Hardware Advice Compilation

If you touch your software enough does it become hardware?

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Thompy
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Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by Thompy »

Feel free to post in this thread to update the advice I've given (as it is only my advice and I'm by no means an expert), recommend sites and guides or give general thread ideas. Keep general hardware discussions to separate threads.

News, Forum and Review Sites - These are the most prominent ones, and I've used all of them at some point, but I can't honestly vouch for their relative merits or validity.

AnandTech
Benchmark Reviews
bit-tech
Guru3D
HardOCP - Extensive forums.
HardwareCanucks
HardwareHeaven
HEXUS
Hi Tech Legion
JonnyGURU - PSU centric
Overclock3D
Overclockers Club
pcGameware - Jimmington's BF3 clan's review site.
TechPowerUp
Tom's Hardware - Good place for quality information and guides as well as extensive forums.

CPU: As it has been for the last few years, there's really only one way to go - Intel. AMD isn't close to the speed, feature set and power draw that Intel's last two Core branded processors offer.

The current best buy is the i5-2500(K), which is the 2nd gen i5 based on the Sandybridge architecture and uses the "1155" socket. You get four cores but no hyper-threading. Very few programs, including games, take much advantage of multiple cores, and even less can use hyper-threading, so there's no reason to plump a premium price for an i7. The (K) is optional. With it, you're getting a unlocked CPU, meaning overclocking. If you don't have any desire to do that then minus the (K) and knock £10 off. Keep in mind however that a stock 3.3GHz i5 will happily sit close to 4GHz without breaking a sweat, and it's easier to set up than it's ever been.

Recommended model: i5-2500(K)
Recommended manufacturer: Intel
P67 Sandy Bridge Overclocking Guide For Beginners

Motherboard: With AMD out the window you're obviously looking at an Intel compatible motherboard. For a 2nd gen i3/i5/i7 you need a 1155 socket board to match the processor. The chipsets to go for are either P67 or Z68. Z68 will give you access to the integrated CPU graphics, nice if you want to save power when not gaming, but not essential. You'll also be able to use an SSD as a cache for a HDD. This gives really does work, and will give a commonly used program or running game a bit of extra snap, but you'll have to spend at least £50 to get an SSD. If you're going to do that then why not just go the whole hog with a 128GB one at £140 and get the full benefit. Z68 comes at a slightly higher price, but along with the added features you're getting a newer chipset that will have less compatibility issues, not that you should have issues of that kind with a P67.

Manufacturers tend to design their top spec board in a line, then simply remove features to bring down the price. So it's a matter of picking the one with the features you need at the price point you want. Be careful of subtle changes though, such as lack of support for a certain RAM frequncy or CF support but no SLI.

The motherboard does play a part in the speed of your PC, but considerably less so than CPU or GPU, so it's not something to focus on.

Recommended chipsets: P67, Z68.
Recommended manufacturers: ASUS, MSi, Gigabyte.

Memory: 2nd gen Intels support a dual channel memory interface, so you want two sticks of identical memory. As you can only get modules in binary values (i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8 etc), then the two choices are 2x2GB or 2x4GB. 2GB total isn't enough now, but 8GB is overkill. 4GB should be more than enough unless you're a heavy multitasker, however RAM is dirt cheap at the basic level so it won't cost you too much to get a nice overhead with 8GB.

1600MHz (PC3-12800) is considered the sweet spot. Keep in mind however than modern boards will keep the speed down to 1033-1300MHz unless you overclock, so if you have no plans to do that then you can get something a bit slower, but you won't save much. RAM is rarely a bottleneck so the cheapest value stuff isn't a bad way to go.

Recommended manufacturers: Corsair, Kingston, OCZ, Crucial.

GPU: The most often dicussed piece of hardware, the market for GPUs moves faster than anything else. I stick to a general rule: wait until the latest generation is released, then buy from the last gen at a lower price, or pick up the entry level from the new gen.

Nvidia vs ATI (AMD really) - pretty even at the moment. Nvidia has PhysX, CUDA and (suposedly) better driver support going for it. ATI often has a better price point and has led the way in next gen releases for some time.

It's usually better to buy a good single card than go dual. You'll be upgrading to the lastest gen sooner, and avoid driver and incompatibility issues. If you must do it, CrossFire can have significantly better scaling than SLI, with margins upwards of 25%.

FatherJack says: "My advice with GPUs is to pick a price-point and stick to it. For high-end that's £400, but £200 will keep you ahead of the game for a year or two, £150 if funds are tight. Any less than that and you're getting either an old card or a massively crippled version which will struggle with new releases before long. Unless your need is urgent, watch the prices for a while and look out for sales/bundles with games you would have bought. Check the core, shader and memory clocks as well as the stream processors when comparing like-for-like at your price point. Amount of memory is less of a deciding factor unless you have a special need for very high resolutions."

Pete says: "If you're using a screen up to a resolution of HD1080 or even 2k (that's 2048 by 1080) you'll generally get maximum bang for buck leaning toward nvidia, if you're above that ATi have held the advantage for some time. Will have to check if this trend is apparent in the latest and greatest however."

