Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/1737
Entry Level Buyer’s Guide, July 2005
by Jarred Walton on July 20, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Introduction
Prices are always dropping on computer components and what was once Mid-Range or High-End will eventually become a budget part. The temptation to upgrade a component here and there is always strong, but we try to balance that with a goal of keeping the price close to $500. As usual, we’ll offer an upgraded version for a bit more money.An important consideration for any computer system is the intended use. If it will be used primarily for office tasks, such amenities as speakers and graphics cards take a back seat to RAM and processor choice. Generally speaking, though, it’s better to build a well balanced system rather than one with a few high end parts complemented by a bunch of older components. Most of us have encountered a system at one time or another that appears to have reasonable specs only to find that it feels incredibly slow. A fast processor with inadequate RAM and a slow hard drive is a common problem with the OEM systems that we see offered for incredible prices. By the time you tweak such a system to improve performance, you often end up paying as much as the setups that we offer. That’s not to say that OEM systems are all bad, but as with all things, there are compromises made, and some may or may not be acceptable.
Of course, the battle between Intel and AMD rages on with no sign of letting up. AMD systems typically offer better performance and a slightly lower price, and many of the Intel configurations seem to be a case of paying extra for the “name brand” more than anything else. $500 isn’t going to get you a super computer by any stretch of the imagination, though, and for most budget buyers, the actual difference in performance between the various setups won’t be noticed. It’s interesting to look back at our Mid-Range setup from a year ago and compare it to the current market; it’s a little more than half the cost for about the same level of performance.
Now, let’s get to the recommendations.
AMD Recommendations
We have our base recommendation as well as an upgraded recommendation for the AMD side of the equation. The two systems are similar in many areas, but the choice of motherboard, CPU, and graphics card sets them apart.  |
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Budget Socket 754 Motherboard: Foxconn nForce4 NF4K8AB-RS
Price: $78 shipped
Budget Socket 754 CPU: AMD Sempron 2800+ 1.6 GHz 256KB L2 (Retail)
Price: $83 shipped (Retail)
Total: $161
While our basic CPU recommendation remains the same as our last Budget Guide, you'll notice that we've switched motherboards. The main advantage of the Foxconn board is that we get a PCI Express slot, making it a more future-proof solution. Foxconn boards in the past have generally been conservative in approach, but early reports are that this particular board includes overclocking features that should allow you to reach at least a 250 MHz CPU bus if you're interested. (Our own tests with a similar Foxconn board for 939 maxed out at 235 MHz, though, so take those claims with a grain of salt.) The 8X multiplier of the 2800+ is the true limiting factor, giving you a range of 1.8 to 2.4 GHz for a 225 to 300 MHz bus - we figure that the Foxconn board will limit you to 2.0 GHz at best, though we have few doubts that the 90nm Sempron chips can easily run at that speed and more.
If you want better overclocking support, the EPoX EP-8NPAJ or ASUS K8N4-E Deluxe is probably a better choice. Our top pick for socket 754 overclocking continues to be the DFI LANPARTY UT nF3 250Gb, but you'd have to return to an AGP graphics card with the DFI board and we're hesitant to recommend that. The EPoX board only costs another $11, so it's a worthwhile upgrade for the enthusiasts, but the ASUS and DFI boards are quite a bit more expensive. If you're looking at spending that much money on a motherboard, you should probably upgrade to socket 939.
Those interested in cutting costs more can knock off another $11 by dropping to the Sempron 2600+. That has half the cache of the 2800+, but runs at the same clock speed. That should cut performance by about 5 to 7% for a 13% price reduction, but when you look at the total cost of the system, you're really only reducing the price by 2%. Going the other way and upgrading to a Sempron 3000+ or 3100+ is also an option, though the price of the 3100+ is near enough to the Athlon 64 3000+ we list below that we would recommend switching to that platform rather than purchasing a faster Sempron chip.
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Upgraded Socket 939 Motherboard: MSI nForce4 K8N Neo4-F
Price: $85 shipped
Upgraded Socket 939 CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8 GHz 512KB L2 (Retail Venice core)
Price: $146 shipped (Retail)
Total: $231
For our upgraded AMD setup, we've selected the MSI K8N Neo4-F motherboard with an Athlon 64 3000+. We chose the retail version of the 3000+, though if you're willing to find a suitable HSF, you can get the OEM model for $119 right now. We prefer to avoid the hassle of finding a separate HSF and get the longer warranty, as the total difference in cost after shipping is only about $10. If you want a good overclocking setup, we can vouch for the capabilities of the Neo4-F and the CPU, and when paired with a quality HSF, it's not unusual to hit 2.6 GHz with the Venice cores. We've run some overclocked tests with this CPU and motherboard at 2.2 and 2.4 GHz over a two-week period and didn't experience any difficulties, but your mileage may vary with overclocking.
