Introduction
You do the research on the products. You read all the reviews. You even discuss with friends.  But even with all that information, building a perfect, personalized system from scratch can be quite a daunting task. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that we’ve had request after request to provide some system recommendations.

With the third edition of the AnandTech Buyer's Guide, we changed things a little bit, splitting the Buyer's Guide into two parts, one for value systems and the other for high-end ones. Despite the slight format change, we continue to provide some system recommendations in 3 categories – small office / home office (SOHO), gaming, and professional.  Remember that these are just a few recommendations from us if we were building the systems.  Obviously, each individual’s needs will vary greatly, but that’s the beauty of building a custom system - it can be tailored to fit those special needs.

Every component, from the motherboard to the case to the monitor, is covered for each system.  Sample prices based on a review of popular vendors and price search engines across the web are included as well - these are not the very lowest prices you can find on the web, but rather are intended to be representative of what's out there. Don't forget to check out the AnandTech Weekly CPU & Video Card Price Guide for the lowest prices from reputable vendors on CPU's and video cards. Note that shipping is not included in these prices, but can add up to 5-10% to the total system cost, depending exactly what you get, where you order from, etc. To minimize shipping costs, order as many components as possible from a single vendor or buy things locally where possible. An OS recommendation is included, but that price is not included in the total system price listed.  Especially good deals can often be found in the AnandTech Hot Deals Forum where AnandTech readers regularly post good deals they find.

Components that are not readily obtainable at the time of publication are automatically out of the running for any system in the Buyer’s Guide.  Where possible, we've linked to reviews of the individual products on AnandTech for more in depth information.

This Month

The most obvious change is that memory prices have dropped across the board - that is, except for RDRAM, which remains roughly the same as last month. SDRAM on the other hand has finally begun a downward trend as far as price goes.

While we're on the subject of memory, it should be noted that DDR SDRAM motherboards are still not available for purchase by end users. You can get a complete DDR system from a few OEM's right now, but there's nothing you can do if you're building your own system right now and want DDR. Hopefully all that will change before the end of the year, but that remains unclear at this point.

CPU price drops also mean that we get more horse power across the board for the same price or less. The most significant changes were on the faster Intel processors, but AMD also gave us a nice discount.

The biggest change for the Dream System this month is the introduction of a new monitor setup for the first time since we started the AnandTech Buyer's Guide. Monitor technology doesn't move all that quickly, so it's no big surprise that our Sony GDM-F900R was a solid choice for so long, even if its price meant that it really was just a dream for most of us. The replacement GDM-FW900 is even more expensive, but that much more incredible with its 24 inch (22.5 viewable) FD Trinitron screen.

Cards based on NVIDIA's GeForce2 Ultra are also finally hitting the streets, although they are entirely too expensive for most systems, but not a problem for a Dream System. The problem is the price of the extremely rare 4ns DDR SDRAM chips used on these cards. We don't anticipate the price of such chips dropping any time soon, so expect these cards to remain expensive until NVIDIA's next-generation chip arrives at the very least.

Dream System
Not having to worry about price is a luxury few people have, but it never hurts to dream up what you would buy in such a situation.  Or maybe you’ve just won the lottery.  Perhaps it’s not even your own money involved thanks to a grant or simply an ungodly budget.  Whether dreaming or actually looking to buy, putting together the dream professional system can be a tricky, but fun, proposition. Below are our picks for such a system. 

CPU – Dual Pentium III 933 - $375 x 2
The CPU is probably the most critical, as well as the most controversial, component of any system.  The old AMD versus Intel battle wages on stronger than ever before with the Athlon and Pentium III.  It’s a touchy subject among many die-hard fans of each processor type, but for the professional dream system, we have to go with an Intel CPU for one key reason – SMP.  While the benefits of SMP vary greatly depending on the applications in use, professional apps are generally the ones best able to take advantage of SMP.  Recently, games have begun to take some advantage of SMP, starting with Quake 3: Arena.  Now that Windows 2000 supports SMP and DirectX 7 (and now DirectX 8), we should begin seeing more games that are capable of using SMP.   

While Pentium III’s up to 1.13GHz have already been announced by Intel, and recalled, don’t even waste your time trying to get a hold of one at this point.  We also decided to pass on the new Pentium III Xeon’s since the only difference between them and the standard model is the Slot-2 interface that it uses and the higher price.  The Pentium 4 will be arriving later this month, but it remains to be seen whether Intel will have another paper launch or if processors/systems will actually be available. Of course, the question of the Pentium 4's performance is also up in the air.

The fastest readily available Pentium III is the 933 MHz model, so that’s what we’re going with.  They’re currently available for around $375.

For more information on all Pentium III's, read our Pentium III 1GHz Review.

Motherboard – Intel OR840 - $300
Our choice of dual Pentium III’s narrowed down our motherboard options very quickly. While the Microstar 694D Pro has finally shown us the potential of VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset in SMP mode, the i840 with RDRAM is still able to maintain a slight performance lead. Those looking to save quite a bit of money on their motherboard and memory should definitely take a look at the 694D Pro, but since this is a dream system, we'll go with the slightly faster i840 despite the large price premium.

It should be noted that while we've seen the i440BX overclocked to a 133 MHz FSB successfully, only a few dual i440BX boards are even Coppermine capable, much less able to run at 133 MHz FSB with two CPU's in place. The option is there if you don't mind an overclocked system, but we'll stick to the Apollo Pro 133A and i840/i820 for more reliable dual operation. It should also be noted that the i815 is not an SMP capable chipset, as Intel has aimed it squarely at the value market.

