Buyer's Guide: Value Systems - August 2000
by Mike Andrawes on August 18, 2000 1:09 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
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 ensures
that this system will always have room for upgrades.
If you want something a little smaller than the monstrous SC750-A for your home or office, 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! Value OEM - $50
The choice here is simple – SBLive!, since Creative is the only manufacturer
offering complete driver support under Windows 2000. If you want to save a
bit more money, go with any name brand card supported under Windows 2000.
Speakers – Generic -
$20
We just need something to get us by for basic Windows sounds, so just go
down to any local store and see what you can find for $20.
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 15GB - $110
We still maintain that hard drive speed is one of the biggest bottlenecks
in a system, so we won’t skimp in this category. As such, we’ve simply chosen
a smaller version of the drive in our high-end system, the 15GB IBM Deskstar
75GXP, which also happens to be the fastest IDE drive available today and even
includes a Ultra ATA/100 interface. There is no performance difference between
this drive and the larger versions other than the available disk space.
If you simply need more space, you can either drop down to a 5400rpm drive or pay a bit more for a larger 7200rpm model. For more information read our IBM Deskstar 75GXP Review.
CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM
- Name brand 40X – 50X CD-ROM - $40
While many will suggest going with the cheapest CD-ROM you can find, we
highly recommend that you pick a name brand, not just the cheapest generic.
Our experience with the no-names is that many of them do not perform as advertised
and even have trouble reading less than perfect discs. Acer, Creative Labs,
Toshiba, and Teac all do an excellent job.
OS
– Windows 2000 Professional - $250
The choice here is clear – Windows 2000 Professional is the latest and greatest
OS from Microsoft that provides all the functionality of NT 4.0, but enhanced
hardware support. If you want to stick with a more tried and true solution,
go with NT 4.0 Workstation.
Bottom line: $1725 (without software)
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