An alternative to either of these configurations that we've mentioned in the past is the MSI RS480M2-IL 939 board. That includes integrated graphics that are roughly equal to the Radeon X300SE HyperMemory in performance - in other words, the best of the IGP world, but still lacking in 3D performance. While the cost of the board is about the same as that of the Neo4-F, you no longer have to purchase a graphics card. That makes it a wash with the budget setup, but you get a faster CPU. Overclocking is not available on the RS480M2, however, so avoid it if you're interested in tweaking your system for higher performance levels.
Intel Recommendations
Not a whole lot has changed in the budget Intel market. Intel has had PCIe graphics for a while now, and we're still waiting for newer Celeron and Pentium chips with 64-bit support. (We're also waiting for Semprons with 64-bit support, though really we're not too concerned about the 64-bit factor for budget systems.)  |
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Budget 775 Motherboard: Biostar I915P-A7
Price: $79 shipped
Budget 775 CPU: Intel Celeron D 330J 2.66GHz 256K L2 (Retail)
Price: $85 shipped (Retail)
Total: $164
Almost exactly matching the budget AMD setup in price, we continue with similar recommendations to our last budget Guide. The choice of CPU is less about performance than price, but the difference between the 2.53 GHz 325 and the 2.66 GHz 330J is only $4, so we go with the upgraded processor. You can see the complete list of Celeron prices on our Price Engine, and the next model up from the 330J adds $15, which is more than we're willing to pay for a budget setup.
The motherboard choice is the cheapest 775 motherboard that we could find with a few qualifications. First, it needs to be a PCI Express board, which generally means the 915P or 915G chipset. We avoid the 915GV chipset as that reduces performance by only supporting single-channel memory. The other requirement is that the board needs to have 4 DIMM slots of the same type, and for now, that means DDR. Some people may not mind the hybrid boards, but we like to have the ability to run 4x512MB of RAM in the future. The Biostar I915P-A7 fits all of those requirements and comes in substantially cheaper than most other competitors. Biostar also offers the I915G-M7 for those who want integrated graphics - as a business solution or a standby until you can add in a decent graphics card, the extra $6 is a good deal.
The only other boards that are priced similarly are from Jetway (915PCP/GCP), ECS (915G-M), Foxconn (915G7MC-S), and Aopen (i915Pa-E) - we may have missed one or two boards, but the point is that there aren't any name brands like ASUS or MSI in this price range. None of these are really better than the Biostar in our opinion, and they all cost a bit more.
If you like the idea of integrated graphics but want more performance, the ASUS P5RD1-V uses the ATI Xpress 200 chipset and may be worth consideration. The price of $100 makes it a moderately expensive upgrade, and if you're looking at an IGP solution you probably don't care much that the Xpress 200 is twice as fast in several gaming benchmarks - a discrete graphics card will still outperform the IGP with relative ease. As with the MSI Xpress 200 board for AMD, we don't expect much in the way of overclocking due to the chipset. Overclockers should probably look to the more recognized enthusiast brands like ASUS, DFI, MSI, etc. and get an Intel chipset, though you'll also have to pay over $100 for those.
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Upgraded 775 Motherboard: Biostar I945P-A7
Price: $98 shipped
Upgraded 775 CPU: Intel Pentium 505 533 FSB (Retail)
Price: $134 shipped (Retail)
Total: $232
Our upgraded Intel platform takes a bit different approach than the past. Price is once again equal to the AMD side of things, but we spend more on the motherboard and less on the CPU. We cut the CPU from the Pentium 520 of previous Guides (2.8 GHz 800FSB with HyperThreading) to the 505 (2.66 GHz 533FSB and no HyperThreading). HTT is sort of interesting, but the extra $40 to upgrade to the 520 is pretty significant. Actually, the 530J is only a couple of dollars more than the 520, so if you do go for the faster processor, the 530J is the better buy. Performance of the 505 is reasonable, though clearly outclassed by the Athlon 64 processors. Part of the reason why we like the 505 is that you can get some great overclocking results from it on virtually any motherboard. The processor has a 20X multiplier, so combined with a bus speed of 166 to 200, you can shoot for 3.33 GHz to 4.0 GHz. The upper end of that range may be difficult to reach, but 3.4 to 3.6 GHz is pretty reasonable for the 90nm Prescott design.
Along with the switch to a slightly slower CPU, we've included the cheapest DDR2 board that we could find for future compatibility, and it also uses the new 945P chipset. The switch to DDR2 will increase the price slightly relative to DDR, but even AMD will be moving to DDR2 early next year, so you should be able to use the RAM in a future system. Integrated graphics versions of the chipset are also available with the 945G series, with the most affordable options coming from ASUS (P5LD2-VM) and Intel themselves. The cheapest 945G models are micro ATX form factors, allowing the use of a smaller case like the Aspire X- QPack that we recently reviewed, as well as any other uATX case. (You can always put the small motherboard in a full-size ATX case if you prefer.)
