Entry Level Buyer's Guide, October 2005
by Jarred Walton on October 14, 2005 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
System Summaries
That takes care of all the recommendations, though if you skimmed the majority of the article, you may have missed our suggestions to upgrade a few of the areas. Specifically, we really recommend getting the best display that you can afford, most likely a 19" LCD. That would increase the price by $100 to $150, but it would really be a worthwhile investment. Your eyes will thank you in the long run. With the base recommendations, though, let's see if we managed to stay within our budget this time. (You might not realize this, but I actually pick the parts that I want to include and only then tally the cost. As long as I'm within about $100, I usually stick with it - if I overshoot the budget, it's because I really don't feel that it's a good idea to cut corners any further just to shave $50 from the total.)
Office Systems
The office configurations both come in at around $600, with the Intel system costing $40 more. If the $500 price point is really important, dropping to 512MB of RAM and getting rid of the speakers will get you close. Performance should be quite good for most home/office applications - not that surfing the internet and reading email really requires a ton of computing power. Remember that the cost doesn't include an Operating System or any other software (other than what might come with the DVDR and motherboard). Unless you plan on running Linux and OpenOffice, you'll need to spend another $90 for Windows XP Home and $70 to $200 (or more) for MS Works or MS Office. Corel Office is another option that can be had for under $50.
So, what about a bargain OEM system from Dell or the likes? You can get a 15" LCD and the OS included in that cost, but virtually every other component and feature has been cut. You'll likely drop to a 40GB hard drive, lose the DVDR, drop to 2x256MB (or even 2x128MB!) of RAM, and you won't even get an X16 PCIe expansion slot in all likelihood. That may or may not matter to you initially, but it could become important over the next year and beyond. Built-in obsolescence is never a good thing, so if you want the ease of assembly that comes with an OEM computer, we would look to spend closer to $750 or even $1000 in order to avoid specific problems.
Gaming Systems
Our gaming configurations exceed the target $750 price by a bit more, though there are additional opportunities for cutting costs. Getting the less expensive options on the RAM, HDD, DVDR, display, and speakers will cut the price of each system by $90 without really affecting performance or features much (other than the noticeable change in display size). As with the office system, you'll still need at the very minimum an OS, and for gaming, you are pretty much required to use Windows XP. That will add another $90 for the Home edition, or $135 for XP Pro. In case you missed it, a good alternative to the 6600 GT was listed earlier in the X800 GTO, but we didn't include it in the above list in order to come a bit closer to the $750 target.
OEM systems are really a poor choice for most gamers. The critical component is the graphics card, and market segmentation by the OEMs usually prevents you from getting the best price/performance in that area. Many OEMs will only offer the X300 or a similar card as a "gaming upgrade" - and they'll even charge as much as the 6600 GT that we've selected for the inferior "upgrade". If you go with a higher end OEM system, they may offer additional GPU options, but the rest of the system will also be upgraded to the point where a moderate gaming system from an OEM will cost closer to $1500. You could buy a $700 system and add your own graphics card, but if you have to start upgrading one piece of hardware, why not just go for the whole hog and build the system yourself? You'll also get the option to overclock if you DIY the system, which really helps performance of budget gaming.
Conclusion
That wraps up another Budget Buyer's Guide. Most of us would really prefer to spend a bit more money for additional quality and performance here at AnandTech, but not everyone needs a super fast computer. College students, parents, grandparents, and those looking for a secondary (or tertiary or even quaternary) system for the home will generally be happy with any of the above systems. Small businesses could also easily make use of a bunch of these systems, though there's a question of support and assembly costs if you start buying more than a couple and don't have a dedicated IT staff.
The biggest compromise that we made was undoubtedly the display choice, but it's hard to justify doubling the cost of the display for many people. If at all possible - particularly for a business setting - we'd drop the CRT and get a decent LCD instead. A budget PC with a mid-range LCD is our preferred combination for business computers.
