Buyer's Guide - Mid-Range, January 2005
by Jarred Walton on January 21, 2005 11:09 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Display Recommendations
For a mid-range computer, there are two standard recommendations for the display. The first is to go with a 19" CRT, which will offer a good sized screen at a reasonable cost. LCDs remain a more expensive alternative, with 17" models being the preferred mid-range size. Cheaper 19" LCDs only cost a bit more than the quality 17" LCDs, but we would steer clear of most inexpensive LCDs, as they are often two- or three-year-old screens that are being sold at clearance prices. If you're in the market for a display, we continue to recommend checking out local stores, as shipping costs often negate the price advantage of buying online, not to mention that you can check to see if your monitor is free of defects before leaving the store. That last point is especially important for LCD purchases, as many online sites will not accept returns unless there are a large number of defective pixels (eight or more is the common requirement).
 |
 |
| Click images to enlarge. | |
CRT Recommendation:
Samsung 997DF 19"Price: $211 Shipped (Retail)
NEC/Mitsubishi FE991SB-BK 19"
Price: $259 Shipped (Retail)
Technologies for CRTs have not changed much in a long time, and there are not too many tube manufacturers remaining. Arguably, the best 19" CRT remains the NEC FE991SB. It has a maximum resolution of 1792x1344@68 Hz and a more practical resolution of 1600x1200@75 Hz - those of you who lack perfect vision may prefer 1280x1024@85 Hz. All told, the FE991 is a flexible monitor that's great for just about any use. The screen is perfectly flat, colors are vivid, and text is crisp and clear. Even the "Super Bright" feature is useful for games and movies that may be a bit too dark by default.
We prefer aperture grille tubes over older, invar shadow mask tubes; although, some will still prefer the lower priced Samsung 997DF due to the lack of the two horizontal stabilizing lines. The Samsung also has a higher maximum resolution, yet it still only runs at 75 Hz at 1600x1200, so there's not much practical difference. Samsung calls the 997DF a "perfectly visually flat" tube. What they really mean is that the surface of the glass is perfectly flat, but the inside of the glass is very slightly curved. Most people will never notice it, but we feel that in the interest of full disclosure, it should be mentioned. In the end, it's still basically a tie between the two monitors due to the $50 price difference. The only real drawback with either of these is size, but that's true of all CRTs. If you want something smaller and more transportable, LCDs are the way to go.
Click to enlarge.
LCD Recommendation:
ViewEra V172D Silver 17" LCDPrice: $264 Shipped (Retail)
ViewEra is not a well known name, but a couple of things strike us as being very worthwhile. First and foremost is a manufacturer guarantee that all LCDs will be free of dead pixels. That's not an uncommon guarantee from most of the major brands, but combine that with the extremely low price - it's as cheap as our 19" CRT recommendation - and it's hard to find fault with the display. Available in silver or black, the C172D features a 16ms average response time and a native resolution of 1280x1024, using a DVI or VGA connection. There are a couple of minor problems, however. First, we would just as soon not have the integrated speakers - they detract from the look of the display, and the quality of such speakers is typically very poor. The other issue is not quite so minor, and it is the use of a 6-bit display that resorts to dithering in order to reproduce 8-bit color - 16-bit and 24-bit color spaces, respectively. The overall look is nice, though, and we're willing to overlook the dithering in consideration of the price and dead pixel guarantee.
If you're looking for an alternative LCD that doesn't use dithering while still offering a 16 ms response time and DVI input, be prepared to pay more. Sony offers the SDM-X73 - also in silver or black - with an 8-bit display for $380. Most of the other "inexpensive" 17" LCDs also use 6-bit TN panels, like the Viewsonic offerings. For $380, you could also opt for a 19" LCD, but then you'll probably drop back to a 6-bit panel with a 25 ms response time. If gaming and movie watching are not a primary concern, such a display is actually a viable alternative. For more information on LCD's, check out the "How to choose an LCD" section of our last LCD Roundup.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
46 Comments
View All Comments
JarredWalton - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
^^^ Er, Foxconn is at MonarchComputer.com, not GameVE.JarredWalton - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
44 - This was written by January 18th and published Jan 21st. Things change rapidly, which is why the Buyer's Guides are really just a snapshot in time. There are several NF4 boards now available at Newegg, including the Chaintech and an MSI Neo4 Platinum. Odd that the Chaintech lists "NVIDIA 7.1-channel audio" - is SoundStorm back with NF4? I don't think I had heard about that. The Gigabyte board is also available from quite a few other resellers besides Newegg, of course. There's even a $109 Foxconn NF4 board at GameVE. Interesting! Not that I've had any good Foxconn experiences, but $109 is attractive.jleandro - Wednesday, January 26, 2005 - link
Don't want to be a pain, you guys review whatever boards you think are worthy, but I just checked Newegg and here's what they had IN STOCK:CHAINTECH NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU, Model "VNF4/Ultra" -RETAIL US$ 135
MSI "K8N Neo4 Platinum" NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL US$ 159
GIGABYTE "GA-K8NXP-SLI" NVIDIA nForce4 SLI Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL US$ 249
ASUS "A8N-SLI Deluxe" nForce4 SLI Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL US$ 265
Interesting that the Gigabyte K8NF-9 was actually not in stock.