The 945 chipsets all support dual core CPUs, providing another future upgrade path. With the cheapest Pentium D starting at well over $200, we can't recommend such a CPU for a budget system yet, but we expect prices to drop over the coming year, making it a viable upgrade in 2006. If you go with the budget Intel recommendation, you're stuck with single core processor support for as long as you own the system. Of course, some people never upgrade individual components and prefer to replace the entire system every few years. If that describes your purchasing habits, there's not much point in buying more future-proof components.
Memory Recommendations
RAM prices have mostly stabilized after some major price cuts over the past few months. We're going to go with 2x512MB for all of the configurations, though you could disperse the cost over a few months if you want to start with a single DIMM and add a second DIMM later. We wouldn't recommend getting anything smaller than a 512MB DIMM as RAM requirements are only going to increase in the future.
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Price: $83 shipped (Retail)
You can check out our prices for 2x512MB of PC3200 DDR at our Pricing Engine. Any of the brands listed there are safe bets - Corsair, Mushkin, Kingston, Patriot, Crucial, OCZ, GEIL, G.Skill, etc. - and we've gone with the lowest price on CL2.5 RAM for our recommendation.
If you're going with the socket 754 system, you could even go with a single 1024MB DIMM instead of two DIMMs - there is no dual-channel support on socket 754, you may recall. Prices for 1GB DIMMs are slightly higher than 2x512MB, and timings are generally slower with 3-3-3-8 being typical of GB DIMMs compared to 2.5-3-3-8 for the RAM we chose. Most people wouldn't notice the difference, however.
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Price: $143 shipped (Retail)
For our upgraded DDR configuration, we're assuming that you're buying the Athlon 64 system. The reason why that's important is that Athlon 64 allows for a wider selection of CPU :RAM ratios, and 1:1 overclocking is not as important. Generally speaking, you want 2-2-2-7 1T timings at the fastest speed that your memory can handle. You can grab the OCZ VX or Mushkin Redline for 2-2-2 1T at higher speeds provided that your motherboard can supply the required voltage, but DDR400 with 2-2-2 1T is generally sufficient - maybe a few percent lower than higher clocked 2-2-2 RAM, but it's nothing to lose sleep over. This OCZ Gold uses Winbond BH5 chips, so you'll need to provide 2.8V to get 2-2-2-5 1T timings at DDR400. Intel users are better served by 1:1 ratio overclocking, but since both Intel setups are using 533FSB, any PC3200 RAM is going to be sufficient for reaching up to 4.0 GHz (assuming that the CPU can go that high).
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Price: $131 shipped (Retail)
While you can find faster DDR2 RAM - there are even PC-8000 DIMMs available - they are priced too high for a Budget Guide. We've gone with some reasonable RAM rated at DDR2-533 with 3-3-3-8 timings. You could go for RAM rated at DDR2-667, but with the processor that we've chosen, it won't matter much. Integrated graphics also stand to benefit from the faster DDR2 memory, but the difference is a case of slow graphics vs. not quite as slow graphics, so it's a minor point. By default, the RAM should run at DDR400 with the bus set to 133 MHz (533FSB), a ratio of 2:3. Raising the bus speed above 175 MHz (700FSB) might require you to adjust the memory ratio down to 3:4 in order to keep the RAM at or below the specified PC-4200 rating. Worth noting is that good quality DDR2 is now slightly cheaper than good quality DDR, so that's one less barrier to choosing DDR2.
Graphics Recommendations
We've given a few integrated graphics options for both platforms, so if you decide to go with one of those motherboards, you can skip the graphics recommendations. Office work and surfing the internet has very little use for even moderately powerful 3D accelerators, though that could change when Windows Longhorn is released next year. Our graphics recommendations, therefore, assume that gaming is at least a small consideration in terms of what the computer needs to handle. The only drawback of the integrated graphics solutions is that most of them don't include a DVI port - none of the boards that we've mentioned in this Guide have DVI, at least. While we won't be recommending an LCD for the budget system, it's something that a lot of people may use down the road and we will suggest one for the upgraded configuration. In either case, you'll need a graphics card with DVI to get the best quality from your LCD.Since we've gone with PCI Express motherboards for all of the systems, we only need to provide a budget and upgraded recommendation in this Guide. If gaming is an interest, the graphics card is probably the most critical factor. You could get very decent performance out of any of these systems with the upgraded graphics card, though you may at times be limited by the CPU for the budget models. Here are our two picks.
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Price: $53 shipped (Retail)
Due to new information, we have changed our graphics card recommendation from what was initially listed - you'll find out why below. Since this is a budget card and we're just looking for a decent price and specific features, we've ended up with the cheapest PCIe card that we could find that still includes a DVI port. The difference between this $53 card and something like an X600 Pro or 6200 (non-TC) is around $30 for up to twice the performance. If you're truly interested in graphics performance, though, we strongly recommend the upgraded recommendation below.
