Weekly Buyer's Guide: High End System - March 2004
by Evan Lieb on April 2, 2004 11:25 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
High End System Summary
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| CPU & Cooling | AMD Athlon 64 3400+ | $416 |
| Motherboard | ASUS K8V Deluxe | $136 |
| Memory | 2 X 512MB Mushkin Level One PC3500 (DDR433) | $239 |
| Video Card | 128MB PowerColor Radeon 9800 Pro | $206 |
| Monitor | Samsung 1100DF DynaFlat CRT | $460 |
| Computer Case | Kingwin K11 Aluminum ATX plus $55 400W Antec PSU | $125 |
| Sound Card | Creative Labs Audigy 2 6.1 (OEM) | $70 |
| Speakers | Logitech Z5300 5.1 surround | $145 |
| Networking | Onboard | $0 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital 1200JB (120GB) | $92 |
| CD-RW | NEC 2500A 8X DVD+/-RW | $90 |
| Bottom Line | - | $1979 |
$1979 is the final price of our high end system this week, not including any money that you'll spend on software (Windows XP Home or Professional, Office, etc.) or a keyboard and mouse.
Chances are that you won't be able to find a better system for under $2000 shipped unless you are lucky enough to find good rebates/coupons on certain components. For the money, this is pretty much the best high end system that you can build.
Now go build your system and let us know what you think in our comments section.
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thatsright - Friday, April 2, 2004 - link
You have a picture of a ASUS Motherboard where it should be a picture of the ABIT IC7-G.
And it seems like you folks only 'pick' products from your advertisers or manufactures which send AT review samples (tisk, tisk).
I like the AT system guides somewhat, but I still believe that the SharkyExtreme.com sys guides are put together with a lot more care and style.
Am I banned yet?
cK-Gunslinger - Friday, April 2, 2004 - link
On the summary chart, you only show 2x256MB for the memory configuration. That should be 2x512MB, no?Hooligan2 - Friday, April 2, 2004 - link
Why do you recommend the powercolor radeon9800 when I always see the ATI Radeon 9800 doing better in the benchmark gaming tests? (sorry if I missed it...I am new to the site)