What Hardware Should I Buy? - Dec 2008

Graphics Card

Alternative: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 (216)
UK Pricing: £219.99 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $279.99 (ex. Tax)

The 216 stream processor version of Nvidia's GTX 260 recieved a pretty hefty price cut in Europe this month, and it's now much better placed to compete with ATI's Radeon HD 4870 1GB.

Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 260 is something of a weird second place in the current generation, being outperformed by the HD 4870 in many situations, although at common desktop resolutions like 1,280 x 1,024 and 1,680 x 1,050, the Nvidia card is much more competitive. We'd say this card is more fairly targeted at those running either 1,680 x 1,050 or 1,920 x 1,200 displays though, so it's competitive at the bottom end of the target market.

At low anti-aliasing settings it frequently bests or matches the Radeon HD 4870, before losing out at higher resolutions and anti-aliasing levels. While we’d take the Radeon HD 4870 every time for its superior high AA performance, the GTX 260 (216) is still a fine choice, especially if you're only going to playing at 1,280 x 1,024 of 1,680 x 1,050 resolutions.

It's also worth keeping an eye out for the original 192 stream processor versions of the GTX 260, which can sometimes be found had for as low as £160 to clear stock for the 216 stream processor models. At that price though they're competing with pre-overclocked HD 4850s, which the GeForce GTX 260 is unquestionably superior to, although availability is now getting pretty slim.

Processor

Alternative: AMD Phenom 9850 X4 Black Edition
UK Pricing: £132.08 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $169.00 (ex. Tax)

or Intel Core 2 Duo E8400
UK Pricing: £135.88 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $159.99 (ex. Tax)

While it’s easy to gush over Intel’s quad-core processor, if you want pure MHz rather than more cores you may never use then the E8400 is not only cheaper, but it should also easily hit 4GHz when overclocked. Manufactured using the newer 45nm process, it also operates at lower temperatures and if you're really into overclocking the front side bus and memory then this is exactly the CPU to go for without over spending.

However, not everyone wants an Intel rig though and the AMD alternative is currently the unlocked quad-core Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition. It may not be able to match the Core 2 Quad Q6600 for performance or overclockability, but it is still a decent option for AMD stalwarts, offering four 2.5GHz cores and 2MB of L2 cache and 2MB of shared L3 cache. The price is right too at around £135, but given the choice we’d take the Q6600 or E8400 in almost every scenario.

Motherboard

Alternative: Asus M3A79-T
UK Pricing: £140.05 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $184.25 (ex. Tax)

While a bit more expensive that we'd like, the new southbridge which offers advanced overclocking features for the Black Edition Phenom X4 processors is worth it. In addition there are more SATA ports and the 790FX is AMD's premium chipset offering a pair of full PCI-Express 2.0 x16 lanes for CrossFire. We could save some cash and grab a 790GX for £25 less, but having used the original Asus M3A32-MVP extensively that uses the 790FX with the older SB600 southbridge, and listening to quite a bit of positive feedback about this board we think it's worth stretching for the M3A79-T if you can.

Case

Alternative: Akasa Omega
UK Pricing: £119.47 (inc. VAT)

One of the best cases we've seen released this year, the Akasa Omega takes the tried and tested design inherited from the Akasa Eclipse and improves upon it with significantly improved ventilation and a stylish and well constructed aluminium door to hide away your drive bays.

The whole case is made of aluminium, so is deceptively light for its extra large dimensions and the build quality throughout is fantastic. The attention to detail is also good with detachable front panel cables, included coaster wheels and plenty of cable ties and clips to help keep the jungle of wires inside under control.

The Omega also benefits from one of the easiest build systems on the market right now, with a brilliant removable stainless steel motherboard tray, and the whole package is rounded off with genuinely silent cooling as standard. If the P182 is a little too common for you, the Akasa Omega is a seriously attractive alternative, albeit at a higher price.

Optical Drive

Alternative: LG GGGC H2OL Blu-ray, HDDVD DVDRW combo drive
UK Pricing: £64.36 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $123.99 (ex. Tax)

If you’ve got a little money to spare, or just want to enable High-Definition movie playback on your PC, then this drive from LG is by far the best value solution right now – it’s certainly cheaper than a Playstation 3!

Packing all the usual read and write capabilities on top of the ability to read both High-Definition Blu-ray and the now defunct HD-DVD format discs, it's an excellent combination drive, although you'll need to purchase disc playback software separately from companies like Cyberlink or Corel. Nevertheless, for less than £70 this is great little drive.