Buyer's Guide - Mid-Range, October 2004
by Jarred Walton on October 21, 2004 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Audio Recommendations
We'll start with the sound cards first. For many people, the integrated sound in any of these systems will be sufficient. There are two exceptions to that, and they are gamers and audiophiles. We'll leave the gamers out of this for now, but those of you who are interested in sound quality or who do audio work for a living will probably want something more than integrated audio.
Sound Card Alternative: M-Audio Revolution 7.1
Price: $92 Shipped (Retail)
The M-Audio Revolution 7.1 is a professional level sound card that can be used for serious audio work, and it has some of the cleanest input and output available. Only a significantly more expensive sound card like the Terratec Aureon 7.1 is likely to surpass it. If you work with audio for a living, the investment is worthwhile, but most users will not need this level of sound quality. Those looking to put together a Home Theater PC might also find the Dolby Digital EX and DTS decoding handy.
Speaker Recommendation: Logitech Z-640 5.1
Price: $53 Shipped (Retail)
Continuing our tradition of recommending the Z-640 speakers, they return once again. We'll change them out for something better when it arrives. They are a little heavy on the bass and not as clear as some higher quality speakers, but for most users they are more than sufficient, and at $53 they are an incredible value.
Speaker Alternative: Logitech Z-5300e 5.1 THX Certified
Price: $159 Shipped (Retail)
The older brother of the Z-640, Logitech continues to impress with their mid-range speaker systems. The clarity is better than the Z-640 and they offer increased power, but at three times the cost, it is hard to justify them for most people. For another $75 or so, you could upgrade even further to the Z-680 speakers, which come with Dolby Digital and DTS decoding. Both of these can work very well as a replacement for more expensive home theater equipment. If you already have a Dolby Digital receiver, you don't need that feature in your speakers and can go with the Z-5300 setup. Just a warning for those who might be thinking of using these in a smaller office: they can cause physical pain if you crank them up all the way, especially in a confined space. Consider yourself warned.
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Confusednewbie1552 - Saturday, October 23, 2004 - link
Great, I've had my computer for 2 months and have been only using it for only a month and already it becomes mid-range. =( I was expecting it to last until at least by spring of 2005Degrador - Saturday, October 23, 2004 - link
I know the graphics issue has been mentioned in these comments already, but I just thought I'd add my 2 cents. A gaming article sounds like a great idea, but many people out there looking for a good computer want an all-in-one system. Especially for family buyers, they'll want systems that can do anything, whether it be office work / home business / kids schoolwork / games / burning CDs & DVDs / web surfing / etc. As such, the alternatives are really really great this time, as they give details and reasons for why people should change to other parts. However, I still think you should have included an option for a faster graphics card. You've given alternatives a high end 300GB 16MB cache HD, as well as the (debateably) higher end Raptor, along with high end RAM, and a separate sound card and good speakers, yet no alternative for even a modestly good AGP graphics card (let's be honest, the 9600 Pro is rather mediocre for the games and cards out there these days). I'm certainly not suggesting a 9800 Pro should be the primary graphics recommendation, but perhaps at least an alternative (or even X600 / 6800).Other than that, great guide :)
JarredWalton - Saturday, October 23, 2004 - link
Wow! The 90nm parts are "hot" - not in terms of temperature but in terms of demand. They'll come back down soon enough. Hell, at $266 not counting the cost of an aftermarket HSF you might as well get the 130 nm 3500+ retail. Monarch Computers is still saying $215 and $179 for the 3200+ and 3000+ parts, respectively, but they are out of stock until ~Oct. 29. Patience may be required if you don't want to spend more than $200. I think the suggested price of the 3200+ was $199 originally, but demand has pushed that up quite a bit.AlphaFox - Friday, October 22, 2004 - link
A64 3200+ 90nm 939 is now $266!!! I dont get how it went up $75 in the past 2 days!JarredWalton - Friday, October 22, 2004 - link
A few quick comments:Seagate vs. Samsung: As far as I can tell, they're about the same. Yes, Seagate comes with a 5 year vs. 3 year warranty. I've got both, and neither one has given me cause for complaint. Which is "better"? I call it a tie, and since I went with Seagate last time, I decided to toss in a Samsung this time. As the article states, Samsung, WD, Seagate, Maxtor, and Hitachi all make very similar drives. "Reliability" when you're talking about mostly new versions is almost impossible to guess.
NEC vs. Pioneer: Hacked firmware is not necessary, and the drive performs extremely well. There should be a review up sometime soon.
Prices for the Real Time Pricing Engine seem to be having some issues, so double check them. As for the Mushkin RAM listed in the article, it is not the "Blue" line but an older version. Newegg has it for $75 a DIMM (as of the time of writing).
#37: You can have a bad example of any company out there. I've had ASUS and Abit boards in the past that I had to RMA. Does one bad experience make the company untrustworthy? I don't think so, and I continue to use Abit and ASUS boards. For socket 939, the selection is very limited, and we've had good results with the MSI Neo2 Platinum. YMMV, of course. I'm not sure why you even bothered with MSI. If the boards was DOA, Newegg will replace it with no hassle in our experience. It takes an extra two weeks or so, unfortunately.
#34 brings up an interesting argument. If you actually went out and bought the same hardware that goes into a Dell or other OEM system, the price would be a lot lower than what is listed here. Don't even get me started on reliability and warranty concerns. The price of OEM systems appears attractive, but in the end you get what you pay for. DIY PC builders will always get better performance and reliability for the money. Obviously, that's not an option for Apple computers.
RandomCoil - Friday, October 22, 2004 - link
As with post #33, I don't understand the switch from Seagate to Samsung. The Seagate should be sufficiently fast for this system and the 5-year warranty and quiet operation are significant pluses.sophus - Friday, October 22, 2004 - link
i think the RAM was underpriced (and i realize things might have changed since publication):Mushkin Blue Line 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail
clicking the link above (and choosing newegg.com) -> $103 ...need 2 so $206
mushkin.com -> $227
this leads to a difference (approx) of $50 to $75. $200-225 compared to original listed price of $150.
i wanted to be all over 1GB for $150 but was unable to find the price 8(
Bugler - Friday, October 22, 2004 - link
You say that the Neo2 939 board has one problem, that being the difficulty removing larger graphics cards. Their bigger problem is unreliability.For months I followed your recommendations for MSI but after the 754 DFI came out, I delayed my purchase awaiting a 939 DFI board. The past week I got tired of waiting for DFI and went ahead and purchased the MSI 939 board.
The damn thing is dead on arrival. In addition, I emailed their tech support before they opened this morning. No response. Newegg had me call MSI. After being put on the call hold dialer for about five minutes, the machine finally said they were hanging up and that I should leave my contact number for tech support to call me back.
However, they never did. Screw MSI---RMA to new egg.
tolerant - Friday, October 22, 2004 - link
There are a bunch of 128mb sapphire 9600 pro's on newegg, including an opengl 2.0 bulk card, and an opengl 2.0 retail card. I recently ordered both the 2.0 bulk and retail cards, and instead of being 400 core/300 mem as expected, they ran at 391 core/229 mem. I'm not sure if I had two defective cards, but they got sent back. The price seemed too good to be true when I purchased, and I believe that $108 is a little low too, so if you order this path, make sure you get a 400/300 card.AlphaFox - Friday, October 22, 2004 - link
It should be noted that the prices for 90nm CPUs is wacked out: the 3200+ 939 90nm is now $246 and the 3000+ is $215. they have been going UP in the past week; im glad I got my 3200 for $191 a few days ago!