Our only real requirement for the budget graphics card was that it needed a DVI interface, so we ended up with this MSI card. With a 325MHz core clock and 400MHz RAM using a 64-bit interface, it's nothing special, but it will work. You can't really find much cheaper, but there are several alternatives that offer similar performance. The 6200TC with 16MB RAM starts at $55, as do the ATI X300SE HyperMemory cards, and both have a DVI interface. Besides the ability to connect your PC to an LCD, DVI interfaces are also useful for hooking up your computer to most HDTVs. If you've ever used the S-VIDEO or Composite Out features of a PC to connect to a standard television and ended up disappointed, HDTV connectivity my change your mind - you need an HDTV for this feature to be useful, of course.
So why the change? We knew that we wanted 6200TC card for our budget setup, but determining which card is the right one can be difficult. Manufacturers seem content to let the obfuscation continue, unfortunately. If you've read our TurboCache vs. HyperMemory article, you know that the 64-bit memory interface models are desired, but you also want 700 MHz RAM rather than 550 MHz RAM. The 64MB RAM 6200TC cards ship with slower RAM and end up being outperformed by the 32MB models in most cases. The 16MB models are all 32-bit interfaces, so they're the slowest of the 6200TC cards (and not surprisingly the cheapest).
We searched diligently to find a 32MB 64-bit card with 700MHz RAM, but we can't seem to find such a model anywhere. As a particularly bad example, Newegg lists an ASUS board as having a 128-bit interface with 700 MHz RAM, while ASUS says it is a standard model - 64-bit, 64MB 550MHz. (We're going to trust ASUS on this one.) It's still a reasonable choice, but it's not exactly what we wanted. (This was our original selection until a reader pointed out the error.) We found plenty of 32MB cards with 700MHz RAM, but they were all 32-bit interfaces as far as we could tell, making them lower performing than the 64-bit 64MB models. If you can find a model with a 64-bit interface and 700MHz RAM, please let us know. It could be that those cards are not available as they outperform the supposedly superior "TurboCache with 256MB support" - it's all about market segmentation, unfortunately.
Update: ASUS has updated their specifications on their web site, listing the RAM as being 700 MHz now. Apparently Newegg had it right the first time. For the extra $20, it's a reasonable upgrade to performance, but it's only really useful if you plan on moderate gaming. Hopefully this is the correct spec and will remain static now.
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Price: $112 shipped (Retail)
Our upgraded graphics recommendation offers roughly twice the performance of the budget card in modern games, and it can handle any current title on the market - though you'll have to tweak the detail levels for optimal performance. With a 425 MHz core and 860 MHz GDDR3, the X700 Pro roughly matches the performance of the old 9800 Pro 128MB cards. The original MSRP of the X700 Pro was $199, but prices have dropped substantially in the past month, making the X700 Pro a great value. Models with 256MB of RAM are also available, though the benefits of adding more RAM to a slower graphics card are dubious. Games that can really make use of 256MB of graphics memory will often require the higher performing models to actually reach playable frame rates.
If you're opposed to purchasing an ATI card for whatever reason, NVIDIA offers several alternatives worth mentioning. At the lower end of the price scale are the 6600 and 6600GT. The 6600 is outperformed by the X700 Pro in every test, but some people will prefer NVIDIA regardless. The 6600GT on the other hand beats the X700Pro in the majority of gaming benchmarks by a reasonable margin - it should, given the specifications. The added benefit of the 6600/GT is that it supports SM3.0, not to mention SLI which allows you to run two of the cards in concert on an appropriate motherboard. There are quite a few 6600GT PCIe cards available, and most of them are similar in performance and features. We like the XFX model with dual DVI ports, though it isn't the quietest card around. Leadtek, Gigabyte, Chaintech, MSI, ASUS, eVGA, and several other companies all offer competing products - you can check out our 6600GT PCIe Roundup if you want further information on any of these models. We had issues with the HSF mountings on quite a few of the cards in our 6600GT roundup, and we're not sure whether or not these issues have been addressed.
Moving beyond the X700 Pro price, the X800 cards currently have a $30 mail-in rebate available from ATI, putting their price slightly lower than the 6600GT if you can wait for the rebate check to arrive. They typically outperform the 6600GT cards as well, giving them a price/performance advantage. We've been going on for a while about how NVIDIA has the better GPU lineup with the 6600GT and higher models, particularly with the SLI advantage. With the launch of the 7800GTX, ATI has responded by cutting prices on many of their models. We give credit where credit is due, and while NVIDIA may hold the performance crown, ATI should be able to sell a lot of their mid-range models over the coming months with the current pricing advantage.
