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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for December 2011

By | December 5, 2011, 7:24am PST

Summary: A must-read for those who build or repair PCs.

Related: Giving a PC as a gift - How to set it up for someone who doesn’t know how

Welcome to the Hardware 2.0 “Very Best Kit List” for December 2011 - the final one of the year! 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!

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Topics

ASUS, Card, Video Card, Performance, Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Graphics, DirectX, GPU, Core, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580, DirectX 11, MAXREVO EMR1350EWT, Video Cards, Games, Corporate Governance, Serial ATA, Processors, Hardware, Components, Personal Technology, Business Operations, Corporate Law, Storage, Semiconductors, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for December 2011
xamountofwords 23rd Dec
@murray13@... And it's not at all suspicious that you felt you had to say you're not a sixth grader unprovoked (I think they call that guilty knowledge), or that you misspelled recommending, or that you gave a vague occupation to validate your statements ("tech guy" [could mean anything] with 30 years of "recommending"?).
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RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for December 2011
Bates_ 5th Dec
How can you even begin to recommend any HDDs with how much they are currently going for? Best bet is for people to just wait, the prices will fall again come Spring.
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RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for December 2011
SleepyBob 5th Dec
@Bates_
Unless, of course, you need a hard drive. In which case, a hard drive comparison when prices are high is just as useful as a hard drive comparison in normal times.
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RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for December 2011
seca400 5th Dec
what the f is with the cpu lineup? no sandybridge-e, and 1st gen intel core is mentioned!
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Obsession with core count
keebaud@... 6th Dec
I'm still not convinced that more cores = better processor. Surely for most purposes a high Ghz quad core will give you more bang for your buck than an equivalently priced 6 or 8 core at a lower frequency. Or has Windows 7 finally able to spread it's load more efficiently across multiple cores?
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Not a windows issue
archangel9999 8th Dec
@keebaud@... Windows isn't the determining factor - W7 has no problem using many cores efficiently - but if you're running one single threaded app - you won't see improvement from many cores - it's all about the app being able to leverage the cores
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RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for December 2011
murray13@... 9th Dec
Your choices for the 'Very Best' in some catagories are at best debateable. As for your choices in 'Mid-range' or 'Value' they're downright laughable. You're writing here for a savvy crowd, not some 5th grader, come to mention it some 5th graders would have better choices... And no I'm not a 6th grader, I'm a tech guy with 30 years of recomending under my belt. jmho
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RE: Hardware 2.0 'Very Best Kit List' for December 2011
xamountofwords 23rd Dec
@murray13@... And it's not at all suspicious that you felt you had to say you're not a sixth grader unprovoked (I think they call that guilty knowledge), or that you misspelled recommending, or that you gave a vague occupation to validate your statements ("tech guy" [could mean anything] with 30 years of "recommending"?).

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