High-end system - August 2007
High-end system
The perfectly balanced high-end configuration.
Configuration
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Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 | Processors |
| Recently, Intel lowered the price of the Q6600 quad core cpu significantly, meaning it has become a viable option that doesn't require you to take out a second mortgage. The C0 stepping features greatly reduced energy consumption, which of course has a positive effect on the overclocking potential. Many benchmarks show a quadcore cpu to be a solid foundation for a seriously fast PC. With the longterm perspectives for multiple cores support only getting better, the choice for a high end system is clearly a quad core cpu. | ||
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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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Gigabyte GA-P35-DQ6 | Mainboards |
| Intel's recently introduced P35 chipset offers support for a 1333 MHz FSB and the future Penryn CPU. Current processors benefit from higher performance and a lot of overclocking options. The ultimate P35 mainboard is Gigabyte's P35-DQ. Not only is it unsurpassed in its overclocking versatility, but also it is loaded with features and offers top performance. | ||
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Team Xtreem 2 GB DDR2-1200 kit | Memory modules |
| Team's Xtreem DDR2-1200 modules turned out to be the top performers in our last comparison test. Overclocked this memory ran at 1320 MHz! At the time of the test, these were too expensive even for the high end PC, but since then Team has nearly halved the price which makes them quite a good deal indeed. Hence, this month the high end system gets the ultimate in DDR2 memory. | ||
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ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT | 3D chips |
| A lot has been said about ATI's Radeon HD 2900 XT, but one thing is undeniable: if you have a 350 to 400 euro budget for a videocard, you get the most bang for your buck with the new ATI product. Thanks to DirectX 10 support you're set for future games. Should the performance be insufficient in the future, with the board we picked you can add another 2900 XT in a Crossfire configuration. | ||
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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 Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 320 GB in RAID 5 | Hard disks (internal) |
| The Hitachi Deskstar is at the top of the price/performance list for hard drives. Our high-end systems uses three of these drives in a RAID 5 config, combining more speed with added security. Intel's ICH9R south bridge offers excellent RAID options, which work just fine with the Hitachi drives we picked. | ||
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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-20A1H is the best writer out there at the moment. It could handle all media we threw at it 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 Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer (FID) | Sound cards |
| With the X-Fi, Creative introduced a series of exceptionally powerful soundcards. Our tests show these cards to be unsurpassed in both audio quality and functionality. Whether you use your PC for games, multimedia or music creation: for all of these the X-Fi offers options you would miss out on otherwise. For the high end system we would advise the Xtreme Gamer version. | ||
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Creative Inpire T7900 7.1 channel speaker set | Speaker sets |
| The Inspire T7900 is Creatives 7.1 speakerset that works seamlessly with the Creative 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 both 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 SyncMaster 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
