Redefining 'Ultimate'

Using best-of-breed components, CRN Lab Director John Yacono built the system before an audience of systems builders and component vendors at the Tech Builder Xchange conference in Coronado, Calif. The components selected for the PC balanced excellence in innovation, functionality and performance. This year's Ultimate PC includes a 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with a 533MHz front-side bus, 2 Gbytes of 800MHz 40-nanosecond RDRAM, three hard drives and a built-in UPS. A Cooler Master case (customized by systems builder Voodoo Computers to include internal lighting), a glass-view side panel and a high-gloss paint job added a sports-car appearance.

CONSTRUCTING THE ULTIMATE PC John Yacono, Director/CRN Labs last week assembled the latest edition of CRN's Ultimate PC at Tech Builder Xchange conference in San Diego.

On the storage side, the Ultimate PC's DVD-RW/CD-RW drive can record on DVD-R media, a task that first-generation DVD-RW/CD-RW drives couldn't perform.

The Ultimate PC's video card features FireWire support for video capture and remote control of audio/visual devices. The video system also included a radio-frequency (RF) remote that could replace the mouse for presentations and all other action-at-a-distance applications. The upgraded flat-panel display added a TV tuner and dual component-video inputs to the 24-inch HDTV-capable flat panel used in last year's system.

The native cooling capacity of the cabinet was so effective in this year's model that the Test Center chose not to install additional cooling systems, even though an additional hard drive was used.

SPEAKER SYSTEM 641 4.1 Digital Speaker System Price: $199 MSRP, $199 street Altec Lansing (570) 296-4434, (866) 570-5702 www.alteclansing.com Producing thunderous yet accurate sound, the 641 4.1 Digital Speaker System is powerful enough to fill even a large room with rich audio. The bundle includes a digital wired remote control (hence the "digital" appellation) and sports analog front and rear stereo inputs.

DISPLAY SyncMaster 241MP Price: $6,999 street Samsung Electronics America 949) 975-7000, (800) SAMSUNG www.samsungusa.com We're not sure if it's a high-definition flat panel in a TV or an HDTV in a flat panel, but we're positive Samsung's SyncMaster 241MP is the ultimate presentation powerhouse. The 24-inch 16:9 ratio display features a built-in cable TV tuner, an infrared remote, two component-video inputs, S-video and composite-video inputs, multiple audio inputs, speakers and picture-in-picture capability.

KEYBOARD AND MOUSE Cordless Freedom Optical Price: $100 MSRP, $100 street Logitech (510) 795-8500, (800) 231-7717 www.logitech.com The keyboard and mouse, selected on their individual merits, are sold together as part of a Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical bundle. The keyboard is a wireless device with useful multimedia and other function keys and control wheels. The Cordless MouseMan Optical mouse provides excellent ergomanics, two extra buttons and a scroll wheel.

SYSTEM CABINET ATC-110-SX1 Price: $325 MSRP Cooler Master (510) 770-8566 www.coolermaster.com The system cabinet from Cooler Master keeps the Ultimate PC cool via its aluminum mass and numerous fans, two of which drive air across the hard drives. For easy assembly and repairs, the motherboard and adapter cards can be assembled on a palate/back-panel subchassis outside the cabinet and inserted into the main chassis at once. The cabinet was customized with lighting, a clear side panel and a sports-car paint job by systems builder Voodoo Computers.

HARD DISK/PERFORMANCE Cheetah X15-36LP Price: $700 MSRP, $425 street Seagate Technology (831) 438-6550, (877) 271-3285 www.seagate.com The 15K RPM, 36-Gbyte Cheetah drive delivers excellent performance for everything from streamed to multithreaded data access. The drive has a next-generation 320-MBps interface that will allow it to offer better performance when faster SCSI host-bus adapters arrive. The drive tied the Fujitsu MAM 15K RPM, 18-Gbyte unit in performance.

HARD DISK/PERFORMANCE MAM Series 15K RPM 18GB Price: $399 MSRP, $325 street Fujitsu Computer Products of America (408) 432-6333, (800) 626-4686 www.fcpa.fujitsu.com Fujitsu's 15K RPM, 18-Gbyte drive with a 320-MBps interface offers outstanding performance. The drive earned excellent marks under all 11 scenarios that the Test Center considers, making the unit suitable for everything from database access to video editing. The drive tied the Cheetah X15-36LP in performance.

CD DRIVE CenDyne DVD-R/RW Drive, Model No. DVR-104 Price: $499 MSRP, $499 street CenDyne (714) 556-1020 www.cendyne.com Based on a Pioneer drive, the CenDyne bundle can write on CD-R/RW media and DVD-R/RW media. Earlier drives in this class couldn't write on DVD-R media even though they were DVD-RW-capable, making this new generation more suitable for DVD mastering.

