Mid-range system - August 2007
Mid-range system
The best choice in hardware when looking for a mid range configurationn
Configuration
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Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 | Processors |
| The latest iteration of Intel's Core 2 Duo cpus (recognisable by the model numbers ending with '50') is thanks to its 1333 MHz frontside bus particularly suited to Intel P35 mainboards. The faster bus has only a limited impact on performance according to our tests, much more interesting about these new Core 2 Duos is that they are up to 40% cheaper than their predecessors! The Core 2 Duo performance was already quite convincing, with the lower price Intel only offers an extra argument to choose a CPU of this range. The E6750 runs at 2.67 GHz and shows excellent performance in our benchmark. 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 midrange system we opted for the Core 2 Duo E6400, running at 2.13 GHz and sporting 2MB L2 cache. | ||
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Scythe Mine | CPU coolers |
| In our recent CPU cooler test we did for Hardware.Info Magazine the Scythe Mine came out as one of the best performing coolers at a very decent price. The Scythe Mine is also very quiet and taking these three points in account this is the best cooler for our mid range system. | ||
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Team Xtreem Dark 2 GB DDR2-800 kit | Memory modules |
| Xtreem Dark is a new series from the brand "Team", high quality modules for a very acceptable price. The DDr2-800 modules we chose for this month's system proved to be able to overclock to 1100MHz when we tested them on a P965 chipset. There can be no other choice for our mid-range system. | ||
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Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R | Mainboards |
| The P35 mainboard comparison test in Hardware.Info Magazine #3/2007 showed that Gigabyte has the ideal value solution with the P35-DS3R. Thanks to the P35 northbridge the board is capable of accomodating processors with a 1333 MHz frontside bus. The versatile ICH9R south bridge offers among many other things extended RAID functionality. Gigabyte supplied the onboard audio codec with until now unheard audio quality for an onboard solution. They also equip this board with eSATA connectivity and a very stable 6 phase power supply. As this board is part of the Ultra Durable 2 series, it uses higher quality, long lasting components. | ||
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ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT GDDR4 | 3D chips |
| After a long wait ATI finally introduced the Radeon HD 2600. Although the card wasn't able to beat nVidia's GeForce 8600 GTS, we still choose it as our first pick for a midrange system. The reasons are simple: ATI offers a better price/performance ratio, as these cards are really quite affordable. That aside, ATI has better HD video support thanks to the integrated UVD technology. Our pick would be the top model, the HD 2600 XT with GDDR4 memory. | ||
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| 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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Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500 GB | Hard disks (internal) |
| With the current prices, 500 GB is no extravagance even in a midrange system. Looking at performance and prices of the various 500 GB hard drives in our product database, the Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 500GB is the best choice. | ||
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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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Lite-On LH-20A1S | Optical drives |
| Lite-On LH-20AH1 is the best writer out there at the moment. It could handel all media we threw at t and managed to burn at the fastest speeds we've seen up to date. The 20x speed means that most media will be done in about 5 minutes, and this drive is one of the cheapest as well. We chose the Serial ATA version of the drive. | ||
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Creative Inspire T6100 | Speaker sets |
| For less than £ 50 Creative offers the T6100 6 channel speaker set. The sound it produces is excellent and makes your movies and games come to life. | ||
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Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110 | Keyboard and Mouse |
| The Cordless EX110 might be cheap, and it is a high quality set as we are used to from Logitech. | ||
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Samsung SyncMaster 206BW | Monitors |
| The bigger monitors are becoming more and more affordable, so this month we can choose a 20 inch model with our mid range system. The Samsung 206BW is an excellent widescreen monitor with a 1680 x 1050 resolution and in our tests we found out that the response times and contrast ratios are one of the best out there at the moment. | ||
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Procase Zirco | Cases |
| The Procase Zirco combines design with practicality and space. Its price is not what you would expect and we recommend this case for our mid range system | ||
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Antec SmartPower 2.0 400W | Power supplies |
| The Antec Smartpower 2.0 400 Watt came out as one of the best value PSU's in our recent test, and is a good addition to our mid range system. | ||
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Click here for the detailpage of this product. |
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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
