Hardware PC Hardware Buyer's Guide September 2011

since when was AMD so excellent choice for GPGPU tasks?
in that case they need to spend more money on marketing so people actually get informed about this.

NVIDIA marketing > AMD marketing!
enough said. and marketing is everything.

 

Is there any further news on whether or not Be Quiet! plans to market their products in the USA? And if they do not, why so? (Trade, licensing issues, etc?)

I would like to get my hands on some of their fans.

 

it's money and they love huang over there.. http://news.stanford.edu/news/2008/september10/building-091008.html

FAH the way it's meant to be folded

 

I appreciate how you introduce your builds in the screen resolutions they are to be used on. You guys are obviously putting a lot of effort, but it's not enough to recommend a gpu. I suggest you recommend a chipset/cooler manufacturer.
The best use of the AMD Radeon HD69xx GPUs, and the probable reason it was not mentioned, is because it is for budget-oriented high-resolution gaming, while bit-tech skipped that and went for low-res budget gaming, and high-res premium gaming builds.
Nothing beats Sapphire HD6950 2GB Dirt3 Edition in performance+cooling+noise/price.
Recommending the GTX 460 over the Asus HD 6870 DCU for a small amount of money was not something I would agree to as well.

 

Good points you have, however - sadly bit's graphics reviews don't show the whole picture - there are more games out there than what they test.

Therefore, I think it really comes down to the games you play.

For example, where amd is better(in some cases, not by much of course):

- dragon age 2
- deus ex: human revolution
- fear 3
- dirt 3 (not 100% sure about this one)
- Just cause 2
- f1 2010
- battleforge
- stalker: call of pripyat
- aliens vs predator
- etc

and nvidia is better in other games, like:

- crysis 2 (please read that tessellation review, it's very much thought provoking: http://techreport.com/articles.x/21404)
- lost planet 2
- battlefield: bad company 2
- batman: arkham asylum
- metro 2033
- starcraft 2
- hawx 2
- civ 5

so basically it's a wash, and depends on what are your priorities when it comes to games... but regarding this list, i still stand by my belief that amd-s cards offer better value.

guys, i recommend checking out hardocp-s reviews of gfx cards, they have a system that I think has more merit for actual gameplay.

like a long time ago, i made a suggestion to one of the bit-s editors - why not have a section on the site where they test new games as they come out? It seems simple enough, they could just choose 2 amd and 2 nvidia cards and could test games at 1080p and up resolutions only; I imagine it wouldn't take too much time, yet would actually give us great data as most new games are not tested for performance in a comparative way.

ooh, rant over, i hope you guys got my point - there is no black and white here.

 

...While just changing the question to: What Bluray drive is quiet and speedy...
Yes, it's been a while *cough* years *cough* since there was a DVD (now Bluray) shootout.

I know, "They're all the same anyway", funny enough, no they're not, not as far as sound is concerned anyway, performancewise...granted.
But sound in a pretty silent rig is important

 

I don't get this. Why put the PSUs in at all then? Clearly for the Affordable All-rounder there are significantly cheaper choices that will do the job just fine, so why not put them in the build in the first place?

Even more odd is the £90 Corsair HX650 added to the Enthusiast Overclocker build. Until this month the Antec Truepower New 650W was deemed good enough to be in the Gaming Workhorse build, so presumably it should be plenty good enough for the Enthusiast Overclocker.

This PSU is readily available for about £65, so if you felt the need to change out the OCZ PSU then I am mystified as to why you'd recommend the Corsair over the Antec as its replacement. Can you explain that choice at all? It just seems like throwing money away to me.

 

Hi,

Long-time lurker here - just registered to thank you guys for these guides. I based my new gaming PC on your "gaming workhorse" build. I've always gone for "high end sub-top" components (if that description makes sense), and your build made it a lot easier figuring out which parts meet that description...

Cheers!

 

im gonna be honest. you can get 8gb of 1600mhz ram for £40 on ebuyer now. there is no reason at all to buy 4gb unless you really need to save that £10

 

Could you guys (bit-tech) please add wifi cards to your buyers guide ? Mine just died and I don't want to have to get another belkin thing that only lasts 2 years at the most.

 

anyone know where October's Buyers Guide is?

 

I presume they are waiting while they try to get there hands on all of AMD's new processors to see if it changes anything.

Though at this point they might have decided just to skip it and do November.

Either way I'm also waiting for it here

 

Hi there I'm new to getting a gaming pc, and I heard this is the best place to get advice. I am stuck between two options. I either build my own gaming pc using your recommended spec for the enthusiastic overclocker, or buy a decent pc that I can upgrade. I was thinking of getting hold of a dell xps 730 h2c to upgrade. The one I am looking at has the following spec:

Intel core 2 extreme Q6800 3.0ghz overlockable to 3.7
Two nvidia 8800gtx graphic cards
1000watt psu
Liquid cooling
4 gb ram
Ageia physx card
2 x 250 hdd

For about £400, so have some money left to upgrade

Which option would be more advised???
Thanks

 

Greetings!

That was a good system 4 years ago. Not much sense geting it now.

 

^This.

Look at http://tomshardware.com .

They often have guides on what budget systems to build

 

Holy cow Stefanm don't buy that PC and don't for gods sake go on Tom's Hardware. Use the buyers guide on bit-tech!

 

Can anyone tell me if there’s likely to be a hardware guide for November I’m finally taking the plunge and getting a totally new Intel rig after a very disappointing wait for AMD. And it whould be cool to get the very latest recommended hardware. Cheers Wavefront

 

I have done a quick scan of the net before work and can't find HDDs for any where near that sort of price. Does anyone know where to go?

 

HDD's are massively expensive, I'm surpised BT didn't add a note to the guide. It's because of the floods out in Tialand ruining some of the factories, and prices are likely to remain high until the new year. Not a good time to be building a new PC...

 

No new guide now for over 2 months...