Computer Buyer's Guide (US $3000, or individual parts..)

[Xugumad]

In contrast to my previous postings which are mostly addressing reasonably vital issues...

Let's talk computers. Let's talk x86 architectures. Let's talk personal computers, individual PCs, workstations, gaming machines, personal multimedia centers, connectors to the Internet and a world of wonders. If you have some money to spare, here are my personal picks for desirable components in an x86 system. This will provide you with an awesome, easy-to-upgrade system that has no real weak points and that should still be very good in a couple of years' time, allowing for graceful upgrades. If you can't afford paying that much, think about it this way: it's a list of components where the price-to-performance ratio is *just right*.

I am willing and ready to defend my choices, if necessary with advanced technobabble only penetrable if the Cellar was to reconfigure its front deflector shield to emit a phase-inverted tachyon beam.

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April 2002 personal workstation/system of choice

This is built with standard off-the-shelf parts, with an eye on cost
and performance. It's meant as a very speedy reference system for people interested in the best parts without spending ludicrous amounts of money. The first component of choice sometimes has superior (more expensive) alternatives, which don't necessarily provide that much of an improvement for the added cost. Those alternatives have been added right after their primary respective choice, in [ ] brackets. This is not meant as a server system, thus the emphasis on high-quality end-user sound and video gfx features, rather than on high-quality RAID, fail-over and other server details. Adding a UPS and other accessories such as a DVD+RW (or plain DVD, depending on preferences) is left as an excercise to the reader.

Some choices are a tradeoff between price and performance. Examine the individual features of the alternatives and choose what's best for you.


Motherboard: ASUS A7V333 ($130)
CPU: AMD AthlonXP 2000+ 1.67GHz ($180)
[CPU: AMD AthlonXP 2100+ 1.73GHz ($230)]
Graphics card: Leadtek WinFast A250 Ultra TD($390)
Memory: 3x PC2700 DDR 512MB RAM DIMMs($450total)
Sound: Soundblaster Audigy ($50)
[Sound: Hercules Game Theater XP 5.1 ($100)]
[Sound: Soundblaster Audigy Platinum Ex ($195)]
KBoard/Mouse: Logitech Wireless KB/Mouse ($40)
[Mouse: Razer Boomslang 2000 ($100)]
Monitor: Sony CPD-G410R 19" CRT ($320)
[Monitor: ViewSonic 19" LCD [VX900] ($1100)]
[Monitor: ViewSonic 23" LCD [VP230MB] ($3350)]
Case: Lian Black AL ATX Tower ($150)
PSU: Enermax EG651P-VE 550W/650W($130)
Speakers: Creative Labs Inspire 5700 ($230)
CDRW Drive: Teac CD-W540E 40/12/48 BProof ($95)
Network: 3Com 3C996B-T 10/100/1000 ($125)
[Network: Pro Intel Pro 1000 XT ($120)]

IDE Sys. HDD: WD1200JB 7200RPM 120GB ($195)
[IDE Sys HDD: IBM IC35L080AVVA07 80GB 7200RPM($105)]
IDE Stor HDD: Maxtor 4G160J8 160GB 5400RPM($195)

SCSI Sys. HDD: Maxtor KW036L4 10kRPM 36G ($280)
[SCSI Sys HDD: Seagate ST336752LW 15kRPM 36GB($395)]
SCSI Stor HDD: Maxtor KW073L8 10kRPM 73GB($645)
SCSI card: Adaptec 39160 U160 dual channel($225)


Total Price: $2680, excluding tax if bought in-state, and shipping if bought online. This is for the base IDE system, which should be fairly future-proof. (as far as computers go)


You will *need* to add a CPU cooler, but this is usually taken care of when you buy a CPU, unless you desperately want to get the CPU and cooler separately and fiddle endlessly with it yourself. The video card comes with a very, very decent cooling system, and the case has 3 internal fans. Including all additional cost, the basic system (which should be speedier than 95% of systems out there right now, and in the next months to come) will be less than $3000. This is for a wicked top-of-the-line system. Add $4000 to turn it into a God box. You can probably see the law of diminishing returns when it reaches this level. If you want to save around $80 without taking a real performance hit, opt for the AthlonXP 1800+ instead, it's $80 cheaper. There have been issues with WD drives before (not this model), and there were some questions regarding IBM documents regarding the listed IBM drive, but no actual issues ever arose, so the specified IDE drives ought to be a very good pick reliability-wise. Performance/space-wise they are already the best combination.

