Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
4
Building a Mainstream
System
In ThIs chaPTEr
A mainstream system is one that seeks balance at a reasonable price point. A
mainstream system uses top-quality (but midrange in terms of performance)
components throughout, because that is where you find the best value for your
dollar. What differentiates a mainstream system from a budget PC is that the for-
mer makes fewer compromises. Whereas price is always a very high priority for a
budget PC, it is less important for a mainstream system. If spending more money
yields better performance or reliability, or adds desirable features, a mainstream
system gets those extra dollars, whereas a budget PC probably doesn't.
Determining Functional Requirements
Hardware Design Criteria
Component Considerations
Building the Mainstream System
Final Words
Relative to the budget PC, the mainstream system gets more expensive compo-
nents, particularly where they pay off in additional performance, convenience, or
data safety. Typically, it will have a better motherboard, a faster processor, more
memory, more disk storage, better external peripherals, and additional features.
Considered individually, the incremental cost of better components is usually
quite small. But taken collectively, the difference adds up fast. Depending on
which components you choose, a mainstream system may cost 50% to 100%
more than a budget system. That extra money buys you higher performance now
and later, and extends the period between upgrades. If a budget PC will meet
your needs for 12 to 18 months without upgrades, a mainstream system may suf-
fice for 24 to 36 months or longer, depending on the demands you put on it.
In this chapter, we'll design and build the perfect mainstream system.
A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing
Many consumer-grade systems, particularly those sold in of-
fice superstores and big-box stores and by some large OEMs,
masquerade as mainstream systems but are really budget PCs
with a few extra bells and whistles. These PCs have faster CPUs,
more memory, and larger hard drives—components whose
specifications are easily visible—but use the same low-end
motherboards, cheap cases, and marginal power supplies
found in their less expensive budget lines.
And the “upgrades” those systems include are often less signifi-
cant than you might expect from the description. For example,
that larger hard drive may be available in two models, one with
an 8 MB buffer and the other with a 32 MB buffer. The latter
model may cost $8 more. Guess which model you'll find in that
consumer-grade system? Or a system may be advertised as
having a RADEON HD 5570 video adapter. What isn't adver-
tised is that that adapter uses slower memory and runs at a
lower clock speed than the retail-boxed model you can buy.
True mainstream systems, at least as we define them, are a
vanishing breed. Marketers believe that spending $5 more on a
better power supply or $10 more on a better motherboard will
only boost the price of their systems, making them uncompeti-
tive with other brands, without increasing sales volume or
profit. From their point of view, buyers are too ignorant to ap-
preciate the difference between cheap components and good
components that cost only slightly more. Unfortunately, they're
usually right. Of course, the best answer to that is to build your
own mainstream system from top-notch components.