ServerWorks has a couple of PC133 SDRAM chipset entries in the dual processor Pentium III market, but for now, those solutions remain somewhat unproven. Hopefully we'll be able to get a sample into the AnandTech labs for thorough testing shorly. Be warned, however, that the semi-reasonably priced ServerWorks Server Set III LE does not support AGP in any form. You'll have to get the considerably more expensive Server Set III WS to get AGP support.

Of all the i840 boards out there, the OR840 from Intel is the only one that fits our requirements and is relatively easy to get a hold of.  It also throws in an optional onboard Intel 82559 ethernet controller and an AGP Pro 50 slot. There is also optional AC97 audio onboard, which may be sufficient if you don’t really use sound that much in your work.  But why cripple a system like this with host-based audio?  We’ll disable it and add a true hardware based PCI card later.

Unfortunately, the OR840 choice means overclocking is out for now.  We've been hoping to revise the motherboard selection as more i840 boards became available, but it seems that the i840 has been orphaned by motherboard manufacturers.

Memory – 512MB PC800 RDRAM (2 x 256MB RIMM’s) - $1000
Not having to worry about cost is a beautiful thing and really comes in handy when choosing a memory type, especially since you can easily spend more on memory than most people spend on their whole system.  As such, we had no hesitation in picking RDRAM for our dream system even though they cost $500 for a 256MB stick.  RDRAM prices are still dropping, but not nearly quickly enough for the majority of users.

Since we’ve got two RAMBUS channels on our OR840 motherboard, we need to install our RIMM’s in pairs.  Even without that requirement, what dream professional system would be complete with 512MB of RAM total?  Since the largest RIMM readily available on the market today is 256MB, we need 2 sticks in order to get a total of 512MB RAM. 

Video card – Creative Labs Annihilator2 Ultra - $435
RealMagic Hollywood Plus PCI - $60
In the past, we've had a tough time making the call between the ATI Radeon and the NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS, but the call always went to NVIDIA thanks to better drivers. However, this time around, GeForce2 Ultra card are finally available and the Ultra is the clear 3D acceleration champ right now.

We've had the opportunity to look at a few GeForce2 Ultra cards and the one that stands out in our mind is the Creative Labs Annihilator2 Ultra. It doesn't hurt that it also happens to be the least expensive.

We've also thrown in a RealMagic Hollywood Plus hardware MPEG-2/DVD decoder card. While the GeForce2's DVD playback is pretty good, it's still not up to par with a dedicated hardware decoder, especially since a dedicated decoder will have Dolby Digital AC-3 output among a few other features that video cards generally do not include. At just $60 it's hard to go wrong with such an addition to a system like this if you ever watch DVD's on your computer. In order to maintain the best possible 2D image quality, you'll want to avoid using the video pass through on the RealMagic card. Instead, get a VGA cable with BNC connectors for your 2D output and use the cable included with the monitor for the RealMagic output.

For more information, read our GeForce2 Ultra Review and Creative Labs Annihilator2 Ultra Review.

Monitor – Sony GDM-FW900 - $2300
This pure flat monitor is without a doubt the best monitor we’ve ever set our eyes on, surpassing our previous favorite the GDM-F500R.  What sets this monitor apart is the 24" (22.5" viewable) widescreen CRT and its support for resolutions up to 2304 x 1440 @ 80Hz.  You’ve got to see it to believe it – one look and you’ll be hooked.  But at $2300, it remains just a dream for the vast majority of us.

Case – Addtronics W8500-400A - $400
We took a look at the Addtronics W8500 not too long ago.  For those that don’t remember, it’s a WTX case, meaning that it’s backwards compatible with today’s ATX standard and will also accept future boards based on the WTX standard.  A grand total of 9 fan locations ensure that you’ll always have plenty of cooling available, while 11 drive bays handle expansion.  To ensure that we have enough power, we’ll go with the 400W power supply option from Addtronics – that should be plenty for just about anything we could throw at it. 

For more information, read our Addtronics W8500 Review.

Sound Card – Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1 - $180
The sound card selection for the dream professional system was as tricky as any other component.  But some careful thought shows that the Sound Blaster Live! is the best choice.  The first problem is that a number of sound cards out there don’t have drivers that work properly with SMP systems under NT 4.0.  Further, the ideal sound card would also have driver support under Windows 2000, Linux, and BeOS. 

The Sound Blaster Live! provides all the features we need in a sound card and thus it is the only choice for this system.  It’s got full support under Windows NT 4.0 and is one of the first cards with a feature complete driver set under Windows 2000 with the recent release of Live!Ware for Win2000.  Creative also has their own set of Linux drivers, while BeOS has built in support for the Live!  We have heard from a few users that the Live! drivers still do not get along with SMP systems under Windows 2000, but we have not been able to duplicate these results in the AnandTech lab. We'll continue to investigate, however.

Specifically, we chose the Platinum model since we don’t have to worry about price and, besides, the Live Drive of the Platinum is a nice addition to any system. The 5.1 version of all Sound Blaster Live! cards are now available and allow your Live! to handle Dolby Digital decoding. For the Dream System, this doesn't make any difference since we already have a Dolby Digital output on our DVD decoder card and Dolby Digital decoding in our speaker system. The Platinum 5.1 model does include an updated Live Drive that includes an infrared remote - perfect for watching DVD's using your computer.

