Mid-Range to High-End Buyer's Guide, January 2006
by Jarred Walton on January 2, 2006 1:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Remaining Recommendations
The majority of the remaining parts all have a lesser impact on performance, and for several areas, you can just get whatever is cheapest. A low cost case might have sharp edges inside, and a low cost PSU might be noisy or fail prematurely - particularly if you load up the system with higher end components - but otherwise, there isn't a huge difference between the remaining components other than prices. Since we're giving Mid-Range and High-End configurations, we will be spending quite a bit more on the latter for what some may feel are unimportant aspects of a computer system. The Z-5500 speakers, for example, are overkill if you're living in an apartment or small house. For that matter, even the Z-2300 speakers are more than what many users will need. More than any of the other recommendations, there is a lot of subjective opinion in picking out these remaining items. If you don't want powerful speakers, save the money. If sound quality is important - which is our assumption on the High-End platform - you will probably want good speakers as well as a discrete sound card. If you're happy with a cheap case, you can cut costs there as well. Here are our guidelines for the remaining components.
The only two areas where it's really worth upgrading to something more than the above choices are storage and the power supply. If you're planning on running multiple GPUs with multiple hard drives, the 400W SmartPower 2.0 in the Mid-Range system may prove insufficient. The ePOWER/Tagan in the High-End system is more than enough for almost any use, though there are quite a few alternatives with a similar price. Fotron Source, Antec, Enermax, Seasonic, OCZ, and several other companies make PSUs worth considering, but we like the modular design, SLI support, and general high-quality of the Tagan unit. $120 is a lot to pay for a power supply, but then we'd even take it one step further and recommend picking up a UPS to go with the computer. $100 will get a good quality UPS that will help prevent loss of data from anything ranging from a power outage to an electrical surge.
The hard drives both ended up being from Western Digital, with the only upgrade on the High-End component being the move to a 16MB cache model. 250GB of storage and 3.0Gbps transfer rates are plenty for the vast majority of users. You could even drop down to a 160GB or even 80GB HDD if you don't need the storage, though the cost per GB on the 250GB drives is the lowest of any of the models. If you store lots of music, movies, photos, etc. on your system, though, you might want to go the other way and look for more storage capacity. Seagate's 300GB and larger 7200.9 drives can be found with 16MB of cache for the ultimate in capacity and performance, but prices are quite high. Some people still swear by the faster access times of the WD Raptor drives, but personally, I would add more RAM before worrying about spending $150 for a 74GB drive. If you want some data reliability, some motherboards are even shipping with integrated RAID 5 controllers: use 3 or 4 HDDs and you can get over a TB of storage and still be protected from data loss as long as no more than one drive fails. That's really more low-end server/high-end workstation stuff, however, so we'll stick with a single 250GB drive for now.
The majority of the remaining parts all have a lesser impact on performance, and for several areas, you can just get whatever is cheapest. A low cost case might have sharp edges inside, and a low cost PSU might be noisy or fail prematurely - particularly if you load up the system with higher end components - but otherwise, there isn't a huge difference between the remaining components other than prices. Since we're giving Mid-Range and High-End configurations, we will be spending quite a bit more on the latter for what some may feel are unimportant aspects of a computer system. The Z-5500 speakers, for example, are overkill if you're living in an apartment or small house. For that matter, even the Z-2300 speakers are more than what many users will need. More than any of the other recommendations, there is a lot of subjective opinion in picking out these remaining items. If you don't want powerful speakers, save the money. If sound quality is important - which is our assumption on the High-End platform - you will probably want good speakers as well as a discrete sound card. If you're happy with a cheap case, you can cut costs there as well. Here are our guidelines for the remaining components.
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| Click images to enlarge. | ||
| Mid-Range Components | ||
| Hard Drive | Western Digital 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Caviar SE | 99 |
| Optical Drive | BenQ DVDR DQ60 (OEM) | 41 |
| Case and Power Supply | Antec Solution SLK3800B + 400W SmartPower 2.0 | 116 |
| Speakers | Logitech Z-2300 2.1 | 112 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 + Optical Mouse | 30 |
| Total | 398 | |
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| Click images to enlarge. | ||
| High-End Components | ||
| Hard Drive | Western Digital 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Caviar SE16 | 115 |
| Optical Drive | NEC DVDR ND-3550A | 43 |
| Case | Lian Li PC-6077B Aluminum | 138 |
| Power Supply | ePOWER/Tagan TG-530-U15 530W | 120 |
| Sound Card | Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS | 73 |
| Speakers | Logitech Z-5500 5.1 w/Dolby Digital | 253 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3100 (Laser tracking mouse) | 95 |
| Total | 837 | |
The only two areas where it's really worth upgrading to something more than the above choices are storage and the power supply. If you're planning on running multiple GPUs with multiple hard drives, the 400W SmartPower 2.0 in the Mid-Range system may prove insufficient. The ePOWER/Tagan in the High-End system is more than enough for almost any use, though there are quite a few alternatives with a similar price. Fotron Source, Antec, Enermax, Seasonic, OCZ, and several other companies make PSUs worth considering, but we like the modular design, SLI support, and general high-quality of the Tagan unit. $120 is a lot to pay for a power supply, but then we'd even take it one step further and recommend picking up a UPS to go with the computer. $100 will get a good quality UPS that will help prevent loss of data from anything ranging from a power outage to an electrical surge.
