Introduction

Yes, the holiday shopping season has just passed, and now we're putting out an article with suggestions on what computer parts to buy. Perhaps you didn't max out all of your credit cards, or maybe you received money/gift certificates that you need to use. Our Holiday Wish List contained plenty of recommendations from all of the staff here at AnandTech, so hopefully the pre-Christmas shoppers were able to get some good ideas there. Most of the recommendations for this Guide showed up in one of the lists, but here, we'll look to bring it all together with some complete system recommendations, covering the mid-range to high-end price segment.

Let's get this out of the way first: we don't generally recommend people spend $3000 on a new PC, especially if they already have a decent system. The difference in performance between a $1250 and $3000 system is not usually enough to warrant the price increase. However, there are a few other items that need to be taken into consideration. First is the intended use of the computer: a graphics workstation for a home office could easily cost $3000 or more, and if it increases productivity, then go for it. Second is the disposable income: $3000 is a lot for a college student, and even more for a high-school student; for a successful entrepreneur, on the other hand, $3000 may not be a big deal. The idea is to determine where exactly you want to spend more, and where you don't need to worry about additional costs.

Only the individual can answer questions on intended use, so the recommendations in our Buyer's Guides are intended as a guideline rather than as the definitive choices for what to buy. We will mention alternatives throughout the Guides that you might find interesting, so just because a product doesn't show up in the final table doesn't mean that it's a bad choice. We also have Price Guides for many components that cover additional recommendations. These are updated on a near-weekly basis, so you may find it helpful to refer to our Guides Section to check for additional information. Our most recent Price Guides at the time of writing can be found here: Motherboards, Video Cards, Storage, and Processors.

Please remember that the final cost is for a complete computer system, including display, speakers, keyboard, and mouse. Speakers and displays in particular are things that you may or may not need to upgrade, and you can always choose to skip those purchases now and pick up a better option later when you have more money. Due to the added costs of these items - and the fact that we're not going to recommend cheap parts just to meet a budget - the price target remains around $1250. When you consider that about $400 of the cost is going towards the display and the speakers, it should be relatively simple to get the price closer to $1000, should you so desire. Also, unless you want to run Linux or some other free OS, you should plan on spending another $100 to $150 on Windows XP, but we aren't including the software costs in our list.

If you like to stay near the top of the performance spectrum, but you find the costs to be prohibitive, there are other ways of upgrading. Give yourself a budget for computers: $40 to $60 a month for cable TV adds up to around $600 a year, but most people can justify the cost since it's spread out. If you can save $50 to $100 a month, though, you should have more than enough money available to keep your computing needs happy. Many people buy high-end components at launch and upgrade when something faster is released, selling the "old" parts on eBay or through various other channels. You will almost always get less than what you had initially paid, but getting 60-70 cents on the dollar is possible. As long as you're willing to put in the time required to build your own PC every year, you can stay fairly close to a $2500+ system for around $600 per year - and considering how much more some people use PCs compared to cable TV, that seems to be a fair trade.

Another alternative to DIY computers is to just go out and buy an OEM system. You sacrifice features and customization options, but the price is often lower and you can get a decent warranty, not to mention that Windows XP is practically "free" in such systems. I recently looked at the HP DX5150 system, and for $1000, it has quite a lot to offer. Just add in a graphics card and you've come close to matching the performance of the mid-range AMD system that I'll be putting together in this Guide. Of course, if you want to look at overclocking an AMD system, you can beat the DX5150 on price and performance - overclocking simply isn't an option on the vast majority of OEM computers.



AMD CPU and Motherboard Recommendations

With just about any system, the choice of motherboard is going to be the most important decision. The motherboard will determine to a large extent support for overclocking, features like multiple GPUs (SLI/CrossFire), expansion slots, and other peripherals. While you can usually add expansion cards for some things - audio, networking, and additional SATA ports, for example - there are certain features that you will likely either have or not. Dual X16 slots is one such feature, and for now, you have to make a choice between official NVIDIA SLI support or official ATI Crossfire support. (Hopefully, both companies will remove the ATI/NVIDIA chipset restrictions from their graphics drivers in the future, but for now, neither company officially sanctions running their multi-GPU cards on the other's chipsets.) However, you really need to consider whether SLI/Crossfire is something you really need/want. If you bought a 6800 Ultra at launch, hoping to upgrade 18 months later, the current market for GPUs will give you an idea of the problems with such an upgrade path. My opinion is that multi-GPU rendering for games is pretty much exclusive to high-end systems, and the recommendations will reflect that.

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AMD Mid-Range Motherboard: DFI nForce4 Ultra Infinity (939)
Price: $98 shipped
AMD Mid-Range CPU: Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 512K 2.00GHz
Price: $161 shipped (Retail)
Total: $259

There are quite a few reasonable motherboard selections in the sub-$100 range for socket 939. You can even get SLI-capable motherboards, though we're a little leery of such platforms. High-end features at budget prices often mean that corners were cut elsewhere. The motherboard and processor choice for our mid-range AMD system happen to match the parts used in my Venice Overclocking article, so you can get a good idea of what to expect in the way of overclocking. There are better boards overall - in terms of features, overclocking, and stability - but it's very difficult to beat the Infinity on price/performance. Even if you have no interest in overclocking at all, the combination of the 3200+ and DFI Infinity will be plenty fast for most tasks.