Speakers – VideoLogic DigiTheater DTS - $600
We loved the Video Logic Sirocco Crossfire speaker system, but it's time to add Dolby Digital decoding to our Dream System. The natural replacement is another VideoLogic system, of course, and that means the DigiTheater DTS. Although it's a bit pricey at $600, we wouldn't want anything but the best in the Dream System.

Ethernet – integrated Intel 82559 on motherboard – “free”
Since our motherboard choice, the OR840 already has an integrated Intel 82559 chip onboard, there’s no reason to go with anything else.  It’s an excellent 10/100 fast ethernet chipset, used in Intel’s Pro/100+ Management adapter for the desktop, and is supported fully under Linux and Windows 2000. Even if it weren't on the motherboard, we'd probably be picking the Pro/100+ Management adapter in its place anyway.

Hard Drive – 4 x Seagate Cheetah X15 - $600 x 4
Hard drive performance has always been one of the biggest bottlenecks in the speed of a computer.  After all, the only component whose speed is measured in milliseconds is the hard drive – everything else is nanoseconds or microseconds.  Even with the fastest drive on earth right now running at 15,000 RPM, the Seagate Cheetah X15 still has an access time of "only" 3.9 ms. Now 3.9 ms is phenomenal for a hard drive, but still an eon compared to 133 MHz SDRAM.

Because the X15 is a new model, the drive is only available in 18GB capacities for now. We're sure Seagate will bump up the capacity soon enough however. The Ultra 160 interface provides a maximum throughput of 160MB/s to keep things moving along smoothly.  We'll go with four of them to keep that RAID card purring along happily in RAID 0+1 mode for the best combination of performance and data integrity.

SCSI RAID Adapter – DPT SmartRAID IV Century PM2865U3 - $900
The first name that pops to mind for SCSI adapters is, of course, Adaptec.  While Adaptec didn't have an Ultra160 RAID solution at the time of publication, one of the companies they own, DPT, does offer one. The PM2865U3 is a 2 channel controller with an 80 MIPS i960 processor onboard to keep things moving along smoothly. This particular model includes 32MB of cache, but up to 128MB of cache is available. It's actually a 64-bit PCI card, but will work just fine in the 32-bit slots of our OR840 motherboard. Best of all, it supports all the OS's we want to run except BeOS.

CD-ROM/CD-R(W)/DVD-ROM
Pioneer DVD-304S / Plextor UltraPlex Wide - $150
Plextor Plexwriter 12/4/32 - $300
This one is a matter of personal preference, but the top two options are the Pioneer 10X SCSI DVD-ROM, which is also capable of reading CD’s at 40X max, and the Plextor Ultra Plex 40X max UW SCSI CD-ROM. Plextor drives are well known for their reliability and excellent performance, although Pioneer is certainly no slouch.  If you want DVD support, go with the Pioneer.  Otherwise, stick with the Plextor.

Note, we passed on the 16X DVD from Pioneer in the interest of keeping our system all SCSI, although that is an option if raw DVD performance is critical to you.

Plextor can’t be denied in the CD-RW category as they have one of the few 12X burners on the market.  The Plextor name is synonymous with reliability and high performance and the Plexwriter 12/4/32 delivers on all accounts.  It’s a SCSI model, but that’s not a problem since we already have a SCSI adapter in the system for the HD.

Operating System – Quadruple boot:
Windows 2000 Professional - $250
Windows Millennium Edition – $175
Your favorite Linux distribution – free download or $50 retail
BeOS Version 5.0 - $70 (Personal Edition is a free download)

This is another matter of preference, and is obviously affected by your particular application requirements.  However, since we’ve gone with an SMP system, we at least need an SMP capable OS, and all of the above take advantage of SMP except for Windows ME.  We’ll quadruple boot between the OS’s depending on what we need to do.

Windows 2000 Professional is probably the best bet if you have the future in mind.  Its enhanced hardware support, including full USB and IEEE1394 (Firewire), will be the key to its success and the reason it’s our pick over NT 4.0.  Windows NT 4.0 is a more tried and true solution; so if that is of concern to you, by all means go with NT 4.0.

Just about any current Linux distribution should support SMP right out of the box.  If not, go with the tried and true Redhat 6.2 – we know for sure it supports SMP without any additional installation steps.  The beauty of Linux? It’s free if you’re willing to download a distribution from the internet.  This is getting easier and easier now that you can just download a bootable ISO CD image that you can burn.  If that’s too much work, but you still want it cheap, there are a number of companies on the net that will sell you the GPL (same as the download) version of your favorite distribution for under $5.  If you want a full manual and support, go for a retail distribution, like the boxed Redhat set that sells for about $50.

The last major SMP-aware OS is BeOS, an OS that hasn’t been around nearly as long as any of the others.  We think that this OS is cool enough to be worth its price of admission, only $70.  Of course, version 5.0 was released on the web for free on March 28, 2000, so you should definitely give it a shot then.

Of course, the option of booting to Windows ME is still there if you need to play games, but remember that it doesn’t support SMP.  Windows 2000 users won’t absolutely have to do this as 2000 has full DirectX 7 support built in, although it does take a performance hit in some games compared to Win98/WinME. Note that the NVIDIA's 5.xx drivers don't seem to get along with SMP that well and actually run slower when Quake 3 is put in SMP mode under Windows 2000.

Bottom Line: $9,775 (without software or shipping)

High-end SOHO
The small office/home office machine has a unique set of requirements. It must provide quick and snappy 2D performance and be very stable. The keys to good performance on such a machine is lots of RAM and a fast hard drive. This system should be able to handle just about anything a typical business user might throw at it.

