PC System Recommendations

Mid-priced Computer System

For this system level, the goal is to build something that is likely to be a good performer for at least 3 years in a typical business or home setting. The components included are selected primarily for expected longevity, which starts by using the best quality brand name components available in the sweet spot of the buying curve—this is normally around $200 for the CPU, $125 for the motherboard, $100 for memory, and $75 for most other components. The other important thing is to select the coolest running component whenever possible, because more heat directly translates into shorter PC lifetime. Most of the parts that fail relatively quickly, including hard drives, fans, and motherboard capacitors/regulators, are all things that wear out considerably faster the hotter it is.

I have put some shopping notes on preferred vendors at the bottom of this document, you may want to check that before proceeding.

Special thanks to the team at Ars Technica, I regularly index my own ideas against their suggestions. The system outlined here is similar to that given in the http://arstechnica.com/guides.ars systems guides for the system labeled "The Hot Rod". The main difference is this system has dramatically less powerful video and sound. If game playing is a high priority, their suggestions in this area are very, uh, sound and you should be following that recommendation set instead of this one. You'll end up with a more expensive and hotter running system in the process, but it will play games much better.

Main Components

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHZ W/512K CACHE - Northwood Chipset - BX80532PG3000D $194

While I like AMD's processors better at this point, there are no really great AMD motherboards on the market yet which is what keeps pushing me back to Intel. The Intel part above is one of the fastest models in what's referred to as their Northwood line of processors. The current top of the line units are from their Prescott line, which can be clocked faster; the problem is that Prescott processors run absurdly hot. The older Northwood chips are just barely tolerable in the heat/cooling area by my standards, the Prescotts are just too much.

The main clue that you're getting one of the older, cooler Northwood chips is that the CPU will have a 512K cache—the hot new Prescott processors have 1M of cache instead.

As a perfect chart illustrating what I'm talking about, check out http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20041115/pentium4_570-20.html where you can see the Northwood P4 3.0GHz processor idles at 14W of power. This is as much as I can possibly handle or recommend. The newer Prescott processors are at least 50% hotter than that. 15W idle and 60W under full load are my current maximum acceptable values in this area right now. For comparision sake, a Power PC G4 chip used in many Macs runs about 20W, while the newer G5 chips idle around 15W and are 45W at full CPU load. This is why there are no G5 laptops.

Motherboard: ASUS P4P800-E DLX BUNDLE $112

This Asus board is a solid unit that bundles every type of port you're likely to need, including sound, gigabit networking, and 1394 interfaces. If you can justify spending an extra $66 for a more premium unit, I personally prefer the ASUS P4C800-E DLX to the above board. It uses a slightly faster and better quality component chipsets for all the major parts on the board, especially in the gigabit networking department. The cheaper P4P800 is perfectly satisfying and indistinguishable in normal use for a non-enthusiast.

If you really want to have future expandability in the area of high-end graphics cards capabilities, this is not the motherboard for you. All of the best video cards now are using a new PCI spec that requires a different type of board that uses Intel's 915 chipset instead. Unfortunately, that type of board is not compatible with the Northwood CPUs I recommend here.

Memory: Kingston 512MB DDR400 KVR400X64C3A/512 $85

Kingston makes consistently good RAM and nowadays doesn't charge much more than the generic models cost. Make sure you're getting a single 512MB module and not 2x256MB. If you really want to improve the odds this system will not need an upgrade within 3 years, buy the system with two 512MB modules for a total of 1GB of RAM.

Buying the above set at newegg.com:

You can find the faster Northwood Pentiums at newegg.com by searching for "intel 800mhz 512k". You want Pentium 4 3.0GHz entries that have a 800MHz bus, 512K cache, and DO NOT have an E after the clock speed. Once you find the one you think is correct, click on the Details tab to make sure the CPU you're getting matches the part number above and that it is a Northwood processor with 512K of cache.

This link may still take you directly to the right page for the CPU: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-116-163&depa=1
and here's the motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-492&depa=1
and RAM: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-424&depa=1
case: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-140&depa=0

You could upgrade or downgrade the CPU from 3.0GHz, just remember to make sure you're getting an 800MHz bus and a Northwood era processor with 512K of cache. These are becoming very difficult to find with the 3.0GHz and the 2.4GHz being the only models still being produced right now to my knowledge. I actually prefer mwave.com to newegg for purchases like this, particularly because of their assembled motherboard bundle deals, but they've stopped carrying the above parts.

Other Components

Case: Antec SLK3700BQE $76 , plus extra fan, $3

The power supply is good and the case is quiet. You get 350W of power, plenty for a Northwood Pentium 4 based board with a hard drive or two and a couple of CD/DVD units. In addition to the fan on the power supply, this case supports two additional fans, and I recomend filling those both up. The usual setup that works well is to have the front mounted fan blowing air in and the rear one blowing air out; this gives a clear airflow path through the case and takes advantage of the fact that heat rises.

Only downside of this particular case for some people is that it's black, which can make matching the rest of the components a pain. I would like to have a recommendation for a beige case that's equivalently good, but I haven't found one that's currently available. If you don't mind having a large tower case, I personally use the ANTEC PLUS1080AM case.

Video Card: ATI RADEON 9200SE 128MB PCI DDR W/TV & DVI (OEM) $69

All the video card any non-gamer is going to need in the near future. It's important to make sure whatever card you get has a DVI output, as that's the only way to make a flat-screen LCD monitor look really good. Also, the P4P800-E only supports AGP cards with the newer 1.5V specification. Old cards that run at 3.3V volts (you can identify them because they will only have two sections to the card connector, 1.5V ones have three sections) won't plug into this board.

Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 80GB (see below)

This Seagate line is as reliable as any on the market right now, is super quiet, and really does a good job dissipating heat rather than letting it build up internally. These drives feel like they run hotter than most, but if you check the internal temperature it's actually the same as the competition. It's often possible to get these drives at a retail store on sale for less than the mail-order price, especially after rebate. Best Buy and CompUSA have Seagate drives on sale almost every week.

Old School choice (compatible with almost any PC you may already have): SEAGATE BARRACUDA 80.0GB ST380011A $60

This version of the drive has the older IDE connector. If it's important to you to be able to pop the drive into other PCs for disaster recovery purposes, or if you're really trying to hold costs down, this version of the drive might be the better choice. It uses the ATA 100 standard, meaning it's not as fast as it could be, but all the drives that do better are louder and have worse reliability.

Hard drive, newer choice: SEAGATE SERIAL ATA150 80GB ST380013AS $68 plus $5.50 power cord

This drive uses the newest type of hard drive interface. It's slightly more expensive, but it's faster, uses smaller cables for improved drive cooling, and avoids all the master/slave settings that can make regular IDE drives a pain to setup.

CD/DVD: NEC ND-3500A, Black $75.

This will burn CDs and even the new dual-layer DVDs. Only drive most people will ever need and super cheap given the speed and capabilities. A good review of this drive compared against most of the others on the market is at http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2260&p=20

I personally also use a Plextor Premium drive, $85, in my system because it writes better quality audio CDs than a DVD writer produces.

Floppy: TEAC 1.44MB FLOPPY DRIVE (Black) $14.90

Boot from and copying files using the floppy drive has saved my butt in disaster situations far too many times to ever buy a system without one.

Total for the above: $703 as described

Keyboard: IBM Model M PS/2--Around $10 on ebay.com

OK, I don't really have a keyboard recommendation for you. The above is what I personally use. IBM's Model M keyboard is out of production for years now, and it's big, heavy, and very loud to type on. It also has the best keyboard feel for typing ever and is almost indestructible; that's why I have a half dozen of them despite the drawbacks.

Mitsumi makes an OK keyboard to type on for $11.

Mouse: MICROSOFT WHEEL MOUSE OPTICAL USB/PS/2 (OEM) $10

A decent cheap mouse, no ball to clean, plugs into anything with the adapters they include. I personally use the Mitsumi 2-button PS/2 Scroll Mouse because it uses an finger tip scroll interface similar to IBM's TrackPoint for scrolling up and down, which I find infinitely preferable to a wheel interface. Unfortunately, longevity and availability on the Mitsumi aren't so good.

Common PC assembly problems:

System powers, beeps three times: usually means no video card or the video card is loose in the socket

System powers, beeps very frequently or continuously: RAM isn't compatible or is installed incorrectly

System powers, motherboard light comes on, but no beeps, no video: Can happen because of a incorrectly setup hard drive. If problem persists after unplugging all drives, it's probably a loose CPU. On the newer boards like this one, you have to pull the heatsink all the way off in order to reseat the CPU. The socket 478 used here seems very prone to getting loose when the system is moved.

Shopping Notes

If you're not familiar with mail-order for electronics, I wrote a guide to buying mail- order stereo equipment that is largely relevant to this topic at http://www.goodsound.com/howto/2003_01_15.htm

There are two main sites I use for computer gear to find out what the current lowest prices on a given item are. pricewatch.com and froogle.com are both good to check. Once you've found a vendor you might want to buy from, be absolutely sure to visit resellerratings.com to see what people think of them before you buy. Reading through some of the feedback left for a vendor can be very instructive on how to deal with them.

There are three main snags that will cause mail-order computer transactions to be more painful than they should be. First, you will likely only be able to ship to an address that your credit card company has on file as being an official one for your card, so call them up first and add your work address or similar alternative if that's where you need to ship to. Second, only deal with vendors that give you solid information about whether the item you want is in stock. Third, make sure you're using the preferred shipping vendor of the store; sometimes, even though a place offers both UPS and FedEx, they may only ship regularly through one of the two and choosing the other will require scheduling a pick-up which can add a day to how long it takes your order to arrive.

My main source for parts used here is usually mwave.com. I like Multiwave for a lot of reasons: their catalog is fast to navigate, prices are near industry lows, inventory stock information is usually correct.

Their main competitor in my mind, newegg.com, annoys me because their site is so graphically intense and poorly organized that it interferes with my shopping. If I want a single part, I can find it there, but the interface is horrible for making decisions like which processor within a given line has the current best bang for the buck.

The main weakness of mwave is that they don't carry too many system building accessories, and the ones they do have aren't always priced competitively. I like directron.com for little parts like cables, fans, and the like.

In my personal systems, I only use power supplies from PC Power & Cooling, the best quality units on the market, usually models from their Silencer line. For most people, the power supply included in a good case is perfectly fine. But as the power supply is often one of the noisiest and less reliable parts in a PC, I find the extra $60-$100 is money well spent in the long run. The best source for purchasing PC Power & Cooling products I've found is bestbyte.net.

Another good vendor I occasionally deal with is http://store.yahoo.com/memorysuppliers/. If I'm buying a very large or somewhat rare piece of memory for a system, the saving buying from them can be enormous.