Features - HEXUS Christmas Gift Guide 2010: Components for a High-End PC

[HEXUS]

Looking for inspiration for a £1,000 self-build? You'll find it after the jump.

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[nibbler]

Might want to check that link to Scan for the Corsair SSD

[miniyazz]

I can't explicitly name any components that shouldn't be there. It just feels like that setup should give you more change from a grand! I'd also add in just under a tenner and get a 1.5TB drive instead of the 1TB - 50% more capacity for 25% more cost.

Maybe it's just my obvious hatred of Blu-ray drives but I reckon they're an unnecessary item for most people. And an expensive unnecessary item at that. How common is it to write to blu-rays, do any forum readers do so?

Also the case is a decent choice, but that's probably also where I'd cut back if I was feeling tight (oh and I doubt anyone would notice a downgrade to the ~£43 PC3-12800 Corsair RAM currently on offer at Scan either).

[Pob255]

Well for only a single 6850 I'd go with a 480W Be Quiet Straight Power E7 modular and plenty of power for the spec.

Bluray writer . . . does anyone burn bluray discs? for half theprice you can get a bluray reader & dvdr/w drive and that's only if you plan to watch bluray movies on your pc, otherwise you can just get a DVDr/w for £12 or a light scribe for £14

I'll admit that the corsair 600T is a very nice case but it's not massively cost effective.

And

But be warned, the 95W model doesn't ship with a cooler, so you'll need to stump up the cash for a third-party solution.

But yet no mention of what to get, so if you just got the bits listed you'd be short a cpu cooler so you'll not get very far

That memory looks great I wish it'd been around a couple of weeks ago.

[raceway99]

wouldnt it be better to get 2x2gig of ram rather than 1x4gig?

[Terbinator]

I've got a BD-RW and although it wasn't my intention, its archiving/back up purposes are pretty marvellous.

[GheeTsar]

The 600T case looks nice, but performs badly by most reviews. I'd have gone for the Fractal R3 in that price range (with some extra fans).

[Kotoa]

wouldnt it be better to get 2x2gig of ram rather than 1x4gig?

It says it's a dual channel pack, so I assume it is 2x2gig.

[rabbid]

That memory looks great I wish it'd been around a couple of weeks ago.

It's wicked isn't it?! can barely wait for it to be on TO and grab a pack!

[rabbid]

It says it's a dual channel pack, so I assume it is 2x2gig.

Its twin sticks shown and assumed, but following the link shows a single stick.
Also Scans link to LN36551 shows it as 60 month warranty whereas Hexus states lifetime...
http://go.hexus.net/?id=372X587&xs=1...3Fitem%3D28017

[Parm]

rabbid - well spotted. The Vengeance memory was listed as dual-channel, so we'd assumed it was a two-module kit, but it isn't.

The single 4GB Vengeance module has been replaced by a cheaper XMS3 kit. The Dominators wouldn't fit the budget...

[chemeng]

Although I agree on every single item of your configuration Mr Mann, I would suggest an alternative rig.

- CPU: INTEL Core i7 930 (£206)
6-core goodness of AMD Phenom II X6 seems to fade away when compared to HT enabled INTEL Core i7, especially at the gaming field (that is one of the most demanding chores of a pc, and the reason why most of us pursue the absolute speed).

- M/B: GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R (£141)
- RAM: GEIL 6GB DDR3 PC3-10666 CL7 (£70)
The migration to a X58 LGA1366 motherboard suggests the selection of 3-channel DDR3 ram, 6GB of it, another performance leap. 4GB of RAM, although enough for everyday use, provide a less speedy interface when serious multitasking gets into play. More RAM is always good after all, isn't it? So a 3ple channel kit of DDR3 PC10666 CL7 from Geil will cost £70 (ok I know, DDR3-1333 is not the speediest ram around, but triple channel provides good bandwidth even when memory is low clocked)

-VGA: AMD HD5870 (£187)
With gaming in mind, i would replace the AMD (I am getting used to AMD and not ATI after all) HD6850 for either a previous generation AMD HD5870 (that sells for an absolute steal £188 right now and provides a +30% performance leap over your recommendation HD6850) or a brand new and shiny AMD HD6950 (+35% higher framerate over HD6850).

- SSD: MUSHKIN Callisto deluxe 90GB (SandForce SF-1200) (£135)
- HDD: SAMSUNG SpinPoint F4 EcoGreen 2TB (£68)
- OPTICAL DRIVE: LG BH10LS20 DVD writer / Blue Ray reader (£47)
I would definitely insist on an SSD as our primary O/S partition, and the SandForce SF-1200 controller is the way to go... I would pick the 90GB model of either OCZ Vertex 2 or Mushkin Callisto. That would set us as back at £137/£135 respectively.
2TB of storage is a must, but we will have to compromise a bit in sheer performance (but it's not that bad as this hdd will serve storage purposes). But 3 platters and high density technology make up for low spin speed of 5400rpm, and we have less noice/power consumption/heat and much more free space to accomodate our HD movies.
I ditch blue ray recording and keep playback. When BD-R matures as a format I would consider an upgrade to a burner. But as of today, save some money to spare on a better GPU.

- CASE: COOLERMASTER HAF 912 Plus (£60)
It's compromise time baybee... but we don't lose ergonomics and cooling effectiveness, but a little bit hardware real estate.

- PSU: COOLERMASTER GX750 750W (£65)
It's not the best PSU out there, but 750W ensure some future upgrade CrossFire madness. Quality/efficiency wise just middle of the pack.

- O/S: Ubuntu (Priceless lol)
Ok I cheat a little bit... but I add...

- COOLER: COOLERMASTER Hyper 212 Plus (£18)
... to give us a bigger overclocking headroom out of the i7 930. That heatsink is good enough for 4000 MHz rock stable 24/7 o/c.

All that will set us back to £999, just 1 quid shy of the £1000 barrier, just enough to treat yourself a DoubleDecker... mmm