Weekly Buyer's Guide: Entry Level System - May 2004
by Evan Lieb on May 15, 2004 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
CPU and Motherboard Recommendations
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ OEM (no heatsink)Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-X (nForce2 400)
Price: CPU - $52 shipped (OEM). Motherboard - $69 shipped
The AMD Athlon XP 2000+ continues to be AnandTech's runaway favorite for Entry Level Systems month after month. This month is no different. We had originally favored the Athlon XP 1800+, but AMD decided to level its prices off on Athlon XP processors at the 2000+, so it only made sense for us to upgrade our recommendation from an 1800+ to a 2000+ with the negligible price difference. Both the Athlon XP 1800+ and the 2000+ are absolutely identical to each other feature-wise, save for their clock speed; the 2000+ operates at 1.67GHz while the 1800+ operates at 1.53GHz. As we mentioned before, this CPU offers excellent performance in today's business applications and games while being very light on the wallet. $52 is a steal and will satisfy even the cheapest of cheap systems. There aren't many 2000+ processors available in retail, but any old CPU cooler will do. We suggest the Cooler Master DP5-5G11A, which is just $10 shipped from several online vendors, if you like a cheap, but effective, cooling solution. If you're looking for something quieter, we suggest mounting a Panaflo L1A fan to reduce noise. The retail version of AMD's Athlon XP 2000+ is only $5 more, so you may just want to skip purchasing the Cooler Master CPU cooler to save a few dollars. Either decision will suffice.
We suggest that you read up on AnandTech's very own Budget CPU Shootout from last December for detailed information on how your Athlon XP 2000+ might perform. Keep in mind that the 2000+ isn't listed in our benchmark charts there, but you can still get a good idea of how the 2000+ performs by approximating how their siblings performs.
The ASUS A7N8X-X and its older derivatives have been a favorite among the editors here at AnandTech for quite some time, and continue to be a favorite to this day. We have written extensively on ASUS' nForce2 motherboards in the past, namely about their exceptional reliability, feature sets, and excellent price points. The performance that the nForce2 400 chipset brings to the ASUS A7N8X-X is an especially nice bonus considering the price tag, as this is basically the exact same chipset that you'll find in high end Socket A motherboards minus the dual channel DDR memory support that is totally unnecessary for budget user needs. We've had lots of personal experience with this particular ASUS model, and simply put, we love this motherboard to death. And due to the type of chipset used with this motherboard, you will be able to upgrade to the best Athlon XP processors in the future, namely the 400MHz FSB kind.
All in all, we can't think of much that will go wrong with this motherboard, especially considering how mature BIOS support is at this stage in its long life.
Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on the AMD CPUs and motherboards from many different reputable vendors:
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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Tostada - Monday, May 24, 2004 - link
Yes, most people prefer the name "ASUS" to the name "Biostar," but this is a budget system. Are you honestly suggesting you'd rather have a system with half the memory, half the storage, no dual-channel, and no ability to read DVD's?We're talking about best bang for the buck here.
guitarizt - Friday, May 21, 2004 - link
I'd rather have the asus than the biostar.Tostada - Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - link
People seem to absolutely love Samsung drives. It looks like the SpinPoint 80GB with 8MB cache has almost identical performance to the WD 800JB, but I can't even find anybody selling the ATA Samsung drive with 8MB cache. Having a 2MB cache shouldn't make much difference, though, so I'll have to try one.It is pretty stupid that WD isn't using FDB like everyone else, and they actually list the 800JB as a 2-platter 4-head design, which would really hurt its transfer rate compared to modern 80GB-platter drives, although WD does change configurations without changing the model number, so you never know what they're using.
Hitachi's SATA drives all have a 3-year warranty and 8MB cache, and I use them whenever I can. They're the fastest 7200RPM drives around -- almost as fast as the new Raptors and even quieter than Samsungs.
Zebo - Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - link
I with Tostada. Excellent work.:)Especially the Biostar mobo combo. I would change the HD to Samsung spinpoint simply because they are quieter:)
XRaider - Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - link
Good point Tostada. I will have to agree with you on the entry system that you have proposed. Parts are alil better.Tostada - Monday, May 17, 2004 - link
Seeing as I just built one of these, I'll post the entry-level system I would make. Let's compare the prices without speakers or monitor.AnandTech Entry Level system:
Athlon XP 2000+ OEM
Cooler Master DP5-5G11A heatsink
ASUS A7N8X-X nForce 2 400 motherboard
Sapphire Radeon 9200SE 64MB
Western Digital 40GB WD400BB, 1-year warranty
256MB Kingston ValueRAM, PC-3200 CL3
Sony 52X CD-RW drive
CasEdge 3GTS-01 Black ATX case
That's $382.00 listed in the guide. The parts are currently $368.99 delivered from NewEgg.