As always, feel free to voice your opinion or ask questions in our comments section. Incidentally, if you email me specific questions and I think that they are relevant to what others may ask, don't be surprised to find me posting the response to the comments section and sending you a link. (Don't worry - no email addresses or names will be posted.) For every person that takes the time to send a comment, there are probably fifty others with a similar thought that will appreciate the additional information.
That takes care of all the recommendations, though if you skimmed the majority of the article, you may have missed our suggestions to upgrade a few of the areas. Specifically, we really recommend getting the best display that you can afford, most likely a 19" LCD. That would increase the price by $100 to $150, but it would really be a worthwhile investment. Your eyes will thank you in the long run. With the base recommendations, though, let's see if we managed to stay within our budget this time. (You might not realize this, but I actually pick the parts that I want to include and only then tally the cost. As long as I'm within about $100, I usually stick with it - if I overshoot the budget, it's because I really don't feel that it's a good idea to cut corners any further just to shave $50 from the total.)
Office Systems
| AMD Entry Level System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Sempron 64 (754) 2600+ - 128KB 1.60 GHz Palermo | 63 |
| Motherboard | Biostar GeForce 6100-M7 | 66 |
| Memory | Patriot Signature CL2.5 2x512MB | 87 |
| Video Card | Integrated GeForce 6100 | 0 |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi 3.0Gbps 80GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar 7K80 | 57 |
| Optical Drive | NEC 3540A Black (OEM) | 41 |
| Case and Power Supply | Foxconn 3GTH-002 plus 300W PSU | 70 |
| Display | Envision EFT720 17" CRT | 127 |
| Speakers | Logitech X-230 2.1 Speakers | 37 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Logitech Internet Pro Desktop | 23 |
| Bottom Line | 571 | |
| Intel Entry Level System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Celeron D 331 - 256KB 2.66 GHz Prescott | 79 |
| Motherboard | ASUS P5RD1-V | 91 |
| Memory | Patriot Signature CL2.5 2x512MB | 87 |
| Video Card | Integrated GMA-950 | 0 |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi 3.0Gbps 80GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar 7K80 | 57 |
| Optical Drive | NEC 3540A Black (OEM) | 41 |
| Case and Power Supply | Foxconn 3GTH-002 plus 300W PSU | 70 |
| Display | Envision EFT720 17" CRT | 127 |
| Speakers | Logitech X-230 2.1 Speakers | 37 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Logitech Internet Pro Desktop | 23 |
| Bottom Line | 612 | |
The office configurations both come in at around $600, with the Intel system costing $40 more. If the $500 price point is really important, dropping to 512MB of RAM and getting rid of the speakers will get you close. Performance should be quite good for most home/office applications - not that surfing the internet and reading email really requires a ton of computing power. Remember that the cost doesn't include an Operating System or any other software (other than what might come with the DVDR and motherboard). Unless you plan on running Linux and OpenOffice, you'll need to spend another $90 for Windows XP Home and $70 to $200 (or more) for MS Works or MS Office. Corel Office is another option that can be had for under $50.
So, what about a bargain OEM system from Dell or the likes? You can get a 15" LCD and the OS included in that cost, but virtually every other component and feature has been cut. You'll likely drop to a 40GB hard drive, lose the DVDR, drop to 2x256MB (or even 2x128MB!) of RAM, and you won't even get an X16 PCIe expansion slot in all likelihood. That may or may not matter to you initially, but it could become important over the next year and beyond. Built-in obsolescence is never a good thing, so if you want the ease of assembly that comes with an OEM computer, we would look to spend closer to $750 or even $1000 in order to avoid specific problems.
