Sorry for the double post, I hope the new guide gets printed sometime in mid-late August so that the editors will have had a chance to digest some of the new P45 mobos and some new custom RV770 videocards. Should be neat to see, thank y'all for the guidance and great ideas!

I'm with buildcurious. I'm getting my money together for a computer, but I'm not as good at keeping up with what's new as I used to be. These guides are invaluable. Any word on when the next one will be out?

Will there be a new article in late July / August? That's a bit closer to when I am planning my build. Great feature, good advice. Many thanks!

Very nice. I'm gonna be building an "econobox" PC in the next few weeks. Its nice because right away I can run a lot of games with high settings and then eventually I can just upgrade stuff that needs upgraded. it's a good starter build.

Econobox: I can't really see the 2GB RAM or 320GB HDD as good, future-proof ideas. For another $70 you can have 4GB RAM and a 640GB HDD (with higher performance, too). I realize that there is a ~$500 cap, but if you want matched RAM modules and a single, large HDD, you have to buy them when you buy the initial system...

HTPC: I was very surprised at how expensive this thing is. But, in trying to reduce the price, I was not really able to come up with any good ideas, except that the $44 Zalman heatsink is unnecessary. I just got a Athlon X2 a couple months ago, and the stock cooler is basically inaudible through the case at 3 feet away. Also, is the listed $193 PSU/case much better than the $70 PSU/case combo of the econobox? I own a Seasonic SII 380W PSU and can attest that they are dead quiet, but I've never heard an Earthwatts, so I don't know.

Workstation: Using an nVidia chipset with known data corruption issues for a workstation does not seem prudent to me. And SLI on a workstation does not, either, unless nVidia provides gaming profiles for workstation apps like Autocad.

Linux: It is important to note that the recommended Evga Geforce 9600GT is basically incompatible with 64-bit Linux. The card has an insanely loud cooler, which is OK on the Windows desktop, because nVidia's drivers reduce the speed (based on temperature, I suppose) to make it quiet. But nVidia has no 64-bit Linux drivers (or at least, none on their website). So, for example, I was able to boot up Ubuntu 8.04 just fine, and use the full 1680x1050 resolution, through some magic. But there is no fan throttling, so the computer is honestly too loud to use. Therefore: Don't consider 64-bit Linux, even for basic browsing/email, using a stock nVidia cooler like the kind on the 9600GT.

Edit: Turns out that there are 64-bit Linux drivers for nVidia's 9600GT. But:
1) They are hidden on nVidia's website (at this url)
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_amd64_173.08.html
2) The process for installing them is extraordinarily convoluted, just as I would expect of Linux, so I'm not going to bother trying to figure it out
3) I don't know that they would solve the problem anyway

The Grand Experiment is really the sweet spot and the sweet spot is what could be considered an experiment.

Add one more vote to the "no SLI in the sweet spot" crowd.

Snake and Z-Boy must be wondering how their Vista hate campaign failed to convince The Tech Report.
Nice to see a solid recommendation from the premiere technology site on the Net.
TR has spoken. :)
A friend of mine has 2 9600GTs in SLI that totally lays the smack on any video card in the same price range($300).
If you have a current or last gen mobo that supports SLI it seems to be an excellent graphics alternative to the current crop of high end video cards.

I'm slightly disappointed that the guide touches on the difficulty of selecting a decent monitor, then continues to only recommend a few with (for normal people) ludicrous price tags.

For example, I know that the Samsung 226BW is pretty popular, but is it actually worth a damn? I don't know!

I would have thought the Velociraptor would have been more prominent, seeing as you just gave it a gold editor's choice.

So is this TR staffers' not-so-subtle attempt to tell me to stfu about the pitfalls of SLI? Now that SLI has made it in the Sweet Spot, I won't be able to convince people otherwise. Should I just give up? :-? :cry:

No~~~~~ /anakin

Also, I think GA-EP35-DS3R is the better choice. There are only 2 DDR3 slots on the EP35C so by the time you want DDR3 you may want more RAM at the same time. That's the problem with chimaera boards I suppose.

Make sure to add the fire extinguisher for good measure. Drawing that much power and producing that much heat can't be safe.

People are building computers today that NASA might be jealous to see.

I don't agree with the statement XP x64 is dead end. I don't see the driver problems Damage Labs sees with this operating system. I have been running XP64 and it one of the most stable OSs I have ever used, I'll never go back to XP vanilla.

With ram prices at $140 for 8GB, I would max out the ram as well on almost every system in this guide, especially the gaming systems.

If the manufacturer advertises the display as capable of showing 16.7 million colors, it should be an 8-bit panel.

Unfortunately, several LCD vendors have started tagging their 6-bit panels as "16.7 million colors". Expect the others to follow suit.

And why the big jump from the 2007WFP to the 3007? I'd have thought 24" was the sweet spot (reasonable prices, full (and native) HD resolution), sweet spot for most single high end GPUs. Not to mention there are loads more 8-bit 24" models than there are 20" or 30" ones.

Get rid of SLI recommendations.

It is not worth it unless you are feeding a huge monitor at native resolution. If you have that kind of budget, then triple 9800GTX SLI isn't so far-fetched.

A single 8800GT or *cough* factory overclocked 8800GTS 512MB *cough* 9800GTX will work well enough for more sane users. You could also go with HD 3870 and its big brother 3870 X2.

At the same time, get rid of Nvidia chipset recommendations which are only needed for the aforementioned SLI. Intel chipsets are far superior in every way. The most important one of course is stability.