Processor – AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 900 - $200
Although CPU performance isn’t the most important factor for many office applications, there are some where CPU performance is critical. At similar clock speeds, the Athlon holds a significant advantage in price, and for that reason, we’ve chosen a Socket-A Athlon 900, which means that it's using the new Thunderbird core with on-die cache.

Besides the direct performance benefits of full speed on-die cache, we also get the side benefit of enhanced overclockability. If you're willing to overclock our CPU, you can save some money by going with the 700 MHz model, most of which will hit 900 - 950 MHz at default voltage, all without exotic cooling. The 900 MHz may overclock a bit better if you're lucky enough to get one with copper interconnects. Of course, there's no guarantee, but the higher speed Athlon's are more likely to be copper.

For more information on all Athlon processors, read our Athlon "Thunderbird" 1.2GHz & Duron 800 MHz Review and our Thunderbird / Duron Overclocking Revealed Aritcle.

Motherboard – ABIT KT7-RAID - $160
The availability of AMD 760 motherboards is still non-existant for the "do it yourself" market, so we'll have to wait at least another month before DDR SDRAM systems make an appearance here. The VIA KT133, however is here now and is the best chipset for the Athlon right now. We recently looked at as many KT133 Socket-A boards as we could get a hold of and one board stood out head and shoulders above the rest - the ABIT KT7-RAID. As we noted in the roundup, the KT7 is the perfect board to overclock with thanks to its completely jumperless Soft Menu III CPU setup.

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The Asus A7V is also an excellent choice that also offers complete overclocking/multiplier control, albeit not in 100% jumperless form. The MSI K7T Pro2 has finally hit the streets soon as well, with new and improved overclocking options, including multiplier manipulation. We expect that the K7T Pro2 will probably become the motherboard of choice in the value systems since it will probably cost about $20-30 less than the ABIT KT7 or Asus A7V. The EPoX EP-8KTA2, Soyo K7VTA, and FIC AZ11E are also decent choices for overclockers.

For more information, read our ABIT KT7-RAID Review, Asus A7V Review, MSI K7T Pro2 Review, and Socket-A KT133 Motherboard Roundup.

Memory – 256MB Corsair or Mushkin CAS2 PC133 SDRAM (2x128MB DIMM’s) – $140 x 2
Even though memory is relatively cheap these days, 256MB is more than enough.  We could have dropped down to 128MB, but the savings didn’t justify the performance loss.  Besides, this is our high-end SOHO machine, and there’s room in the budget. 

As for the exact brand of memory, we recommend Corsair or Mushkin modules.  We use them in our test systems and have had absolutely no problems with them. 

Video card – Matrox G400 32MB Dual Head - $100
We’ve always found Matrox cards to do an excellent job in business environments, and their latest card, the G400, is no exception.  You’ll get snappy 2D display, DVD playback, and excellent display driver utilities that include useful features like virtual desktop.  With the option for dual head, you can add a second monitor to potentially double your workspace.  And if you need to take a break from work, the G400 is ready to frag away ;)

We would have used the G450 here for its lower price, but it's still not available despite being announced over 2 months ago.

NVIDIA's GeForce2 MX features TwinView, which is functionally very similar to Matrox's Dual Head. TwinView capable boards are finally showing up on the market, but Dual Head is currently a much better solution for dual monitors than TwinView. This basically stems from the fact that TwinView is treated as two display adapters, while Matrox's drivers handle all the Dual Head options.

For more information, read our Matrox G400 & G400 MAX Review, Matrox G450 Review, and G450 Under Linux.

Monitor – iiYama VisionMaster PRO 450 - $650
If you’re going to be sitting in front of your monitor for hours a day, it’s critical that you have a crisp monitor that can provide a flicker-free refresh rate at your resolution of choice.  Using a Mitsubishi Diamondtron NF, the iiYama VisionMaster Pro 450 provides a perfectly flat display surface using the same technology in Sony’s FD Trinitron models, but at a lower cost.  The VisionMaster PRO 450 is a 19” monitor and has been highly acclaimed here on AnandTech and by owners alike.  If you’ve got the funds, we highly recommend you go with the 22” VisionMaster PRO 510 for around $900.

For more information, read our iiYama VisionMaster PRO 450 and VisionMaster PRO 510 Reviews.

Case
Supermicro SC750-A Full Tower ATX - $150
Fong Kai FK-320ATX Mid Tower ATX - $120
We need a case that can handle anything we can throw at it, but at a reasonable price level.  That case is the Supermicro SC750-A full tower and is available for about $150 with an Athlon approved 300W Sparkle power supply.  A total of ten drive bays and the ability to accept an extended ATX motherboard insures that this system will always have room for upgrades. 

If you want something a little smaller than the monstrous SC750-A for your home, consider the Fong Kai FK-320ATX. It offers plenty of room to work inside, is well built, provides excellent cooling, and even includes an Athlon 1 GHz approved Enhance 730-ATX power supply.

For more information, read our Supermicro SC750-A and Fong Kai FK-320ATX Reviews.

Sound card – Sound Blaster Live! Value OEM - $50
The choice here is simple – SBLive!, since Creative is the only manufacturer offering complete driver support under Windows 2000.  If you want to save a bit more money, go with any name brand card supported under Windows 2000.