Storage Recommendations
We've had a couple of articles on the topic of SATA-II recently. The first explained what SATA-II really means, with the basic summary being that it is a "made up" name for 3 Gbps transfer rates and does not require NCQ or any other special features relative to the original SATA. The second was a roundup of SATA-II drives, pitting them against older SATA models. The conclusion of the article was that SATA-II helped in some areas, but there was no decisive winner among the contenders. We invite you to read the article if you want more details, but here, we're basically interested in the best feature level for the best price, with performance being a case of "win some, lose some" regardless of which drive you choose.
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Price: $57 shipped (OEM)
Even though SATA-2 is an unofficial spec and doesn't guarantee faster performance, it does win out in several benchmarks and the Hitachi drive is cheaper than any other 80GB SATA HDD. The Hitachi SATA-2 drives also offer NCQ support, though again that can help or hurt performance depending on the application. While some people will want more than the 80GB offered here, most budget users will find the storage to be more than sufficient. If you eventually run out, adding a second hard drive is one of the easiest upgrades that you can make to a PC. Worth mentioning is that not all of the motherboards actually support the faster 3 Gbps transfer rate of SATA-2, but the drives are backwards compatible with 1.5 Gbps data rates, so it's still safe to purchase the newer models, regardless of motherboard.
Upgraded Hard Drive Recommendation: Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 HDT722516DLA380 160GBSATA-2
Price: $87 shipped (OEM)
For our upgraded hard drive, we felt that double the capacity was sufficient. You can get a slightly better cost per GB of storage by moving to the 250GB drives, but few people need that much storage. As with our base recommendation, we ended up settling on the SATA-2 drive from Hitachi. Western Digital makes a standard SATA model that costs $2 less, and Samsung and Seagate have models that are $5 to $10 more, but for now, we're content to go with SATA-2 support at a lower price than competitors offer.
If you want a quieter drive, Samsung is the best choice; the rest of the manufacturers are all pretty similar in noise levels. The best price per GB of storage comes from the Seagate 7200.8 - at least at the time of writing. $119 for 250GB of storage finally breaks the 50 cents per GB mark for SATA storage. Western Digital and Hitachi offer similarly priced models, and the difference between the 160GB Hitachi at 55 cents per GB and the 250GB Seagate at 48 cents per GB may not be enough to get you to fork out the extra $30.
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Price: $22 shipped (OEM)
A few people wondered why we would put a DVD+R into a budget system in the last Budget Guide, and the answer is that you really don't need DVD+R/CD-RW capabilities for a budget system. We're saving over $20 by going with a DVD-ROM on our budget setup, but if you have any interest in burning CDs or DVDs, we highly recommend the upgrade to a DVD+R drive. Anyone who doesn't need recording capabilities can get the cheapest DVD-ROM that they can find, but we're requiring DVD support as we've heard that Windows Longhorn will ship on a DVD rather than multiple CDs. The $10 saved by dropping to a CD-ROM isn't worth the hassle of upgrading to DVD support in the future.
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Price: $48 shipped (OEM)
For the rest of you who agree that the backup/archival uses of DVD+R media alone is worth the price of admission, we have the NEC 3540A burner. An update to the 3520A and 3500A, the price of the NEC burners continues to lead all contenders (though by a slim margin). Our recent DVD+R Roundup uncovered issues with reading and writing several types of media with the latest drives, but we're hopeful that BIOS/firmware updates will solve most of the issues. None of the drives were able to obtain a clear victory, and availability of some of the drives (like the BenQ DW1640) is limited. If you can find the BenQ DW1640, it was the only drive that successfully read back every disc that it wrote - though it still couldn't write to every disc type. As another alternative to the NEC drive, the LG GSA-4163 adds DVD-RAM support for a small price increase of $4. Whichever DVD+R you choose, the key is to recognize its strengths and weaknesses in terms of media - paired with the appropriate DVD+/-R, any of these drives will work well.
Optional Equipment: Any 3.5" Floppy Drive
Price: $8 shipped (OEM)
While not required, there are still times when a floppy drive can prove useful. None of these boards will require a floppy to install Windows XP, but if you want to add a second hard drive for RAID support, it will be necessary to have a floppy drive. We haven't verified whether or not the motherboards have Windows flashing utilities for updating the BIOS, but Award BIOSes can be updated using the WinFlash application, and that's the most common BIOS type. We'd almost recommend that you avoid the floppy just so that we can hasten its retirement, but the decision is yours.
Display and Speaker Recommendations
The display market - at least for budget displays - is really stagnating. New CRTs are basically non-existent and budget LCDs are hard to come by unless you want two-year-old technology (which is a long time in LCD terms). The 14 and 15 inch LCDs start at around $175 new, and with their fixed resolution of 1024x768, we'd prefer a 17" model. Here then are our recommendations.
