Rant - Not happy with THGs PC in Shuttle vs. G40

Yeah, I know, ranting over minor qualms and nit-picking. But it's a slow day and I have to say that I was rather unimpressed.

So yeah. It's a rant.

If you've read <A HREF="http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20030819" target="_new">THG's G40 article</A> then at some point you too probably looked at that supposedly 'conventional' desktop PC of theirs (which is nothing close to conventional in my opinion) and asked yourself 'WTF?'...

I mean let's face it. To start off it's based on a Shuttle barebones mini PC package. That's awfully strange for 'conventional', no? Even OEMs use microATX or fully-fledged ATX. At least the miniPC that they used has an i865G motherboard, so it isn't very different from an i865PE in performance. (In theory.) The fact that they're killing the memory bandwidth available to the CPU by running integrated video however is rather noteworthy in my opinion. In fact their whole 'conventional' PC looks to me like they tried their best to build a system that was overpriced and bottlenecked in every concievable way.

But then we get down into the really funky question: <i>price</i>. Supposedly this 'conventional' PC "<i>costs roughly the same amount as the G40</i>". Really? Even overpriced that's still a stunning statement. So why don't we break that down then...

IBM's website lists the price of the P4 2.4GHz version of the G40 at $1299.

Now THG's 'conventional' PC is nothing if not nearly identical to the G40 laptop specs. That struck me as rather odd, all considered. So I looked at prices (from Newegg) for building my own equivalent to THG's 'conventional' PC and got the following:

THG's 'conventional' PC:
--------------------
Shuttle SB61G2 = $320
P4 2.4C (retail) = $170
256MB Crucial PC3200 = $53
256MB Crucial PC3200 = $53
Maxtor 40GB/7200RPM/2MB HD = $60
Sony DDU1621 16xDVD = $30
WinXP Pro = $143
Samsung floppy drive = $7
Generic Keyboard/Mouse combo = $8
--------------------
Total = $844

Now if you're like me you'll note that this is rather lower than $1300. In fact, it's over $450 lower!

Well, okay, the laptop comes with speakers and a monitor. So let's give this 'conventional' PC something similar...

Since THG seems to be obsessed with matching the laptop's specs, why not use a rather non-conventional monitor: a LCD. Since the laptop has a 15" TFT display, let us match that with a Viewsonic 15" LCD display for $260. Of course this PC also needs speakers, so lets again break conventiality and use the full 5.1 functionality by picking up some nice Altec Lansing 251 speakers for $65.

So now THG's 'conventional' PC is at $1169. Okay, that's <i>roughly</i> the same price as the G40.

But just how 'conventional' THG's competition PC is still is rather debatable. So instead I thought that I'd configure my own conventional machine. (Prices again from Pricewatch.)

Slvr's Conventional Machine: (Improvements in <b>bold</b>.)
--------------------
Antec Lanboy case = $89
Abit IS7-E i865PE mobo = $97
Pentium 4 2.<b>6</b>C (retail) = $211
<b>ATI Radeon 9500 Pro</b> = $205
<b>512MB</b> Kingston <b>HyperX</b> PC3200 = $125
<b>512MB</b> Kingston <b>HyperX</b> PC3200 = $125
Maxtor <b>60GB</b>/7200RPM/<b>8MB</b> HD = $76
Sony DDU1621 16xDVD = $30
WinXP Pro = $143
Samsung floppy drive = $7
Generic Keyboard/Mouse combo = $8
KDS 17" Flat CRT = $119
Altec Lansing 251 = $65
--------------------
Total = $1300

Hey, what do you know? My conventional PC costs the same to build as IBM's G40 list price (sorry, it costs a whole dollar more) and beats the heck out of THG's 'conventional' PC. It has 200 more MHz, 512MB more RAM <i>with</i> better timings, 20GB more hard drive space <i>with</i> an 8MB cache (instead of just a 2MB cache), and to top it all off mine has an ATI Radeon 9500 Pro instead of onboard graphics from Intel.

Call me crazy, but my opinion is that had Harald Thon (the author of this article from THG) actually tried to fully match the price of IBM's G40 by configuring an actually conventional PC, this article would have had a <i>completely</i> different feel to it. (And think of how much more I <i>could</i> have improved the CPU and/or video had I just saved $144 bucks by sticking to cheap DDR400.)

So I guess it just irks me. If THG wants to kiss up to IBM and flaunt the cheap (for a laptop) G40, that's fine. Don't bring really poorly-configured and overpriced 'conventional' PCs in as a comparison though. Either do that kind of a comparison <i>right</i> or don't do it at all. That's my opinion.

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