Hardware What Hardware Should I Buy? - June 2009

Think of your colourblind audiance! I can't read any of the text boxes!

 

usual rant sumarised:

not included the best bang-for-buck monitor: 2209wa
not included the best bang-for-buck cpu: AMD Phenom II x3 720 BE

I would find it hard to recommend this guide without atleast touching on what most people would want, best bang-for-buck.

 

I notice you still don't list mounting hardware for the SSD in the "Premium Player" setup. I've got an ATCS 840 on the way, so I can't speak from personal experience quite yet, but the Cooler Master website gives no indication that the case has any 2.5 inch drive bays, so you'll probably need an adapter bracket, such as http://www.startech.com/item/SATA35252X-35-Bay-to-Dual-25-SATA-HDD-Adapter.aspx (I used one of these to put the two Patriot Warp SSDs suggested by the December guide into an Antec P182)

Oh, I also just discovered that your US pricing link for the Samsung 1TB drive is out of date. It goes to a list of suggestions now. I think this is the url you want: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152102

 

On your medium range monitor will it actually allow me to play consoles on it? "It even ships with an HDMI for connectivity to a next-gen console or other high definition source.".

As i thought a T.V not just a Monitor was required for consoles?

 

any monitor with HDMI can plan PS3 and Xbox360 on it, any monitor with component will be able to do Wii (i think you can also get an adaptor to get component to VGA)

eg, my Samsung T240 can play my friend's PS3 effortlessly (although all games looks like crap comparing to PC version)

 

SSD mount is a good point - Akasa is sending us one soon for test, and we should have a look for some more so we can recommend the best.

The Samsung page must've changed overnight too, but links and prices have been changed.

 

I've found that the component to VGA adapters aren't as compatible across monitors as vga signals from a PC. However, the distinction between a TV and a monitor has become blurry. A lot of TVs now come with VGA inputs, so they can be used as PC monitors, and some monitors (like my Gateway XHD3000) come with extra inputs (hdmi, component, s-video, and composite), allowing game consoles, dvd players, etc. to be connected directly to them.

 

er.... HDMI to DVI.... my PS3 works fine on my Samsung 215TW

 

go for LG M227WD. Cheaper than the Samsung T220hd

 

I think it would be nice to see an alternative graphics card for the folders amongst us.

 

in your mid-range system graphics card statement, you mention that the recommended mobo supports crossfire but not sli. actually, the ud3r supports neither, the ud3p supports crossfire.

 

It would be nice if you could add a MicroATX system in there for the next time you do this. Not everybody wants a massive tower.

Ie, Antec Mini P180, Asus Gene mobo, Core i7 920 etc...

 

For the link to CCL, it would also be nice to have the option of taking stuff out of the bundle for the pre-built one.

For instance I already have a DVD rw and a HDD so dont need those.

 

Misspelled 'monster' in the 4870 X2 description.

And yeah, the text boxes are pretty awful this month.. Seems like someone just made an error though, the horrible brighter purple is usually gray, I think.

 

maybe a little...harsh...lol...but some definite truth to that. and being from the states, when i see most of the guide covering both sides of the ocean until the monitor review...seems lazy. o well...

i also question your recommendation of the 4870 x2. i know it's easy to get excited about price cuts but why would you recommend that card over 2 / gtx 260's? don't tell me power consumption, because both 260's take less total than the 4870 x2. don't tell me connections because it's the premium player system, and the recommended psu can handle it...and dont tell me performance, because the sli setup outperforms the 4870x2 more times than not and we all know about folding on ati...heck, i'd take 2 4870's in crossfire almost before that x2...

 

I've been faithfully following this article series since around November and I have followed this site for years. However, I feel this is the poorest implementation of this article to date.

I think it should be OBVIOUS to anyone who has eye-balls that that table coloring is horrid. It doesn't even play into any colors on the website layout itself. (Please, change the table, not the website! Dear god!)

Also, when you linked from various retailers, I always got the feeling that the article was well researched and unbiased. I would MUCH rather see the table, with the cheapest quoted price from whatever site had it (Tiger, NewEgg, etc) and then at the bottom "Or buy the whole DYI kit / complete PC from Scan!" (Or... whoever this CCL is... ((I would trust Scan because you guys associated them with you and tied them close to you-- I really really hope CCL is more credible then the previous posters make it seem, it would be very disheartening to see you guys shoot yourself in the foot like that.))

So far this is the only article/series I have seen degrade in this way. The game reviews are still spot on, the news articles are up-to-date and relevant. Though I may be wrong, I don't see quite as much case-modding on here and while its not something I do, it was cool to read about and I know it was a big draw for most of the people here.

More how-to guides would be awesome. I loved the how-to-make-your-own-server one, and would love one on HTPC's or anything else people can think of.

Most of us aren't mad at this article per se-- we're upset at the perceived lack of effort and quality/polish and unbiased nature usually associated with this series. By narrowing it down to one company, you are closing your eyes to potential bargains. Most of us are thrifty as hell and fickle to boot.

I'm sure I speak for us all when we say: We love this site. Please don't start to change what worked for months/years on here! So many blogs I know have died, so many sell-out or change to become unrecognizable. I would hate to see this site, with how close its staff seems to its posters, suffer the same fate.

We're a nervous and twitchy lot, I know.

 

im bored today, so i'll ramble on some more...

maybe i'm nit-picking here, but someone else brought up a good point. why recommend the 4770 when it cant be found?

i'll even go a step further. sure the 4770 has strong performance in both power consumption and thermal dynamics over the gts 250 (which obviously isnt too big a part of your criteria if you chose a card like the 4870 x2). but have you paid attention to the price vs performance based on your game benches? other than far cry 2, which from what i've been reading, who really plays that anyway...the gts spanks the 4770 beating it by 30-45% and for a whole $10 more (or 10%). oh, and its in stock everywhere.

bah...

 

:O omg the navigation on the CCL site is horrid... speced up nearly the exact same system with scan, in matter of a couple of mins... scan search rox... system = £407.49 (inc free delivery)...
Only difference is brand of Ram (Corsair) and GFX (Sapphire)

So if you really wanna go use scan, then here is the LN quick codes...

LN18949
LN21700
LN27322
LN26873
LN24874
LN25380
LN22762
LN23169
LN23991

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
My eyes!

Sorry, but get rid of that purple. It's awful!

Other than that, the buttons are a bit too big and invasive as mentioned before. The guide itself is as good as ever.

 

While waiting for the 4770 to resurface somewhere on the net, I want to know is there any difference 4gb ram vs 8gb ram?

I notice in the premium segment, the Ram is 6gb. I know vista (up to 4gb) and win7 (unlimited) has that USB support thing which you can use your usb flash drives to increase performance. Kind of like nitros in NFS. Will you see any difference going up to 8gb over 4gb? Its cheaper to buy all the Rams you need when building a pc rather than decide to buy it 3 years down the road. Its more expansive and it may not be the same type as you have.


I just noticed something after building the pc. The antec 300 does not have a front suction fan for the HD. Since I'm like 24/7 on Bittorrent, is that fine? Aside from that, the case is actually quite good.