TechSpot's High-end PC Buying Guide

[Julio Franco]

The future is now! Quad-core CPUs, DirectX 10 graphics cards, Windows Vista, all the things we have been waiting for are now available for public consumption.

With deals, price cuts, and the winter buying season upon us, this would seem like a perfect time to empty our wallets and make an upgrade or build a new PC, especially if you are a big spender. We have put together a special high-end PC buying guide for the New Year that includes a $2000 “standard deluxe” configuration, a heftier $3000 “Fully Loaded” system, and an additional “Dream Machine” with no virtual price ceiling. Without further ado, here’s our components picks for this month...

https://www.techspot.com/guides/41-highend-pc-buying-guide-200701/

Please leave your feedback here. Thanks!

 

[kitty500cat]

:slurp:

Nice! 'cept that was a lot of reading That dream machine was cool; makes me wish I was a little richer...

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

It was awesome, to say the least. But I wondered why you picked the Cooler Master Real Power Pro for the dream machine. That spot should've gone to the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool or the Enermax Galaxy. Also, I would've thrown in 4GB of RAM for the dream machine. That would've really made for an awesome Alienware-beater!

 

[Mekaonija]

Great Post but I think the price on...

The Acer AL2416Wd 24 At 650$ Dropped.

- Its listed at a price about $284.99 - $349.99

 

[kitty500cat]

Umm...wouldn't a Pentium 2 be an alienware beater?

 

[olefarte]

Great Post but I think the price on...

The Acer AL2416Wd 24 At 650$ Dropped.

- Its listed at a price about $284.99 - $349.99

If you will give me a link to that monitor at that price, I'm going to buy it. I can't find it for less than $600 or so.

 

[Steve]

WOW a 24" LCD at that price would be hot, hell I will take 2

 

[Mekaonija]

Really! I thought that was a bit expensive, I was looking at the wrap up and I noticed 600$ for a monitor, so I clicked the link and it brought me here
http://techspot.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/masterid=29867543/sort_type=price
I haven't checked any where else but I just assumed from that it didn't quiet cost that much.

-Price Range: $284.99 - $349.99 from 5 Sellers

Oh Never mind!!! Ok its not the price thats wrong, its the hyper link in the forum, instead of bringing you to the Acer AL2416Wd 24 it brings you to the Acer AL2223Wd Silver 22 LCD Monitor.

 

[PaulScherbak]

It was awesome, to say the least. But I wondered why you picked the Cooler Master Real Power Pro for the dream machine. That spot should've gone to the PC Power & Cooling Turbo-Cool or the Enermax Galaxy. Also, I would've thrown in 4GB of RAM for the dream machine. That would've really made for an awesome Alienware-beater!

Well, I have to admit that we were a little slow in getting the article up with so much happening over the holidays. In future versions, 4GB will certainly be the RAM standard at the high end considering how Vista deals with RAM differently from previous versions (which I discuss in the next article).

As for the PSU, nvidia only has about a dozen certified PSUs that work with the 8800GTX-SLI setup. And while the dream machine is an attempt at "price-is-no-option," it is still a concern. My feeling was that for more than twice the price, the extra 150W of power were not enough of a gain to justify the expense. The power provided by the Cooler Master PSU is more than enough to power the dream-machine setup with plenty of room to spare. The 1kW powersupply may provide some extra bragging rights, but I doubt any real performance advantages.

Great Post but I think the price on...

The Acer AL2416Wd 24 At 650$ Dropped.

- Its listed at a price about $284.99 - $349.99

I believe you are thinking of the 22" model, which is nearly the same (minus 2 inches, of course).

 

[Julio Franco]

Thanks for the commentary Paul...

For those of who have not noticed, Paul is the writer of all our Buying Guides, with the next update (budget PC) coming up very soon.

 

[CMH]

I reckon there should be an overclocker's dream PC

 

[beef_jerky4104]

The PSU should have gone to the OCZ GameXStream 850W PSU. That thing owns.