The "5.1" versions of all Sound Blaster Live! cards are now available that allow it to handle Dolby Digital decoding. This is only important if you plan on using a speaker system with 5.1 analog inputs that also doesn't its own Dolby Digital decoder. We only have stereo speakers on this system so no need to go with the 5.1 model, which is currently only available as a retail card.

Speakers – Cambridge SoundWorks Digital - $100
The SoundWorks Digital is a 2.1 system that features the same drivers and sub as the highly acclaimed Desktop Theater DTT2500.  Need we say more?

For more information, read our Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater DTT2500 Review.

Ethernet – Linksys EtherFast 10/100 - $20
We use Linksys products here in the AnandTech lab all the time and have never been disappointed.  Besides, at just $20 for a card with full support directly from the manufacturer under the major OS’s, including Linux and Windows 2000, the EtherFast 10/100 is a deal that’s impossible to pass up. 

Hard drive – 2 x IBM Deskstar 75 GXP 15GB - $100 x 2
The fastest IDE drives on the market are all members of the IBM 75GXP family, so the decision was relatively easy. It doesn't hurt that they're one of the few that support Ultra ATA/100 either. We'll need two of these drives in order to reap the speed benefits of RAID striping.

If you’re work is disk intensive, considering going with a 10,000 RPM drive and an Ultra 160 controller.  The Atlas 10K II is widely available and is well known to be one of the faster drives available.

CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Pioneer DVD-105S 16X Slot Load DVD - $150
Plextor Plexwriter 12/10/32 - $250
What high-end system is complete today without a DVD-ROM?  Pioneer continues to lead the pack with their DVD-105S, a 16X DVD-ROM drive. Of course, it also reads CDs as well at a swift 40X max clip. This month, the Slot loading version of the 16X DVD is now available.

If you don’t need DVD support, the Kenwood TrueX 72X will provide you with the fastest CD-ROM speed at a slightly lower cost of about $120. 

Plextor is back again, this time with the fastest IDE CD-R on the market right now.  The PlexWriter 12/10/32 is their first entry into the IDE market, and it has been selling like hot cakes since its release. 

OS – Windows 2000 - $250
You want to get work done, right?  Well, you definitely don’t want your system crashing and destroying unsaved work all the time.  Windows 2000 is the only way to go for rock solid stability.  If you don’t need all the features of Windows 2000, but want a more tried and true solution, drop back to Windows NT 4.0, but note that you’ll lose access to the vast array of USB peripherals out there.

Bottom Line: $2,310 (without software or shipping)

High-end Gaming System
The purpose of this system is simple – maximum frame rates at all costs.  Of course, we already have a “cost is no object” dream system, so "all costs" isn't taken quite so literally. We’ve decided to shoot for a price in the $3500 range on the high-end gaming system.  That price is without floppy, keyboard, mouse, or software.  Even though it’s not in the price, we will recommend an OS configuration.

Processor – AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 900 - $200
Clock for clock, the Athlon may be a bit slower than the Pentium III at games. However, atsimilar clock speeds, the Athlon holds a significant advantage in price, and for that reason, we’ve chosen a Socket-A Athlon 900, which means that it's using the new Thunderbird core with on-die cache.

Besides the direct performance benefits of full speed on-die cache, we also get the side benefit of enhanced overclockability. If you're willing to overclock our CPU, you can save some money by going with the 700 MHz model, most of which will hit 900 - 950 MHz at default voltage, all without exotic cooling. The 900 MHz may overclock a bit better if you're lucky enough to get one with copper interconnects. Of course, there's no guarantee, but the higher speed Athlon's are more likely to be copper.

For more information on all Athlon processors, read our Athlon "Thunderbird" 1.2GHz & Duron 800 MHz Review and our Thunderbird / Duron Overclocking Revealed Aritcle.

Motherboard – ABIT KT7 - $125
The availability of AMD 760 motherboards is still non-existant for the "do it yourself" market, so we'll have to wait at least another month before DDR SDRAM systems make an appearance here. The VIA KT133, however is here now and is the best chipset for the Athlon right now. We recently looked at as many KT133 Socket-A boards as we could get a hold of and one board stood out head and shoulders above the rest - the ABIT KT7-RAID. As we noted in the roundup, the KT7 is the perfect board to overclock with thanks to its completely jumperless Soft Menu III CPU setup.

Since we only have one hard drive in this system, we'll go with the standard KT7 in place of the KT7-RAID to lower the cost a bit. The only difference between the two boards is the removal of the HighPoint Ultra ATA 100 RAID controller.

Click to Enlarge

The Asus A7V is also an excellent choice that also offers complete overclocking/multiplier control, albeit not in 100% jumperless form. The MSI K7T Pro2 has finally hit the streets soon as well, with new and improved overclocking options, including multiplier manipulation. We expect that the K7T Pro2 will probably become the motherboard of choice in the value systems since it will probably cost about $20-30 less than the ABIT KT7 or Asus A7V. The EPoX EP-8KTA2, Soyo K7VTA, and FIC AZ11E are also decent choices for overclockers.

For more information, read our ABIT KT7-RAID Review, Asus A7V Review, MSI K7T Pro2 Review, and Socket-A KT133 Motherboard Roundup.

Memory – 256MB Corsair or Mushkin CAS2 PC133 SDRAM (2x128MB DIMM’s) – $140 x 2
Even though memory is relatively cheap these days, 256MB is more than enough.  We could have dropped down to 128MB, but the savings didn’t justify the performance loss.  Besides, this is our high-end gaming machine, and there’s room in the budget. 