The hard drives both ended up being from Western Digital, with the only upgrade on the High-End component being the move to a 16MB cache model. 250GB of storage and 3.0Gbps transfer rates are plenty for the vast majority of users. You could even drop down to a 160GB or even 80GB HDD if you don't need the storage, though the cost per GB on the 250GB drives is the lowest of any of the models. If you store lots of music, movies, photos, etc. on your system, though, you might want to go the other way and look for more storage capacity. Seagate's 300GB and larger 7200.9 drives can be found with 16MB of cache for the ultimate in capacity and performance, but prices are quite high. Some people still swear by the faster access times of the WD Raptor drives, but personally, I would add more RAM before worrying about spending $150 for a 74GB drive. If you want some data reliability, some motherboards are even shipping with integrated RAID 5 controllers: use 3 or 4 HDDs and you can get over a TB of storage and still be protected from data loss as long as no more than one drive fails. That's really more low-end server/high-end workstation stuff, however, so we'll stick with a single 250GB drive for now.
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archcommus - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
Not just music, but DVDs and games, as well.JarredWalton - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
The Klipsch are also very good speakers - some would say better, others would just say they're different. When you start getting into high-end speakers, a lot of stuff becomes more subjective. I don't know if this still holds, but in the past, Klipsch was regarded as having great customer support. I can't say the same for Logitech, but then I've never personally used customer support for either one. I think the Klipsch Ultra 5.1 speakers go for about $350 new, so they're more expensive and they lack the digital decoder. They probably sound a bit better, though.yacoub - Wednesday, January 4, 2006 - link
Well Klipsch had quality issues for a while with dead and fried amps. Then again Logitech's lower end models were pretty poor quality as well.Either way both systems are likely close enough in quality that you won't notice the difference hooked up to the same soundcard. You would find a much greater difference by improving the soundcard over switching from one of those two speaker systems to the other.
Also, if you're so anal as to be able to detect a huge difference between the two you probably aren't going to be happy with either one and should instead get a real home theatre system and hook your soundcard to the receiver. Then you have no more limitations of a computer speaker system and can swap in and out your separates as you wish and really configure it all finely and use much better quality components.
yacoub - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
There's no reason for the high-end case recommendation to be anything other than the Antec P-150, which is essentially the perfect case. If more room is needed (which would be the rare instance) the P-180 would be the alternative recommendation.jiulemoigt - Monday, January 2, 2006 - link
one were the crt left out due to shipping costs? I got my 75lbs 22" Philips shipped free simply by buying from a local (ground shipping was free, fedex 2 day was several hundred dollars so I can see why shipping costs on a decent size crt could be an issue) based estore. I just wondered as I have yet to see a lcd that comes close to a professional crt in color or crispness, and if your willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a videocard to play games why not three to five on the monitor?the other question is I keep hearing about corsairs 3500 ll xms is it vaporware or did you guys simply miss this one or does it not live up to the hype? I did not see it on the price link or really any mention of it which leads me to wonder?
JarredWalton - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
On the CRTs, there are no new CRTs being made with good specs. I've been over that ground in previous Guides. Basically, you can get a new 22" CRT that is worse than 4 year old models, or you can try to find a 4 year old model, or you can give in and upgrade to LCD. It's unfortunate, but profit margins are better on LCDs, consumers like them more ("oooo - it's THIN!"), and so all R&D is now focused on improving LCDs rather than on CRTs. I fought the CRT battle for a few years, and now that I've upgraded to LCD I just don't miss the CRT anymore. 24" WS and plenty of desk space - what's not to love? :)Turin39789 - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
I'm sticking with my dual 22'inch crt's, a few years old made them available for ~150 each shipped and I like the colors/refresh rate/resolutions better than any crt's I've seen around for twice that money.And an 8 foot desk means never having to worry about space.
Calin - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
The performance of the CRT displays is decreasing even in the 17" world - monitors from three years ago had better refresh rates and resolution than what you can buy now. CRT world is dying :(tjpark1111 - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
I was wondering about LCD size you guys.(that rhymes hehe) I currently have a 15" LCD on a laptop that has a 1024x768 resolution. Sometimes I find it that things are a bit too big especially in videos. I was going to buy a 17" LCD, but then a 19" was recommended here, and I was wondering if you 19" owners are bothered by, or you think that there is a lack of resolution for the huge size. I've seen a 17" and 19" side by side and the size improvement was so big, but I didn't get a chance to look closely, especially when playing video, so I don't know if 1280x1024 is all that bad on a 19". Thank you.Calin - Tuesday, January 3, 2006 - link
I would very much prefer a lower resolution on the 17" LCDs - that 1152 by something would be great. I somewhat find the 1280 by 1024 too small, and just perfect on the 19" displays.