System Buyer’s Guide: $1700 Performance Midrange
by Mike Jones and Jarred Walton on May 12, 2010 4:52 AM ESTMonitor, Speakers, and Input Devices
If you don’t already own these components, here are some additional peripherals to fill out your shopping cart.
| System Accessories | ||||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
Estimated Shipping |
Rebate |
| Display | ASUS VW266H Black 25.5" 2ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor (1920x1200) | $310 | $12 | ($30) |
| Speakers | Logitech X-540 70 watts 5.1 Speakers | $89 | ||
| Input | Microsoft Comfort Curve Desktop 2000 Black USB Keyboard and Optical Mouse – OEM | $28 | $8 | |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium OEM 1-Pack (for System Builders) | $100 | ||
For an LCD, you could do a lot worse than the 25.5 inches of 2ms, 1920x1200 real estate offered by the ASUS VW266H. ASUS continues to build quality LCDs and includes HDMI connectivity (if not cables) at surprisingly low price points. Currently priced at $310 ($280 after mail-in rebate), the VW266H offers crisp images, good colors, D-Sub, DVI, HDMI, and component connectors, as well as an SPDIF out. It doesn’t include an HDMI cable, but for a monitor of this size at this price it’s difficult to complain.
Stepping down to 23” 1080p can save $100 or more and allows you to choose between several 23” 1080p displays. The ASUS VH236H is an attractive option, offering performance and connectivity on par with its larger sibling, and is currently available for $200 ($180 after $20 mail in rebate). Acer’s popular and well-regarded 23” P235Hbmid is another compelling option at the $200 price level, and it even includes an HDMI cable. If you’re really looking to shave off a couple of extra pennies, you can purchase the 21.5” 1080p ASUS VH222H for $170 ($160 after $10 mail in rebate), which is similar to the 23” version in every respect except for size.
All of the above offer great blends of value and performance, along with excellent connectivity. While you can certainly find less expensive 23” or 21.5” monitors, most will not include an HDMI connector, and you will want to be sure to research any bargain monitor whose price seems too good to be true. As the adage suggests, more often than not, “you get what you pay for.” Note that all of the displays are also TN panels, which work well enough for most users but certainly won't surpass quality IPS displays. If you want an IPS display, expect to pay around twice as much as the TN panels for a similar size display.
As the “speakers” included with most monitors are jokes no one seems to find particularly funny, it is difficult to recommend using them for anything other than a bargain basement machine. They certainly have no place in the sound system of a performance midrange machine. For a 5.1 system, the 70 Watt Logitech X-540 will definitely get the job done nicely, especially when you consider its $89 price tag. It won’t be mistaken for an audiophile grade rig, but it’s a great fit for gaming surround sound without breaking the bank. Logitech also offers a more robust 505 Watt system, but at $377 the THX-certified Z-5500 is difficult to recommend for a midrange system. As an aside, there is a disappointing lack of quality surround sound systems available in the $100-$350 price range, which makes it difficult to recommend other options.
There are many options in 2.1 systems, however, and it shouldn’t be hard to find something that will sound nice and fit your budget. The 200 Watt, THX Certified Logitech Z-2300 is a popular choice among system builders, and offers a loud (120 watts RMS) subwoofer. At $150, it offers a good mix of performance and price. The Creative Inspire T3130 2.1 speakers are a considerably less expensive option, though at $50 they are of course somewhat less robust (20 Watts total). Just the same, they will be a vast improvement over any speakers that come in the same box as your monitor.
For input devices, the Microsoft Comfort Curve Desktop 2000 fits the bill as the old standby. The keyboard is fine and, if you have no intention of gaming, the mouse will suffice for basic computing tasks. However, someone building this machine—and spending over $300 on a graphics card—probably intends to game with it. If that same someone doesn’t already have a gaming mouse they love, the Logitech MX518 is a popular option and at $43 won’t kill the bankroll. It features eight programmable buttons, custom sensitivity settings, and delivers 1800 dpi resolution. A slightly more upscale option is the Logitech G500, which costs $57, features 10 buttons, a dual-mode scroll wheel, resolution up to 5700 dpi, and the ability to adjust its weight to your preference.
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pjconoso - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
$1700? Midrange? This is like PhP 85,000 in our currency and I'd like to think its high-end already.artifex - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
If you think "performance" means primarily number crunching, not gaming, then go with the AMD choice, but just use the integrated Radeon 4290 graphics on the ASUS motherboard and save yourself over $300 by dumping the GPU card. Not to mention that if you can get by with a 19" monitor, there are several to be had for like $150 or less (Fry's actually has a 23" for $200 before rebate, too), etc. Oh, if you dump the graphics card, you probably can get by with a smaller PS, too, and that will save more... And honestly, doesn't that retail Phenom II come with a stock cooler? Knock another $27 off...isrial - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
85.000 PhP !?That’s almost 290.000 Nigerian naira! The average nigerian would have to work two full years to be able to afford this system! Preposterous.
