2011 Ultimate Hardware Guide

If you're looking to build an "ultimate" system then picking the right parts becomes doubly important, because just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, a PC is only as powerful as the bottleneck component.

Whether you are building a new system, or upgrading an existing rig, choosing the right parts can mean the difference between a powerful, stable, quiet, overclockable system that's a pleasure to use and a sluggish, unstable, noisy and non-overclockable system.

So, let's kick off the new year by looking at a selection of components that deserve a place in the "2011 Ultimate Hardware Guide" and deserve a place in your PC!

• CPUs
• Motherboards
• Graphics cards
• Storage
• CPU coolers

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CPUs

Let's make this guide as fair as possible by covering silicon from both Intel and AMD, so you are free to choose which company to give your money to.

Both Intel and AMD make excellent CPUs. From Intel, the undisputed king of CPUs is the Core i7 980X Extreme Edition. Here you have a 3.33GHz monster processor featuring 6-cores and 12-threads and offering the ultimate in power.

Not only is the 980X the ultimate processor for gaming, but it also can effortlessly chew through demanding multimedia encoding and decoding tasks. But while the i7-980X offers unbelievable power, don’t even think about installing it into a PC unless all the other components are top-notch, because otherwise you won’t see the full benefit of the processor you’ve bought.

The only drawback of the 980X is price ... this CPU will set you back $1,000, and that's just the beginning!

AMD also has some excellent silicon on offer, for a fraction of the cost of the i7 behemoth. It’s called the Phenom II X6 1100T “Black Edition”.

Here you have a six-core consumer CPU running at 3.3GHz (3.7GHz in Turbo mode), and it retails for under $270! This is, quite simply, an awesome processor available for a fantastic price.

While not as fast s the Core i7 980X, you have to remember that the 980X isn’t three times faster than the X6 1100T, making the AMD offering a far better deal for gamers and home/business users looking for that CPU packing a lot of horsepower.

Whichever one of these CPUs you choose, you're guaranteed to be pleased by the power they offer you!

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Motherboards

To go with your "ultimate" CPU you need an ultimate motherboard. Here's two to choose from - one for the Intel Core i7 CPU and one suited to the AMD Phenom II X6, both of which are from ASUS.

First up is the ASUS Sabertooth X58, which makes an ideal partner for the Core i7. Here you have a motherboard that does it all - robust chipsets, great design, support for quad-SLI and quad-Crossfire (meaning you can use either AMD or NVIDIA graphics), and you get SATA 6GB/s and USB 3.0 support.

This is an excellent motherboard for $200.

For those of you wanting to make use of AMD silicon, look no further than the ASUS M4A89GTD PRO. This board supports all Athlon II and Phenom II processors up to 140W, features hybrid graphics technology that allows you to make use of both the on-board GPU and a discrete GPU, SATA 6GB/s support, USB 3.0 support. Oh, and if you choose a lesser AMD processor that has locked cores (such as the X3) this motherboard can unlock them with the flip of a switch.

Awesome motherboard for $150.

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Graphics cards

Let's make this guide as fair as possible by covering silicon from both NVIDIA and AMD, so you are free to choose which company to give your money to.

When it comes to "ultimate" GPUs, it's a toss up between AMD's Radeon 6970 and NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 580.

Here's what the Radeon HD 6970 has to offer:

• New AMD PowerTune technology: Designed with intelligent power tuning features, including the introduction of enhanced power containment, the AMD Radeon HD 6900 series automatically adjusts GPU power draw by dynamically controlling clocks speeds, allowing gamers advanced performance inside of the power envelope they specify.
• The time to upgrade is now: Gamers looking to move to a DirectX 11-capable GPU will find there has never been a better time to upgrade, with the AMD Radeon HD 6970 offering up to 2.5 times the gaming performance of 2008’s similarly priced high-end graphics solution.
• Intelligent tessellation: The AMD Radeon HD 6900 series of graphics cards features dual 8th generation tessellation units, delivering up to 2.9x tessellation performance compared to ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics.
• Increased memory for higher image quality: With 2GB of video memory serving as the new standard for graphics card frame buffers, gamers can enjoy superior quality graphics without needing to increase the memory footprint, even at extreme resolutions.
• The Ultimate Visual Experience: As AMD’s most advanced DirectX 11-capable GPU, AMD Radeon HD 6900 series graphics offer a single high-performance solution for a realistic visual experience. DirectX 11 has quickly become the new standard for PC games and the majority of game developers chose to develop their DirectX 11 games on AMD Radeon graphics cards. Beyond DirectX 11 games, the AMD Radeon HD 6900 series also enables an exceptional gameplay experience in DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL titles in single card or multi-card AMD CrossFireX configurations.

Prices start at $370.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 is also an excellent card:

• 512 cores and 16 PolyMorph engines deliver massive tessellation and compute firepower for games
• Hard launch with immediate availability at an estimated SEP of $499 USD.
• Up to 35 percent improvement in performance/watt efficiency
• New vapor chamber thermal solution results in the quietest GPU in its class
• New level of geometric realism — 2 billion triangles/second
• Provides game developers total creative freedom to create cutting-edge DX11 games

Prices start at $499.

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Storage

There’s no doubt that solid-state SATA hard drives (SSDs) are the future. You get fast transfer speeds, improved battery life on notebooks, and quicker boot times. The only downsides - the horrendously painful cost per gigabyte!

The Colossus LT SSD delivers exceptional performance for high-end desktops and are the result of OCZ’s latest breakthroughs in flash based storage. Designed to offer PC enthusiasts a best-in-class storage upgrade from traditional hard disc drives, the innovative Colossus LT Series features incredible speed and ample storage for the complete gamut of gaming, multimedia and demanding productivity applications.

This kind of storage doesn't come cheap though. A 1TB drive will set you back a cool $3,150.

If it's massive capacity you want, then look no further than the Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB drive. Yes, you read that right - 2.0TB!

Not only is this drive fast, it also sips power as opposed to gulping it. This means that you save money and have less heat to deal with in your system.

Sweet!

This drive is very reasonably priced at $99.

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CPU coolers

When it comes to CPU coolers I've always loved the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, and now that this has been updated to revision 2 so it's compatible with a wide range of sockets, it's back on the list!

I love this cooler. It's quiet, it's reliable, and it does an excellent job of cooling your silicon whether it's running at stock speeds or overclocked.

Compatible with: Intel Socket 1366, 1156, 1155 and 775 as well as AMD Socket AM3, AM2+, AM2, 939 and 754.

Awesome cooler for under $40.

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