The motherboard includes all of the most-requested features for today's computers. USB2.0 is a given - 10 ports with the onboard connections - but Firewire 1394a is also present; four SATA ports sporting 3.0Gbps transfer rates may offer a slight HDD performance increase, with two IDE ports that are present for older storage devices and optical drives; and gigabit Ethernet and 5.1 audio round out the package. The audio is perhaps the weakest point of the motherboard design, but the majority of integrated audio solutions are sufficient if not stellar. If you want the best audio quality and performance possible, you can always add a discrete audio card.

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AMD High-End Motherboard: ASUS nForce4 SLI X16 A8N32-SLI Deluxe (939)
Price: $230 shipped
AMD High-End CPU: Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2x512KB Manchester (939) - Retail
Price: $400 shipped (Retail)
Total: $630

Our high-end AMD picks represent a compromise between performance and cost. The ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe is one of the best overclocking motherboards for socket 939 (if not the best). It has dual X16 lanes to the PEG slots, and pretty much every other feature that you might look for in a high-end motherboard. It also has a price of $230 to match the feature set, but there's almost always a premium for purchasing "the best". Note that while the ASUS slots are "true" X16 connections, theoretically doubling the PCIe bandwidth shouldn't make a huge difference. That being said, the ASUS board appears to be tuned for optimal gaming performance, at the cost of a bit of performance in more mundane tasks. Also, there's something to be said for not having to worry about enabling/disabling SLI via jumpers, the BIOS, a selector card, etc.

If you're planning on overclocking your system, the difference between most of the AMD CPUs is relatively small; most top out in the 2.6 to 2.8 GHz range, and at those speeds, other bottlenecks usually take precedence. Comparing dual-core to single-core chips, gaming performance will actually be the same on most games, since the addition of a second core won't help. (Call of Duty 2 and Quake 4 now have patches to increase performance on multi-threaded processors, though COD2's SMT/SMP support is apparently broken right now as it will actually decrease performance.) If you're looking for a computer that will last a while, we have to recommend making the move to dual cores, so the Athlon X2 is our pick, and we've gone for a middle-of-the-pack X2 in terms of price.

It's quite easy to come up with a few changes on the high-end, depending on whether you're willing to spend more or less money. Swap out the X2 4200+ and throw in a faster CPU like the 4400+ or 4800+, or you could also go with one of the Opteron 939 CPUs, which are great overclockers and may be able to surpass the X2 chips for maximum stable overclocks. Saving a bit of money by dropping to the X2 3800+ is also a possibility. At the ultra-high end, you might also want to wait a bit for the pending launch of the FX-60 from AMD, which will finally move the FX line to dual cores. For the motherboard, our own motherboard guru highly recommends the ASUS as the current leader. However, if $230 is too much for you, you can fall back to the DFI SLI-D or SLI-DR. There's also the new DFI SLI-DR Expert, which makes some small improvements to those, but it's out of stock and not much cheaper than the ASUS. The Expert also has a known bug with temperature readings right now.

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Alternative AMD Motherboard: ASUS Xpress 200 CrossFire A8R-MVP (939)
Price: $115 shipped

Due to the "incompatibilities" between SLI and CrossFire chipsets and graphics cards, we feel that users of ATI graphics cards will be best off going with the ATI Xpress 200 CrossFire chipset. At present, there are only two shipping motherboards with this chipset, the higher-priced "enthusiast" DFI LanParty UT RDX200 CF-DR, and the more value-oriented ASUS A8R-MVP. Normally, we would expect the more expensive board to come out on top in the benchmarks, but in this case, it's at best a tie for the lead. Given the $80 price difference, picking the ASUS board over the DFI board is an easy decision. Whether you're looking for a mid-range or high-end platform, the ASUS A8R-MVP will work very well.


Additional Motherboard Alternatives:

AMD Motherboards
Class	Model	Price
Budget	Gigabyte nForce4 SLI GA-K8N Pro-SLI (939)	101
Mid-Range	ASUS Xpress 200 CrossFire A8R-MVP (939)	115
Mid-Range	DFI nForce4 SLI Infinity (939)	121
Mid-Range	ASUS nForce4 SLI A8N-SLI (939)	125
Mid-Range	EPoX nForce4 SLI 9NPA+SLI (939)	133
High-End	MSI nForce4 SLI K8N Neo4 SLI (939)	141
High-End	DFI LanParty UT SLI-D (939)	161
Ultra-High	DFI nForce4 SLI LanParty UT NF4 SLI-DR Expert (939)	204

Picking just one or two - or even three - motherboards as the overall "best" is difficult. The truth is that there are many good motherboards on the market right now, and your own personal needs will impact the choice. Does Firewire support matter? Do you want SLI or not? Do you plan to overclock, and if so, are you looking to push CPU bus speeds to 300 MHz and beyond, or is 250 MHz sufficient? The three picks that we listed earlier are all good choices, but there are other options that are very close and brand preference certainly plays a role. I've decided to list several of the "runner-up" picks in case you have difficulty finding some of the other boards.



