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Hardware PC Hardware Buyer's Guide, January 2011

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by arcticstoat, 19 Jan 2011.

  1. arcticstoat

    arcticstoat Minimodder

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  2. mobius

    mobius What's a Dremel?

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    Presumably you mean January 2011? ;)
     
  3. arcticstoat

    arcticstoat Minimodder

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    Oh damn, you got in just before I fixed that!
     
  4. mclean007

    mclean007 Officious Bystander

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    Nice, but - as you say - buying a new rig now rather than waiting a week would be pretty foolish, tempting though it is to get stuck in to Sandy Bridge.
     
  5. smugboy

    smugboy What's a Dremel?

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    Built pretty much this exact system at the weekend (carried over the GFX card, HD, and a few other bits). I love it but a couple of niggles:

    1) Removable Utgard hard drive cage is pig. Quite tricky to get the HD in (think keyhole surgery to screw HD in), but more importantly the HD cage conflicts with the edge mounted SATA ports of theP8P67 mobo. This means that you can't install / remove the hard drive without removing the mobo (and guess what I put the mobo in the case before the HD). Don't think I was doing anything wrong, but maybe I missed a trick

    2) Shipping BIOS for this mobo (0402) is a bit rough. For example didn't want to let me install Win 7 on the 1T Samsung F3 (new UEFI partition structure). THere is a work around. Also seems to want to run my 2*4Gb Corsair RAM at 1066 rather than the rated 1600. Need to play with the BIOS/UEFI, as I guess there is an answer there, but plan on a BIOS flash instead/first.

    This said though 2500K @ 4GHz (for now) + GTX 460 1GB + the rest of this shiny stuff is a really nice PC. My OC'd C2D is now out to pasture.
     
  6. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    What is this new graphics card release I hear you mention? I'm going to need one very soon
     
  7. Mitcian

    Mitcian What's a Dremel?

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    God damn SIMLINKS! I hate thee!
     
  8. memeroot

    memeroot aged and experianced

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    the 560 against 570 580 question is one we all want answered.....

    will 560>570?

    sounds stupid but I think it will
     
  9. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    I only wonder about the 4GB memory, i've read fiery pleads for more from your staff.

    Otherwise, well, we'll have to wait once more. I'd have kicked myself if I'd have bought a i/-950 system one week before sandybridge. :D

    I don't suppose the "new to be announced card" will move to top-end graphics, but we'll see.
    Also, I'm looking forwards to a ton of MoBo tests
     
  10. sp4nky

    sp4nky BF3: Aardfrith WoT: McGubbins

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    December's Buyer's Guide was cancelled because we were waiting for the Sandy Bridge info. January's is cancelled because of an impending release of a graphics card.

    What's February's guide going to be cancelled for? A super new motherboard that gives a 5% increase/decrease in performance/energy use?
     
  11. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    Well, if you're waiting for peace and quiet, wait till 6-8 weeks after CeBit :D
    May-June is usually the quiet area hardwarewise
     
  12. smugboy

    smugboy What's a Dremel?

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    Like Xir I would love to here Bit-tech's (who I respect) view on 4Gb vs. more. I read an article in Tomshardware (who I don't really trust), saying that more makes a big difference (although not measurable in FPs), and went for 8Gb in my Sandybridge upgrade.

    Like sp4nky, I am always nervous of the delay strategy (always something better around the corner in PC tech), but I'm glad I waited a couple of months for Sandy Bridge - I nearly bought a i5 760 ~Nov. I also wouldn't buy a GTX 460 now, so I was glad that I upgraded this seperately when it came out, and had one to carry over to my new build. Phased upgrade may be the answer vs. waiting for all the stars to align (i.e. all the cool new components to come through together). Used in this way regular Hardware guides are really useful.
     
  13. Denis_iii

    Denis_iii What's a Dremel?

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    "which promises to make most cards in the £150 to £220 price bracket seem utterly archaic" , do you mean the Geforce GTX 560?
     
  14. Ljs

    Ljs Modder

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    Maybe you missed this article?
     
  15. CAT-THE-FIFTH

    CAT-THE-FIFTH What's a Dremel?

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    You do realise you have linked to GTX460SE which has only 288 shaders unlike the normal GTX460 1GB.

    Both the GTX460 1GB and HD6850 1GB can be had for around the same price it seems(around the £130 mark).
     
  16. smugboy

    smugboy What's a Dremel?

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    I had skimmed that article, but it seems more about speed than size of memory. The last line says >4Gb if heavy multitasking, but the Tomshardware article talked about other benefits, e.g. general smoothness, GFX memory is better fed leading to less HD driven stutters and objects appearing in view at longer distances rather than popping up when you get close.
     
  17. Pete J

    Pete J Employed scum

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    That'll be the GTX 560 (Ti)
    It can't, simply because there would be no point in the 570! I imagine the 560 will match the 570 when overclocked though.
    Personally, I think BT are right to hold on for a while; the new tech coming out is quite a change in performance, certainly more than 5% anyway.
     
  18. Ljs

    Ljs Modder

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    Ahh I see, I haven't read that article actually - I'll go have a quick flick though it.
     
  19. Foiseworth

    Foiseworth Newbie

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    Whilst I was really wanting to hear you say 'This is what you should now buy on a budget...', I can't fault you for essentially saying 'If you can hold off buying there is going to be game changing stuff around the corner...'
     
  20. Zurechial

    Zurechial Elitist

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    Whether to hold off or buy now really depends on just how much of an impact those items around the corner are going to have.
    When bit-tech tells me to hold off I trust the advice because it's usually due to something signifianct and it hasn't let me down so far.

    Since we can safely assume that the 560 release will shake things up in that pricerange, I'm wondering if it's going to affect the higher end market segment.
    If people settle on 560s more, will the prices of 570s and 580s come down slightly to make them more attractive, or will nVidia be content to just shift boxes of 560s and keep the 570/580 at premium prices?
     
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