High-end system - March 2007
High-end system
The perfectly balanced high-end configuration.
Configuration
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Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 | Processors |
| The introduction of the Core 2 Duo processor caused a big upset in the PC market, the new generation is not only faster than the competition, the power consumption is lower. Intel has kept the prices low and although AMD has lowered all prices aggressively they can not beat Intel in price/performance ratios. For our high end system we opted for the Core 2 Duo E6600, running at 2.40 GHz and sporting 4MB L2 cache, in our tests this processor managed to beat the AMD Athlon FX-62 in all benchmarks. | ||
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Scythe Mugen | CPU coolers |
| One of the biggest surprises in our last CPU cooler test was the Scythe Infinity, it surpassed all the direct competition in both performance and noiselevels. True, it is a very big heatsink but we think it is the ultimate CPU cooler. | ||
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ASUS P5N32-E SLI | Mainboards |
| With the nForce 680i SLI chipset nVidia has finally come up with a good solution for the Core 2 Duo processors. SLI with 2 x 16 lanes, 6 SATA 300 ports, dual Gigabit Lan, EPP and integrated nVidia firewall. ASUS has released the P5N32-E based on this chipset, an excellent board with lots of overclocking features. | ||
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2 GB (2x 1 GB) Team Xtreem Overclocking DDR2-800 | Memory modules |
| DDR2-800 is the only correct memory for a Core 2 Duo system at the moment. In our recent memory test the Team Xtreem DDR2-800 memory came out on top. The price is attractive and the overclocking potential is almost the same as that of much more expensive modules. | ||
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nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB | 3D chips |
| The new GeForce 8800 range is faster than anything we have seen before. However that is not the only reason for opting for this card; the GeForce 8800 is the worlds first DirectX 10 compatible card so it is fully compatible with Windows Vista and the coming DirectX 10 games. We opted for the 8800 GTS model, that performs slightly below the top end, but also comes at a much more attractive price. | ||
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Multi card reader | Card reader |
| Now that Windows Vista is here there is no more need for a floppy drive in the system. We do advise a card reader as a alternative, as this makes it easy to use all kinds of memory cards like the ones used in digital cameras. | ||
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3x Samsung P120S 250 GB Serial ATA II (RAID 5) | Hard disks (internal) |
| In our recent hard disk test the Samsung P120 series was one of the best all rounders. Its performance is good and the noiselevels of the drives are very low. The disks are competetively priced so for the high-end system we use three of these drives in a RAID 5 array, combining speed with safety. | ||
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Samsung SH-D162A 16x DVD-ROM SATA | Optical drives |
| The Samsung SH-D162 is a decent DVD-ROM drive with good speeds and very low noise levels. Its biggest advantage is the SATA connection, and for our system we choose the version with black bezel to fit the case. | ||
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Samsung SH-S183A Black OEM | Optical drives |
| The Samsung SH-S183A is one of the first DVD writers that can write at 18x speeds, and in our test the average speed of this drive was 13x. Both quality and writing speed was excellent on all media we tested, and we think this drive has the best price/performance ratio at the moment. The writer uses the modern SATA interface and we think has a very good price/perfomance ratio. | ||
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Sound cards | |
| The X-Fi range of Creative is a very powerfull range of sound cards. Our test show that both the sound quality and possibilities of these cards are unrivaled at the moment. The X-Fi can be used for all modern PC-tasks, be it multimedia, games or making music. For the high end system we opted for the XtremeMusic variety of the card. | ||
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Creative Inpire T7900 7.1 channel speaker set | Speaker sets |
| The Inspire T7900 is Creatives latest 7.1 speakerset that fits seamlessly with the Xreative X-Fi cards. The sound quality is perfect and the set is suitable for games, DVD movies and music. | ||
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Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3200 | Keyboard and Mouse |
| A high-end PC requires a good keyboard and mouse. We choose the Logitech Cordless Desktop MX3200, that has bth a wireless keyboard and mouse. The keyboard does not only look good, it is very easy to use and features a "zero tilt" design. The keyboard also sports a lot of multimedia keys and is fully aimed at use with WIndows Vista. The mouse that comes with the set features the laser technology and is therefore very precise in usa. | ||
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Samsung SycMaster 226BW | Monitors |
| Larger monitors are getting cheaper and thus more popular with a broader public. Untill recently only a lucky few people could afford a 20+ inch monitor, but since the new generation even 22 inch screens have become affordable. Samsung's SyncMaster 226BW offers the usual image quality and response times, its default resolution is 1680 x 1050. | ||
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Cooler Master Stacker 810 | Cases |
| The Cooler Master Stacker is still the best case for hardware enthousiasts. The case combines design with space and ingeneous cooling, and is already prepared for BTX motherboards. We think it is the ideal case for a high end system. | ||
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Antec NeoHE 550W | Power supplies |
| Als PSU we opt for the Antec NeoHE 550 Watt. It had the best overall scores in our most recent PSU test; noiselevels, efficiency and stability are all more than sufficient. The Antec NeoHE also uses the modular system, so there is no need for unnecessary cables in your case. | ||
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3D chips
All-in-ones
Barebones
Case fans
Cases
CPU coolers
Game controllers
Graphics cards
Hard disks (external)
Hard disks (internal)
Keyboards
Mainboards
Memory cards
Memory modules
Mice
Monitors
Mouse pads
NAS devices
Notebooks
Optical drives
Power supplies
Powerline adapters
Printers
Processors
Routers
Servers
Sound cards
Speaker sets
Storage controllers
Systems
USB flash drives
Video card coolers
Webcams