Intel CPU and Motherboard Recommendations

Motherboards are just as important a component for Intel systems - possibly more so, as the lack of an integrated memory controller seems to create more variance in performance among Intel boards. The multi-GPU market for Intel systems is also more limited, as you have either NVIDIA's nForce4 SLI for Intel or Intel's own 975X, but the latter still hasn't shown up in reasonable quantities. ATI should be releasing an Intel CrossFire chipset at some point as well, but how soon that will make it to market is difficult to say. Then again, if gaming and multi-GPU configurations is your interest, there's no compelling reason to go with an Intel system right now. Higher temperatures, more noise, and lower performance for a typically higher price? That's a tough sell. Still, with the pending launch of Presler and the potential to overclock to 4.0 GHz and beyond with the proper setup, Intel systems aren't a lost cause. Personally, though, I would wait for Presler to launch before purchasing a new Intel system. Here are the current recommendations, if you're not willing to wait another month.

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Intel Mid-Range Motherboard: ASUS 945P P5LD2 (775)
Price: $125 shipped
Intel Mid-Range CPU: Pentium 4 630 2MB 3.0GHz (775) - Retail
Price: $174 shipped (Retail)
Total: $299

If you're looking for a decent mid-range Intel system, the choice of processor has two good options. The first is to grab the cheapest Pentium D chip, the 820, and perhaps try your luck at overclocking. It costs a bit more, though, and not everything will benefit from multiple cores right now. We'll leave dual-cores for our high-end recommendation and stick with the slightly cheaper single-core Pentium 4 for now. Choosing between the 5xx and 6xx cores is still debatable, but the 630 comes with more cache and a slightly lower price than the 531, so we feel that it wins out.

The choice of motherboard is very difficult, as there are plenty of viable options. The best 945P/G boards actually cost more than many nForce4 SLI for Intel boards, but most of the lower end SLI boards have early revision chipsets that don't properly support the Pentium D 820 - they disable the second core. If you're sure you won't use a dual core chip in such a motherboard, they're still a good choice, but we would recommend taking the safer choice and going with an Intel chipset. The Intel chipset boards also overclock quite well, and SLI isn't a priority on a mid-range board. We've selected the ASUS 945P P5LD2, which is the "little brother" of the Deluxe board that we reviewed recently. It has good overclocking support and performance, and includes HD Azalia audio and GbE. Some of the other amenities like FireWire are missing, and the layout isn't perfect (particularly the floppy connector location, assuming you want to use a floppy), but overall it's a good board.

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Intel High-End Motherboard: ASUS nForce4 SLI X16 (775) P5N32-SLI Deluxe
Price: $208 shipped
Intel High-End CPU: Pentium D 830 2x1MB 3.0GHz (775) - Retail
Price: $320 shipped (Retail)
Total: $528

For the ultimate in Intel systems, the choices are much more limited. Gigabyte's Quad Royal is not yet available (and will apparently cost a pretty penny when it hits the market), and the same can be said of 975X based motherboards. That leaves nForce4 SLI, and we went with the SLI-X16 board from ASUS. Our review found this to be the cream of the crop in the Intel enthusiast community, and it took our 840EE processor all the way to 4.1 GHz. It should also support the new Presler CPUs when they become available. Our processor choice echoes the high-end AMD pick: dual-core, moderately powerful, but don't break the bank just yet. Naturally, you can spend more money on a faster CPU (like the new 955EE) if you really want, but we would question the sanity of anyone spending $1000 just for a processor, particularly when such a part can't even sweep every benchmark. The good news is that the Intel "High-End" platform costs less than the AMD recommendation; unfortunately, the AMD is also clearly superior in performance, and not even the 955EE chip would close the gap.


Motherboard Alternatives:

Intel Motherboards
Class	Model	Price
Mid-Range	Gigabyte nForce4 SLI GA-8N-SLI Pro (775)	116
Mid-Range	Intel 945P D945PSNLK (775)	117
Mid-Range	MSI nForce4 SLI P4N SLI-FI (775)	123
Mid-Range	Abit nForce4 SLI NI8 SLI GR (775)	138
High-End	Abit 945P AL8 (775)	146
High-End	ASUS nForce4 SLI P5ND2-SLI Deluxe (775)	158
High-End	ASUS 945P P5LD2 Deluxe (775)	163
High-End	Abit 955X AW8 (775)	170
Ultra-High	ASUS 955X P5WD2 Premium (775)	208
Ultra-High	Gigabyte 955X GA-8I955X Royal (775)	211

If choosing a best product among AMD motherboards and processors is difficult, it's even worse in the Intel camp. Dual-core processor support is a must, even if you're not running a dual-core chip, so that means the 915/925 and earlier chipsets are out of contention. That still leaves plenty of 945G/P, 955X, nForce4 SLI, and soon-to-be-released 975X chipset boards to compare. 965 "Broadwater" boards will also launch some time in the next few months. You also have the pending launch of some new processors that may or may not work on anything but the latest 975X chipset, not to mention that Yonah and Conroe are due out next year and further complicate matters. While I don't expect the switch to socket M2 to have a major impact on AMD performance, I can't say the same for Conroe. It may match Athlon 64, it may beat Athlon 64, or it may not even match Presler. Based on Yonah performance, we can assume that Athlon 64 parity is likely, but the 4-issue core is difficult to assess without actual testing.