hawksballer - Tuesday, January 25, 2005 - link
JarredWalton - Monday, January 24, 2005 - link
41 - Guide editors changed a few months back. The "alternative" configurations have always been more expensive, and they include *all* the alternatives, usually. If you were to take this Guide's alternative (NF4) and stick with the recommend parts everywhere else, price would drop considerably. I haven't made a point of highlighting this, but I did change the pricing targets a bit on the Guides.For the budget, I typically try for $500, but I usually end up closer to $600. Compromises to drop the price are possible but undesirable, i.e. go with 1x256 MB of RAM. The Budget altenative I generally target slightly below the Mid-Range, so $900 to $1000 is usually where it lands.
The Mid-Range has been bumped to $1250 by default, which generally allows for a very good all-around system with few (if any) compromises. The alternative Mid-Range I try to keep under $2000, although closer to $1750 is desirable.
I haven't done any High-End or OC Guides, but High-End will be in the $2000+ range (maxing out at $4000 or so with *all* the trimmings), and the OC Guide is really just about any of the above price goals. I'm working on one of those.
Hopefully that answers your questions. If you want to trim costs a bit on the Mid-Range, going to a slower CPU and GPU usually cuts close to $200, but then it's no longer an all-around system.
-------------
#40: The Chaintech may very well be available in Hungary, but it is not at all available in the US right now. Newegg is the one of the few sites that even list it, and any boards have disappeared *FAST*. If you picked on up without difficulty where you live, more power to you! Lucky #@$^&*%! ;)
wilburpan - Monday, January 24, 2005 - link
Is it just me, or have the Mid-Range and Entry Level Buyer's Guides suffered from price inflation? It seems to me that way back when, the price points for these two were a solid $1000 and $500, respectively. Now the Entry Level Guide has a budget of up to $1000, while the Mid-Range Guide is pushing $2000.I can understand that picking price points is an arbitrary process, but I would think that for comparing what your computer dollar buys you over tme, it would be nice to remain consistent.
jleandro - Monday, January 24, 2005 - link
Can't understand why the Chanitech NF4 Ultra Zenith is not considered to be available.I live in Hungary (not the prime tech spot) and this board has been available for some time, most retailers have it.
In fact I just bought one today for ~110 USD and will pick it up tomorrow.
For instance, check http://www.e-connect.hu under "alaplapok" (motherboard in Hungarian).
JarredWalton - Monday, January 24, 2005 - link
38 - Thanks. It's corrected now. The marketing for the drive states "with SATA-II features" and somewhere along the line that got put in as SATA-II. :| Basically, the drive has hot-swap capability and NCQ, which are both SATA-II. It does not support 300MB/s, but then burst transfer rates really matter much. With sustained transfer rates of even the fastest drives maxing out around 70 MB/s, it will be quite some time before SATA-II transfer rates really show real-world benefit.37 - 0dB computing? I'm not sure I'm the one to address that, but it's certainly something to think about. I'll pass that along and see if we can acquire the parts for such a test. They're relatively expensive in comparison to fan-based solutions, unfortunately.
AnnihilatorX - Monday, January 24, 2005 - link
JarredWalton:A misleading information I just found and thought would like to point out...
The Maxtor Diamond Max 10 300GB with NCQ 16MB cache (6B300S0) is SATA-I/150 in terms of transfer speed, but not SATA-II/300 as stated in page 6.
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=232...
"Maxtor 300GB SATA-II with NCQ and 16MB cache"
ceefka - Monday, January 24, 2005 - link
Again a great guide. I was already interested in the Maxtor 300 GB SATA II. I guess in that case you'll have to go with the Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 or any of the other nForce 4 boards.Would it be a challenge for AT to build a 0dB PC with high end components with Intel and AMD and compare notes. This machine should at least be a mid-range performer or just as high as you can go on 0dB.
I wonder because I'd like to build something really quiet. I have already looked into components like Yesico FL420 and fanless CPU coolers, but I am not sure if all of that will work with also two Maxtor 300GB SATA-II's in http://www.blacknoise.de/shop/de_DE/produkte/id_is...