Buyer's Guide: High End System - July 2004
by Wesley Fink on June 30, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
High End System Summary
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| CPU & Cooling | AMD Athlon 64 FX53 Socket 939 Retail | $829 |
| Motherboard | MSI K8N Neo2 (nForce3 Ultra) Socket 939 | $170 |
| Memory | 1GB (2 X 512MB) OCZ PC3700 EB | $340 |
| Video Card | 256MB NVidia 6800 Ultra | $539 |
| Monitor | NEC/Mitsubishi FP2141SB 22" Diamondtron CRT | $669 |
| Computer Case | Coolermaster Praetorian (PAC-T01-E1) Silver plus 480W Antec True Power PSU |
$195 |
| Sound Card | Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS 7.1 Retail | $83 |
| Speakers | Klipsch Pro Media Ultra 5.1 | $349 |
| Networking | Onboard 10/100/1000 Ethernet | $0 |
| Hard Drive | 2 x 74GB Western Digital 74GB Raptor 10,000RPM SATA RAID (148MB Total) |
$376 |
| DVD/CD-RW | NuTech DDW-081 8X DVD+/-R/RW | $65 |
| Bottom Line | $3615 | |
$3615 is the final price of our high end system this week, not including any money that you'll spend on software (Windows XP Professional or Home, Office, Photoshop, etc.) or a keyboard and mouse. While this is about $600 more than our last High End Buyer's Guide, we have significantly upgraded our monitor with a 22" NEC/Mitsubishi, video card with a 6800 Ultra, power supply to 480W, and speakers to Klipsch Pro Media. Many of you have suggested that we choose the best in these areas and we are happy to accommodate you. We have also made the transition to Socket 939 Athlon 64 and the top Socket 939 processor in the FX53.
$3600 is not pocket change, but we do believe that you will get a heck of a high end system for this $3600!! We've strained a bit to include the latest High End video from nVidia and ATI and Socket 939 instead of Socket 940, so you will likely see some price decreases in both these areas as these components become more readily available. There are also flat-panel options at near the same price as the 22" CRT for those short on space, in addition to the $1200 21.3" flat-panel. You can spend a bit more at every price point, but we really don't believe that you will gain much, if anything, in performance.
Our alternatives also allow you to customize the High End System to your needs. You can reach $4000 with a 21.3" flat-panel and Home-Studio Audio if those options excite you. You can also lower the total price by selecting our alternates and other suggested components. For example, the cost can be reduced to about $2000 with a recommended cheaper processor, a $300 6800 instead of a $539 6800 Ultra, a cheaper 21" monitor, a 200GB Hard Drive instead of the SATA RAID, and on-board Audio with cheaper speakers. That gives a pretty broad range for a High End Buyer's Guide of $2000 to $4000, but we would consider any of the systems using our recommended components in this guide to be high end. The lower end just leans more to value while the highest $4000 leans more to the best that you can buy for some specific needs.
With the next generation 6800 Ultra, the fastest FX53 Socket 939 on the outstanding MSI K8N Neo2 motherboard, and the fastest 10,000RPM Raid Array, our High End System is the fastest desktop system that you can buy today, period. You can save a lot of money by choosing slightly slower processors or components just below the High End, but if you want the best-performing desktop system that you can buy, you will be hard-pressed to do better than our recommendations in this High End Buyer's Guide. Nest month, we will have a better feel of where the new Intel system (based on LGA 775) will fit in our High End Buyer's Guides. We know that the FX53 is still the fastest processor, but we still do not have a good feel for the price/performance and value that we will really see with the new 925X systems. There are many features on the Intel platforms that could make them attractive in a High End system.
Take a close look at the High End Socket 939 FX53 system, sharpen your pencil, and build the system. Please let us know what you think in the comments section.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
49 Comments
View All Comments
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.