Anyway, you can see several alternative boards above that meet the minimum Pentium D compatibility requirement. If you're looking for a rock-solid stable motherboard, Intel's own boards like the D945PSNLK are always a safe choice. The SLI-ready boards may have issues with overclocking and/or Pentium D 820 support, as we mentioned previously, but they otherwise represent a reasonable alternative. While you may never need the second X16 slot, it certainly won't hurt to have the option, and you can always use an X1, X2, X4, or X8 card if something useful comes out with that connection type.



Memory Recommendations

The price of RAM has dropped a bit over the past few months on most products, and there are many good deals to be found. DDR2 is generally cheaper at most performance levels, though the highest quality parts all cost more than what we would recommend for most people. Mid-Range systems should have at least 2x512MB these days, and there are some applications that can use even more than 1GB of RAM. On the high end, while some might be tempted by the lower latencies offered by 512MB DIMMs, we recommend making the upgrade to 2x1GB now rather than later - doubling the amount of RAM for $80-$125 is more likely to have a noticeable impact than spending the same money to upgrade to one higher CPU bin. Note that AMD systems require DDR memory at present while the Intel systems that we've recommended all use DDR2.

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Mid-Range DDR Recommendation: Crucial PC-3200 2x512MB Ballistix
Price: $115 shipped (Retail)

There are many value RAM offerings available, but they all come with CL2.5 or even CL3 timings. Considering the overclocking capability of the Crucial Ballistix, it's worth the extra $20 in our opinion. Crucial Ballistix is rated for 2-2-2-6-1T timings, and though it fell out of favor with the widespread availability of TCCD and CH5 DIMMs at lower prices, the current price has moved it back to the top of our price/performance recommendations. We reviewed this memory over a year ago, topping out at just above DDR500, and the memory dividers on Athlon 64 will give you plenty of possibilities for wringing the last ounce of performance from your RAM and CPU. There are a ton of 2x512MB DIMMs available, and given the difference in price, there isn't much reason to get anything less than 2-3-2-6 rated memory these days. You can also find DIMMs rated for as high as DDR600, but given the price premium, we would look towards 1GB DIMMs instead.

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High-End DDR Recommendation: OCZ PC-4000 2x1024MB EL Gold
Price: $233 shipped (Retail)

Unless you spend a lot of money on your RAM, you can't get 1GB DDR DIMMs with the same low latencies as 512MB DIMMs. However, dual cores, multitasking, and the latest graphical manifestos in the gaming world can all benefit from more RAM rather than just faster RAM. The OCZ PC-4000 EL Gold manages still to give a decent amount of overclocking range, though it has to resort to 3-4-3 timings to do so. Personally, I'll take the 3-5% lower frame rates with up to 33% faster load times in games like Battlefield 2. I can't see the difference between 60 FPS and 63 FPS, but I can certainly tell the difference between 38 seconds and 63 seconds. (Yes, those are the actual load times for BF2 comparing 2GB to 1GB of RAM.) There are quite a few alternatives in the memory department, so rather than giving a small list, I'm simply going to refer you to our Pricing Engine. If you want both low latency and 1GB DIMMs, OCZ, Corsair and PDP have some reasonable options, though OC bandwidth varies.

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Mid-Range DDR2 Recommendation: G.Skill PC-4200 2x512MB Extreme
Price: $71 shipped (Retail)

The price/performance/bandwidth difference between DDR and DDR2 is becoming pretty interesting these days. While many will point to the lower latencies of DDR2 as a negative, remember that the latencies come with much higher clock speeds. CL4 at DDR2-533 is about 15 ns, and CL2 at DDR-400 is only 10 ns - still faster, but not "twice as fast". Given the bandwidth advantage and the fact that main memory accesses are buffered by the cache in many instances, DDR2 looks pretty respectable. You can also find DDR2-667 CL4 (12 ns latency) at a cost that's still lower than CL2 DDR memory. In the end, we went with the lower cost of PC2-4200 CL4, and G.Skill came out on top with their "Extreme" series. You can also find the same RAM in 1GB DIMMs for twice the cost, which is definitely worthy of consideration. Like the DDR RAM, there are plenty of alternative 2x512MB DIMMs available. The Corsair XMS2 C4 PC-5300 for $96 would be a close second, offering superior performance that can come in handy during overclocking attempts.

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High-End DDR2 Recommendation: GeIL PC-5300 2x1024MB Ultra
Price: $217 shipped (Retail)

Unlike DDR memory, it is possible to get low latencies, high capacities, and high bandwidths all in the same package - without breaking the bank! GeIL's Ultra RAM is rated for 3-4-4-8 timings at DDR2-667, at a price lower than the DDR-500 memory with similar timings. The benefits of large amounts of RAM are present whether you use an AMD system or an Intel system, so if faster load times are more important to you than maximum frame rates, this RAM is a nice upgrade. Honestly, the PC-5300 memory speed isn't even required, as PC-4200 is more than sufficient for most tasks. You can find plenty of great deals on 2x1024MB DDR2 kits. You can save about $75 by sticking with PC-4200, for example, by getting the G.Skill Extreme 2x1024MB pack. While the performance of AMD's M2 chips probably won't be much better than current 939 chips, the better availability of high performance 1GB and larger DIMMs is definitely one advantage that we're looking forward to receiving.



