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Hardware What Hardware Should I Buy? - August 2009

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Tim S, 11 Aug 2009.

  1. logan'srun

    logan'srun following the footsteps of giants

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    I look forward to the buyers guide every month as it helps keep me up to date hardware that I might have missed!
    IMHO, I was partial to the old format as it seemed to held more information and more personality of the journalist involved - and it never bothered me if similar items + text were copy/pasted to another section.

    I would love to see a HTPC build section, although the hardware updates probably aren't as often as the bigger counterparts.
     
    Abhorsen likes this.
  2. DraigUK

    DraigUK Minimodder

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    Great guide!!

    thanks!
     
  3. nitrous9200

    nitrous9200 What's a Dremel?

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    I just want to say that I think the new shorter format is far superior to the old one; it's much more readable and easy to understand.
     
  4. Sterkenburg

    Sterkenburg To mod or not to mod...

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    Firstly, awesome article! I had been waiting for this for a few days now... I've got an i7 920 and 6GB of RAM, but I haven't purchased a graphics card yet so my PC really isn't complete. Looking around, I had almost decided on two HD 4850s in CrossFire, but now I see that only single-card solutions are recommended in the article (save for the folding PC, of course), and I was just hoping someone could tell me what my best option was for around $250 Canadian. AMD vs Nvidia really isn't an issue for me.

    Thanks in advance!
     
  5. Abhorsen

    Abhorsen Minimodder

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    My sentiments exactly.
     
  6. Aracos

    Aracos What's a Dremel?

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    Just a suggestion not a criticism but do you not think it wise to stick to the normal £400 budget of the affordable all rounder and get a phenom ii 545 or athlon ii 250 with £50ish DDR3 for future upgradability? Just mentioning this as LGA775 is most likely gonna die next month with lynnfield otw although I guess it depends on when they release the i3's.
     
    Last edited: 11 Aug 2009
  7. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Because an E5200 is still more powerful at 4GHz. High end LGA775 will be replaced next month with Lynnfield, however budget 775 won't be replaced until later next year with 32nm alternatives. There's nothing stopping you spec'ing up an Athlon II X2 250 and Gigabyte/Asus 785G board though, but DDR2 at £33 is still 40% cheaper than DDR3 worth buying. :)

    Check the review: http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2009/06/30/amd-athlon-ii-x2-250-cpu-review/1 The E5200 woops it still.

    I might do more discussion for the Athlon II alternative next month :)
     
  8. Aracos

    Aracos What's a Dremel?

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    Ah I see, I wasn't sure when the low end 775 stuff would be getting replaced, net's been a bit hazy about that. Nvm. Also lol @ you changing my avatar I really didn't expect to get one that ugly :)
     
  9. haddow64

    haddow64 What's a Dremel?

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    Good guide, I am planning on building a my first system in the next couple of weeks and the parts I had listed are almost exactly the same as the Gaming Workhorse spec. Its good to know that my setup isn't completely duff.
     
  10. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    :thumb::clap:

    (Nice to know I'm on the same wavelength too LOL)
     
  11. namegoeswhere

    namegoeswhere What's a Dremel?

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    Excuse the noob question, but am i right in understanding the gaming workhorse motherboard (MSI x58M or whatever it was) will not be able to run my DDR3 ram at 1,600Mhz? If not, could anyone recommend me a *shrug* budget x58 mobo on which i could do that?
     
  12. haddow64

    haddow64 What's a Dremel?

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  13. namegoeswhere

    namegoeswhere What's a Dremel?

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  14. bridgesentry

    bridgesentry 3verything must bee wat3rcooled

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    I think this article lacks of pictures. Did someone forget about painting, coloring?:worried:
     
  15. Elton

    Elton Officially a Whisky Nerd

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    You can get HD4850s over here in the US for $20 less, quite a deal.
     
  16. DbD

    DbD Minimodder

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    There's quite a few people who swear by their dual gpu, but an equally large number of people who swear at it. You get the performance but you loose out in stability. Depends what's more important to you? A 4890 or GTX 275 should be in your price range, just make sure the 4890 has a custom lower noise cooler if you go for one of them. Both a little slower then dual 4850's when they are working well. Personally if prices are similar I'd buy nvidia for 3d vision and physx which look more exciting then ati's DX10.1 support, but a lot depends on what deals you can get.
     
  17. SpeedLegion

    SpeedLegion Minimodder

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    I love the fact that you can build the whole of the "affordable all rounder" for the price of the graphics card in the premium "player system" :p

    I like that there are water-cooling suggestions now, but I think they should have their own category maybe? The premium system should be left as core components, with the information there to water-cool it if chosen?
     
  18. [PUNK] crompers

    [PUNK] crompers Dremedial

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    haha i love the way there are 100's of opinions on the buyers guide every month.

    its a good guide, deal with the layout. even if it was perfect in your opinion someone else would make comments im sure
     
  19. Jamie

    Jamie ex-Bit-Tech code junkie

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    No images?
     
  20. JaredC01

    JaredC01 Hardware Nut

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    My thoughts exactly Jamie.

    It does seem like Bit-Tech has started rolling out more numbers of reviews and whatnot since the merger with CPC, though the quality has indeed gone downhill IMHO. I would like to see the ORIGINAL style buyers guide come back into play. Pictures and descriptions of each product would be nice.

    Also, for the Premium Player, I'm not sure I agree with the assessment there...

    The water-cooling setup isn't going to yield great numbers when you throw the graphics card into the loop. I personally feel people would be better off picking up one of the new Corsair CWCH50 kits for the processor, and leaving the very-capable graphics card air cooler to itself. While the graphics cards will indeed be louder than the liquid setup, the CWCH50 is near-silent, and the performance benefit of liquid cooling on the graphics card isn't worth the cost unless silence is a necessity, and I've not played too many games where I could hear the graphics cards over the game. On top of that, there's a larger learning curve and risk associated with building your own liquid setup. The CWCH50 is a sealed system with no learning curve, and very little risk.

    For the price of the GTX 285 and the waterblock you can pick up two GTX 275's or two HD 4890's. Either one of those two would yield better performance results than a single water-cooled 285, and seeing how the 'standard' resolution is 1920 x 1200 anymore, there would be a good benefit to the second card.

    The Seasonic 850w PSU would be able to quite easily power two cards as well.

    Seems to me you could get a better performing system for ~$250 cheaper, and the only sacrifice would be a bit more noise. For most gamers, noise isn't going to be an issue while gaming, and when running at idle, the graphics cards drop their clocks and fan speed to accommodate the need for lower noise. Win-win situation IMHO.
     
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