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Price: $153 shipped (Retail)
With supplies of competing monitors now becoming scarce, the 793DF remains one of the few viable options for budget displays. The ivory model is available for $143, but we prefer the looks of the two-tone model shown above. If you like the plain white more, you can save that $10. The features are good overall, but we're sad to see the disappearance of quality aperture grille CRTs like the NEC FE771SB. Many people won't notice, but the tubes in the 793DF are still slightly curved. The ideal resolution for 17" CRTs is either 1024x768 at 85Hz refresh rate or 1152x864 with a 75Hz refresh rate. We prefer the slightly increased screen size of the latter, but some prefer a higher refresh rate. While it supports 1280x1024, the 60Hz refresh rate bothers many people, and we would stay away from it.
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Price: $210 shipped (Retail)
We're doing our best to incorporate a decent LCD into the budget recommendations, and the Polyview V17E manages to qualify, though we do have some reservations. The good aspects are that the response times are sufficient for most people (though we're not sure who makes the 14ms panel) and the display has a DVI input (as well as VGA should you go with a setup that lacks a DVI output). The manufacturer's replacement policy for dead pixels isn't the greatest, but at least it's clearly defined: 4 or more dark/bright pixels, 6 or more pixel defects, 2 or more sets of defective adjacent pixels, or 3 or more defective adjacent pixels, with "adjacent" meaning within a 1cm area. We've used quite a few LCDs, and pixel defects are becoming relatively uncommon, so hopefully you never need to worry about the warranty. A single bright pixel in the center of your display can be quite annoying, however, so be forewarned that there's a risk. The overall quality of the display in terms of contrast and colors is decent, though not the best, but that's to be expected of one of the cheapest 17" LCDs around.
If you want some other alternatives for an upgraded display, our top pick would be to spend around $300 on a 19" display. The Acer 1914SMD 8ms model performed very well when I used a couple in the past month, and both displays were free of pixel defects. Several other 19" LCDs are available in the $250 to $350 range, but we'd look for 16ms or lower response times and DVI input. Rebates on two models at Newegg even drop the price to under $250 for a 19" LCD, but we don't particularly care for mail-in rebates. The Dell FP1905FP is another good model that can often be found on sale, sometimes for under $300.
On the CRT side of things, you can still find the Samsung 997DF and it's a decent but not great CRT - it has similar issues to the 793DF, but at higher resolutions. We'd prefer the NEC FE991SB, but with availability declining and the price near that of 19" LCDs, you're better off with an LCD. Refurbished CRTs may be something else to consider, and with luck and perseverance, you can even find 21/22" models for under $200, some of which offer better specs than the current batch of large CRTs.
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Price: $71 shipped (Retail)
You'll see on the next page why we skipped the budget speaker selection. For our upgraded speakers, we're going with a higher quality 2.1 setup instead of the 5.1 configuration that we've recommended in the past. It's really a matter of preference to which you want. Gamers might want 5.1 audio while those who listen to MP3s or watch movies on their PC will generally prefer better quality 2.1 audio over cheap 5.1 setups. The X-530 is still a reasonable choice, and the speakers are actually cheaper than the Z-3 speakers that we list here.
Besides offering better tonality and response curves, the Z-3 is more convenient to set up than a 5.1 configuration - finding space for 5 speakers around your PC can be difficult for many people. The included volume control allows you to place the speakers further away from your monitor while keeping the controls close at hand, and a headphone port also allows you to tune out the rest of the world - or allow the rest of the house to sleep as the case may be. If you want to go with a less expensive setup yet still want decent sound, the Logitech X-230 can be had for around $37 - half as much as the Z-3e. We're not entirely clear on what the differences between the various Z-3 models are, so if you can find the Z-3 or Z-3i for less money than the Z-3e, we see no reason to get one over another. (Feel free to enlighten me if there's a good reason other than looks to buy one model over another.)
Case and Input Recommendations
While we generally like to recommend a good quality power supply and a more user-friendly case, such amenities tend to increase costs quite a bit. We would never advise people to avoid a decent power supply or case, and while the components that we've listed should all work without trouble with the following cases, long-term reliability of the generic power supplies is suspect. Worst case scenario - pardon the pun - is that you'll have to purchase a new power supply down the road (and/or deal with RMA issues).
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Price: $69 shipped (Retail)
We found a combo package that includes a case, speakers, keyboard, and mouse from Codegen for just $69. None of the individual components are really great parts, but they'll work well enough and they help to keep costs down. The PSU does include a 20+4-pin power connector for use with the latest motherboards, and it even has a 120mm that should keep noise levels down. While a fan mount that can accommodate an 80mm or 120mm fan is present at the rear of the case, no fan is included, so you'll have to spend another $8 or more. Another 80mm fan mount is available at the front of the case to help cool your hard drive(s) if you want to max out the cooling, and a plastic duct allows the CPU HSF to draw in fresh air directly. Front USB and audio ports are available, and the USB ports at least have a single 9-pin connector ready to plug into the motherboard header.
