What Hardware Should I Buy? - Feb 2009

High-end Hardware

With a bigger budget you’ll see a big step up in quality and performance, especially as it allows us to include higher quality cooling components like a premium case and a premium aftermarket CPU cooler.

A bit more cash also buys a whole lot more processor, graphics card and hard drive space than our recommendations in the affordable system. What's more, you can pick up some truly excellent hardware that should be more than enough to take on even the most demanding of games for a good while to come if you're willing to spend that little bit more.

While prices continue to creep inexorably upwards thanks to the weak pound and the generally poor state of the the global economy, there are still plenty of good bargains to be had, and the release of AMD's Phenom II X4 processsors, while unable to usurp the almighty Q6600, is still well worthy of consideration as an alternative.

Graphics Card

First Choice: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 (216)
UK Pricing: £206.15 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $279.99 (ex. Tax)

With the release of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 285 this month we've seen GTX 280 prices come crashing down to somewhat affordable levels, but the GTX 260 (216) is still our choice for a high-end GPU, especially with the increasingly patchy availability of the GTX 280s.

Having dethroned the Radeon 4870 1GB last month thanks to a hefty price cut, the increased profile of PhysX acceleration and improved performance from increasingly improved drivers, the GTX 260 (216) is still a worthy choice, although it really is a very close run thing.

Overall there really isn't really that much to separate the two cards, although the 260 (216) is generally better at the more common desktop resolutions of 1,280 x 1,024 and 1,680 x 1,050 and at lower anti-aliasing settings.

However, with both cards so evenly matched, the real decider here is Nvidia's hefty selection of extras that its graphics cards are capable of. CUDA-accelerated applications such as the video encoding utility Badaboom and the adoption of PhysX technology into high profile game launches such as the PC version of Mirror's Edge have lifted these features from just another tick box to genuinely compelling additions.

Whether we'll see more applications and games taking advantage of Nvidia's CUDA and PhysX technologies remains to be seen, but right now if the choice is to have them or not, and there's no disadvantage in performance or price in choosing a compatible card, then we have to go with Nvidia.

What's better is at just over £205, this XFX card represents excellent value, and even includes a copy Far Cry 2 to put it through its paces. Do be sure to keep an eye out for cut price GTX 280s though - they offer decent performance improvements and have been available for just £230 since being replaced by the GTX 285 in Nvidia's product roster - at that price you'd be silly to pass up on one.

CPU

First Choice: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 stepping
UK Pricing: £154.99 (inc. VAT)
US Pricing: $192.90 (ex. Tax)

Intel’s seminal Core 2 Quad Q6600 quad-core processor was all we were ever going to consider for our recommended high-end processor and even after the release of Core i7, it is still the processor that we would buy for our own home systems. Tim recently upgraded his gaming machine and stuck with a Core 2 Quad, stating that he had no reason to upgrade to Core i7.

While the spec sheet is fairly impressive: a quad-core processor running at 2.4GHz with 8MB of cache, the chip’s overclocking headroom is legendary. By following our handy guide, you should comfortably hit clock speeds of 3.0GHz even if you’re using an Intel stock heatsink, without posing any stability or processor lifespan problems whatsoever.

With exchange rates fluctuating more than Britney Spears' music career, the Q6600 has returned back up to over £150, which for a 3.0GHz quad-core is still a great bargain. Also, while Intel has released 45nm Yorkfield quad-core processors since, none can match the value offered by this inexpensive performance behemoth. It was our processor of the year, for a second year running in 2008, and seems set to continue its longevity well into 2009.

Motherboard

First Choice: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
UK Price (as reviewed): £112.50 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): $117.75 (ex. Tax)

Recently we reviewed the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R and were certainly pleased enough to recommend it. When properly tweaked, it performs great and while it may lack features like ATI CrossFire and dual Ethernet, it has lots of upgradability - plenty of SATA, great audio, decent overclocking and a really intuitive, full featured BIOS. For just over £100 it's good value and a great backbone to pair with our choices above.

If you fancy taking on the pros, Gigabyte is currently running a competition for its new range of Ultra Durable motherboards that includes the EP45-UD3R as well.