Recommended model: £100 - £150 Radeon 6850/70, £150 - £180 GTX 560Ti, £200+ whatever. Radeoon 7 Series coming out now.
Recommended manufacturers: ASUS, EVGA, MSi, XFX. You shouldn't have a problem with any of the major ones, also including HIS, Sapphire etc, the difference is in warranty, coolers and bundled extras.

23/11/11 Spec me a possible new graphics card, bitches!
15/11/11 Spec me some graphical power, bitches.
30/04/11 Graphic card update
18/01/11 Graphics cards bitches!
06/01/11 New Graphics Card

Harddrive - SSD: The tech is at a point where you needn't worry about stability, compatability, reliability etc, if you have the cash to burn, get one. That's the issue though, at still over £1/GB they don't come cheap, and haven't dropped in price for some time. Really though, if you can tolerate your current loading times (and recent HDD can be pretty nippy) then it's not worth it unless you really have the spare cash.

There are two companies making the mainstream controllers - Sandforce and Marvell. They have their good and bad points, mainly with crashing issues on some Sandforce based drives, but for general use it's not worth much time thinking about.

Recommended manufacturers: OCZ, Crucial, Kingston.

Harddrive - HDD: Still needed for bulk storage even if you have an SSD. Not an awful lot to say. Prices are currently highly inflated due to global stock shortages because of flooding in Harddrive-manufacturer-land (that's Thailand).

Recommended manufacturers: Western Digital, Samsung, Seagate.

PSU: You need less than you think, but get more than you need as they're more efficient when working with an overhead. Generally they're at their most effcient around 50% load, but asking you to buy a PSU with twice a wattage you need is a bit unreasonable, even if you might get the money back over time. Look for the "80 Plus" certification for the most efficient ones.

Stable power deliverly is just as important, you don't want a supply throwing out 11-13V when it should be 11.9-12.1V. Read per product reviews to find this out.

Modular is the way to go now, severely cutting down on unmanagable cables, although they do cost a bit more. With many cases now putting the PSU at the bottom, make sure the cables are long enough to reach back up to the top of the motherboard, otherwise you'll need an extension cable.

FatherJack says: "I generally won't touch anything other than Corsair, I used to use Enermax, but you don't see them so much these days. The other, big-name brands are probably fine, but I don't have much experience with them - there is a reason the others are half the price. I went with an 850W one, even though my PC only uses about 225W (occasionally peaking at 400W), but in order to save costs went with non-modular this time. I've paid for that decision in increased fan volume and higher heat/power as the airflow is totally messed up by all the extra cables folded up in there. Every compromise you make on a PSU will cost you money somewhere down the line, and unless your other components are cheap, you shouldn't be doing them a disservice."

Recommended manufacturers: It's complicated. PSUs seem to have a wider spread of manufacturers than any other component, and lots of them use base units from others. At a consumer level, available in the UK, you're looking at Seasonic, Enermax, Corsair, OCZ, beQuiet and CoolerMaster amoung others. No one ever holds the top spot for long.

Monitor: You'll want an IPS panel with LED backlighting, both are at a good price point now. Although ye olde CCFL backlighting is still excellent. LED gives you a smaller, lower power monitor with high contrast, but evenness and bleeding can be a problem. CCFL gives better colour reproduction and evenness. If you do media editing it may be worth sticking with CCFL.

An IPS panel is better than a TN panel in most areas, with the main inferiority being response time. If you're not a pro gamer then that's not an issue. In return you'll get superior colours and view angles, an absolute must from my point of view. There are other panel types, such as PVA, but they're not as prevelant as IPS.

You also need to consider response time and input lag. Response time (the MS figure) is how long it take a pixel to change colour, input lag is how long it takes the monitor to initiate that change from the moment the signal from the computer is received. If the MS is too high you'll get ghosting, if input lag is too high movement will feel sluggish. The quoted figures are often worked out in an unrealistic way, so two monitors equal on the spec sheet might not actually be so.

As for 1900x1080 vs 1900x1200, I'd go for 1080. Wether we like it or not 16:9 is the de facto aspect ratio, and to get both IPS and LED (or even CCFL) in a 1200 screen you'll have to pay a heavy premium. 23 inch is the sweet spot for 1080.

You need to review monitors on a per product basis, no manufacturer seems to be very consistant.

Pete says: "If you're using a screen up to a resolution of HD1080 or even 2k (that's 2048 by 1080) you'll generally get maximum bang for buck leaning toward nvidia, if you're above that ATi have held the advantage for some time. Will have to check if this trend is apparent in the latest and greatest however."

Another reason to sticking to 1920x1080 is less stress on your GPU, allowing you to up the graphical settings in games. Games may even be optimised around that resolution.

Recommened specs: IPS, LED, 1080, 23", <10MS.
Recommended manufacturers: Dell, Samsung, LG, ASUS, Iiyama, BenQ.

21/09/11 Monitors bitches!
06/04/11 Spec me a monitor, bitches!

Mouse: Personal preference.

19/01/12 Mouses.