Another small bonus to this setup is that the case, speakers, and keyboard/mouse are all color coordinated - and they match quite well with the 793DF monitor that we selected. While it's not a perfect selection by any means, it does offer a decent bundle price. If you're uncomfortable with a generic PSU or feel that it's affecting system stability, you can always replace it in the future. Just for reference, a system slightly better than the upgraded AMD selection only draws 230W of power under load from the wall, so 350W should be more than sufficient even when taking the often exaggerated claims into account.
Click to enlarge.
Price: $67 shipped (Retail)
Our upgraded case is another relatively inexpensive setup with a generic 400W power supply. Unfortunately, the PSU doesn't have a 24-pin power connection, but we have used 20-pin connections on numerous PCs without difficulty. Again, the most powerful of the configurations that we've listed in this Guide shouldn't consume more than 250W of power at load, so even an exaggerated claim of 400W shouldn't have any trouble. Some of the additions that make this case worthwhile are the inclusion of a Firewire port at the front of the case, along with audio and USB - though you would need a motherboard with Firewire support to actually take advantage of that addition. Unfortunately, the USB and audio wires are all single pin connections, so you'll have to spend a bit of extra time with your motherboard manual to make sure that you have the pins wired properly. It's not too difficult, but it's far less convenient than the 9-pin USB block used in most other cases.
The case is actually quite nice in appearance, with a silver front panel rather than beige - which is why we selected the silver NEC 3540A earlier. An LCD display is also present that can show the time and date along with the temperature of either the system, CPU, or hard drive. Some people will like the display while others will think it looks silly. As with the Codegen case, there are no fans supplied. There is a 120mm fan mount at the front of the case and two 80mm mounts at the rear, and we'd recommend filling at least one of those with a fan, which will add another $5 or more to the cost, depending on the fan.
Upgraded Keyboard and Mouse: Logitech Internet Pro Desktop
Price: $23 shipped (Retail)
You have to have a keyboard and mouse, naturally, and we prefer Logitech or Microsoft models due to the key layout. Combo packages online are usually the best deals, with some going for as little as $18. Some will even include speakers if you need them, though the quality will probably be even worse than the Codegen speakers that came with the case that we listed above.
Buy what you like, but we strongly recommend optical mice over the older style - we still cringe every time we come across a system with a dirty tracking ball in an old mouse. We also avoid USB keyboards due to periodic quirkiness that can cause problems. What sort of problems? I updated the chipset drivers on a system recently that had a USB keyboard and mouse, only to have both cease functioning while Windows prompted me to reboot in order for the hardware changes to take effect. Pressing the power button normally shuts down the computer, but Windows once again prompted me that a program wasn't responding and wanted to know if I should wait or end the task. I had to hold the power button for 6 seconds to cut power, and while that's not the end of the world, it's generally better to power down the OS gracefully. BIOS support can also be quirky - one BIOS had the option to enable USB keyboard support, but by default it was off, and without a standard keyboard you couldn't enable it. This is probably all trivia, as USB keyboards aren't budget components, but it's useful information regardless.
Optional Power Supply: Fortron Source ATX300-PA ATX12V 300W
Price: $32 shipped (Retail)
To make this clear, $30 to $50 for a separate power supply is definitely something to consider. The PSUs in the above cases are probably over-rated (i.e. 225W instead of the listed 350W and 250W instead of 400W) and they aren't going to have high quality heat sinks. The weight of a power supply says a lot about its quality, if you actually have the chance to lift a PSU you're thinking about purchasing. While the Fotron Source 300W is only rated at 300W, the rating is likely far more accurate than the cheap models that are included with most cases. The systems as configured should be fine with the cheap power supplies, but if you have any interest in upgrading the parts we'd highly recommend getting a better PSU.
Besides the 300W Fotron Source, you might look at the more powerful Fotron Source models as well as Enermax, SeaSonic and Antec. If you're going to actually upgrade the power supply, we suggest that you get a model with a 24-pin power adapter and dual 12V rails. No sense in spending $30 for a slight upgrade when $40 will improve the quality quite a bit relative to the included PSUs, right? Prices say a lot about power supplies, and if you find a "500W" power supply for under $45, we'd be very suspicious.