As for the exact brand of memory, we recommend Corsair or Mushkin modules.  We use them in our test systems and have had absolutely no problems with them. 

Video card – Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator 2  - $200
Once again, the Radeon vs GeForce 2 GTS question comes up and once again NVIDIA gets the nod for their solid driver support.

The majority of GeForce 2 GTS cards on the market are retailing for $300 and selling closer to $250. Creative has undercut the competition with a retail price of $250 and street price closer to $200. True, it's just a plain jane card, with no TV-in/out, but it gets the job done and is the most overclockable GeForce 2 GTS we've tested to date. We were able to push our sample up to 250/395 MHz (core/memory), making it the first 2 Gigatexel (theoretical fillrate) card in the AnandTech lab.

For more information, read our Annihilator 2 Review, GeForce 2 GTS Overclocking Guide, and GeForce 2 GTS Review.

Monitor – iiYama VisionMaster PRO 450 - $650
Using a Mitsubishi Diamondtron NF, the iiYama VisionMaster Pro 450 provides a perfectly flat display surface using the same technology in Sony’s FD Trinitron models, but at a lower cost.  The VisionMaster PRO 450 is a 19” monitor and has been highly acclaimed here on AnandTech and by owners alike.  If you’ve got the funds, we highly recommend you go with the 22” VisionMaster PRO 510 for about $900.

For more information, read our iiYama VisionMaster PRO 450 and VisionMaster PRO 510 Reviews.

Case
Supermicro SC750-A Full Tower ATX - $150
Fong Kai FK-320ATX Mid Tower ATX - $120
We need a case that can handle anything we can throw at it, but at a reasonable price level.  That case is the Supermicro SC750-A full tower and is available for about $150 with an Athlon approved 300W Sparkle power supply.  A total of ten drive bays and the ability to accept an extended ATX motherboard insures that this system will always have room for upgrades. 

If you want something a little smaller than the monstrous SC750-A for your home, consider the Fong Kai FK-320ATX. It offers plenty of room to work inside, is well built, provides excellent cooling, and even includes an Athlon 1 GHz approved Enhance 730-ATX power supply.

For more information, read our Supermicro SC750-A and Fong Kai FK-320ATX Reviews.

Sound card – Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer - $100
Choosing between the Aureal SQ2500 and the SBLive! had been one of the more difficult decisions in this guide, but with Aureal in serious financial troubles, the choice is clear - go with Creative. It doesn't hurt that it has full Liveware 3.0 support under Windows 2000 either.  We chose the X-Gamer model for its digital speaker interface, although you can save about $50 by going with an OEM / Value model.

The "5.1" versions of all Sound Blaster Live! cards are now available that allow it to handle Dolby Digital decoding. This is only important if you plan on using a speaker system with 5.1 analog inputs that also doesn't its own Dolby Digital decoder, which in this system is not the case.

Speakers – Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater DTT2500 - $200
We obviously need some speakers with 4-channel surround support to properly render the 3D positional audio output of our SBLive!  As mentioned previously, we also wanted something that could interface with the digital out on the Live!  Well, the Desktop Theater DTT2500 looked to fit the bill.  But the real key is its top-notch sound quality and built-in Dolby Digital decoder.

For more information, read our Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater DTT2500 Review.

Ethernet – Linksys EtherFast 10/100 - $20
We use Linksys products here in the AnandTech lab all the time and have never been disappointed.  Besides, at just $20 for a card with full support directly from the manufacturer under the major OS’s, including Linux and Windows 2000, the EtherFast 10/100 is a deal that’s impossible to pass up. 

Hard drive – IBM Deskstar 75GXP 45GB - $180
Once again, the fastest drive on the market gets the nod, plain and simple. We've chosen to stick with just one drive since RAID performance doesn't really help that much in gaming situations where disk access is not a major bottleneck. If you do any disk intensive work, definitely consider using the RAID features of the KT7 by simply adding another drive.

CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Pioneer DVD-105S 16X Slot Load DVD - $150
Plextor Plexwriter 12/10//32 - $250
What high-end system is complete today without a DVD-ROM?  Pioneer continues to lead the pack with their DVD-105S, a 16X DVD-ROM drive. Of course, it also reads CDs as well at a swift 40X max clip. This month, the Slot loading version of the 16X DVD is now available.

If you don’t need DVD support, the Kenwood TrueX 72X will provide you with the fastest CD-ROM speed at a slightly lower cost of about $120. 

Plextor is back again, this time with the fastest IDE CD-R on the market right now.  The PlexWriter 12/10/32 is their first entry into the IDE market, and it has been selling like hot cakes since its release. 

OS – Windows 2000 / Windows Millennium Edition Dual Boot - $250 + 175
Even though Windows 2000 supports DirectX 7, immature drivers and the general overhead of the OS prevent it from performing on par with Windows Millennium Edition when it comes to games.  Of course, Windows 2000 is the future, and its just so much more stable.  Our solution: work in Windows 2000 and boot back to Windows ME if you need maximum performance for games.  Of course, if you just need a quick break from work, you can still frag in Win2K. 

Bottom Line: $2,505 (without software or shipping)

High-end Professional 3D
A high-end professional 3D system requires a number of high-end components. CPU performance is critical and we need more RAM here than any other system we've looked at previously. The graphics requirements are also very different in the professional space and a large monitor is critical.