Graphics Recommendations

All of the motherboards are obviously PCI Express systems, so we have mid-range and high-end recommendations. The problem is that we also get the NVIDIA vs. ATI perspective, and in many areas, there is no right answer. We prefer the SLI configurations to CrossFire configurations, as the pass-through cable just makes for increased cable clutter. Realistically, though, we feel most people are best served by getting a single graphics card within their budget constraints, so unless your budget is more than $700, we see no need to consider multiple GPUs. (Unless, of course, you're planning on running four displays from one system.)

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Mid-Range Graphics Recommendation: eVGA GeForce 6800 GS 256MB
Price: $196 shipped (Retail)

Some people will say that even $200 is too much for a "Mid-Range" graphics card. If you really don't care about 3D performance, you can downgrade to just about any PCI Express graphics card and be happy. I look at recommendations within a price range, and $200 is a "Mid-Range" graphics card to me. It just so happens that there is a couple if good recommendations right at this price point, which helps justify the cost. The 6800 GS provides power roughly equal to last year's 6800 GT cards at a price about $100 lower. (Overclocking the cards can often come near 6800 Ultra performance levels, if you're interested in giving that a try.) Two of these cards end up being about equal to a 7800 GTX - faster in some instances and slower in others - so the upgrade potential is there. Honestly, though, we don't know how long the 6800 GS cards will be around, so plan on running one card and if you're looking to spend more than $200, upgrade to a faster single card.

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Mid-Range Graphics Alternative: Sapphire Radeon X800GTO2 256MB
Price: $206 shipped (Retail)

And representing the red team, we have a similarly priced card in the form of the Sapphire X800 GTO². Unlocking the full 16 pixel pipelines and overclocking the cores on these Sapphire cards has resulted in a very high success rate, though even at stock speeds, you get a very fast card. You miss out on SM3.0 support, which might become an issue in the future, but most of the SM3.0 enabled games seem to demand a bit more computational power than what last generation video cards can supply anyway. We don't like CrossFire for the X800 ATI platform for a number of reasons (1600x1200@60Hz is the big one), but as we've already mentioned, SLI/CF for sub-$700 GPU configurations doesn't make a lot of sense anyway. Like the 6800 GS, the X800 GTO/GTO² cards may not be around much longer anyway. Still, X850 Pro (XT with overclocking) performance for $200 isn't a bad parting gift from ATI's R4xx series.

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High-End Graphics Recommendation: eVGA 256-P2-N516 GeForce 7800GT 256MB
Price: $304 shipped (Retail)

The prices of 7800GT cards have dropped over $100 since launch, putting them below even most 6800 GT cards while providing more power than a 6800 Ultra. These cards can run almost any current game at resolutions up to 1920x1200, though you may have to tweak the detail levels a bit for optimal performance. The 6800 GT was an extremely popular card from NVIDIA last year, and the 7800 GT looks to surpass it in just about every area: lower street price, higher performance, better availability, and even slightly lower temperatures. At just over $300, this card strikes a great balance between price, performance, and features. High-end gamers can look towards the 7800 GTX 256MB and 512MB cards if they need even more power, and we would go that route before moving to SLI. Finding a 512MB GTX in stock is still difficult, unfortunately, though if you have $700 to blow it can be done.

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High-End Graphics Alternative: Connect3D Radeon X1800XL 256MB
Price: $328 shipped (Retail)

Unlike the Mid-Range GPU recommendation, the ATI X1800XL is definitely an alternative as opposed to an equal recommendation to the 7800 GT. A higher price combined with generally slightly slower performance in our tests makes the NVIDIA card the winner. The SLI vs. CF comparison also favors the NVIDIA card, as you would need to buy a more expensive CF X1800 Master card for the X1800XL. Outside of the dual-GPU configurations, though, it's still relatively close, so those of you who inherently prefer ATI won't be missing out on much other than $25. Performance is very good in all current games with the X1800XL, and like the 7800 GT, prices have dropped over $100 since the cards first launched a couple of months ago. Looking to the higher-end ATI cards, ATI has the advantage. The X1800XT comes with 512MB of 1.5 GHz DDR3 memory, allowing it to surpass the 7800 GTX 256MB in the majority of tests. While the 7800 GTX 512MB does reign supreme as the fastest card, it also is very difficult to find, and the X1800XT is now readily available for about $495. It's definitely not cheap, but it's only $40 more than the cheapest GTX 256MB and usually more than 10% faster.