The machine I would build:
Athlon XP 2000+ Retail
Biostar M7NCG 400 nForce2 IGP dual-channel
Western Digital 80GB WD800JB, 3-year warranty
512MB Mushkin PC-3200 CL2.5
Lite-On 48X CD-RW / 16X DVD-ROM combo drive
APEX TM-163 Black Micro-ATX case
That's currently $372.00 delivered from NewEgg.
Upgrades I recommend for a silent system are the EnerMax Noisetaker 325W power supply and the Arctic Cooling Copper Silent 2TC Rev2 heatsink.
Maybe you could argue that 2D quality is a little better on the Radeon, but the 9200SE is a 64-bit card with a 200MHz core, it is only a DirectX 8 card, and it doesn't perform any better than the on-board graphics on nForce2 IGP boards.
The guide has chosen to use an older model 40GB hard drive with a 1-year warranty, when it is only $13.50 more for the 80GB model with a 3-year warranty and 8MB cache. They have chosen to use 256MB of CL3 Kingston ValueRAM, when it's only $37 more for 512MB of Mushkin CL2.5. They have chosen to get a plain CD-RW drive when it's only $15 more for a combo DVD-ROM. In light of that kind of hardcore penny pinching, it's very questionable to spend an extra $40 for a Radeon 9200SE.
Tostada - Sunday, May 16, 2004 - link
SxRxRnRx: That places prices are certainly decent, but you don't get a monitor or an operating system, so you're not doing better than building it yourself.The parts in CyberPower's $424 system you speak of would cost $342 delivered at NewEgg. That's everything but the case and speakers, which you can certainly get for less than $82.
Athlon XP 2600+: $90.00 (Retail)
ASUS A7N8X-X: $76.00
256MB PC3200: $46.00 (Apacer)
80GB 7200RPM drive: $67.00 (WD800BB)
Nvidia GeForce 64MB Video: $36.00 (GeForce2 MX400)
52X CD-RW: $27.00 (Samsung)
It would be much better to build a system yourself, because that thing is stupid. Why would you get a Barton 2600 with only 256MB and a GeForce MX? The Anand guide has things a little more in perspective.
Personally, for an entry system, I would go with the 2000+ (or maybe the Mobil 2000+) like the guide says. I would go with an nForce2 board. I would usually go with 512MB. I can understand saving $45 on memory, though, if you really think you won't need it. I would always get a HDD with a 3-year warranty. I also think it's ridiculous to build a new system that can't read DVD's.
I have to agree with the guys suggesting onboard video for an entry-level system. There's nothing wrong with the nForce2 IGP. You guys complaining about 2D quality are confused. Most people using entry-level systems are running their desktops in 1024x768 at the most. Often they just use 800x600. These are the types of people who are more than happy playing games with the horrible "Intel Extreme Graphics." Any "SE" or "MX" video card with a 64-bit memory bus will not significantly outperform the nForce2 integrated GeForce4 MX. It's just a waste of $35.
If you're that concerned about perfect 2D quality, you should at least spend the extra $5 to get a Radeon with a DVI connector. Then if you get a good monitor you actually will be able to notice the difference.
The Biostar M7NCG 400 is a great nForce2 Micro-ATX board. It's $64.00 delivered. It has the onboard GeForce4 MX. It supports dual-channel memory. It fits in cute cheaper Micro-ATX cases that everybody likes. It also uses the same Realtek 6-channel audio as the board in the guide.
Speaking of on-board audio, it is still something you have to consider. A lot of boards now have cheaper sound chips and totally unshielded jacks that give a constant hum.
gordon151 - Sunday, May 16, 2004 - link
Athlon XP 2500+ Retail - $80ABIT VA-10 KM400 mATX mBoard - $53
In-Win Black mATX Tower Case - $50
Mid and full tower ATX cases are a little too bulky for my tastes in use of an entry level computer.
scuzzmaster - Sunday, May 16, 2004 - link
as an alternative, i've used msi's km4m with good luck for customers before, and it runs about $10 less at newegg. with decent (imo) integrated graphics, it's a popular mobo swap for aging customer systems.Zebo - Saturday, May 15, 2004 - link
Oh and don't forget to include shipping. Some guys promote Dells "specials" and fail to mention thier shipping is around $150 sometimes.