I demand this guide to be renamed into "System Buyer’s Guide: $1700 Super Computer".
jleach1 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
And....as you can tell by the title...it says "PERFORMANCE MIDRANGE"JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
I'm just putting this here so it hopefully doesn't get lost in the discussion below. You'll note that I added a paragraph on the "Base Components" page discussing the SSD/Blu-ray debate and making specific note of the option to downgrade one and upgrade the other. I sort of take that thing as a given, but obviously a lot of you want us to explicitly mention stuff like that.whatthehey - Friday, May 14, 2010 - link
Just FYI Jarred:http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php...
You struck a nerve by pissing on their "requirement" to have SSDs in any modern system. Now we know why GullLars has been such a prick over here. Of course if you're into competitive benchmarking, SSDs will help out. PCMark Vantage is a fucking joke the way it boosts your scores just by putting in an SSD. "Oh wow... my gaming score got 100% higher by using an SSD!" NOT!
Maybe everyone from AnandTech should go over there and piss in their forums for a while? Except, I know from being around here quite a while that the people here are of much higher caliber material than the idiot ORB-Penis worshipers at XtremeSystems.
So GullLars and pals, if you come back again, let me wish you a fine PISS OFF. Someone posts an informed guide that doesn't cater to your every whim by recommending a $200+ upgrade to a reasonable SSD and you tell people to come over here and complain. Real nice. And you can forget that 32GB SSD garbage... just my Windows and Program Files directories use up 20GB, and I don't have a ton of stuff installed! I doubt most mainstream users want to deal with telling every Tom, Dick, and Harry application to put files somewhere other than C:. I still spend 10 minutes on every tech support call trying to get people to open Windows Explorer and browse to a specific location. Those that know how to deal with multiple HDDs, changing user documents default location, etc. are more than capable of determining on their own whether or not they need an SSD without you pushing them as the be-all, end-all of computer performance.
Bipedal Humanoid - Thursday, July 1, 2010 - link
To those who complain: Before you post in a renowned place such as anandtech, make sure you know what you are talking about. You obviously have NO idea.This is a HARDWARE website not a MONEY website... Need more clarity? Ok then, Performance midrange means that in terms of the currently available hardware this guide hits the sweetspot between PERFORMANCE and cost.
If you still don't understand, I'd recommend you go buy yourself a Dell.
And to isrial: You can't make such demands, this is still a free country the last time I checked, your demands are reflecting poorly on your country mugu.
Phate-13 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
1. I absolutely agree that this is NOT a midrange pc, but that it is high end. You can play (almost) any game at its maximum with that config, how can you call that midrange?2 . Please make up your mind internally, about ssd's:
"Though the time for suggesting the purchase of an SSD boot/OS disk in this segment appears to be drawing closer, prices just aren’t there yet." And that's it in this article, while over a year ago:
@ The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs and New Drives from OCZ
@ 3/18/2009
And even later explicitly:
Title: Why You Absolutely Need an SSD
The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD @ 8/30/2009
Over half a year ago you absolutely needed an SSD and now all of sudden the time isn't just there yet?
And on the other hand, you do put an Blu-ray player in it.
In general I really do like the articles on Anandtech, but personally I think this one is a swing and miss.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
The old "my midrange is not your midrange" argument rears its ugly head again. The classification is technically "Performance Midrange", which means it's closer to high-end than entry-level (as opposed to Entry Midrange, or Mainstream, or whatever you want to call it). You can, as someone above pointed out, make many changes--quite a few of which we mention in the text--to get the price lower.As for the SSDs, Anand loves them. He also loves Macs. And he happens to have far more available spending money than the vast majority of people... plus he gets them for free. Personally, I've used systems with and without SSDs and I don't feel the difference as much as Anand. For $100 I can get a 1TB hard drive. For the same $100 I can get a dumbed down 30GB or 40GB SSD. It will handle random file access a lot better, but you will fill up a big chunk of it with just your OS and Office.
Personally, I am fine having all of my documents, images, movies, etc. reside in C:\Users\Jarred. At present (and with much of my pre-2009 data moved to backup on a different drive), my user folder checks in at nearly 60GB of data. 12GB is just for the 2009/2010 AnandTech stuff, and another 12GB or so is for family pictures. I could store it in a different location, but I prefer not to as I like being able to open Explorer and get straight to my pictures with the link in the top-left.
Is Anand wrong? Nope. And neither am I. It's merely a case of different priorities. For the cost of a reasonable sized SSD (160GB is the smallest I'd be okay with), I can get a lot of other performance upgrades that will matter more to me.
Phate-13 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
Thanks for the quick reaction. But when you state that you don't feel the difference that much, then I can hardly imagine that you can actually feel the difference between the WD black and other 1TB HD's. Which makes it hard to justify going for the faster WD Black.And by shaving off those additional costs + switching out the Blu-ray for a normal dvd writer, I can fit in an Intel Postville 80GB for only a small extra.
Because you used newegg as reference, I'll use it as well:
HD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... (-30)
Dvd: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... (-85)
GPU: (HD5770 in crossfire, which is actually faster a lot of times) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... (-20) (and 30 rebate)
Memory: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8... (-12) (and 15 rebate)
Which adds up to 147 + 45 rebate.
With the intel ssd costing 215: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...
That's only $23 extra with extra GPU performance. The only thing your missing is the blu-ray.
Well, that's my point of view. I think most people don't need a blu-ray player in their computer, I even don't get the point of having one. If you want to watch a blu-ray movie, you'll do it on your tv.