Hardware What Hardware Should I Buy? - Dec 2008

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/200...buy-dec-2008/1

Want to upgrade your system or build a PC this month and don't know what parts to get? Once again, we've put together a range of components which the bit-tech staff personally recommend to take the stress out of upgrading or system building to suit any budget.

[xaser04]

It's also worth keeping an eye out for the original 192 stream processor versions of the GTX 260, which can sometimes be found had for as low as £160 to clear stock for the 216 stream processor models. At that price though they're competing with pre-overclocked HD 4850s, which the GeForce GTX 260 is unquestionably superior to, although availability is now getting pretty slim.

I would concur with this as I have purchased two GTX260 (192sp model) for a i7 SLI pc for £100 less than it would of cost to get two 216 shader models - whilst I know the i7 setup is expensive £100 less is still £100 less! The price difference more than makes up for the minor performance difference. : )

[Mankz]

I love you guys and this aswesome new addition every month...

[perplekks45]

Nice as always. One question though:

Why'd you pick the 4850 above all the other cheaper options? Starting at 112£ at Scan for the Palit 4850, for just 1 £ more you get the ASUS one and for 145£ you can get a 4850 with 1GB (Gigabyte).
Did you pick it because of it's pre-overclocked?

[stoff3r]

how can you recomend the b0-stepping q6600? I don't think I have an option to decide what stepping to buy...

[ch424]

They don't recommend the B0 stepping. They recommend the G0 stepping. It's listed on websites as the SLACR or 95W or 'energy efficient' version.

[perplekks45]

Or simply as the 'G0 Stepping'...

[wuyanxu]

fantastic line up.

as days go buy, i cannot resist the lure of P45 boards with PCIe2.0 and more PWM --> 4Ghz.

when will be a good time to buy? is it now with 15% VAT??

[Tim S]

15 percent VAT came in this morning... but hadn't been applied to nearly every product as of last night. The result was that we had to go through the whole article and re-calculate price changes, etc. this morning. Just what the doctor ordered on Monday morning.

[Baz]

Originally Posted by aon`aTv.gsus666

Nice as always. One question though:

Why'd you pick the 4850 above all the other cheaper options? Starting at 112£ at Scan for the Palit 4850, for just 1 £ more you get the ASUS one and for 145£ you can get a 4850 with 1GB (Gigabyte).
Did you pick it because of it's pre-overclocked?

Neither of the cards you've picked there are actually in stock - the listed Powercolour has very good availability, as well as an excellent and very efficient cooler. We'll keep an eye on these alternatives, especially the Palit card, but right now we still think a pre-oc 512mb 4850 with a decent custom cooler is the way forward for the budget entry.

[naokaji]

The Core i7 920 is available later this month, although we expect it to sell out quickly in the first few waves.

I disagree with this part, avalaibilty of the I7 is surprisingly good atm.

I don't think I have an option to decide what stepping to buy...

Intel stopped the production of the old B3 stepping long ago, every Q6600 you buy is the current G0 stepping. I think they just mentioned it to stop you from buying a used one that might be the old stepping.

[metarinka]

am I the only one who prefers smaller monitors? 19-21" is fine for me anything larger gives me a headache

[Kúsař]

Originally Posted by metarinka

am I the only one who prefers smaller monitors? 19-21" is fine for me anything larger gives me a headache

I'm perfectly happy with my 19" LCD. Maybe I'll buy 21" LCD in future - but not until there's something with better response & same image quality as Eizo 1931.

[nukeman8]

Love reading your guide every month, keep up the good work.

This month you got me convinced to go all the way and buy just about your premium set up.

Especially happy with the addition of what monitor to buy as its the one thing i struggle to decide on.

[nukeman8]

1 thing i have noticed, the psu you recommended, it has got a fairly good review off you but not perfect.
as its in the premium set up isnt there a better one about?

[mauvecloud]

I like the premium setup, but I think the SSDs are an unnecessary complication - how would I decide what files to put on the SSDs and what files to put on the terabyte drive?

[wuyanxu]

Originally Posted by metarinka

am I the only one who prefers smaller monitors? 19-21" is fine for me anything larger gives me a headache

my 22inch gives me a little headache when playing games that constantly adjusting DoF or a lot of head blobing, eg. CoD5, Far Cry 2.

i wish more games like L4D where they use dialogue and other stuff to imerse, not through crappy console ported DoF or head blobing.

I like the premium setup, but I think the SSDs are an unnecessary complication - how would I decide what files to put on the SSDs and what files to put on the terabyte drive?

simple, SSH is the OS drive, all programs go there, where it belongs. a few multiplayer games that you want fast loading. everything else (documents, other games that you don't play as much) go to the 1TB drive

[mauvecloud]

Originally Posted by wuyanxu

simple, SSH is the OS drive, all programs go there, where it belongs. a few multiplayer games that you want fast loading. everything else (documents, other games that you don't play as much) go to the 1TB drive

Okay, maybe I overestimated the difficulty of that, but actually getting the SSDs looks like a bigger challenge at the moment - I was hoping to get everything at the local Frys (even if a bit more expensive than listed in the article), though I'm already doubtful about the availability of the motherboard and cooler there. The link in the article says only 10 of the SSDs in stock - I think I found it on Amazon for $239.11, though (I hope this link comes through okay, I'm a little new to commenting on this site): http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CDTI84?...0&linkCode=asn
Is that the correct item?
Also, how hard is it to set up the raid when installing the OS, disable defragmentation, etc.?

[Bauul]

Originally Posted by wuyanxu

simple, SSH is the OS drive, all programs go there, where it belongs. a few multiplayer games that you want fast loading. everything else (documents, other games that you don't play as much) go to the 1TB drive

Exactimondo. I have a similer setup: A 300Gb Seagate for all my media, and a nippy little 36Gb WD Raptor for my OS and Programs (and the occasional game). Speeds boot time no end. Also protects your files, as if your OS goes six feet under, you can do a straight forward format of the OS Drive and complete reinstall and all your content is left totally untouched.

[Ending Credits]

I've got a fairly similar setup to the high end system at the moment, would it be worth going to a 22" or a cheap (i.e. £200) 24" over my current 1280x1024 res?