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Each month or every 2 months, depending on the hardware evolutions, chaud from MMO Champion posts up a couple of hardware setups for those of you who are thinking of upgrading their computer (so not to steal his thing I'll just x-post it here for folks who need it)
This month
Hard drives remain expensive, so now is still a good time to buy a SSD, as the next generation is a while away and the current prices are fairly flat, with sales bringing the cost very close to $1 per gigabyte.
AMD's Bulldozer arrived to negative reviews, citing excessive power usage and heat output and very poor single threaded performance. The previously mentioned patches for Windows are now available and give a few percent performance increase. (Patch 1, Patch 2)
New CPUs from Intel should be arriving in early April if you aren't in a hurry to build, bringing increased performance and lower power consumption.
The new 7970 GPU from AMD has been released and can be had for ~$550 if you can find it in stock. The 7950 will be here in a matter of weeks somewhere in the low ~$400 price range. More GPUs will likely be released next month. New GPUs from Nvidia likely won't be here before early March.
Make sure to keep your AMD and Nvidia drivers up to date.
Setups
Each setup is made to aid you in measuring how much you want to spend and what you want. There are 4 tiers Puppy, Dolphin & Narwhal and Unicorn. Mix and match anything but the CPU/Motherboard combo between Puppy and Dolphin. Mix and match anything between Dolphin and Narwhal.
All Links go to Amazon for reference of what part it is, and all prices are subject to change.
Puppy Setup
Case - NZXT GAMMA Classic - $40
Power Supply - Corsair CX500 V2 - $58
CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 960T Black Edition- $115
Heatsink - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus - $27
Motherboard - ASUS M5A97 AM3+ 970 - $116
Memory - 4GB PNY Optima DDR3 10600 - $25
Graphics Card - XFX 6770 - $95
Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB - $120
DVD - Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23
Total = $619
Optional:
Monitor - ASUS VW224U 22-Inch Widescreen - $149
Keyboard - Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000 - $21
Mouse - Logitech G400 - $37
Speakers - Logitech S220 2.1 Speaker System - $30
Dolphin Setup
Case - NZXT GAMMA Classic - $40
Power Supply - Corsair CX600 V2 - $70
CPU - Intel i3-2100 - $125
Heatsink - Corsair Air Series A70 - $38
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 - $123
Memory - 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 12800 DDR3 - $40
Graphics Card - MSI 6850 or EVGA GTX 560 - $174 / $175
Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - $157
DVD - Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23
Total = $791
Optional:
Monitor - ASUS VW246H 24-Inch Widescreen - $200
Keyboard - Cyborg V.5 - $47
Mouse - Razer Deathadder - $48
Speakers - Logitech Z313 Speaker System - $40
Narwhal Setup
Case - Cooler Master HAF 912 - $66
Power Supply - Corsair 650TX V2 - $90
CPU - Intel i5-2500k - $230
Heatsink - Thermaltake Frio - $55
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 - $160
Memory - 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws F3 12800 DDR3 - $40
Graphics Card - XFX 6950 1GB OR EVGA GTX 560 Ti- $220/ $230
Hard Drive - Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black - $157
SSD - Crucial 128 GB m4 (Review) - $180 OR Corsair Force Series GT 120 GB - $180
DVD - Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23
Total = $1041 - $1231
Optional:
Monitor - ASUS VE276Q 27-Inch - $279
Keyboard - Logitech G110 - $70
Mouse - Logitech G500 - $58
Speakers - Creative Inspire T3130 2.1 Speaker System - $45
Unicorn Setup
Case - Cooler Master HAF932 - $143
Power Supply - Corsair 750HX (7 Year Warranty) - $144
CPU - Intel i7-2600k - $320
Heatsink - Noctua 6 NH-D14 - $88
Motherboard - ASUS Z68 P8Z68-V PRO - $205
Memory - 8GB G.Skill DDR3 12800 - $54
Graphics Card - XFX 6970 2GB OR EVGA GTX 570 - $325 / $360
Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - $157
SSD - Intel 510 Series 120 GB (Review) - $275 OR OCZ 120 GB Vertex 3 (Review) - $165
DVD - Asus 24X SATA DVD+/-RW - $23
Total = $1624 - $1769
Optional:
Monitor - HP ZR24w 24-inch (IPS Panel) - $375
Keyboard - Razer BlackWidow (Backlit)- $74 ($130)
Mouse - Razer Naga (Buttons on the Side) - $68
Speakers - Logitech Speaker System Z523 - $79
There you guys are. any other questions post away.!
Edited by Deadfire, 22 February 2012 - 11:14 PM.