To: all of the above references of dual GPU's on a single card (a la 3870X2). My understanding is that the two-GPU's on card also have some sort of 'bridge' chip...this makes the card's actual dual GPU status irrelevant to the rest of the computer system. In other words, you do not select Crossfire mode to run this card - it works as a fully functioning standalone, truly single card. By contrast, two 3870's in two PCIe-X16 slots will obviously be recognized by the rest of the system as a Crossfire setup with all the inherent advantages and limitations.

Is this wrong? Please help clarify my understanding.

I did buy a Crossfire capable board, just to allow myself future options (didn't know PCIe 2.0 was coming down the pike so the board is not 2.0 compliant...) to get better performance than future single cards might have.

For LCD's, I think beauty is in the eye of the beholder...fast response times for gamers, low back-light bleed-thru for media buffs, etc. My understanding is you cannot get 1 single monitor right now that is good at everything, but have to best choose options that most fit your usage. I actually like going to my local Office Depot and looking at the displays side-by-side, playing with the colors and brightnesses...though it's hard to gage potential gaming performance.

Edit: Read Damage's posts above...thanks for the clarification.

The Abit IP35 Pro has been the motherboard for the past 3 TR System Guides. Now it's suddenly vanished. What gives?

Did anyone test that Microsoft Media Keyboard. I couldn't get that thing to work at all . . . . . . and I tried it in all 3 machines - seeing that the receiver is required from the Media Center Remote (unless they changed it).

I now use the Microsoft 7000 combo that has the mousepad in the top left corner of the board.

I'm considering the Logitech diNovo mini for my HTPC needs - as found here: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/3848&c...

Also, if you live in Canada and have to deal with the likes of Rogers and Bell for your T.V. solutions, then any T.V. Tuner that's digital is useless, since they don't send out Clear QAM signals - always have that big stupid box that scrambles everything, including the brains of the people at the call centers.

Also, I find it even more difficult to find a T.V. tuner card (that has a support team worth a fart) that will pass sound clearly through HDMI using the on-board audio/video solution.

That HTPC case is like a shag rug, still works but just plain ugly.

Did everybody commenting on SLI read Damage's comment?
http://techreport.com/discussions.x/14610

What happened with the great link: click to order this setup on NewEgg?

Michael

I disagree.

Two underpowered graphics cards are a very bad investment. You get more heat and noise along with some very serious compatibility issues with SLI that you would avoid with one good card.

The SLI system on page 6 is insanity enough, but a crossfire system using a pair of HD3850s on the next page is an even sillier suggestion. A single Radeon HD3870X2 (crossfire on a stick) is a better choice if you need more performance than a single GPU can provide.

The money wasted on a second graphics card for SLI would be much better spent on a Blu-ray drive and a better monitor, in my opinion.

What if you had actually lowered the price point of the sweet spot? Myself, if I had 1500 to spend, instead of going SLI I'd pocket 300 for my other hobbies.

I'm a bit shocked you consider Vista ready for prime-time, I guess we haven't had the same experience so you'll have to excuse my discomfort.

My latest PC would probably qualify as an econobox of sorts (Xeon E3110 (couldn't find an E8400), 4 GB of RAM, and an ATI HD 3870) and Vista has been dragging its feet, crashes (BSoD) at least once a day, and generally the hardware doesn't feel brand new, more like I've traded in for some second-hand, 2 year-old junk.

It's especially ironic to me that I bought a new video card for DX10 graphics and 4 GB of RAM, and frankly Vista has been nothing short of awful. It's been ditched until SP2 comes out, for the time being it's running 32-bit XP again, I can't get DX10 graphics, and I have that 3.25 GB of RAM thing laughing at me.

Honestly, I know some folks out there have had zero problems with Vista, I just can't say it's been my experience so far. The difference in stability, speed and realibility between 32-bit XP and 64-bit Vista is like night and day for the same hardware.

I'm still amused every time I see the picture for this story pop up on the front page. With that many fans, you should be required to call Air Traffic Control before turning it on.

Performance per watt, value for money, still incomplete reliability (for CrossFire it is even worse they need to add profiles for individual games) still trails if you are stuck with lower resolutions.

Plus, buy one get another one (much) later is still BS.

Agreed. SLI is a waste of money and makes for a poor recommendation.

I don't get it, why is Nvidia a good choice in workstation systems ?? AMD can woop ass Nvidia any time in that segment....

Is it just me, or is SLI still a colossal waste of money?

I just don't see the point.

So, is quad core really worth it yet? From what I've seen with my dual core, very few aps are truly multi-threaded. I've been inclined to recommend to my friends that, at a given price point, they are better off getting the dual-cores with a faster clock rate over the quad-cores with their slower clock rate. Are things changing yet? Any games able to truly take advantage of mult-cores?

I think it'd be awesome of TR also recommended monitors in their system guides. If you're a building a complete system from nothing, than a monitor is probably the most critical piece you'll have to buy. Though I understand that adding this would require them to up the budget limits of each category.

I sure as hell could use some recommendations. Months of looking and I still haven't found one I like (and that I can reasonably afford).

On page two, the Antec earthwatts EA380 power supply in the NSK4480 has a combined rating of 27 A on the two +12 V rails. It is this combined rating that is more important than the individual 17 A per rail maximum. 27 A is enough for a non-SLI system.

I don't understand how NVIDIA can be a serious choice for a workstation when this is still in the air:
http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3279&p=4
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/nvidia.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.p...
I know, I know. Nobody building a workstation would overclock but it's not exactly inspiring confidence, is it? Especially when you consider that they made the (same?) mistake before with the 680i...