Future upgrades: The video card ought to be a safe option for the next few years. The sound card should also be a very safe choice. The monitor is also very decent, and there should be no reason to want to burn CDR/Ws any faster anytime soon. Unless there are significant surprises ahead, you don't have to worry about the case, and the PSU shouldn't need no upgrading unless it dies. If you go for the IDE route, you can add another IDE drive whenever necessary, or swap out the smaller of the drives. I went for speed for the system drive and sheer size/speed for the storage drive. The SCSI option includes a dual-channel SCSI3/U160 card, leaving you with plenty of upgrade options. (like simply adding another drive) Note that the SCSI option is probably by far more reliable and upgrade-proof, but also at least $700 more whilst smaller in capacity. There is also no backup option selected; most 'normal' users should be OK if they copy their vital files onto CD-R/RW. 100 700MB CD-Rs are < $15; 100 CD-RWs are < $40.

I specifically included a very good brand Gigabit ethernet card to ensure you won't have to ever replace that.

As for the OS: although Win2k should be the OS of choice (don't give any second thoughts to XP), some of the drivers for more specialized features aren't quite 100% there, specifically referring to certain sound features. The drivers may have matured in the meantime, so check it out if you prefer the stability of 2k over the inherent danger of Win98SE or the sheer system mess that is WinME or WinXP. For more 'serious' work, Linux is always an option, although this is concepted as an fun end-user work/game station rather than a working horse. The optional Razer Boomslang 2000 also doesn't have any XP drivers at the time of this writing.

As a final aside: If I was given the choice between this and a fully-loaded Dual-1GHz G4 with 2GB of RAM and a 23" Cinerama display- I'd be hard pressed. I'd have to insist on SCSI in the Mac, and loads of pre-installed software on it as well: but then, I'd be unable to resist OSX. Technologically speaking, it's impressive, to say the least. (Software: OSX.1.4 itself with the promised land of Display PostScript, iTunes 2.0.4 integration with the iPod, Final Cut Pro 3.0.1 and the Apple Cinema Tools, native QT5, Quark5, InDesign2, Photoshop7...)

X.

Not at all a bad system. I built a pretty zippy box back in November/December (as you may recall) and I'm still pretty impressed with how fast it is. It also came together for around $2,100 - but that's without the monitor, which I aleady had, and without a CD burner, which I have in my PowerMac.

Building a high-end computer is fun. Or at least it is for geeks like me. The design, planning, execution... and then using it and realizing that you do indeed now have a fast box... all fun things. I'm probably going to build a new computer in the fall and I've already started planning it. It's probably going to run Windows (which I find exceptionally difficult to do and usually end up installing Linux), so I can be more liberal in my hardware choices. I'm going to stick it in a Yeong Yang YY-0221 cube case most likely. The product page is at

http://www.yeongyang.com/products/yy0221.htm

and some pictures can be seen here. I don't think it's going to be a $3,000 computer but it will definitely be pretty capable. Probably GF4 video, gig of RAM, one of the new Abit boards, 2 x 80 GB hard disk, PlexWriter, etc.

As for Macs vs PCs... Well, I used to hate Apple. One can only lie to oneself for so long. The machines they're making now are top of the line, no doubt about it. I prefer using MacOS X over any other operating system now. It doesn't have all the conveniences of MacOS 9 (which definitely had a lot of conveniences), but it's still very functional. I haven't had it freeze/crash on me once. My iBook hasn't been rebooted/power-cycled in months. Macs are just a joy to use.

The Antec case you have in the picture (middle) is pretty nice. I have a Lian Li PC-12 for my main box but one of my other machines is residing in the Antec. It doesn't have all the super duper whizbang features of the Lian Li but for $65 or whatever they're going for now, it's a strong buy.

The case on the left... those are a dream to work with

No opinion on the other one

[vsp]

Building a high-end computer is fun. But building a mid-range computer and squeezing every last drop of performance out of it is even more fun.

(Granted, your high-end computer will be a mid-range computer in about six months, but...)

jeff. still happy with his $1100 Athlon 1300 megabox