News PC Hardware Buyer's Guide May 2010

Our monthly PC building guide to getting the best components for your PC, whatever your budget.

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2010/05/07/pc-hardware-buyers-guide-may-2010/1

 

How come the Bit-Tech site buyer's guide differs from the CustomPC mag buyer's guide? Aren't you guys in the same office?

My last build I did use a combination of the two but I still was left scratching my head on a few components.

 

I know it must be a pain putting this up every month but want you guys to know that we appreciate it!

Any chance we can have the best monitors/speakers for those ranges too? That would be cool ;D

 

I wonder when we will see a significant change in the hardware recommendations!

 

When Sandy Bridge is out?

 

Need to correct this my friend!

 

i7 920 still widely available......sometimes as much as £65-£80 cheaper than a 930...lots of people have not been able to clock the 930 higher than the average 920 d0 did. So why is this recommended ???????????????????

Someone explain ? BT have recommended parts far rarer than the 920, so please don't use its 'scarcity' as a reason, as this guide is month to month.

Obviously retailers have higher mark up's on the 930...if BT is unbiased, the should be pimping the 920 at the bargain cost it is !

Good guide overall though.

 

Any chance of a HTPC/media PC build?

 

It's what I'd of suggest

920 was £160 on overclockers last I checked

What do you gain on 930 for the extra cash

 

Yes I also thought you could either squeeze much cheaper 920 into Gaming Workhorse, or put it into Premioum Player, to get more ram or a nice dinner for two.

 

+1

 

Probably not a huge deal with the Premium Player but FYI; Overclockers has a fair amount of 5970 stock, starting at £499.

Still a lot of money but as it's the Premium Player you might as well go premium.

 

£90 P55 vs £155 X58, i think money is better spent elsewhere with gaming workhorse. and obviously Bit thinks the same.

remember that this is a monthly buyer's guide, and 920 has been EOL'd. so it could run out of stock before the end of month.

 

Also interested around the comparable differences between the 920 & 930 given the price offset..

 

Fixed, thanks!

 

920 and 930 are nearly identical

Bit tech has there perfoance scores

from what I remember if you clocked the CPUs to both the same speed the dif was 0

 

Scores are here.. http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2010/03/01/intel-core-i7-930-cpu-review/1

 

I think I can squeeze a 5850 in your enthusiast overclocker build.

As this build is geared towards gaming, I believe the gfx card will have the most impact on performance and experience. Therefore, I would suggest the following replacements -

1. The i5 750 with an i3 530 ( or if one has an AMD build, then probably a phenom ii x2 550 or an athlon tri core) - Games at high resolutions of 1680 X1050 and above are more GPU dependent than CPU dependent.
You Save - £45.85 (price source - scan.co.uk)

2.Replacing the 1600Mhz RAM with 1333Mhz - This could limit the CPU overclock, but as clearly highlighted by this article (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i3-gaming,2588.html) the core i3 at stock and overclocked perform very similarly. Moreover, RAM speed alone does not have a significant impact on gaming performance.
You Save - £30 (price source - BT's May buyer's guide)

3. Replace the modxstream500w with a stealthxtream 500w - Modular PSUs usually cost more than their non-modular counterparts. You can save £10-£15 when buying a non-modular PSU. Moreover, high end cases like the Utgard have a lot of space for unused cables.
You Save - £7.49
(Price source -

Modxstream - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001GLFD...ode=asn&creative=7974&creativeASIN=B001GLFD4U

Stealthxstream - http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer...40-Cores)/ATI-Radeon-HD5770-PCI-E-(800-Cores)
)

Total Saving - 83.34

The cheapest 5770 (on pre-order) is for 116.29 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer...40-Cores)/ATI-Radeon-HD5770-PCI-E-(800-Cores))

The cheapest 5850 (on pre-order) is for 223.23 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Shop/Computer...40-Cores)/ATI-Radeon-HD5770-PCI-E-(800-Cores))

Thats a price difference of £106.94 which is £23.6 more than our total savings from above. In other words, my build costs £23.6 more than the enthusiastic overclockers build, but I am pretty sure it would perform much better and would be more future proof,provided you are willing to spend

Now if only someone could test this for me because I dont have any money

 

Core i5 750 is a better all rounder, though.

 

Considering: does-anyone-really-need-a-1kw-psu/
Why is the Premium Player equipped with a 750 Watt PSU, or the Gaming Workhorse with a 650 Watt?
The combination i930+HD5870 or i860+5850 shouldn't drai near that much power..