Keyboard: Personal preference.

26/06/11 Spec me a new keyboard, bitches!

Headset: To come.

13/12/10 Spec me a headshit bitches!

Router: To come.

25/01/11 Recommend me a wireless router bitches! (Please!)

Wireless Card/Adapter

22/12/11 Wireless Adapter

NAS

08/11/11 Spec Me A Multimedia Network Storage Thingy!

Controller: The Xbox 360 Controller is the only one worth thinking of. Better to get wired to avoid potential lag.

27/10/11 Spec me a new controller bitches!

Printer: To come.

27/06/11 Spec me a Printer, bitches!

External Hard Drive: To come.

27/06/11 Spec me an external hard drive, bitches!
Last edited by Thompy on January 26th, 2012, 23:09, edited 17 times in total.
Mr. Johnson
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by Mr. Johnson »

Oh wow, excellent work!
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by Dog Pants »

Beautifully done there, well done. The thing about hardware is most people only really read up on it when they want to upgrade, so having something like this semi-regularly is really useful.
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by FatherJack »

Very nice thread, good work. I've used the 'recommended PC' threads a lot, but have always has to do a lot of poking around for all the bits.

Maybe worth touching on the CPU sockets when talking about Processors and Motherboards - obviously making sure you get a matching pair (as here with 1155) but some words on the differences and expected longevity of the other types. I'm no expert in the field, so hope someone else can illuminate.

PSUs we've mentioned a few times, and while what you've said up there is very good, it's not always easy to translate things like stable rails, etc when faced with a list on shopping site, so the 80 plus certification is a great tip.
I generally won't touch anything other than Corsair, I used to use Enermax, but you don't see them so much these days. The other, big-name brands are probably fine, but I don't have much experience with them - there is a reason the others are half the price.
I went with an 850W one, even though my PC only uses about 225W (occasionally peaking at 400W), but in order to save costs went with non-modular this time. I've paid for that decision in increased fan volume and higher heat/power as the airflow is totally messed up by all the extra cables folded up in there. Every compromise you make on a PSU will cost you money somewhere down the line, and unless your other components are cheap, you shouldn't be doing them a disservice.

My advice with GPUs is to pick a price-point and stick to it. For high-end that's £400, but £200 will keep you ahead of the game for a year or two, £150 if funds are tight. Any less than that and you're getting either an old card or a massively crippled version which will struggle with new releases before long. Unless your need is urgent, watch the prices for a while and look out for sales/bundles with games you would have bought. Check the core, shader and memory clocks as well as the stream processors when comparing like-for-like at your price point. Amount of memory is less of a deciding factor unless you have a special need for very high resolutions.
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by HereComesPete »

Nice post Thompy.

I've gone off the boil a bit recently when it comes to regurgitating specs and recommendations but one thing I do like to always point out is monitor resolution and how it affects your gpu purchase. If you're using a screen up to a resolution of HD1080 or even 2k (that's 2048 by 1080) you'll generally get maximum bang for buck leaning toward nvidia, if you're above that ATi have held the advantage for some time. Will have to check if this trend is apparent in the latest and greatest however.

I agree totally on the screen sizing and as such lean toward nvidia for cards (despite currently running a 5870, it was on a mad deal) Something like this 23" IPS LED LG -

Image

- is good for gaming, movies (adult and action) and most general uses.
Thompy
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by Thompy »

Alright, finished the basic sections and formatting. Added a list of sites, some extra hardware sections, but missing a decent number of guides, like the one I added under CPU. If anyone knows of any they'd be a great addition.
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by Jimmington »

Very nice guide, very generous use of your time.

I can add very little other than a link to a review site - the short version is it is the lot i play with BF3 with, and their emails about gaming hardware make my eyes bleed with their geekery. I think they purely look at gear related to gaming and nowt else so worth a look if that is your sort of thang.

http://www.pcgameware.co.uk/
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by Dr. kitteny berk »

Stickied, on the basis of awesomeness, have a cookie. :)
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by TezzRexx »

Very cool guide!

Perhaps we could have this thread host the current year's/half year's recommendations, and then store previous month guides in threads and link to these child-threads (...), as the hardware market moves pretty swiftly.

Or did I just have a brain fart?
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by FatherJack »

TezzRexx wrote:Perhaps we could have this thread host the current year's/half year's recommendations, and then store previous month guides in threads and link to these child-threads (...), as the hardware market moves pretty swiftly.
I'm not sure anyone's that bothered about old recommendations, since you can't get half the old stuff anyway. Most of us want something better than what we have, or at least something that will cope with the games du jour. Better to just update this one as and when as a current gaming PC thread, with options for high, medium and low-end budgets. "What's your budget?" is pretty much always the first question asked in any thread requesting recommendations.
HereComesPete
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by HereComesPete »

It's an effort given our cat herding ways but if we keep this updated it should offer everyone an informed guide as to what is best in terms of available budget.

As always its best summoning the bitches for specific information once you've read through the guide.
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Re: Hardware Advice Compilation

Post by FatherJack »

Any greens want to take charge of this thread?
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