternative for the case next time around. We really don’t get much responses for cases, as everyone has their own priority. Look is very subjective with a case, something we don’t have to worry about with HDDs, CPUs, etc.Ducsauce, try Newegg.com.
Mackintire, most user’s experiences are different. Take a look at SR.com’s database of user reviews on WD, Seagate, etc. HDDs. You’re exaggerating the tangible differences in performance as well.
TrueWisdom, you, like Mackintire, are vastly overemphasizing the real world difference between a Raptor and a JB drive in single user desktop scenarios. Not everyone is going to notice the difference in performance, and certainly not enough to justify a $125+ price delta.
Nigham, depends what type of RAID array you’re referring to, not to mention the fact that you have to buy a second HDD. And your performance will increase anyway with two HDDs not in RAID, anyway.
n4v3k, a 480W PSU is not mandatory, we’ve tried lower wattage PSUs with a 6800 Ultra.
00aStrOgUy00, we’ve tested both speaker systems plenty, and probably more than you have. ;) Also, the whine does not apply to all WD drives, notice we didn’t say ALL drives have this problem (really, no one besides WD truly knows what percentage of their drives whine). Then again, many users will care less with the case we recommended, since it effectively funnels the noise. The Barracuda’s are quieter, but are not faster (and if they were in select scenarios, it isn’t noticeable in the real world), and there’s no hard data that says Barracudas are more reliable than Caviars either. Our experience says both are about the same reliability-wise.
As for those recommending an FX-53 or dual Raptors in RAID….this isn’t a dream system, this is a high end system. We clearly explained why we didn’t want to recommend A64 FX or P4EE processors, and why we didn’t want to recommend a Raptor. They are not bad choices, just prohibitively expensive for the small benefit in real world. And of course, the accepted definition of “High End” has never been “Fastest hardware on the planet without regard for price or reason”. :)
AtaStrumf - Sunday, May 2, 2004 - link
I tested a Seagate 120 GB SATA drive a long time ago and vouched never to buy one! Why? Because the damn thing got so hot I could fry eggs on it!!! The HSF on an Athlon XP with its fan off is the ONLY thing in a PC that gets hotter than that drive. I really don't see where you get off saying it runs cooler than a 120 GB WD.00aStrOgUy00 - Sunday, May 2, 2004 - link
I also forgot to mention, you said the hard drive has an infamous whine. Why recommend it if you know it has this problem?