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

Case
Supermicro SC750-A Full Tower ATX - $150
Fong Kai FK-320ATX Mid Tower ATX - $120
We need a case that can handle anything we can throw at it, but at a reasonable price level.  That case is the Supermicro SC750-A full tower and is available for about $150 with an Athlon approved 300W Sparkle power supply.  A total of ten drive bays and the ability to accept an extended ATX motherboard insures that this system will always have room for upgrades. 

If you want something a little smaller than the monstrous SC750-A for your home, consider the Fong Kai FK-320ATX. It offers plenty of room to work inside, is well built, provides excellent cooling, and even includes an Athlon 1 GHz approved Enhance 730-ATX power supply.

For more information, read our Supermicro SC750-A and Fong Kai FK-320ATX Reviews.

Sound card – Sound Blaster Live! Value OEM - $50
The choice here is simple – SBLive!, since Creative is the only manufacturer offering complete driver support under Windows 2000.  If you want to save a bit more money, go with any name brand card supported under Windows 2000.

The "5.1" versions of all Sound Blaster Live! cards are now available that allow it to handle Dolby Digital decoding. This is only important if you plan on using a speaker system with 5.1 analog inputs that also doesn't its own Dolby Digital decoder. We only have stereo speakers on this system so no need to go with the 5.1 model, which is currently only available as a retail card.

Speakers – Cambridge SoundWorks Digital - $100
The SoundWorks Digital is a 2.1 system that features the same drivers and sub as the highly acclaimed Desktop Theater DTT2500.  Need we say more?

For more information, read our Cambridge SoundWorks Desktop Theater DTT2500 Review.

Ethernet – Linksys EtherFast 10/100 - $20
We use Linksys products here in the AnandTech lab all the time and have never been disappointed.  Besides, at just $20 for a card with full support directly from the manufacturer under the major OS’s, including Linux and Windows 2000, the EtherFast 10/100 is a deal that’s impossible to pass up. 

Hard drive – 2 x IBM Deskstar 75 GXP 15GB - $100 x 2
The fastest IDE drives on the market are all members of the IBM 75GXP family, so the decision was relatively easy. It doesn't hurt that they're one of the few that support Ultra ATA/100 either. We'll need two of these drives in order to reap the speed benefits of RAID striping.

If you’re work is disk intensive, considering going with a 10,000 RPM drive and an Ultra 160 controller.  The Atlas 10K II is widely available and is well known to be one of the faster drives available.

For more information, read our IBM Deskstar 75GXP Review.

Ultra ATA 100 RAID Controller - Promise FastTrak 100 - $100
Promise was one of the first manufacturers to bring IDE RAID to the masses, so it's no surprise that their latest model, the FastTrak 100 is our choice for the IDE RAID controller in these systems. Promise controllers generally have better compatibility and driver support than some of the other options on the market today. The FastTrak 100 supports RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1.

CD-ROM/CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Pioneer DVD-105S 16X Slot Load DVD-ROM - $150
Yamaha CRW2100EZ 16/10/40X CD-RW - $275
What high-end system is complete today without a DVD-ROM?  Pioneer continues to lead the pack with their DVD-105S, a 16X DVD-ROM drive. Of course, it also reads CDs as well at a swift 40X max clip. If you don’t need DVD support, the Kenwood TrueX 72X will provide you with the fastest CD-ROM speed at a slightly lower cost of about $120. 

Plextor has been displaced as the performance leader in the EIDE CD-RW market by Yamaha's CRW2100EZ which burns at an incredible 16X clip and rewrites at an also fast 10X. The biggest problem with this drive may be finding blank media that can handle such high speed.

OS – Windows 2000 - $250
You want to get work done, right?  Well, you definitely don’t want your system crashing and destroying unsaved work all the time.  Windows 2000 is the only way to go for rock solid stability.  If you don’t need all the features of Windows 2000, but want a more tried and true solution, drop back to Windows NT 4.0, but note that you’ll lose access to the vast array of USB peripherals out there.

Bottom Line: $2,175 (without software or shipping)