Processor – AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 1 GHz- $300
At similar clock speeds, the Athlon holds a significant advantage in price and performance in professional 3D applications. That, of course, makes the decision for our High-End Professional system's CPU a no-brainer. We’ve chosen a Socket-A Athlon 1 GHz, which means that it's using the new Thunderbird core with on-die cache.

Besides the direct performance benefits of full speed on-die cache, we also get the side benefit of enhanced overclockability. If you're willing to overclock our CPU, you can save some money by going with the 700 MHz model, most of which will hit 900 - 950 MHz at default voltage, all without exotic cooling. The 1 GHz chip may overclock a bit further thanks to its use of copper interconnects.

For more information on all Athlon processors, read our Athlon "Thunderbird" 1.2GHz & Duron 800 MHz Review and our Thunderbird / Duron Overclocking Revealed Aritcle.

Motherboard – ABIT KT7-RAID - $160
The availability of AMD 760 motherboards is still non-existant for the "do it yourself" market, so we'll have to wait at least another month before DDR SDRAM systems make an appearance here. The VIA KT133, however is here now and is the best chipset for the Athlon right now. We recently looked at as many KT133 Socket-A boards as we could get a hold of and one board stood out head and shoulders above the rest - the ABIT KT7-RAID. As we noted in the roundup, the KT7 is the perfect board to overclock with thanks to its completely jumperless Soft Menu III CPU setup.

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The Asus A7V is also an excellent choice that also offers complete overclocking/multiplier control, albeit not in 100% jumperless form. The MSI K7T Pro2 has finally hit the streets soon as well, with new and improved overclocking options, including multiplier manipulation. We expect that the K7T Pro2 will probably become the motherboard of choice in the value systems since it will probably cost about $20-30 less than the ABIT KT7 or Asus A7V. The EPoX EP-8KTA2, Soyo K7VTA, and FIC AZ11E are also decent choices for overclockers.

For more information, read our ABIT KT7-RAID Review, Asus A7V Review, MSI K7T Pro2 Review, and Socket-A KT133 Motherboard Roundup.

Memory – 512MB Corsair or Mushkin CAS 2 PC133 SDRAM (2x256MB DIMM’s) – $280 x 2
Even though memory is relatively cheap these days, it is a key factor in the performance of most professional apps.  For a high-end system like this, 512MB is not unreasonable and easily fits within the budget.

As for the exact brand of memory, we recommend Corsair or Mushkin modules.  We use them in our test systems and have had absolutely no problems with them. 

Video Card – ELSA GLoria II (NVIDIA Quadro) - $600
NVIDIA’s Quadro is simply the most powerful workstation 3D accelerator we’ve tested to date.  Based on the same T&L GPU of the GeForce, the Quadro runs at a higher core clock speed, 135 MHz, and enables certain features that were left disabled on the GeForce. Among these features is enhanced support for anti-aliased points and lines, which, although it isn’t a commonly used feature with most users, was an extremely poor performance point for the GeForce.

With their previous experience in the professional market, ELSA was able to score exclusive rights to manufacture the Quadro.  The Gloria II is ELSA’s implementation and comes with 64MB SDR SDRAM.  While a DDR version of the Quadro has been announced, and even tested by AnandTech, it’s not actually available anywhere at the moment.  At $650, the SDR version of the Gloria II is a relative steal compared to some of the other professional 3D accelerators out there.  Throw in the fact that it’s fully support under Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Linux and it becomes quite clear that the Quadro is the best choice.

NVIDIA has already announced a professional version of the GeForce 2 GTS, the Quadro2 Pro and the Quadro2 MXR. The Quadro2 Pro is GeForce2 GTS based, while the MXR is the GeForce2 MX based part - ELSA once again has the "exclusive" distribution rights on cards using these chipsets. Unfortunately, neither card has surfaced just yet, so with that in mind, it seems wise to hold off a bit if you can. Granted, we've been saying that for 2 months now, but hopefully the Quadro2 Pro really will be available soon. For more information, see our ELSA Gloria II Review.

Monitor – iiYama VisionMaster PRO 510 - $900
Using a Mitsubishi Diamondtron NF, the iiYama VisionMaster Pro 510 provides a perfectly flat display surface using the same technology in Sony’s FD Trinitron models, but at a lower cost.  Make sure you can deal with the damper wires that all Trinitron style tubes have.  The VisionMaster PRO 510 is a 22” monitor and has been highly acclaimed here on AnandTech and by owners alike. 

For more information, read our iiYama VisionMaster PRO 450 and VisionMaster PRO 510 Reviews.

Case
Supermicro SC750-A Full Tower ATX - $150
Fong Kai FK-320ATX Mid Tower ATX - $120
We need a case that can handle anything we can throw at it, but at a reasonable price level.  That case is the Supermicro SC750-A full tower and is available for about $150 with an Athlon approved 300W Sparkle power supply.  A total of ten drive bays and the ability to accept an extended ATX motherboard insures that this system will always have room for upgrades. 

If you want something a little smaller than the monstrous SC750-A for your home, consider the Fong Kai FK-320ATX. It offers plenty of room to work inside, is well built, provides excellent cooling, and even includes an Athlon 1 GHz approved Enhance 730-ATX power supply.

For more information, read our Supermicro SC750-A and Fong Kai FK-320ATX Reviews.

Sound card – Sound Blaster Live! Value OEM - $50
The choice here is simple – SBLive!, since Creative is the only manufacturer offering complete driver support under Windows 2000.  If you want to save a bit more money, go with any name brand card supported under Windows 2000.