Gaming Systems
| AMD Entry Level Gaming System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Sempron 64 (754) 3000+ - 128KB 1.80 GHz Palermo | 75 |
| Motherboard | DFI Infinity nF4X | 77 |
| Memory | OCZ Premier 2x512MB | 95 |
| Video Card | eVGA GeForce 6600GT 128MB | 138 |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi 3.0Gbps 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar T7K250 | 81 |
| Optical Drive | BenQ DW1640 Black (OEM) | 46 |
| Case and Power Supply | Foxconn TPS544-S350 plus 350W PSU | 82 |
| Display | Envision EFT920 19" CRT | 169 |
| Speakers | Labtec ARENA 685 5.1 Speakers | 47 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Logitech Internet Pro Desktop | 23 |
| Bottom Line | 833 | |
| Intel Entry Level Gaming System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Celeron D 331 - 256KB 2.66 GHz Prescott | 79 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-8I945P-G | 113 |
| Memory | Patriot Signature PC-4200 2x512MB | 74 |
| Video Card | eVGA GeForce 6600GT 128MB | 138 |
| Hard Drive | Hitachi 3.0Gbps 160GB 7200RPM 8MB Deskstar T7K250 | 81 |
| Optical Drive | BenQ DW1640 Black (OEM) | 46 |
| Case and Power Supply | Foxconn TPS544-S350 plus 350W PSU | 82 |
| Display | Envision EFT920 19" CRT | 169 |
| Speakers | Labtec ARENA 685 5.1 Speakers | 47 |
| Keyboard and Mouse | Logitech Internet Pro Desktop | 23 |
| Bottom Line | 852 | |
Our gaming configurations exceed the target $750 price by a bit more, though there are additional opportunities for cutting costs. Getting the less expensive options on the RAM, HDD, DVDR, display, and speakers will cut the price of each system by $90 without really affecting performance or features much (other than the noticeable change in display size). As with the office system, you'll still need at the very minimum an OS, and for gaming, you are pretty much required to use Windows XP. That will add another $90 for the Home edition, or $135 for XP Pro. In case you missed it, a good alternative to the 6600 GT was listed earlier in the X800 GTO, but we didn't include it in the above list in order to come a bit closer to the $750 target.
OEM systems are really a poor choice for most gamers. The critical component is the graphics card, and market segmentation by the OEMs usually prevents you from getting the best price/performance in that area. Many OEMs will only offer the X300 or a similar card as a "gaming upgrade" - and they'll even charge as much as the 6600 GT that we've selected for the inferior "upgrade". If you go with a higher end OEM system, they may offer additional GPU options, but the rest of the system will also be upgraded to the point where a moderate gaming system from an OEM will cost closer to $1500. You could buy a $700 system and add your own graphics card, but if you have to start upgrading one piece of hardware, why not just go for the whole hog and build the system yourself? You'll also get the option to overclock if you DIY the system, which really helps performance of budget gaming.
Conclusion
That wraps up another Budget Buyer's Guide. Most of us would really prefer to spend a bit more money for additional quality and performance here at AnandTech, but not everyone needs a super fast computer. College students, parents, grandparents, and those looking for a secondary (or tertiary or even quaternary) system for the home will generally be happy with any of the above systems. Small businesses could also easily make use of a bunch of these systems, though there's a question of support and assembly costs if you start buying more than a couple and don't have a dedicated IT staff.
The biggest compromise that we made was undoubtedly the display choice, but it's hard to justify doubling the cost of the display for many people. If at all possible - particularly for a business setting - we'd drop the CRT and get a decent LCD instead. A budget PC with a mid-range LCD is our preferred combination for business computers.
As always, feel free to voice your opinion or ask questions in our comments section. Incidentally, if you email me specific questions and I think that they are relevant to what others may ask, don't be surprised to find me posting the response to the comments section and sending you a link. (Don't worry - no email addresses or names will be posted.) For every person that takes the time to send a comment, there are probably fifty others with a similar thought that will appreciate the additional information.