Graphics Recap

Graphics Cards
Class	Model	Price
Budget	Sapphire Radeon X700 Pro 128MB	120
Budget	MSI Radeon X1600 Pro 256MB	134
Budget	eVGA GeForce 6600GT 128MB	140
Mid-Range	eVGA GeForce 6800 GS 256MB	196
Mid-Range	Sapphire Radeon X800GTO2 256MB	206
High-End	eVGA 256-P2-N516 Geforce 7800GT 256MB	304
High-End	Connect3D Radeon X1800XL 256MB	328
Ultra-High	eVGA GeForce 7800GTX 256MB	448
Ultra-High	Sapphire Radeon X1800XT 512MB	487
Ultra-High	GeForce 7800GTX 512MB (Pre-Order)	699

Given the number of choices for graphics, combined with the fact that needs can range from "just make Windows work" to "make FEAR run at 100 FPS!", we felt a quick rundown of the various price categories with a good recommendation for each was in order. That's what the above table represents, though we didn't go below the $100 price point for this level of system. The X1600 Pro from MSI represents an interesting value, which is good news. Although usually faster than the 6600GT and X700Pro, the X1600 appeared doomed for failure with the original MSRP of $200. A 500 MHz core with 12 pixel pipelines combined with 256MB of 800 MHz RAM for $134 is much more palatable, though, and it gets our recommendation for the lower cost mid-range or higher cost low-end graphics cards.



Remaining Recommendations

The majority of the remaining parts all have a lesser impact on performance, and for several areas, you can just get whatever is cheapest. A low cost case might have sharp edges inside, and a low cost PSU might be noisy or fail prematurely - particularly if you load up the system with higher end components - but otherwise, there isn't a huge difference between the remaining components other than prices. Since we're giving Mid-Range and High-End configurations, we will be spending quite a bit more on the latter for what some may feel are unimportant aspects of a computer system. The Z-5500 speakers, for example, are overkill if you're living in an apartment or small house. For that matter, even the Z-2300 speakers are more than what many users will need. More than any of the other recommendations, there is a lot of subjective opinion in picking out these remaining items. If you don't want powerful speakers, save the money. If sound quality is important - which is our assumption on the High-End platform - you will probably want good speakers as well as a discrete sound card. If you're happy with a cheap case, you can cut costs there as well. Here are our guidelines for the remaining components.

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Mid-Range Components
Hard Drive	Western Digital 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	99
Optical Drive	BenQ DVDR DQ60 (OEM)	41
Case and Power Supply	Antec Solution SLK3800B + 400W SmartPower 2.0	116
Speakers	Logitech Z-2300 2.1	112
Keyboard and Mouse	Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 + Optical Mouse	30
Total		398

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High-End Components
Hard Drive	Western Digital 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Caviar SE16	115
Optical Drive	NEC DVDR ND-3550A	43
Case	Lian Li PC-6077B Aluminum	138
Power Supply	ePOWER/Tagan TG-530-U15 530W	120
Sound Card	Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS	73
Speakers	Logitech Z-5500 5.1 w/Dolby Digital	253
Keyboard and Mouse	Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3100 (Laser tracking mouse)	95
Total		837

The only two areas where it's really worth upgrading to something more than the above choices are storage and the power supply. If you're planning on running multiple GPUs with multiple hard drives, the 400W SmartPower 2.0 in the Mid-Range system may prove insufficient. The ePOWER/Tagan in the High-End system is more than enough for almost any use, though there are quite a few alternatives with a similar price. Fotron Source, Antec, Enermax, Seasonic, OCZ, and several other companies make PSUs worth considering, but we like the modular design, SLI support, and general high-quality of the Tagan unit. $120 is a lot to pay for a power supply, but then we'd even take it one step further and recommend picking up a UPS to go with the computer. $100 will get a good quality UPS that will help prevent loss of data from anything ranging from a power outage to an electrical surge.

The hard drives both ended up being from Western Digital, with the only upgrade on the High-End component being the move to a 16MB cache model. 250GB of storage and 3.0Gbps transfer rates are plenty for the vast majority of users. You could even drop down to a 160GB or even 80GB HDD if you don't need the storage, though the cost per GB on the 250GB drives is the lowest of any of the models. If you store lots of music, movies, photos, etc. on your system, though, you might want to go the other way and look for more storage capacity. Seagate's 300GB and larger 7200.9 drives can be found with 16MB of cache for the ultimate in capacity and performance, but prices are quite high. Some people still swear by the faster access times of the WD Raptor drives, but personally, I would add more RAM before worrying about spending $150 for a 74GB drive. If you want some data reliability, some motherboards are even shipping with integrated RAID 5 controllers: use 3 or 4 HDDs and you can get over a TB of storage and still be protected from data loss as long as no more than one drive fails. That's really more low-end server/high-end workstation stuff, however, so we'll stick with a single 250GB drive for now.



Display Recommendations

I've left the displays for last, and since this is Mid-Range and above, the choices will be confined to LCDs. Your eyes have to stare at the computer screen for hours at a time (at least, if you use a computer as much as most of us at AnandTech do), so skimping on the display is a poor choice. I've always been a proponent of overspending on displays, from my first 21" CRT 10 years ago to my recent upgrade to a Dell 2405FPW. There's no such thing as having a display that's "too big" if you ask me...although, dropping a 32" LCD TV on your desk is probably getting close to proving me wrong. It's too bad that LCD TVs are mostly limited to 1366x768 or lower resolutions, as otherwise, they could be a cost-effective alternative for large computer LCDs. Most of us can only dream of owning the 30" Apple Cinema displays, unfortunately.

