Weekly Buyer's Guide: Entry Level Guide - April 2004
by Evan Lieb on April 17, 2004 3:05 PM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Sound Card
Recommendation: Onboard soundPrice: $0
There is no need to waste money purchasing a separate sound card with an entry level system, so the obvious choice is going to be the onboard sound that comes with the ASUS A7N8X-X that we recommended as the motherboard of choice today. Integrated sound onboard the A7N8X-X is courtesy of Realtek's ALC650 codec, which is a standard 6-channel solution that will fit basic Windows, gaming, and music requirements.
If you choose ABIT's NF7-S Rev.2, you should realize that because this motherboard has an MCP-T South Bridge, you can bypass its onboard DAC by using the optical out port on the I/O panel of your board, giving you much better sound quality basically for free. However, this requires speakers with the appropriate receiver, which we do not end up recommending for our speakers today, but if you feel like spending a few more bucks, it's not a bad way to upgrade to better sound.
Speakers
Recommendation: Creative Labs SBS270 2.0 SpeakersPrice: $20 shipped
Speakers are a basic requirement for any entry level system, but they aren't that important overall. However, Creative Labs makes a great pair of 2.0 speakers, dubbed the SBS270. These are excellent entry level speakers for users who also want to have at least decent sound quality for video games and music listening. It also comes with a headphone input. There's no subwoofer or anything like that, but that's totally unnecessary unless you're keenly interested in a more powerful listening experience. Overall, a very solid pair of speakers with no real alternative worth mentioning.
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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qquizz - Saturday, April 17, 2004 - link
Try this Intel option for a value system I built for a client:(for those that gotta have Intel and a S/PDIF in out)Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8TRS300M ATI 9100IGP P4 800FSB Skt478 DDR M-ATX Motherbaord (Prescott ready) w/400/533/800FSB, ATA/100, AGP 8X, 4DDR DIMM, 3PCI, USB 2.0, Audio, Video, LAN, S/PDIF (in,out) header.........$83 shipped (Newegg)
CPU: Intel Celeron 2.4 GHz 400MHz FSB, 128K Cache - Retail..........$72 shipped (Newegg)
The rest can be the same I guess but I would get NEC 8X Black DVD+RW/-RW Drive, Model ND-2500A for $85 shipped instead of SONY crapola.
Of course no discrete video card needed with this rig but can be upgraded if one feels the urge. Also support for 3.2C or 3.2E w/ current bios.
ZobarStyl - Saturday, April 17, 2004 - link
Even on a value rig, 512 is a must. As for the graphics card...remember the object of this guide is an entry level system...not a gaming tower.Cygni - Saturday, April 17, 2004 - link
9000 Pro is a much better choice than a 9200 non-LE for that price point.Pumpkinierre - Saturday, April 17, 2004 - link
Agreed #1,2,4,6 I'd go for a Duron 1.8 (more cpu speed than the 2000+), 512Meg RAM and low cost 9600. The extra memory is the most costly but would prove beneficial in HDD swapping reduction.TheDigitalDiamond - Saturday, April 17, 2004 - link
I pretty much have the same to say as #1. Upgrade the video just a tad, use Antecs beautiful little 300Watt PSU included cases. There's a time when you save money, and then there's a time when you stop being a cheap ass..farscape - Saturday, April 17, 2004 - link
I'd wish you'd consider the Shuttle AN35 ultra - save you a few bucks. Built a number of systems with it - never a prob and OCs like crazy. WDs work fine for me. I try to stay away from the SE cards tho.blckgrffn - Saturday, April 17, 2004 - link
First off, sorry about the blank post.I agree - 512 of RAM is all that I will put into a machine that I build these days. And, there is no reason not simpy opt for the 2500+, because you will have to spend at least $15 for a decent/quiet cooler (speeze falcon rock comes to mind) for the 2000+. So the price difference if only $13, and you get a lot of bang for you buck by going that route. You could pretty much absorb all of those costs by going with an nForce IGP mobo - the graphics are actually pretty good usually and the the biostar is cheaper than your ASUS. Lastly, beige drives with a black case???? Go with the black Samsung combo drive, that is what I would do. But, then again, I would simply buy an Antec case, either there copper of black ones, so to be assured that I have good power and cooling (12 cm fan!). Lastly, I cannot stand WD drives unless they be Raptors. I would opt for the Samsung drives - fluid dynamic bearings (NO WHINING!) and a 3 year warranty.
That's my opinion!
Nat
blckgrffn - Saturday, April 17, 2004 - link
newuser12 - Saturday, April 17, 2004 - link
I'm pretty sure this has already been noted on another buyer's guide, but:I think the alternative for the RAM should be 512 MB, not 256. I have an athlon 1800+, ECS mobo, geforce 4 mx-440 AGP vid card (running at 4x AGP not 8x), a 30 GB 7200 hard drive, and I can still play unreal 2004 on it....probably cause I have 512MB of RAM. its not even high-end RAM, i think its DDR 2100 (or maybe 2700), but it works nicely.
Anyways, my point was, A little extra RAM can go a long way. It even makes a noticeable difference in windows' performance, at least on my computer (that is, when I'm not on my linux harddrive playing unreal tournament ;) ).
DannyOcean - Saturday, April 17, 2004 - link
You could save $25 by going with an AMD Duron 1.6GHz and still have enough processing power to power anything a value-rig would need to run.A 128MB 9600SE goes for only about $10 more then 64MB 9200SE, both use 64-bit memory, and rather or not a value-rig would need such an upgrade is questionable.
A FoxConn/CasEdge case would likely have a PSU that is the equivilent of poor-quality Allied PSU's. A quality PSU is important even in value-rigs, as it helps keep down on the annoyingly noticable problems caused by poor power supply. An Antec SLK1600 (w/ SL 300W), $58-Shipped, or any AOpen QF50 (w/ FSP ATX-300GU) ATX case, around $50-60-Shipped), would be great cases for a value-rig.