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artifex - Thursday, October 27, 2005 - link
I helped my mom get a $300 eMachines desktop at Office Depot (after rebates) earlier today. It's got a Sempron 3100+, 256MB Ram, "Unichrome" shared 64M graphics but free AGP slot, 100GB hard drive, DVDRom/CD burner, a 17 inch (16 inch viewable) CRT and some Canon Pixma printer, all in the bundle. And of course, a legit copy of Win XP, home version. I'm not supporting teaching her or my dad how to use Linux, not when this cheaper machine has XP for "free."To me, this is entry level for office or home use. Not a gaming machine, but something the average adult person can use to solve productivity needs, do word processing, etc. If she wants to, she can upgrade it to 2GB RAM later, drop in an AGP video card, buy a DVD burner, etc. I don't expect her to do anything except maybe get me to upgrade it over time to 1GB RAM and maybe a DVD burner. After Christmas, that'll be maybe $100 extra, tops. And after all, this is a $300 machine. By the time she really needs much more, in a few years, she'll be able to buy the next OEM deal for $300-400 or whatever, and this will be a secondary machine for my dad, or yet another file/media server for me, or something. Oh, and she'll have another new monitor and printer, too. Does she need PCI-E now? No. She will get more value from buying a new system 3 or 4 years from now than you will get from spending $300-400 to upgrade yours with a faster processor, mobo, and memory.
Oh, don't forget, the OEM, eMachines in this case, gets to pay to replace stuff for the next year. If I buy entry level parts from mail order or Fry's, I'll have a heck of a time getting someone to replace most of it after 90 days, without lots of mailing of parts at my time and expense. She is taking some of the money she saves to buy another hard drive to back up to, so there is hope she's not totally screwed even if the hard drive dies one day after the expiration, if she and my dad remember to back their junk up. (I have had a few Hitachis and Maxtors throw errors 13 months in, so I assume it will happen. The backup will be a Seagate, of course)
So anyway, all this rambling hopefully suggests that OEM machines can be a better deal than you think.
JarredWalton - Friday, October 28, 2005 - link
OEM systems aren't terrible, but they are lowest common denominator. I would hate to use a 256MB RAM system these days. Rebates are also something of an issue, as it can take months to get the larger rebates back, and often they'll make you jump through additional hoops - all in an effort to get you to forget (or miss the deadline for) the rebate. But yeah, a $400 PC will work well enough for many people.I have to say that personally, I don't touch such systems. If someone calls with a Compaq, Dell, HP, etc. $500 "special" and says they're having problems, I tell them that I don't work on such PCs. The reason for my stance is that people who purchase such cheap systems don't care about quality, they just want cheap. You "fix" a system like that for someone, and they'll come back to you next time a part breaks and lay the blame at your feet.
My philosophy is that getting someone to understand more about the computer hardware and buy a better product will result - long term - in a person that is happier with their computer and hopefully more knowledgeable. It's my pipe dream, I know. :)
Evan Lieb - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link
Just thought I'd pop in and say great guide Jarred. Hard to disagree with any of those components save for the speaker system, which will be overkill for a lot of home/home office users. Otherwise a superb guide. You're doing them better than I did. ;)JarredWalton - Monday, October 17, 2005 - link
Thanks Evan!Good to hear from you - where you at anyway? :p
Anyway, I like to think that anyone who doesn't want speakers will know that. It's very easy to not include them, and I also mentioned the option of free Logitech speakers with keyboard purchase. I know my office PC has some garbage $10 speakers that get the job done, and I use cheap headphones if I want "quality" (or to isolate myself).
JarredWalton - Saturday, October 15, 2005 - link
Another reader email, which mentioned something I wasn't aware of. Here it is:---------------------
Congratulations on what I found to be a very good guide - I'm sure anyone in the market for a budget PC would find it to be extremely useful.
I have just one suggested addition - my understand is that in the Sempron 64 range, the 3000+ model is the lowest one to support the Cool 'n' Quiet feature. Given that this Cool 'n' Quiet doesn't work if the CPU is overclocked, this isn't of any use for an overlocked gaming rig but may be important for those who are building a Media PC or simply would like a quiet PC.
Thank you for your consistently high quality articles and guides!
---------------------
I hadn't heard about Cool and Quiet not being on the lower end Semprons, though it would make sense. Once you're running the 90nm SOI chips at 1.6 GHz, they only consume about 25 to 30W I'd guess. Total power draw at 1.80 GHz for the 3100+ (whole system) is about 140W, but that's in a 3D intensive application with an X800 Pro GPU. The GPU looks to be using somewhere around 50 or 60W, so without the GPU you'd be well under 100W.
