PC Hardware Buyer's Guide, December 2010
Posted on 3rd Dec 2010 at 11:56 by Paul Goodhead with 30 comments
As most of our long-term readers will know, we produce a PC hardware buyer’s guide each month, detailing our views on what PC components you should be buying and why. It’s a great opportunity for us to summarise our findings of the last month and for you guys to tell us that we're wrong.
This month though there are simply so many new releases just out of reach over the upgrade hill that we simply didn't think it was worth doing December buyers guide.
Intel's imminent release of its much hyped Sandy Bridge CPUs, for example, means we can't confidently recommend anyone build an LGA1156-based system from scratch. Even our recommended LGA1366 systems, such as our Premium Player, may even be under threat if Sandy Bridge's performance matches up to the buzz being generated.
Add to this the fact that it looks like there's a slew of new graphics card releases from both sides of the red/green divide on the horizon, and the waters become even more muddied.
ATI for instance is about to release its Radeon HD 6900-series, which should logically compete directly with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 5801.5GB. We also expect new graphics cards from Nvidia sometime soon, as it would be silly not to deploy its revised Fermi chip in more GPUs than just the GTX 580.
As a result, we won’t be publishing a buyer’s guide this month and will instead be dispensing the tried and tested tech world cliché of ‘just wait another month’ before taking the plunge. There is so much new and exciting kit in the horizon that it would be pointless to recommend you buy anything now, unless you absolutely have to.
We’ll be back on track with our buyers guide in January of course, so you should expect a bumper article detailing how we think you should be spending you Christmas windfall.
This month though there are simply so many new releases just out of reach over the upgrade hill that we simply didn't think it was worth doing December buyers guide.
Intel's imminent release of its much hyped Sandy Bridge CPUs, for example, means we can't confidently recommend anyone build an LGA1156-based system from scratch. Even our recommended LGA1366 systems, such as our Premium Player, may even be under threat if Sandy Bridge's performance matches up to the buzz being generated.
Add to this the fact that it looks like there's a slew of new graphics card releases from both sides of the red/green divide on the horizon, and the waters become even more muddied.
ATI for instance is about to release its Radeon HD 6900-series, which should logically compete directly with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 5801.5GB. We also expect new graphics cards from Nvidia sometime soon, as it would be silly not to deploy its revised Fermi chip in more GPUs than just the GTX 580.
As a result, we won’t be publishing a buyer’s guide this month and will instead be dispensing the tried and tested tech world cliché of ‘just wait another month’ before taking the plunge. There is so much new and exciting kit in the horizon that it would be pointless to recommend you buy anything now, unless you absolutely have to.
We’ll be back on track with our buyers guide in January of course, so you should expect a bumper article detailing how we think you should be spending you Christmas windfall.
30 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyI look forward to the new year build guide!
BTW you need to sort out that massive /eurl error.
The main issue is that the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 mobo in the November guide has vanished, can anyone recommend a decent alternative for a similar price?
can i still go out and buy a PSU, RAM and case now so i can avoid the extra VAT on them (and spread the cost)? i'm assuming they'll be compatible regardless of what i go for in the end?
clearly a cooler and motherboard wont be?
Looking forward to the next hardware buyers guide!
The VAT rise will matter more on food and clothes than tech gear. It's not an immediate hit on one-off purchases, but the drip-drip effect that will add up.
Depends whether the guide gets written and scheduled to appear over New Year's Weeekend when the 3rd is a bank hol - the VAT will be Tuesday 4th onwards - there's a slim chance you can still get a build ordered before things go up.
Although, if it were a car purchase then yeah, needed, PC bits not so.
Most foods don't have VAT, its funny seeing people complain about their weekly shop going to be higher and yet it really won't as most food is VAT free or lower rate which isn't changing.
P.S. I realise you weren't complaining, just a little rant about what I keep reading in the papers lol!
Either way, 2.5% might not seem much to some people but if you don't have much cash to spare every little helps!
If anyone has any suggestions as a replacement for the Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2 it would be appreciated, preferably the same price or less if possible...
Thanks!
As mentioned they going no where so why not overclock them just a little to give you that extra bit of juice, just do it carefully as you dont want to pop anything this close to the imminent release and have to shell out now to replace.
I'll be watching this space.
Suits me though, I reckon I'll be waiting at least 6 months before I start planning my upgrade.
Buyer's guide-wise, it makes perfect sense to skip a month and wait and see what happens...
Tho, I do like reading through it for fun :)
I just built an i5 system for myself... Still I suspect it will serve me well for a few years yet, regardless of what comes out next year.
Now if I could just get my hands on another 8gigs of ram :D
Same here, I just built myself an i5 system too so I wouldn't worry too much. I needed the upgrade now and had the cash spare so frankly I couldn't see the point in waiting.
17.5% at the moment, going up to 20% in Jan :(
Ooh - what did you get?
Well obviously working for CPC/bit-tech has its benefits so I got a slightly better spec than I would have got if I was putting it together out of my own pocket. As a result I ended up with...
Intel i7-870
Asus Maximus III Formula
4GB 1,600MHz DDR3
120GB Phoenix Pro SSD
Silverstone Raven RV02 Case
Nvidia GTX 275
Prolimatech Armageddon CPU cooler
XFX black edition 850W PSU
and a bunch of HDD storage for games and media
just need a gtx570 in there for some awesome gaming.
Yeah, I realized that after I wrote it, I meant to say LGA1156 system rather than i5 system, I'm such a tool.
Honestly the GTX 275 is great for gaming, its a pre overclocked version and is about on par with a GTX 460 1GB so it suits me fine. I only have a wee screen at home (next on the upgrade list) so i don't need much grunt to get decent fps.
the innuendo master...
on a serious note can't wait for the Sandy Bridge reviews