What Hardware Should I Buy? - April 2009

Memory

First Choice: Corsair XMS2 4GB kit (2x2GB) 1,066MHz/PC2-8500 XMS2 Memory
UK Pricing: £42.99 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $59.00 (ex. Tax)

The bare minimum of memory you should be putting into a high-end PC is 4GB, especially as the performance advantage is fairly significant over 2GB, especially in the majority of modern games. This 1,066MHz/PC2-8500 kit from Corsair is brilliantly priced at just over £40 and is pre-fitted with Corsair’s XMS2 heatspreaders allowing you to push your RAM that little bit faster if you wish.

While you can get 4GB 800MHz/PC2-6400 DDR2 kits for around £5 less, the extra fiver for what is noticeably quicker ram makes sense, especially as it'll help when it comes to overclocking the CPU, giving you that little bit of extra overhead. Even if you don't plan on overclocking, the slight improvement over slower memory is definitely worth the small extra outlay.

Case

First Choice: Antec Nine Hundred Two
UK Pricing: £104.52 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $159.99 (ex. Tax)

When it comes to delivering fantastic air cooling at an affordable price, there really aren't too many who can argue with the Antec Nine Hundred Two. Offering superb cooling performance, a wonderful feature set including individually adjustable fans, well made removable dust filters, a modular drive bay system and put together with uncompromising bomb-proof build quality it's simply a fantastic case and the ideal home for a air cooled overclocked system.

However, we're aware that it's styling won't be to everyone tastes (it certainly isn't to ours) and that as looks go the 902 isn't going to win any prizes. Those looking for a bit more style and sophistication would be well advised then to look to the Antec P182, which lacks the cooling performance of the 902 but still packs a great selection of features and build quality. Just be aware though that the follow up P183 will launch shortly, and it might be worth waiting.

For the majority though, the Antec 902 will prove the perfect home for a high end system. Lots of features, excellent build quality and unmatched cooling performance - it's hard to argue with that.

Power supply

UK First Choice: Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 650W
UK Pricing: £105.62 (inc. VAT)

The Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650W just amazed us with its performance when we reviewed it back in July 2008, demonstrating supreme efficiency and genuinely silent running, making it our personal PSU of choice by a long way.

The secret to its whisper quiet operation is down to a fluid bearing fan which keeps the PSU cool whilst spinning at the lowest of speeds and the use of modular cabling only sweetens the deal, helping you to cut down on unwanted cables inside your case

Unfortunately the price might be a sticking point for some - at a shade over £100 it is admittedly a lot to pay for a 650W power supply but in this case you genuinely do get what you pay. If you can stretch for the Be Quiet! Dark Power Pro 650W we'd strongly recommend you do – it’s a truly superb product backed up by a three year warranty.

US First Choice: Corsair TX650W
US Pricing: $99.99 (ex. Tax)

Sadly Be Quiet! doesn't sell its excellent PSUs in the USA, but this Corsair TX650W is a great alternative. OK, it has no modular connectors but it's one of the cheapest, highest quality PSUs out there for under a hundred bucks. We loved the TX750W and there's no reason why we shouldn't recommend the 650W which provides more than ample power for the set up we've spec'd here.

CPU Cooler

UK First Choice: Scythe Kama Angle
UK Pricing: £31.04 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $38.99 (ex. Tax)

While Scythe has been very hit or miss for us here at bit-tech, our friends over at Custom PC rave to us about the Kama Angle CPU cooler so we felt the need to include it. At under £30, it's well priced and while the Akasa Nero we recently reviewed is cheaper and performs admirably, unlike its well fitted LGA1366 mount, the LGA775 mounting is simply terrible. In comparison the Kama Angle works well with both LGA1366 and LGA775, and delivers excellent performance. We'll have a full bit-tech review this month.

As much as we love the monsters of air cooling like the Thermalright Ultra 120 eXtreme, realistically you won’t need any more cooling than the Kama Angle can provide, and the fact that it’s able to accomplish it both quietly and affordably makes it even more commendable. Get one!

Optical Drive

UK First Choice: Samsung TS-H653B 20X Black SATA DVD+RW Dual Layer Bare Drive
UK Pricing: £15.89 (inc. VAT)

US First Choice: Lite-On IHAS422-0 DVD±RW
US Pricing: $22.99 (ex Tax)

There's no need to go nuts when it comes to DVD-RW drives and you can pick up perfectly capable drives for around £15, although we do insist on SATA ones, if only to banish those messy IDE ribbon cables. These basic drives are affordable for a reason though, so don't expect extra software, although there is plenty of free, open source burning software available from places like Sourceforge.

Hard Disk Drive

First Choice: Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB Hard Disk Drive
UK Pricing: £61.99 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $80.99 (ex. Tax)

In the past we've recommended the 1TB Samsung version of this hard disk, but we've overlooked its slightly smaller and noticeable cheaper 750GB sibling. The Samsung Spinpoint F1, with its triple platter design, has outstripping ever similar large capacity hard disk in our testing, but the 750GB is a hidden gem of the range.

You see, bizarrely, the 750GB and 1TB versions of the Samsung Spinpoint F1 are physically identical - they both use the same three 334GB platters, the same read/write head configuration and the same drive motors. The only difference is the drive's firmware, which locks the capacity of the 750GB drive below that which the drive is capable of.

What this means is that for just £55 you get a drive with 3/4 of the capacity of the 1TB drive, but 100 percent of the performance. While there are those that won't mind spending the extra cash to grab that extra 250GB of storage (ourselves among them), the Samsung Spinpoint F1 750GB the ideal enthusiast drive, with all the performance of its larger sibling, but at a much cheaper price.