The "5.1" versions of all Sound Blaster Live! cards are now available that allow it to handle Dolby Digital decoding. This is only important if you plan on using a speaker system with 5.1 analog inputs that also doesn't its own Dolby Digital decoder. We only have stereo speakers on this system so no need to go with the 5.1 model, which is currently only available as a retail card.

Speakers – Cambridge SoundWorks Digital - $100
The SoundWorks Digital is a 2.1 system that features the same drivers and sub as the highly acclaimed Desktop Theater DTT2500.  Need we say more?

For more information, read our Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater DTT2500 Review.

Ethernet – Linksys EtherFast 10/100 - $20
We use Linksys products here in the AnandTech lab all the time and have never been disappointed.  Besides, at just $20 for a card with full support directly from the manufacturer under the major OS’s, including Linux and Windows 2000, the EtherFast 10/100 is a deal that’s impossible to pass up. 

Hard drive – 2 x IBM Deskstar 75 GXP 15GB - $100 x 2
The fastest IDE drives on the market are all members of the IBM 75GXP family, so the decision was relatively easy. It doesn't hurt that they're one of the few that support Ultra ATA/100 either. We'll need two of these drives in order to reap the speed benefits of RAID striping.

If you’re work is disk intensive, considering going with a 10,000 RPM drive and an Ultra 160 controller.  The Atlas 10K II is widely available and is well known to be one of the fastest drives available.

CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Pioneer DVD-105S 16X Slot Load DVD - $150
Plextor Plexwriter 12/10//32 - $250
What high-end system is complete today without a DVD-ROM?  Pioneer continues to lead the pack with their DVD-105S, a 16X DVD-ROM drive. Of course, it also reads CDs as well at a swift 40X max clip. This month, the Slot loading version of the 16X DVD is now available.

If you don’t need DVD support, the Kenwood TrueX 72X will provide you with the fastest CD-ROM speed at a slightly lower cost of about $120. 

Plextor is back again, this time with the fastest IDE CD-R on the market right now.  The PlexWriter 12/10/32 is their first entry into the IDE market, and it has been selling like hot cakes since its release. 

OS – Windows 2000 Professional - $250
The choice here is clear – Windows 2000 Professional is the latest and greatest OS from Microsoft that provides all the functionality of NT 4.0, but enhanced hardware support.  If you want to stick with a more tried and true solution, go with NT 4.0 Workstation.

Bottom line: $3,540 (without software or shipping)

Summary

	Dream System
CPU	Dual Intel Pentium III 933 - $375 x 2
Motherboard	Intel OR840 - $300
Memory	512MB RDRAM - $1000
Video Card	Creative Labs Annihilator2 Ultra - $435 RealMagic Hollywood Plus PCI - $60
Monitor	Sony GDM-FW900 24" Widescreen - $2300
Case	Addtronics W8500-400A - $400
Sound Card	Sound Blaster Live! Platinum 5.1- $180
Speakers	VideoLogic DigiTheater DTS - $600
Ethernet	Integrated i82559 - $0
Hard Drive	4 x Seagate Cheetah X15 - $600 x 4
Hard Drive Controller	DPT SmartRAID IV Century PM2865U3 - $900
CD-ROM	Pioneer DVD-304S / Plextor UltraPlex Wide - $150
CD-RW	Plextor Plexwriter 12/4/32 - $300
Bottom line	$9,775

 

	High-End Gaming
CPU	AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 900 - $200
Motherboard	ABIT KT7 - $125
Memory	2 x 128 MB Corsair/Mushkin PC133 SDRAM - $140 x 2
Video Card	Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator 2 - $200
Monitor	iiYama VisionMaster PRO 450 - $650
Case	Supermicro SC750-A Full Tower ATX - $150 Fong Kai FK-320ATX Mid Tower ATX - $120
Sound Card	Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer - $100
Speakers	Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater DTT2500 - $200
Ethernet	Linksys EtherFast 10/100 - $20
Hard Drive	IBM Deskstar 75GXP 45GB - $180
Hard Drive Controller	N/A
CD-ROM	Pioneer DVD-105S 16X DVD - $150
CD-RW	Plextor Plexwriter 12/10/32 - $250
Bottom line	$2505

 

	High-End Professional
CPU	AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 1 GHz - $300
Motherboard	ABIT KT7-RAID - $160
Memory	2 x 256MB Corsair/Mushkin PC133 SDRAM - $280 x 2
Video Card	ELSA Gloria II (NVIDIA Quadro) - $600
Monitor	iiYama VisionMaster PRO 510 - $1000
Case	Supermicro SC750-A Full Tower ATX - $150 Fong Kai FK-320ATX Mid Tower ATX - $120
Sound Card	Sound Blaster Live! Value OEM - $50
Speakers	Cambridge SoundWorks Digital - $100
Ethernet	Linksys EtherFast 10/100 - $20
Hard Drive	2 x IBM Deskstar 75GXP 15GB - $100 x 2
Hard Drive Controller	Integrated HighPoint HPT370 Ultra ATA 100 RAID - $0
CD-ROM	Pioneer DVD-105S 16X DVD - $150
CD-RW	Plextor Plexwriter 12/10/32 - $250
Bottom line	$3540

 

Final Words

As always, we’re open to any suggestions you may have.  Remember that these are merely recommendations for a few system configurations. We know a lot of you won’t agree with the exact components chosen here, and we expect that, so plan on tweaking things a bit to get the perfect system for your needs.  When sending in suggestions, remember that all the components must be readily available in the market today in order to be considered for the Buyer’s Guide.