MEMORY MODULES 512-Mbyte RDRAM PC800-40 Modules Price: $250 MSRP Samsung Electronics (408) 544-4000 www.samsungelectronics.com The first 40-nanosecond memory modules on the market, Samsung's 512-Mbyte PC800 units were a no-brainer when it came to building the Ultimate PC. The higher-speed modules take full advantage of the processor and motherboard's new 533MHz front-side bus.

MOTHERBOARD Intel Desktop Board D850EMV2 Price: $150 street Intel (408) 765-8080, (800) 538-3373 www.intel.com The only motherboard available that supports the new Pentium 4's 533MHz front-side bus, the Intel D850EMV2 delivers superior performance in a PC platform. Highlights include a redesigned hub chip for greater performance, USB 2.0 support, a sound subsystem and a front-panel USB connector.

NETWORK-INTERFACE CARD DGE-500T 32-bit Gigabit-over-copper adapter Price: $60 MSRP, $45 street D-Link Systems (949) 788-0805, (800) 326-1688 www.dlink.com This first Gigabit Ethernet-capable card used in the Ultimate PC delivers network data-transfer rates limited by a computer's hard drive or PCI-bus speed instead of the network, the Test Center found. The card autonegotiates to 100BaseT,or 10BaseT, if needed,and supports autonegotiated half- and full-duplex operation at all speeds. For troubleshooting, the NIC has six indicators.

POWER SUPPLY APTX-400 Price: $299 MSRP, $249 street American Advanced Power (401) 454-5335, (401) 454-5335 www.ups2.com An improvement over typical PC power supplies, the APTX-400 is a combination power source and UPS that fits inside the system cabinet. If power fails, the unit keeps the PC and monitor alive until a safe automatic shutdown is completed.

PROCESSOR 2.53GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor Price: $637 MSRP Intel (408) 765-8080, (800) 538-3373 www.intel.com The fastest processor available according to numerous Test Center performance tests, the 2.53GHz Pentium 4 processor boasts a new 533MHz front-side bus, boosting performance and scalability of the platform as processor clock speeds continue to rise.

SCSI HBA Adaptec SCSI Card 29160N Price: $349 MSRP, $329 street Adaptec (408) 957-7274, (800) 442-7274 www.adaptec.com A staple of the Test Center's test fixtures, Adaptec SCSI cards have a proven track record of stability and compatibility. The 29160N pumps information at a data-thrashing 160 MBps. Value-added software assists with drive preparation, diagnostics, CD-R creation and system backups.

SOUND SYSTEM Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum eX Price: $250 MSRP, $250 street Creative Labs (408) 428-6600 www.americas.creative.com With 24-bit multichannel sound processing at an incredible 100dB signal-to-noise ratio and FireWire support, the Audigy has raised the bar on PC audio. The eX version includes an external connection box (for MIDI, digital and analog audio) plus infrared remote-control and FireWire support.

HARD DISK/CAPACITY Barracuda 180 Price: $1,800 MSRP, $1,350 street Seagate Technology 831) 438-6550, (877) 271-3285 www.seagate.com With the highest storage capacity of any hard drive now available, the Barracuda 180-Gbyte SCSI drive was a must-have for the Ultimate PC. Beyond its raw capacity, the drive is also one of the better performers on the market.

FLOPPY DRIVE D359M3D 1.44 Floppy Disk Drive Price: $20 MSRP, $20 street Mitsumi Electronics (972) 550-7300, (800) MITSUMI www.mitsumi.com In all of the systems evaluated by Test Center engineers, a Mitsumi floppy drive has never failed. Because of such reliability, Mitsumi drives are standard in the Test Center's test beds, as well as in the Ultimate PC.

VALUE-ADDED COMPONENT Addonics Internal DigiDrive Price: $69 MSRP, $69 street Addonics Technologies (408) 433-3899, (800) 787-8580 www.addonics.com Memory readers are a value-add the Test Center has seen more and more on white-box systems recently. The Internal DigiDrive can read from all available form factors of portable memory, including compact Flash I and II, Memory Stick, Smart Media, Secure Digital Card, Multimedia Card and Micro Drive.

VIDEO SYSTEM All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV Price: $399 MSRP ATI Technologies (905) 882-2600 www.ati.com The Radeon 8500DV and its bundled software are more than a video solution,they are video-production and data-gathering tools. Features include FireWire, broadcast cable and other inputs; live-video pause; closed-caption recording; and video capture (manual, timed or caption-keyword triggering). The RF remote can operate any program, since it also acts as a mouse.