Buyer's Guide: High End System - July 2004
by Wesley Fink on June 30, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Networking
Recommendation: Onboard networkingPrice: $0
The two onboard Gigabit ports that you will find on-board our recommended motherboard is all that you will need for a high end system. One of the gigabit LAN ports on MSI K8N Neo2 is the on-chip nVidia gigabit LAN that removes at least one of the Gigabit LAN options from the PCI bus. Our Intel alternate, DFI 875B LAN Party, uses Intel's CSA bus, which also moves the LAN off the confines of the PCI bus. This makes both recommended motherboards capable of the best performance that you can achieve with Gigabit LAN - with no confines of a PCI bus. The practical reality is that you will likely find no real difference between PCI bus Gigabit LAN and the Gigabit LAN provided by either the MSI K8N Neo2 or the DFI 875B LAN Party unless you have specialized networking needs. Broadband won't be any faster than the 10/100 solution found on almost any motherboard these days, but on-chip Gigabit can be useful when transferring large amounts of data to and from multiple networked computers in an office or within a home network.
Keyboard and Mouse
While not a major item, it's still important that you purchase the right keyboard and mouse. Reality is that different people have different preferences for a keyboard's look and feel, and the same goes for a mouse. Therefore, we suggest that you personally try out a keyboard and mouse. Recommending purchasing these items on-line is misleading, as there are too many users with different preferences for this type of thing. Visit your nearest PC outlet to try out a keyboard and mouse yourself; a PC Club, Best Buy, CompUSA, or Circuit City store will do. We suggest that you start with Microsoft and Logitech keyboards and mice. Make sure that you also check out optical mice from Microsoft and Logitech as well. A good solid optical mouse from either manufacturer should run about $20, but in some cases, can run as little as $10 if you can find the right deal.There are also some great wireless optical mice out there, but it really depends on whether you care at all about a wireless mouse and are willing to spend the money to acquire it. It is also no value to buy a cheaper wireless mouse or keyboard just to find that you hate the feel of it. Wired or wireless, make sure you like to type on the keyboard or you like the feel of the mouse before you buy it. Most will be satisfied with a standard optical mouse from Microsoft or Logitech for gaming, as it offers similar or better precision and feel compared to most wireless mice. Whichever you decide to get - wired or wireless - stick with what makes you most comfortable. It is no fun to fight a keyboard or mouse that you hate every time you use your computer
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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randomly - Saturday, July 31, 2004 - link
Part of what I consider essential in a high end system is a fairly Quiet machine. Especially these days with 480W supplies and the power disappation of CPUs and Video cards getting so high fan noise is getting way out of hand. After years of trying to build quiet fan cooled machines I moved to water cooling. Water cooled cases are vastly quieter than any fan based system. I've also found all my water cooled systems (CPU,GPU,Chipset) to be considerably more reliable and stable, especially when overclocked, compared to my fan based systems. I currently use Koolance PC2-601 water cooled cases as they are very quick to set up, have temperature monitoring, temperature variable fan speed, and overtemp alarms (saved me once so far). They are fairly quiet but I think there is room for improvement. Koolance uses 80mm fans on the top of the case. A system with 120mm fans buried inside the case would have a definite sound level advantage. There are also better designed and made cases than the Koolance, the trick is marrying one with a good water cooling kit. I would love to see your recomendations for cases and water cooling kits that would be appropriate for your High end / Overclocked systems. Quiet power supply recommendations that also fit the power and reliability bill would also be great to see.Water cooling used to be restricted to the home hobbiest/handyman types, but with the current kits out there from several manufacturers it has become almost as turn key as installing a motherboard, and the benefits are considerable. I think you should seriously look into it for your reviews. Once you've had a quiet PC, you'll never go back.
m4trix - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
I saw that. definately good to hear.What about the OCZ PC3700 EB? I havn't seen that anywhere. either that or I'm blind :O
the5thgeek - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
Monarch is taking preorders for about $166.http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant....
the5thgeek - Monday, July 26, 2004 - link
m4trix - Wednesday, July 21, 2004 - link
I finally found the K8N Neo2 moboAnd after expecting something NEAR the "$170 shipped" price quoted in the article, I was horrified to discover it's almost $400. there goes that dream. ($389.95 before shipping).
I hope there are some WAY cheaper retailers out there in the near future...
http://www.atacom.com/program/print_html_new.cgi?c...
expletive - Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - link
I should have said, with the Athlon 64 3500+ and the MSI Nforce 3 board...What if i wanted to try and overclock at all?
John
expletive - Tuesday, July 20, 2004 - link
Will this memory be a working substitute in this high end system? I would hate to waste it...https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?P...
John
phray - Monday, July 19, 2004 - link
#38 Parc: I emailed MSI a week ago and i was told by Chad Long (chadl@msicomputer.com) that it would be out "late July to beginning of August in the US." Feel free to email him and see if you get any official date.I need to upgrade before Quakecon, but this board may not be out in time...
Anemone - Saturday, July 17, 2004 - link
Agree on the 6800U. And as I've commented on the Intel oc article you recently wrote, its quite amusing that well over a dozen sites are all recommending the FX over Intel solutions. Thanks for a great read on what to build :)Parc - Thursday, July 15, 2004 - link
I have been waiting for this board a while. Msi at first told me it would be out the last week of June or first week of July. The first week of July Msi told me it is done but I do not see it any where. Does anybody have any info on waht the deal with this board is? Where is it at and when will I be able to buy it.