Buyer's Guide: High End System - July 2004
by Wesley Fink on June 30, 2004 12:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Memory
Recommendation: 1GB Kit (2 X 512MB) OCZ PC3700 EBPrice: $340 shipped
One of the advantages of the new AMD Socket 939 is that it uses regular unbuffered dual-channel memory. This means almost any memory will fit in your new Socket 939 system. However, we have found that some memory performs much better in Athlon 64 systems than others, and the overall best Athlon 64 performance that we have found was with OCZ 3700EB (Extended Bandwidth) memory.
The EB takes a little different approach to memory timings, and runs at 2.5-2-2, at DDR400. This is still competitive with the best memory available, but by DDR433 to DDR450, the EB becomes the fastest memory that we have tested at that speed. Performance extends well beyond DDR500 and the performance at DDR500 is the best that we have tested. Many Athlon 64 boards are picky about memory, but every Athlon 64 board that we have tested so far seems quite content with either 3700EB or 3500EB memory.
In the past year, OCZ has raised their Customer Service standards to among the best in the memory industry. We often get emails reporting very positive Customer Service and quick problem resolution when customers have contacted OCZ directly. OCZ combines that excellent Customer Service with a Lifetime Warranty.
Alternative: 1GB Kit (2 X 512MB) Corsair 3200XL or 3200XL PRO
Price: $361 or $365 shipped
Corsair 3200XL roared on the scene in May with a return of 2-2-2 timings to DDR400. These fast timings were thought to be dead after Winbond discontinued their BH5 memory, but Corsair managed to return 2-2-2 to the market with a new generation of Samsung memory chips. The Corsair is an outstanding match to the alternate DFI 875B LANParty motherboard, and will provide the fastest DDR400 memory performance that you can currently find.
Corsair 3200XL also extends performance all the way to DDR500, so you will have incredible headroom when you select this memory for your system. The Corsair memory also works well on the AMD Athlon 64 platform when we tested it, but performance did not extend quite as far on the AMD platform. It is still a good choice for Athlon 64 machines where extremely high overclocking is not a top concern. While 2-2-2 memory based on Samsung chips is now available from both OCZ and Mushkin, Corsair pioneered the return to 2-2-2 and was the first on the market with new memory capable of 2-2-2 timings.
Corsair is the standard by which every Enthusiast Memory manufacturer is measured, and their Customer Service is among the best in any industry. Corsair also provides a Lifetime Warranty on memory products and their "RAM Guy" is a well-known resource for memory problems in many Forums.
Listed below is part of our RealTime pricing engine, which lists the lowest prices available on memory from many different reputable vendors:
If you cannot find the lowest prices on the products that we've recommended on this page, it's because we don't list some of them in our RealTime pricing engine. Until we do, we suggest that you do an independent search online at the various vendors' web sites. Just pick and choose where you want to buy your products by looking for a vendor located under the "Vendor" heading.
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Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
#6 - We will likely upgrade the DVD burner in our next guide to one of the new 12X (or 16X?) versions. Since I am still having a hard time finding 8X media or a 12X drive it seemed a little too soon to take the plunge in the guide.While I personally think the Audiophile 24/96 is an incredible sound card, and a great card for a home studio, I think it is most useful to a buyer who wants to do some recording on his computer system. It is clearly superior to my ears than either the Creative or lower-priced Revolution as a card for recording. The pro-grade converters made a real difference there.
My concern was whether most high-end buyers were really first concerned about recording quality, so I decided picking it would be too large a leap of assumption. The Audiophile is also 5.1 which is not a problem in my book, but might be for some. Frankly the Audiophile 24/96 coupled with the Klipsch Pro Media Ultra is an incredible computer listening experience - but you already know that.
mcveigh - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
audigy resamples everything, some people say they notice a difference. some say they don't.both cards are great and have ther own pluses and minuses.
9/10.....how bout a 12x dvd burner....and maybe a better sound card (i'm just playing devils advocate)
m-audio Audiophile 2496 perhaps?????
starmonkey - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
Enjoyed the article. Good choices. The only one that surprised me was the case; I was expecting you guys to recommend the Lian Li PC-V1000 that everyone seems to be so crazy about these days.RyanVM - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
The Audigy2 ZS' SnR is just as good (if not a bit better) than the M-Audio Revolution (108dB). It also supports 24/192. Where are the quality advantages of the Revolution?Wesley Fink - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
#2 - It WAS changed in the last guide after posting, and slipped through again this time. We apologize. The 0 is changed to the correct 1.ir0nw0lf - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
Nice changes to the guide this time, although suggesting a video card that is harder than hell to currently aquire might be considered by some a bit questionable, but is still a good candidate for this level of system to be sure. But not to be too overly rude, do you guys actually proof read your articles? Yet again (was this way last high end buyers guide as well), you have on page 9, "Those concerned more about data security than ultimate speed can configure the drives as RAID 0, or mirroring." Can you puh-lease change that to RAID 1? It's killing me!GokieKS - Wednesday, June 30, 2004 - link
Much improved choices over previous weeks. Good job. =)That said, still need to nitpick... though the only thing that I would change and isn't a matter of personal taste (as things like choice for a case are) is the DVD burner. Sony's DL drive and Plextor's 12x models are already both available, and though neither are as good a value, but this is the high-end system, and you're still a far ways off from your $5000 limit. It would also be useful to have a seperate DVD-ROM, for on-the-fly copying of discs. (And a good CD-RW for DAE purposes? 3 optical drives may be a bit overboard though. =P)
Once again, good improvement over previous editions.
~KS
SameOldJames - Friday, April 2, 2021 - link
Can't wait to buy this so I can play Half Life 2 at max settings! I already have my 6800 GT on me and now all I need is this! So excited.SameOldJames - Friday, April 2, 2021 - link
I'm just having a hard time finding some at MSRP....