Hardware What Hardware Should I Buy? - January 2010

This month we've got Intel's new CPUs and other nifty bits of hardware weighing in from CES. Has it made a change to our recommendations? Read on to find out!

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/01/11/what-hardware-should-i-buy-january-2010/1

 

So after all that waiting, not a huge amount has changed....

I'm surprised that the i3-530 didn't get more of a look in in either of the first two systems. Perhaps that's due to less than brilliant overclocking that was achieved when it was reviewed, as well as the price.

That said, I really like the new format and I'm impressed that more discussion of alternatives is included. That makes for a far more rounded article in my view. Well done Bit-Tech!

 

Thank you! The 530 is in there - we pointed it out as a viable alternative in between the All Rounder and Enthusiast PC.

 

Yeah, I read the whole thing. I just thought it might've made the actual cut as part of one of the systems. The fact that alternatives are discussed is brilliant though. Nice to see the 550 get a mention as well.

 

Thanks for this. The "entusiast overclocker" is always around my price point and re-affirmed that the i5 is THE CPU to get at that budget.

 

^_^

 

To be honest, I doubt you really need any cooler over the stock one for the folding rig...

 

No 4890 now? Still get one for £130 ish and ot beats 5770 in every test by long way

 

indeeb but personally I would reather have the 5770 due to the noice level, heat produced and power draw. yes you do lose af few FPS but rather that than a vaccum cleaner.

 

I still think the 550 is the best CPU out there for price/performance....3.8Ghz virtually guaranteed, and with an excellent chance of at least turning it into a triple core, if not a quad.

When i run my 550 as a triple core, its 90% as fast as a full blown quad in games, so your not really losing anything if you don't get all 4 cores.

For an extra £15-20 over the 250, its more than worth it.

 

Still anemic with PSUs, and I'm getting the 5970, dual gpus and dx11!!

 

If you can find a 4890! They are on their way out. Plus 5770 is quieter, cooler and the DirectX 11 path is more efficient so there should be more gains in performance soon. If you can find a 4890 - drop one in

A 5970 takes 300W - the 5850 requires 180W. We spec a system that has plenty of power overhead. The 650W will still suffice in that system for a 5970, should you want to spend a ridiculous amount of cash on something we don't recommend anywhere.

 

Why was Star*Dagger's post deleted?

 

I don't disagree with you, but worth bearing in mind that an Asus of Gigabyte board with 785G or more is at least £20 more than the 770. So £40 overall. However, I still think that's a bargain. The interesting part here, is what happens when you move to a UD2 and i3-530. Costs are only another £30ish again, but you lose IGPU if that's important. Certainly a lot more to be thinking about in this sector now.

I will be watching AMD pricing to see what happens down there with i3 here now.

 

I read somewhere that prices for memory were going to go down around Christmas/New Year time. I've not seen any evidence of this, if anything they have increased in price by quite a bit.

 

Edit: Fixed thank you!!

 

The Lian Li PC-80 has eight expansion slots for the folding cards, bit pricey though.

 

For the premium player rig, the Antec P193 mentioned as an alternative case wouldn't accomodate the Fenrir cooler, not by a long shot. Without modding the P193 to take a Corsair H50, there isn't really any viable cooler for serious core i7 overclocking.

 

As does the Antec 902 IIRC, and it's much cheaper too.

 

Mountain Mods has a 10 expansion slot motherboard tray option that'll easily fit 4 vidcards (cases that fit 2x mobos + multi-card setups, too): http://www.mountainmods.com/