Buyer's Guide: High End System - May 2004
by Wesley Fink on May 26, 2004 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
High End System Summary
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| CPU & Cooling | AMD Athlon 64 FX53 Retail | $731 |
| Motherboard | Asus SK8V (VIA K8T800 - Socket 940) | $171 |
| Memory | 1GB (2 X 512MB) OCZ PC3500 EL ECC Registered | $339 |
| Video Card | 256MB X800 Pro | $425 |
| Monitor | Samsung SyncMaster 21" CRT (1100DF) | $447 |
| Computer Case | Coolermaster Praetorian (PAC-T01-E1) Silver plus 430W Antec True Power PSU | $194 |
| Sound Card | Creative Labs Audigy 2 6.1 OEM | $71 ($0) |
| Speakers | Logitech Z-5300 5.1 speakers | $148 |
| Networking | Onboard 10/100/1000 Ethernet | $0 |
| Hard Drive | 2x74GB Western Digital 74GB Raptor 10,000 RPM SATA RAID (148GB Total) | $428 ($133) |
| CD-RW | NuTech DDW-081 8X DVD+/-R/RW | $80 |
| Bottom Line | $3034 ($2668) | |
$3034 is the final price of our high end system this week, not including any money that you'll spend on software (Windows XP Professional or Home, Office, Photoshop, etc.) or a keyboard and mouse. $3000 is not pocket change, but what a high-end system you will have for this $3000!! This includes the fastest CPU that you can possibly buy right now, the new generation ATI Radeon X800 PRO video, 1GB of Dual-Channel ECC Registered memory, a 148GB 10,000 RPM SATA RAID array, a 21" .20 dot pitch monitor, and a top performing 8X DVD +/- burner with fast CDRW burn capabilities. You can spend a bit more at every price point, but you won't gain much, if anything, in performance.
Our alternatives also allow you to customize the High-End System to your needs. One painless way to reduce the cost is shown in italics in the price - use the excellent on-board 6-channel sound and substitute a 200GB Seagate Barracuda for the RAID array. For $2668, you will have most of the same performance in the top-performing Athlon 64 FX system.
With the next generation X800 Pro video card, the fastest FX53 on the superb Asus SK8V motherboard, and the fastest 10,000RPM Raid Array, our High End System is the fastest desktop system that you can buy, period. Next month, we will see the introduction of AMD's long-awaited Socket 939 processors, but don't expect performance much different than this top-of-the-line system. Yes, there will be a new and faster 3800+ at 2.4GHz with 512KB cache, but the top AMD Athlon 64 will still be the 2.4GHz FX53 with 1MB of cache. The only real difference will be that the new FX53 will be wearing Socket 939 clothes on a VIA K8T800 PRO instead of a K8T800, or a nForce3-250 Ultra instead of a nForce3-150.
Take a close look at the High-End FX53 system and let us know what you think in the comments section.
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MadAd - Monday, May 31, 2004 - link
I just wish you guys would do a 'dream' system, money NO object - us geeks like to dream, even if we cant afford fibre raided flash drives and $2000 sound setups ..... it only has to be like once every 3 months or so, just for drooling rights - awww go on :)Ma10n3 - Monday, May 31, 2004 - link
This comment thread seems to be pretty dead now, but I thought I'd just tack this on...Maybe there should be a high-end gaming system and a high-end everything-but-gaming system.
A lot of newer game engines are SMP capable though, so the two may become one in the near future.
qquizz - Saturday, May 29, 2004 - link
GLARING ERROR ALLOWED TO STAND:As noted days ago in this forum, I can't believe Anandtech has allowed this error not to be changed yet in this sentence in the storage section of the article:
"Those concerned about data security more than ultimate speed can configure the drives as RAID 0, or mirroring."
Ma10n3 - Saturday, May 29, 2004 - link
I wish I could just edit one of the posts above... Anyway, it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense that the Iwill doesn't support DDR400 though because the memory controller is on the processor die. ???But, if the manufacturer doesn't claim it supports it, than it seems reasonable to go with a manufacturer that does. After all, when you're spending this much money on a system, compatibility becomes very important!
Ma10n3 - Saturday, May 29, 2004 - link
Uh, scratch the Iwill board. It only supports up to DDR333!Looks like the TYAN Thunder K8W is about the only choice.
Ma10n3 - Saturday, May 29, 2004 - link
Roostercrows, another motherboard that supports all the features listed above is the Iwill DK8X.Can't seem to find any others...
Ma10n3 - Saturday, May 29, 2004 - link
#52, If you are considering a dual-opteron setup, than I should also let you know that the only mobo I could find that uses the NUMA (microsoft.com has quite a bit of info on NUMA) configuration and has AGP8X, PCI-X, and legacy PCI is the TYAN Thunder K8W. If anyone knows of any others that have all these features, please post the info.roostercrows - Saturday, May 29, 2004 - link
#50, Yes, I did read all the posts including #39and I didn't mean to imply that you used the term best "bang for the buck". sorry if I gave that impression.
I'm building a new computer and have the dual raptor hard drives and one maxtor 200 GB, power supply from PC power & cooling, video card X800, monitor (not my white wall #51 but that was funny), case is a coolermaster stacker, I'm trying to decide which processor and mobo to use and this was the first I had heard of possibly using a dual opteron and it sounds interesting as cadcam use is part of my goal but I need to learn a lot more. Thanks for your opinion since the WinXP64 is what I'm building the system for.
Neekotin - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
yo guys, it just hit me. this is a high-end sys... why not get a white wall and good projector, imagine your monitor as the entire wall. ;)Ma10n3 - Friday, May 28, 2004 - link
#49, Did you take a look at the article listed in post #39?Oh, and I at least never claimed a dual-processor system gives you more "bang for the buck." I do believe it gives you quite a bit more mileage out of the hardware you purchase considering the direction Windows is heading (referring to Windows XP 64-bit edition, of course). Also, the benefit of doubling the memory bandwidth as well once WinXP64 is released (because of NUMA support) should increase performance in all applications, 32 or 64 bit. The legacy PCI bus is a severe bottleneck to all connected peripherals largely due to the fact that they all have to share the same bandwidth. Most of the newer dual-processor boards offer alternatives to just a single legacy PCI bus because of the chipsets they use and features of the AMD Opteron cpus.
Considering all of the above, I don't believe an Intel dual-processor system contains enough worthwhile features to justify the purchase.
Again, as far as the hard numbers, please refer to the URL listed in post #39.