Buyer's Guide: High-End Systems - December 2000

Case
Supermicro SC750-A Full Tower ATX - $150
Fong Kai FK-320ATX Mid Tower ATX - $120
We need a case that can handle anything we can throw at it, but at a reasonable price level.  That case is the Supermicro SC750-A full tower and is available for about $150 with an Athlon approved 300W Sparkle power supply.  A total of ten drive bays and the ability to accept an extended ATX motherboard insures that this system will always have room for upgrades. 

If you want something a little smaller than the monstrous SC750-A for your home, consider the Fong Kai FK-320ATX. It offers plenty of room to work inside, is well built, provides excellent cooling, and even includes an Athlon 1 GHz approved Enhance 730-ATX power supply.

For more information, read our Supermicro SC750-A and Fong Kai FK-320ATX Reviews.

Sound card – Sound Blaster Live! X-Gamer 5.1 - $100
Choosing between the Aureal SQ2500 and the SBLive! had been one of the more difficult decisions in this guide, but with Aureal in serious financial troubles, the choice is clear - go with Creative. It doesn't hurt that it has full Liveware 3.0 support under Windows 2000 either.  We chose the X-Gamer model for its digital speaker interface, although you can save about $50 by going with an OEM / Value model.

The "5.1" versions of all Sound Blaster Live! cards are now available that allow it to handle Dolby Digital decoding. This is only important if you plan on using a speaker system with 5.1 analog inputs that also doesn't its own Dolby Digital decoder, which in this system is not the case.

Speakers – Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater DTT3500 / Klipsch ProMedia V2-400 - $250
We obviously need some speakers with 4-channel surround support to properly render the 3D positional audio output of our SBLive!  As mentioned previously, we also wanted something that could interface with the digital out on the Live!  Well, the Desktop Theater DTT3500 looked to fit the bill.  But the real key is its top-notch sound quality and built-in Dolby Digital decoder.

If you're not interested in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround or simply want better sound quality than the DTT3500's, the Klipsch ProMedia V2-400's are probably the best choice for something in this price range. The monstrous sub can really pound out the bass and the whole system can get louder than your neighbors will appreciate without distorting.

For more information, read our Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater DTT3500 Review and our Klipsch ProMedia V2-400 Review.

Ethernet – Linksys EtherFast 10/100 - $20
We use Linksys products here in the AnandTech lab all the time and have never been disappointed.  Besides, at just $20 for a card with full support directly from the manufacturer under the major OS’s, including Linux and Windows 2000, the EtherFast 10/100 is a deal that’s impossible to pass up. 

Hard drive – IBM Deskstar 75GXP 45GB - $170
Once again, the fastest drive on the market gets the nod, plain and simple. We've chosen to stick with just one drive since RAID performance doesn't really help that much in gaming situations where disk access is not a major bottleneck. If you do any disk intensive work, definitely consider getting a RAID controler and another drive.

CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Pioneer DVD-105S 16X Slot Load DVD-ROM - $150
Yamaha CRW2100EZ 16/10/40X CD-RW - $275
What high-end system is complete today without a DVD-ROM?  Pioneer continues to lead the pack with their DVD-105S, a 16X DVD-ROM drive. Of course, it also reads CDs as well at a swift 40X max clip. If you don’t need DVD support, the Kenwood TrueX 72X will provide you with the fastest CD-ROM speed at a slightly lower cost of about $120. 

Plextor has been displaced as the performance leader in the EIDE CD-RW market by Yamaha's CRW2100EZ which burns at an incredible 16X clip and rewrites at an also fast 10X. The biggest problem with this drive may be finding blank media that can handle such high speed.

OS – Windows 2000 / Windows Millennium Edition Dual Boot - $250 + 175
Even though Windows 2000 supports DirectX 7, immature drivers and the general overhead of the OS prevent it from performing on par with Windows Millennium Edition when it comes to games.  Of course, Windows 2000 is the future, and its just so much more stable.  Our solution: work in Windows 2000 and boot back to Windows ME if you need maximum performance for games.  Of course, if you just need a quick break from work, you can still frag in Win2K. 

Bottom Line: $2,345 (without software or shipping)