Click to enlarge.

Mid-Range LCD Recommendation: Acer AL1914smd 19 inch 8ms LCD
Price: $293 shipped (Retail)

Other than a slight drop in price, our LCD recommendation remains with the Acer AL1914smd 19" display. There are better 19" LCDs out there, but they all cost quite a bit more. One thing that you really need to look for is actual color depth. There are many low response time LCDs that only have 6-bit color depths and use dithering to approximate 24-bit color. The result can range from satisfactory to mildly annoying, and I would sacrifice a bit in the way of response times for better colors. The Acer certainly isn't the best in terms of colors, but the documentation appears to indicate that it is a native 8-bit panel, so at least dithering won't be required, and the price is right.

If you're looking for guaranteed 8-bit panels and are willing to spend a bit more money, upgrading to a 20" LCD - 1600x1200 standard aspect ratio or 1680x1050 widescreen - would be a better choice than looking at more expensive 19" panels. The Dell 2005FPW and 2001FP are both good choices. If you don't want to buy a Dell LCD, you might look at the Samsung 204T (20" 4:3 AR) or the Philips 200W6CB/27 (20" WS) or 200P4VS/74 (20" 4:3 AR), although you can almost certainly get a Dell on sale for less money than any of those. All five of these - the Dell, Samsung, and Philips models - are 16ms displays, but response times become less important once you get below 20ms. I don't have issues with most 16ms displays when gaming, but you might want to try out a display in person before making a purchase, as some people still feel that there's too much "motion blur" when gaming.

Click to enlarge.

High-End LCD Recommendation: Acer AL2416Wd 24 inch 6ms LCD
Price: $980 shipped (Retail)

The High-End display choice is really high-end, so if spending $1000 on a quality display is too much, you might want to go back and read that last paragraph again. You can get two good quality 20" LCDs for the price of a single 24" LCD, but I've always preferred a single large display. Acer gets the recommendation again, though there are quite a few reasonable alternatives. First, the good points of the Acer. You can find it for $980 online, without any need to wait for a sale. It's a 24" 1920x1200 panel, and it boasts a 6 ms pixel response time - the best of any current 23/24" LCD, though there is definitely an element of marketing in the various manufacturer response times. $1000 is a lot of money to spend on just the display, but hopefully, the display will last you at least five years, and your eyes might thank you later.

Let's look at some of the other alternatives. The Dell 2405FPW is actually better in several areas: it has S-VIDEO, Composite, Component, DVI, and VGA connections, and you can switch between the five at the press of a button. (I have mine connected to two different PCs, and I've found this feature to be very useful.) If you can find the Dell on sale, you can get it for less money than the Acer, but you might end up waiting months for the right opportunity. The HP L2335 and Philips 230W5VS are 23" LCDs that are similar in price to the Acer, give or take $50. The extra inch of display size is going to be difficult to notice, but paying more for less is questionable. Warranties on most large LCDs are 3 years from the manufacturer, though you'll want to double-check on pixel defect policies before buying most likely. Sony also has a 23" display, the SDM-P234, but at $200 more than the HP and Philips, you're just paying extra for the name.

In the end, the decision comes down to the Dell and the Acer. The Acer wasn't around when I purchased my 2405FPW, or else it would probably be sitting on my desk. Still, if you're living in an apartment or dorm room and don't have a lot of space for a TV and a computer, the Dell can multitask between the two, with 720p and 1080i/p support. For a high-end system, there is nothing as likely to inspire awe and envy as a great looking display, and the 24" LCDs are the display to have these days. A friend came over with his 7800 GTX SLI system sporting an X2 4800+ a few months ago, and upon seeing the 2405FPW connected to my "pathetic" 6800GT/3200+, he was ready to return a few parts just so that he could upgrade monitors. Four years from now, any current CPU/GPU combination is going to be outdated, but you can still continue to run a 24" LCD happily until it finally breaks down. Money well spent, if you ask me.



System Summaries

And there you have it: four systems, two budgets, and a whole lot of alternatives. There is plenty of room for substitution of parts that you feel are the most useful, so don't take these recommendations as the only systems that we would currently build. Budget and intended use are both critical factors, so if you want to make a CAD workstation, you would want to add an appropriate graphics card like one of the Quadro cards or a FireGL. If you want to make an HTPC, grabbing more hard drives for storage and focusing on low noise levels would be more important than a high-end graphics card. So, here are the final component lists; feel free to play "Mr. Potato Head" and come up with your own custom system designed to meet your requirements.

