Hardware The Best Hardware of 2010

It is so easy to get an nVidia / Intel / AMD argument going!

All a couple of people did was mention they were shocked there was not one AMD / ATI product listed...

I was surprised there were multiple intel boards, but not one mention of a recommended AMD board.

 

":And there are definitely some great AMD boards out there on the 890FX, 890GX and even 870 chipset:

agreed

 

Stop whining people their choices are perfectly understandable. All amd's cpus get outclassed by intel competition when it comes down to OC. And this is an enthousiast website why would they reccomend cpu's that have little potential. And why would they reccomend boards for cpu's they don't want you to buy.

And their gpu's also get outclassed. 460s are better price/performance than 6850/6870 and 570 is better price/performance than 6950/6970. While nvidia also has more features.

 

Easy Tiger...

 

+1

AMD's exploits this year are definitely a step in the right direction, but they're still comprehensively outgunned in the CPU stakes for about the fifth year running. That prejudices the BiT reviewers against them in the motherboard section; as above, why recommend a motherboard when you don't recommend the processor?

No mention of the 6xxx series I do find interesting, though. As an honest question, was it just not a big enough step up?

 

I thought it was a review of the best products of 2010 - not necessarily those that would make a complete system.

I agree that intel / nVidia are generally better (I have a 460 which replaced a 5770) but surely there is one or two good products?

My next build will be an intel based system though, to see how much better they can be.

 

Still, the HD6850 offers the same performance a GTX460 does for 20 less W in load.
And I like that you are comparing the X6 Phenom to the 6 core i7, when the price difference is 700$. For a person who IS actually running some heavily threaded applications on his machine (like encoding, encrypting, etc.) the X6 OFFERS a lot better price / performance ration than the Intel CPUs. Oh... if only we all played video games. Bit-Tech needs to update it's CPU testing process or take notes from other websites out there which test in more than 10 scenarios.

 

^ What he said...

I use my 1090T for video encoding - and for the money, I can't complain.

I just feel bad for AMD and their associated companies. For example, the Asus Crosshair IV Formula motherboard is pretty damn good, and I feel should have received a mention - I would say that though as I have one

 

didn't it lose out to the 920 when both were overclocked?

 

the C300 was this year right?

surely that has to be up there

 

Think you may be right. However is it not still cheaper when you pair it with a similar motherboard?

The bottom line though is that surely some products should have been at least given an honourable mention?

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I agree - the C300 should be in there too

 

How d'you work that out?

The 460 only becomes better value for money if you do some heavy overclocking, which gives you more heat, uses more power and puts a question mark over the validity of your warranty. At stock settings it's pretty well matched by the AMD cards for price/performance.

 

Whining? I thought this was a discussion?

 

Hmm it is hard to define the best. A lot of stuff on the market is aimed at certain consumer.

For example from all CPUs on the list, without a doubt 980x is the best, but if you take price into consideration then it fails miserably. Performance yes, but not at all cost.

Same with mobos. SR-2 is totally useless for home user, it is also highly controversial choice for server solution (no hardware RAID on-board for starters). Useful only for people who running benchmarks 24/7/365 or Folding.

As for me (price not an issue, but it must be useful in home PC [media/a bit of storage/games]):
CPU - i7-980X
MB - ASUS Rampage Extreme 3
VGA - GTX580
Cooling - Thermalright Silver Arrow/Cogage Arrow.
Case - don't care, not using standard cases anymore
Storage - Areca 1880 series hardware RAID controllers
Most interesting breakthrough: Hitachi for new storage possibilities with up to 24TB per drive.
Biggest mistake, rubbish and road to nowhere: A lot of stuff, but SSDs are top of the list. Completely bonkers and misguided.

 

"And their gpu's also get outclassed. 460s are better price/performance than 6850/6870"

er, no they ain't.

 

Logitech F310,F510, and F710 gamepads are sleeper hits IMHO. I used a Xbox 360 gamepad on my PC for action games until I found out about the new Logitech gamepads working with older games. For example, I couldn't play GTA SA with the 360 controller because it doesn't support directinput. This is a big deal for PC gamers who want to use gamepads for older games that do not support Xinput. The Logitech supports both and fit better in my hands.

 

No 6870 what the hell?

 

It's amazing what short memories you guys have, the G6850 maybe the current overclocking champ, but cast your minds back a few years to the E2160, I got mine up to 3.6Ghz from 1.8Ghz, thats 100%. There were some loons getting 3.8-3.9, surely that alone still makes it king of the overclockers.

 

You people should know by now that you NEVER bite the hand that greases the palm.
(Wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more?)

 

Check back to old monthly buyer's guides. The majority of AMD GPU offerings recommended were released in 2009 (thus not being 2010 hardware) and were good cards following generally good cards. 5xxx wasn't exactly a revolution, and 68xx was just building on that. The GTX460 and GTX580 in comparison were much more striking releases. If it really makes everyone happy, notice that the GTX465 was the most disappointing card.

There were also almost no AMD CPU releases which warranted any special mention. 1090T gave some good 6 core performance for certain tasks, but wasn't all around good enough to give it anything more than a niche role. Various X2/3 chips also gave good budget gaming performance, but again none of them really stood out as spectacular.

The article says it's the stuff of legends, not that it's the "king".