Buyer's Guide: High-End Systems - September 2000

High-end Professional 3D
A high-end professional 3D system requires a number of high-end components. CPU performance is critical and we need more RAM here than any other system we've looked at previously. The graphics requirements are also very different in the professional space and a large monitor is critical.

Processor – AMD Athlon "Thunderbird" 900 - $300
At similar clock speeds, the Athlon holds a significant advantage in price and performance in professional 3D applications. That, of course, makes the decision for our High-End Professional system's CPU a no-brainer. We’ve chosen a Socket-A Athlon 800, which means that it's using the new Thunderbird core with on-die cache.

Besides the direct performance benefits of full speed on-die cache, we also get the side benefit of enhanced overclockability. If you're willing to overclock our CPU, you can save some money by going with the 700 MHz model, most of which will hit 900 - 950 MHz at default voltage, all without exotic cooling. The 900 MHz chip will overclock to the same range, so there's little point in spending the extra money on it if you do plan to overclock.

For more information on all Athlon processors, read our Athlon "Thunderbird" 1GHz Review and our Thunderbird / Duron Overclocking Revealed Aritcle.

Motherboard – ABIT KT7-RAID - $190
We recently looked at as many Socket-A boards as we could get a hold of and one board stood out head and shoulders above the rest - the ABIT KT7-RAID. As we noted in the roundup, the KT7 is the perfect board to overclock with thanks to its completely jumperless Soft Menu III CPU setup.

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The ASUS A7V is also an excellent choice that also offers complete overclocking/multiplier control, albeit not in 100% jumperless form.

If you don't plan on overclocking, Gigabyte and Microstar offer solid products that can save you a a bit of money.

For more information, read our Socket-A Motherboard Roundup (August 2000) and our ABIT KT7-RAID Review.

Memory – 512MB Corsair or Mushkin PC133 SDRAM (2x256MB DIMM’s) – $350 x 2
Even though memory is relatively cheap these days, it is a key factor in the performance of most professional apps.  For a high-end system like this, 512MB is not unreasonable and easily fits within the budget.

As for the exact brand of memory, we recommend Corsair or Mushkin modules.  We use them in our test systems and have had absolutely no problems with them. 

Video Card – ELSA GLoria II (NVIDIA Quadro) - $600
NVIDIA’s Quadro is simply the most powerful workstation 3D accelerator we’ve tested to date.  Based on the same T&L GPU of the GeForce, the Quadro runs at a higher core clock speed, 135 MHz, and enables certain features that were left disabled on the GeForce. Among these features is enhanced support for anti-aliased points and lines, which, although it isn’t a commonly used feature with most users, was an extremely poor performance point for the GeForce.

With their previous experience in the professional market, ELSA was able to score exclusive rights to manufacture the Quadro.  The Gloria II is ELSA’s implementation and comes with 64MB SDR SDRAM.  While a DDR version of the Quadro has been announced, and even tested by AnandTech, it’s not actually available anywhere at the moment.  At $650, the SDR version of the Gloria II is a relative steal compared to some of the other professional 3D accelerators out there.  Throw in the fact that it’s fully support under Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Linux and it becomes quite clear that the Quadro is the best choice.

NVIDIA has already announced a professional version of the GeForce 2 GTS, the Quadro2 Pro and the Quadro2 MXR. The Quadro2 Pro is GeForce2 GTS based, while the MXR is the GeForce2 MX based part - ELSA once again has the "exclusive" distribution rights on cards using these chipsets. Unfortunately, neither card has surfaced just yet, so with that in mind, it seems wise to hold off a bit if you can. For more information, see our ELSA Gloria II Review.

Monitor – iiYama VisionMaster PRO 510 - $1000
Using a Mitsubishi Diamondtron NF, the iiYama VisionMaster Pro 510 provides a perfectly flat display surface using the same technology in Sony’s FD Trinitron models, but at a lower cost.  Make sure you can deal with the damper wires that all Trinitron style tubes have.  The VisionMaster PRO 510 is a 22” monitor and has been highly acclaimed here on AnandTech and by owners alike. 

For more information, read our iiYama VisionMaster PRO 450 and VisionMaster PRO 510 Reviews.