I guess some people would like to have added power savings, but really we're talking about $20 per year for cutting power draw by 30W, and that's running 24/7. :)
Regards,
Jarred Walton
SFF and Guide Editor
AnandTech.com
JarredWalton - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
I received the following email from a reader, and thought some of you might find it useful, along with my response:--------------
Am in the market for a low end PC so found your http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=256...">latest review very
interesting.
Am wondering if you happened to note the capacitor mfrs on the mainboards
you tested.
Am asking because of cap problems http://www.badcaps.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=6">with even "Good Mfrs".
FYI http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_Plague">this is the most complete listing I have found so far concerning "Bad
Caps".
--------------
Hi [reader],
No, I didn't look for capacitor brands - in fact, I don't have most of the parts listed in this article. It's a Buyer's Guide based off of what's on the market and prices, and performance results are not included for a reason. We have tested many of these components individually, but the parts are likely scattered across the AnandTech staff.
As far as leaking capacitors, the majority of cases occurred back in the Athlon XP/P4 and earlier days. I had at least two Pentium 3 and one Athlon XP board fail due to leaking capacitors. (The last was 18 months ago, and the first was over three years ago.) A few of those boards are still out there and are only now failing, but I haven't encountered problems with any of the Athlon 64 of socket 775 boards. Gigabyte, DFI, Biostar and ASUS should be relatively safe choices. If the board were to fail within 3 years, I believe all four companies provide at least a 3 year manufacturer warranty. (Someone else may have specific details, though.)
Regards,
Jarred Walton
SFF and Guide Editor
AnandTech.com
--------------
mino - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
I'l definetely stick to 2500+/2800+ fo OC setup.256k IS really usefull, and I know, the benchmarks say othewise. But try doing some multitasking or any really new software titles-the newer the SW, the bigger the cachesize it is generally optimised for...
Also low multiplier is no issue if You stick to nf4 infinity where 350MHz+ base speeds are standard.
Other than that quality of Your BG's climbing steadily with time.
Keep it this way and there may soon be no place to improve:)
just kidin'...
BTW Jared:
what about to do a an multitasking test of the budget CPU's ? AT did las budget CPU test in april and roundup a bit before. Roundup of possible options that appeared snce (higher grade Semprons&Celerons + 2500+).
I will list the CPU that will be nice to have tested:
AMD
s754: 2500+,2600+,2800+(the budget trio) & some higher Sempron grades
s939: 3000+Sempron, 3000+A64 & 3700+SanDiego,3800+X2 for comparison
Intel:
s478: 310
s775: 331,351 Cellys & 506,521,630 P4's & 820 PD
as a GPU try something in the 6600/X700/X1300 range
also an 2500+@2.1GHz and 310@3.2GHz to show what budget OC could bring one
It will also show what 800FSB would give to 351 cellys and what difference 1MB cache makes.
I believe the 3.2/256/533 vs. 3.2/256/800 vs. 3.2/1M/800 could be very interesting and also pretty unique.
You should also mention that s478 Cellys start at $60 since there are sold big numbers o those and some good boards are available for 478 at bargain prices.
Power consumption test should be also present since at these prices the power consumption make huge part of the TCO.
mino - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
Reduced test suite would be perfectly OK here also.We all know it takes _much_ time to test all those configs, but at least for Semprons You would need just one 128k&one256k chip setup thanks to lower multis option :)
JarredWalton - Friday, October 14, 2005 - link
I'm actually trying to get an overclocking article put together using a Sempron 3100+ base. Maybe I should buy a 3000+ as well, to cover the 128K variant? Hmmm... about 100 more hours of benchmarks if I add the 128K, unfortunately. :( We'll see what I can manage. It might be more than a month before I can get it all finished up.mino - Sunday, October 16, 2005 - link
Huh, 100+ hrs is huge..even so I believe that some comparison of 128k/256k 754 + 512k/1M 939 at points like:
1.6G, 2.0G, 2.4G would be really nice and pretty sufficient to show many trends.
The Celly 310@3.2G I was asking for is just to be able to see what 1M L2 and 1ML2+HT means for Prescott. Everything other being equal.
Anyway, keep on track.