Mid-Range Systems

AMD Mid-Range System
Hardware	Component	Price
Processor	Athlon 64 3200+ 512K 2.0GHz Venice (939) - Retail	161
Motherboard	DFI nForce4 Ultra Infinity (939)	98
Memory	Crucial PC-3200 2x512MB Ballistix	124
Video Card	eVGA GeForce 6800 GS 256MB	196
Hard Drive	Western Digital 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	99
Optical Drive	BenQ DVDR DQ60 (OEM)	41
Case and Power Supply	Antec Solution SLK3800B + 400W SmartPower 2.0	116
Display	Acer AL1914smd 19 inch 8ms LCD	293
Speakers	Logitech Z-2300 2.1	112
Keyboard and Mouse	Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 + Optical Mouse	30
Bottom Line		1270

Intel Mid-Range System
Hardware	Component	Price
Processor	Pentium 4 630 2MB 3.0GHz (775) - Retail	174
Motherboard	ASUS 945P P5LD2 (775)	125
Memory	G.Skill PC-4200 2x512MB Extreme	72
Video Card	eVGA GeForce 6800 GS 256MB	196
Hard Drive	Western Digital 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE	99
Optical Drive	BenQ DVDR DQ60 (OEM)	41
Case and Power Supply	Antec Solution SLK3800B + 400W SmartPower 2.0	116
Display	Acer AL1914smd 19 inch 8ms LCD	293
Speakers	Logitech Z-2300 2.1	112
Keyboard and Mouse	Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 + Optical Mouse	30
Bottom Line		1258

High-End Systems

AMD High-End System
Hardware	Component	Price
Processor	Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2x512KB Manchester (939) - Retail	400
Motherboard	ASUS nForce4 SLI X16 A8N32-SLI Deluxe (939)	230
Memory	OCZ PC-4000 2x1024MB EL Gold	233
Video Card	eVGA 256-P2-N516 GeForce 7800GT 256MB	304
Hard Drive	Western Digital 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Caviar SE16	115
Optical Drive	NEC DVDR ND-3550A	43
Case	Lian Li PC-6077B Aluminum	138
Power Supply	ePOWER/Tagan TG-530-U15 530W	120
Display	Acer AL2416Wd 24 inch 6ms LCD	980
Sound Card	Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS	73
Speakers	Logitech Z-5500 5.1 w/Dolby Digital	253
Keyboard and Mouse	Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3100 (Laser tracking mouse)	95
Bottom Line		2984

Intel High-End System
Hardware	Component	Price
Processor	Pentium D 830 2x1MB 3.0GHz (775) - Retail	320
Motherboard	ASUS nForce4 SLI X16 (775) P5N32-SLI Deluxe	208
Memory	GeIL PC-5300 2x1024MB Ultra	217
Video Card	eVGA 256-P2-N516 Geforce 7800GT 256MB	304
Hard Drive	Western Digital 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Caviar SE16	115
Optical Drive	NEC DVDR ND-3550A	43
Case	Lian Li PC-6077B Aluminum	138
Power Supply	ePOWER/Tagan TG-530-U15 530W	120
Display	Acer AL2416Wd 24 inch 6ms LCD	980
Sound Card	Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS	73
Speakers	Logitech Z-5500 5.1 w/Dolby Digital	253
Keyboard and Mouse	Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3100 (Laser tracking mouse)	95
Bottom Line		2866

The Law of Diminishing Returns is definitely in full force here: while the High-End systems cost more than twice as much as the Mid-Range configurations, there are very few cases where they will be anywhere close to twice as fast. A bit of overclocking and an upgraded graphics card would all but eliminate the performance difference in gaming, for example. However, there is unfortunately no way to overclock a 19" LCD into a 24" widescreen display, and the extra $700 spent in that area alone counts for a large portion of the price difference. I love having a huge display, and I'm willing to sacrifice performance in order to get it; many people would prefer performance, though, so do what you like. The speakers are also in completely different leagues: 2.1 sound vs. 5.1 with digital inputs and Dolby Digital decoding - overkill for some people and yet insufficient for others.

Short of having unlimited funds, even a "High-End" system needs to make some compromises, and it's difficult to make the case for a $1000 processor when you can often equal or surpass the performance of such a chip with a $300 CPU and some overclocking. Obviously, I like to overclock my systems where possible, but most businesses would want to avoid that. Most businesses don't need anything more than a budget computer, though, so unless you're doing 3D modeling, video work, or some other computationally-intensive task, having the fastest PC in the world won't turn you into an incredibly productive worker.


Conclusion

Going back to the introductory remarks, remember that building your "dream computer" is all about what you want. Focus on the areas that will improve performance in the applications and tasks you use most. If you're constantly downloading and uploading files from the Internet, but you do very little gaming or other high-end work, cut costs on the computer and spend a bit more money on your internet connection (if possible). If you play a lot of games, but you don't download any large files or store music and movies on your PC, you can cut back on storage space and drop to a single core CPU in order to upgrade to the fastest GPU possible - and probably overclock the CPU a bit just for good measure.

If all of this talk of components and options seems overwhelming, you might just want to forget about tuning for performance and spend money on a decent OEM system instead. These custom systems are more like the hotrods and sports cars of the computing world, and some people just want a safe, reliable family vehicle. You're not going to set any benchmark records with a Dell, HP, Gateway, etc., but you get an easy-to-assemble system for a reasonable price. Pick up one of the business PCs and you can also get a 3-year onsite warranty, which guarantees that your $1000+ won't turn into an unused paperweight for at least that long.

Comments and suggestions are welcome, and if you have other parts that you're considering, but are unsure if they're good or not, feel free to ask. Our forums are also full of people willing to chime in with their two cents. Just don't forget that the search function was invented for a reason.