System Summaries
With the selections that we've listed, we conclude once again with four system summaries. There are quite a few modifications that we've mentioned elsewhere that you might also find useful, as there is never a perfect system that will work for every user. We'll start with the Budget configurations.Budget Recommendations
| AMD Sempron System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | AMD Sempron 2800+ 1.60 GHz 256K socket 754 (Retail) | 83 |
| Motherboard | Foxconn nForce4 NF4K8AB-RS (754) | 78 |
| Memory | 2x512MB Corsair Value Select PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 2T | 83 |
| Video Card | MSI Radeon X300SE 128MB PCIe | 53 |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 HDS728080PLA380 80GB SATA-2 | 57 |
| Optical Drive | Lite-On 16X DVD-ROM Model SOHD-16P9S | 22 |
| Case and Power Supply | Codegen 4C-4063S-CA Combo 350W PSU | 69 |
| Display | Samsung 793DF 17" CRT | 153 |
| Speakers | Codegen Speakers (with case) | 0 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Codegen Keyboard and Mouse (with case) | 0 |
| Bottom Line | 598 | |
| Intel Celeron D System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Intel Celeron D 330J 2.66GHz 256K L2 (Retail) | 85 |
| Motherboard | Biostar I915P-A7 | 79 |
| Memory | 2x512MB Corsair Value Select PC3200 2.5-3-3-8 2T | 83 |
| Video Card | MSI Radeon X300SE 128MB PCIe | 53 |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 HDS728080PLA380 80GB SATA-2 | 57 |
| Optical Drive | Lite-On 16X DVD-ROM Model SOHD-16P9S | 22 |
| Case and Power Supply | Codegen 4C-4063S-CA Combo 350W PSU | 69 |
| Display | Samsung 793DF 17" CRT | 153 |
| Speakers | Codegen Speakers (with case) | 0 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Codegen Keyboard and Mouse (with case) | 0 |
| Bottom Line | 601 | |
Priced at $600, the performance of our base recommendations is nothing to sneeze at - in most applications, either one will match up well against the $1000 to $1500 PCs of 18 months ago. While we would normally give the edge in gaming to AMD systems and a slight edge in encoding applications to Intel, these two systems are going to be extremely close in performance and it's hard to say that one is really better than the other. With a better graphics card, the Sempron would probably outperform the Celeron D, but the X300SE is going to limit both CPUs. For overclocking performance, we'd have to give the Intel system the edge, simply because the 533FSB will allow a lot of headroom on any decent motherboard. The maximum 8X CPU multiplier of the Sempron 2800+ is going to make overclocking rather difficult with the current selection of socket 754 boards.
Upgraded Budget System
| AMD Athlon 64 System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512K 1.80 GHz socket 939 (Retail - Venice) | 146 |
| Motherboard | MSI nForce4 (939) K8N Neo4-F | 85 |
| Memory | 2x512MB OCZ Gold Series 2-2-2-5 1T 2.8V | 143 |
| Video Card | Gigabyte GV-RX70P128D Radeon X700PRO 128MB | 112 |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 HDT722516DLA380 160GBSATA-2 | 87 |
| Optical Drive | NEC 3540A Silver 16X DVDR | 48 |
| Case and Power Supply | MGE CAG-M1-BK Black/Silver ATX with 400W PSU | 67 |
| Display | Polyview V17E 17" 14ms LCD | 210 |
| Speakers | Logitech Z-3e 2.1 | 71 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Logitech Internet Pro Desktop | 23 |
| Bottom Line | 992 | |
| Intel Pentium 4 System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Intel Pentium 505 533 FSB (Retail) | 134 |
| Motherboard | Biostar I945P-A7 | 98 |
| Memory | 2x512MB OCZ DDR2 PC4300 EL Gold 3-3-3-8 | 131 |
| Video Card | Gigabyte GV-RX70P128D Radeon X700PRO 128MB | 112 |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 HDT722516DLA380 160GBSATA-2 | 87 |
| Optical Drive | NEC 3540A Silver 16X DVDR | 48 |
| Case and Power Supply | MGE CAG-M1-BK Black/Silver ATX with 400W PSU | 67 |
| Display | Polyview V17E 17" 14ms LCD | 210 |
| Speakers | Logitech Z-3e 2.1 | 71 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Logitech Internet Pro Desktop | 23 |
| Bottom Line | 981 | |
With the upgraded selections, our total cost increases to nearly $1000. You get quite a bit more performance and versatility as well as a nicer display, so the extra $400 isn't simply wasted. We have to give the performance nod to AMD on this setup, particularly at stock speeds. The X700Pro will allow both processors to stretch their legs, but the 505's 2.66 GHz clockspeed and 533 FSB are going to fall behind. Once you throw overclocking into the equation, it becomes a more interesting race. We've personally overclocked the MSI board with a 3000+ to 2.4 GHz without much difficulty, and the CPU/14 and CPU/11 memory dividers will allow you to reach that clock speed with any of the RAM that we've listed in this Guide without compromising performance too much. The Pentium 505 can actually reach very high clock speeds with a bit of effort, and even without exotic cooling, it should be capable of running at 3.4 to 3.6 GHz. We haven't tested the Biostar 945P board's overclocking abilities personally (yet), but the I915P-A7 has the necessary features to overclock 533FSB processors and we assume that the I945P-A7 will be similar. In the end, a 2.4 GHz Athlon 64 roughly matches a Pentium 4 3.8 GHz - with better gaming performance - both of which are possible with a bit of luck.
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