Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | August 3, 2011, 7:09am PDT

Summary: Welcome to the Hardware 2.0 “Very Best Kit List” for August 2011. Here I’ve put together a list of the best high-end and mid-range and budget components currently available. So if you’re thinking of building or even upgrading a PC, this list is a must-read for you!

Welcome to the Hardware 2.0 “Very Best Kit List” for August 2011. Here I’ve put together a list of the best high-end and mid-range and budget components currently available. So if you’re thinking of building or even upgrading a PC, this list is a must-read for you!

Updated monthly, these components are on this list because I firmly believe them to be the best either in terms of performance or price - although I’m ready to admit, as always, that there’s room for debate and some choices “go with the gut” more than others.

NOTE: All prices are approximate … shop around for the best deals!

Also, because these are the components I feel are the best available, don’t expect the entire list to change every month! This is honest, real-world stuff, and isn’t based on what’s new or what was in the latest press release!

Jumplist:

Next –>

Page 1 of 9

Related Discussions on TechRepublic

Did you know you can take part in these discussions with your ZDNet membership?

Ask a Question Start a Discussion

Comments

Add Your Opinion

Join the conversation!

Follow via:: RSS; Email Alert

Just In

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

ian_thai 6th Aug

Gulftown (990X) vs. Sandy Bridge (2600K) or wait for Ivy Bridge? Would be interested to hear opinions

View in thread

Please Select
Please Select

0 Votes

+ -

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

Bates_ 3rd Aug

Ok I am die hard OCZ RAM, but you need to get it off your list. OCZ ram is gone. OCZ no longer makes RAM so it isn't that easy to find. Newegg stopped carrying it a long time ago. Listing a $3000 SSD is just foolish. I also think that Computer Cases should be on your list, as they are just as important as all the other things on your list (except sound cards, cases are way more important then sound cards lol). I am also surprised not see any of the new AMD APU chips on this list.

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

The best HW is the one that does the job, not more

RelaxWalk 3rd Aug

Unless you have specific needs like playing powerful games, or professional requirements, this list of overkill.

If all you need is a computer to do internet browsing and office tasks. Go green and buy a used computer $100 to $150 would be enough.

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

Grayson Peddie 3rd Aug

@RelaxWalk Well in that case, to each their own. This article is geared toward gaming enthusiasts/professionals.

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

Aerowind 3rd Aug

@RelaxWalk Er...then follow the baseline budget suggestions? This whole section is pointing out the best high/mid/low performance parts.

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

Aerowind 3rd Aug

I really love these articles...though personally those monitor prices seem ridiculous. I can just go to Sam's Club and buy a 55 inch LED-LCD TV for a computer monitor for cheaper than even the mid range (1300 dollars or so).

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

Grayson Peddie 3rd Aug

For budget gamers, how about this?

AMD A8-3850 Llano 2.9GHz APU ($139.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103942

BIOSTAR TA75A+ FM1 AMD A75 (Hudson D3) HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard ($99.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138331

G.SKILL Sniper Low Voltage Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 Memory ($69.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231461

Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARS 2TB Hard Drive ($79.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136514

Diablotek DA Series PSDA300 300W PSU ($12.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817822014
(Note: See here for why I chose the PSU for being so cheap: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-a8-3850-llano,2975-18.html)

For my personal choice of cases:
Xigmatek Utgard Original CPC-T90DB-U01 Computer Case ($49.99 -- it's a steal at the time of writing)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811815009

Personal Choice of DVD Burner for $18.49:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136238

That comes up to $471.43 before shipping, monitors, keyboard/mouse, and any other stuff you might want to buy.

With the price that low and good CPU/GPU performance in a chip (APU, or Accelerated Processor Unit), this will be great for the energy-conscious, budget gamers who want a good gaming system for $500. It's for those who really don't care for games that are heavily demanding -- something that requires a 6750 or higher.

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

Lengo 3rd Aug

@Grayson Peddie Nice rig! Very nice! But I would suggest that you get two hard drives, not one. This is for safety reasons. And partition them! Put all executables on one separate logical partition, all data on another partition, all music in another, all games on another.... etc. Defragging your disk and virus detection is much faster using partitions, and your OS, residing on it's own partition, keeps all the rest safer. Backing up becomes much easier too. Two drives at 500 Mb each is 1 TB and that is plenty. Other than that, this looks like a very good rig.

Now, what about a monitor? That's where I'm stumped. I need and want a 24" and I do both graphic arts (includes video making) and play games. I want SPS for graphics, but most have response times of 5ms or slower whcih causes ghosting. TNT doesn't have as good color rendition and viewing angle, but response time is as low as 2ms (great for games). So what do I do here?

One problem (erm. feature missing) with the case. It doesn't say that the mainboard panel is removable. Look for that feature. This is most handy and much easier to work with. Your case will last a lifetime. Your mainboard is designed to expire in 3 years. Get a case that is easy to work in.

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

Grayson Peddie Updated - 4th Aug

@Lengo Removable motherboard tray is nice if you're planning to replace your motherboard every one to 3 months. Besides, a motherboard does not have a time bomb, aka an expiration date of 3 years. Maybe 5+? In that case, it helps to keep a motherboard in times of financial crisis. For a monitor, it's a personal choice, but I currently have a 50" 50PK950 HDTV from LG.

And yeah, I've already done my own partitioning by myself, as I have a 4.7GB partition for a page file, an 87.3 GB Windows partition, logical partitions for Kubuntu with KXStudio, and a 530GB partiton for storage. So yes, all of that partitioning is already covered. :)

Of course, I already have my server (running Ubuntu Server 10.04) for backup, but my server is not only a file server, but a router, a phone system (Asterisk PBX), MythTV as a backend, and a kernel-based virtual machine, since my VM runs Windows Server 2008 R2 as a home automation server and a web server using IIS 7 and ASP.net 4.0. My server is outfitted with an Hauppage HVR-1250 (Linux compatible), a wireless network adapter (ath5k, which I'm planning to replace that with a PCI wireless adapter with ath9k, if I can find one), and a PCI network interface controller. I have the two network adapters (wireless and wired) bridged together and I use hostapd for turning a wireless adapter into an access point.

I'm planning to get a 3TB hard drive for my server as both of my server and desktop have a 750GB hard drive, as I'm planning to move all my ripped DVD movies and all my user data to 3TB hard drive in my server. I'm planning to keep my 750GB hard drive for both of them as to not have an operating system be in the larger hard drive. It'd be nice to watch DVD movies in my internal network.

0 Votes

+ -

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

Grayson Peddie Updated - 4th Aug

Hey ZDNet, please apologize for my nonconstructive criticism, but the Talkback system is so bed-ridden with bugs. I keep getting a message that I've been reported as spam and I had to get rid of the HTML junk when editing my post. sad

Well, it's working. I had to keep editing my post until I got it to work.

0 Votes

+ -

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

greybert-@... 3rd Aug

the ONLY real objection I have is the SSD. I think you should have included a 60/128 Gig fastest/cheapest for the budget and 2 of that model in raid 0 for the midrange

Reply
Flag

0 Votes

+ -

RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for August 2011

Lengo 3rd Aug

What? No Turtle Beach sound cards? They're great for music.

No 24 inch monitors? None? Zero? This is the choice for most graphics professionals.

What? No division for main boards based on the north and south bridge? In fact you don't speak of any reason to rank anything the 'Very Best'. You don't define 'Very Best'.

This article is weak!