Normally, about now, I have a VERY firm idea of what to build, where to get the parts, where the best discounts are etc etc. This year however, there's so many big changes, there's bigger things on the horizon and generally, the industry is IMO several months behind where is /should/ be now.
Basically, don't blame the messenger, I've been covering this on my news pages a while.
My first recommendation: Wait a few more months!
My second recommendation: See my first! Otherwise, pick up a 3.0Ghz P4 for a song! The system I recommended for last year is still more than adequate for nearly all of you - and a good £500 cheaper
Concerns first:
The P4 Prescotts (775 pin Socket T's) run way too hot.
The FSB is still only 800Mhz - it /should/ be 1066Mhz IMO - and, I expect, will be before Novembers end
ATX will be replaced with BTX in the coming year (But that's for the 2005 Custom PC, now)
You can't get the PCI-e videocards and by the time you can, they will be cheaper, and a replacement lined up.
There's a price drop of up to 35% due for the top end P4 Prescott due around August 24th.
All these reasons, particularly the saving of a few hundred quid, are enough to say, wait another month and watch the market.
Anyway, below is my tentative list. Some, like the monitor, soundcard, speakers, the case are extremely unlikely to change - and these represent the vast bulk of the price...
Links to follow shortly. Most of these prices are based on Dabs, MicroDirect and QuietPC in the UK
| Case | Zalmon TNN-500A | £675 * |
| Motherboard | Asus P5AD2 i925 | £135 |
| CPU | Intel Pentium® 4 560 3.6GHz 800FSB LLA 775 CPU with 1MB Cache | £255 ** |
| Videocard | Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 XT - PCI Express | £299 |
| Memory | Corsair® 1024MB TwinX XMS 4200 DDR2 Memory Kit (2 x 512MB) | £231 |
| Soundcard | Creative Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS 7.1 Sound Card Retail | £69.5 |
| HDD | 200 GB Seagate Barracuda 8MB Cache 7200rpm ATA100 (ST3200822A) | £77 |
| Floppy | Panasonic / other | £5 |
| DVD-ROM | Plextor 16x DVD-ROM PX-116A/T3 | £22 |
| DVD-Writer | Plextor 12x DVD-RW PX-712S | £85 |
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| Monitor | Mitsubishi 2070SB | £467 |
| Keyboard | Creative ProdiKeys DM | £55 |
| Mouse | Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse Tilt Wheel USB oem | £15 |
| Speakers | Creative Gigaworks S750 7.1 THX | £221 |
| UPS | APC Smart UPS 1000VA Black Line-Interactive | £229 |
|
| OS | Microsoft XP Pro ( Linux works too  ) | £90 |
| AV | Norton Internet Suite 2004 | £42 |
|
| Total (ex vat) | rounded | £2,972 |
| Total (inc vat) | . | £3,493 |
Extra's:
For the printer, while Colour lasers are very nice, I'd plump for the Epson R800 Photo for £229 ex vat
The scanner has to be an Epson Perfection 4870 Photo at £267 ex vat
Digital camera wise, the Nikon D70, beyond any doubt - circa £800 ex vat, depending on the lenses bundle. As an extra, the SB800 flash is gorgeous, if you are into photography, it's almost worth the price...
Notes:
* This has not yet been tested with the PCI Express X800 XT / Nvidia 6800 class cards
** This is *my* projected retail price for August 31st
Keyboard:
I fancy a play with music, hence the Prodikeys option. If you can source one, Creative Vision Technologies (CVT's) Avant Prime keyboard is supposed to be as good as it gets. (Circa $149 direct). Keyboards really are subjective. I still use a clunky, noisy, IBM PS2 that's at least a decade old. Short of CVT (who used to make the original IBM keyboards) just can't buy this level of workmanship anymore.
DVD-RW:
Another good option is Sony's DRU-700A Dual Layer 8.5GB writer.
On that front expect 16x Dual Layer Serial ATA writers to become available, or at least announced, in the next 4-6 months...
*Mutter*
I am utterly disgusted that SATA DVD-ROM's aren't already widely available.
I also expected 16x DVD-RW already, but I guess the lack of media to test them is a problem.
As a comparison, a year ago 4x DVD-RW were about £200, now the 8x are around £50...
Video:
More on this later, but rumours and pre-announcement for the Christmas replacements already abound.
Motherboard / CPU bundle:
For years I've sworn by Intel, though I was a reseller for AMD. About now, depending on the AMD PCI Express motherboards (expected at the end of August) that AMD Athlon 64 FX53 64 bit wants some serious watching - it's faster than the Intel and, by all accounts, runs a lot cooler too....
AMD are finaly getting there act together on the thermal front!
Also, I have always said the Prescott is a passing solution and was expecting the Tejas to quickly replace it. That got mothballed so the next /real/ CPU jump for Intel won't be until next summer.
Memory / FSB:
Currently still 800Mhz. It will jump to 1066Mhz soon, perhaps even 1200Mhz for spring - with memory to match. Something to bear in mind.
Hard Drive:
Again, you are unlikely to see this until after Christmas and it will mean yet another motherboard upgrade, but expect 400Gb, perhaps even 500Gb SATA-300 HDD's from Seagate. And yes, I do mean SATA-300 for Q1 2005 - all being well.
On price...
I never kept a handy note of prices price to 2002, but going back to the mid 90's copies of my price lists still put a high end system over £3,000. In fact, the very first 486 server I saw - complete with a [ 200Mb drive and 16Mb ] of memory was about $24,000...
(I'll dig up the article sometime.)
In 2002 £2,800 got you a Pentium 4 2.26GHz 533MHz FSB based set up.
In 2003 this jumped to £3,166 for Pentium 4c 3.06GHz 800MHz FSB, though memory, HD etc also doubled.
This year it's leapt to an estimated £3,500, although the case is wholly responsible for this and worth the hike! I find the lack of a jump in FSB a concern, however.
Now...
Justifying - Personally I don't have too, I spend a seriously unhealthy amount of time in front of my main computer and it's just not worth it to have cheap, slow or poor quality parts. Regardless of what /you/ choose, here's some good solid advice:
Buy the very, very best monitor you can afford. Your eyes with thank you!
Buy the best memory you can, you are less likely to have crashes - but buy at least 512Mb.
Buy ... well, the rest simply does not matter. There will always be a faster videocard, a faster chip just around the corner... !
In summary... if you already have a fast computer, try and wait until next year before thinking of replacing it. If you don't I seriously recommend you get a PCI Express based system for future proofing. If, like me, you upgrade piecemeal all year round then, as you were, soldier
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