What Hardware Should I Buy? - Sept 2009

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When only the best will do, there’s a raft of hardware out there to cater for your needs, providing premium performance for a premium price tag. Without going crazy and losing our heads, we've really gone to town to maximise this set up because even with a high budget, we’re not out to waste money, and building a top-end system isn’t as simple as just buying the most expensive components out there.

With water-cooling, an SSD for your OS, this system is not only fast and responsive, but pretty quiet too. While the other PCs might create a load of whir and whoosh, this system is noticeably quieter, and also quicker too.

While we're keen to point out that top-end hardware depreciates in value fairly rapidly, both the water-cooling kit and the sound card will last into future upgrades, so they can certainly be thought of as an investment for the future. In addition, as the SSD is bought directly from Crucial, any RMA situations are likely to be resolved fairly quickly. Buying hardware direct from the manufacturer is great, because they can't pass the buck and won't bounce you round various departments before agreeing to replace your faulty product.

Furthermore, Crucial has ranked highly in reader satisfaction surveys over the past few years. Enter this year's customer satisfaction survey to let us know how all the resellers and manufacturers you've bought from this year have fared, and for a chance to win £600 worth of hardware.

If you’ve just bought that 24in or 30in monitor, surround sound speaker kit and nice comfy leather chair with foot rest (usually called the sub) and are looking for some kick-ass performance that won't wait for anyone, this is what we consider the very best hardware at the moment.


UK Price | US Price: Intel Core i7-920 (D0 Stepping)
UK Price | US Price: Swiftech H20-Apex Ultima
UK Price | US Price: Asus P6T Deluxe V2
UK Price | US Price: 6GB (3 x 2GB) 1,600MHz CL8 DDR3

Despite still using the same CPU and memory as the Gaming Workhorse PC, we've upgraded the cooling to use the excellent Swiftech H20-Apex Ultima kit and also added a premium LGA1366 motherboard in the shape of the brilliant Asus P6T Deluxe V2. This board has more graphics slots than the Gigabyte or MSI suggested in the Gaming Workhorse and also has six memory sockets, more SATA ports and is generally a cut above those £130 boards in every respect.

UK Price: MSI GTX 285 HydroGen OC
US Price: BFG GeForce GTX 285
US Price: EK GeForce GTX 285 VGA Copper Waterblock

While you can buy an ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 for under £300 inc VAT (£291, to be exact) we've become fed up with SLI or CrossFire and being so dependant on driver updates. We'd rather opt for the fastest single-GPU card we could afford. It's telling that no-one on bit-tech or Custom PC games on a multi-GPU system (I thought about it for a minute. Literally - Ed.).

We're also a lazy bunch, so we're sticking with our recommendation of the MSI GTX 285 HydroGen OC, an overclocked GeForce GTX 285 with a pre-installed (and very good) waterblock. Looking at prices, you're not actually paying much of a premium for MSI to pre-fit this waterblock, so it's a great choice.

Unfortunately, those in the US will either have to find another card with a pre-installed waterblock, or else fit their own. The EK block we've listed is a solid choice though.

UK Price | US Price: Cooler Master ATCS 840

With all this premium kit, you'll want a case that looks suitably impressive, and we're big fans of the Cooler Master ATCS 840. It's got the space inside to comfortably house all the water-cooling bits, while the exterior is sleek and elegant.

UK Price | US Price: Crucial CT128M225 (128GB)
UK Price | US Price: 1TB Samsung SpinPoint F1

The case has also got plenty of room to house the two storage devices we'd recommend - the Crucial CT128M225 SSD and the 1TB Samsung SpinPoint F1 - plus any other disks you might want to carry over from your current build. The Crucial SSD is a bargain-hunter's dream, as while it's based on the same Indilinx drive controller as the brilliant OCZ Vertex, Crucial has foregone the pricey aluminium housing in favour of cheaper plastic.

This doesn't matter one jot though, as you're going to tuck the drive away in a bay (or an SSD caddy) and never see it again anyway. So, you get a fast drive for less cash - what's not to like about that? The full review of the drive will be in the next issue of Custom PC (on sale from 24 Sept) and we'll get it online sometime soon if you can't get yourself a copy of the mag.

UK Price | US Price: Seasonic M12D 850W PSU

To power the system, we've gone with a Seasonic M12D 850W PSU, which gives a great balance between powerful 12V rails, quietness and value. While we think highly of the Enermax Revolution 85+ 950W PSU, its £182 inc VAT price can't quite match the equally excellent Seasonic M12D 850W. Buying either would be an excellent purchase, though.

UK Price | US Price: Asus Xonar D2X

Throw in a quality, PCI-Express soundcard such as the Asus Xonar D2X and there's perfect-pitch audio to match the power of the system as a whole. Despite on-board audio reaching such a level that it's suitable for the vast majority of us, if you're dropping nearly two grand on a hardcore PC, there's a strong likelihood you'll also want to balance it with a tasty audio setup. Be sure to keep in mind the Xonar Essence STX as well if you need coaxial connectors instead of 3.5mm audio jacks.

UK Price | US Price: LG GH22NS50

Finally, there's a SATA DVD drive. While it's tempting to add a Blu-ray drive to any expensive PC, only movies are distributed on Blu-ray, and you'll want to watch these on a super-quiet media PC hooked up to a large HD telly, rather than monster PC with a comparatively small 24in or 30in screen. The only reason you'd want to add a Blu-ray drive to a powerful PC is to let you rip Blu-ray films, and as that's illegal, we know you definitely won't be doing that, hence the standard DVD drive recommendation.