"We were very tempted by the AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition here, but the only AMD motherboards we'd actually recommend are over £150 with very few cheaper 790GX+SB750 AM2+ boards available on the market that work well. The two together are a crucial factor when deciding a solid pairing and while the 720 Black Edition can be easily overclocked to over 3.5GHz, the E7400 has more overclocking headroom providing more efficient single threaded and basic multi-tasking performance, at a cheaper price."

?????????????????????????????? Weird!! How come then that I know many people with sub £100 790GX motherboards which they have overclocked the Phenom II X3 720 to 3.4ghz+ then?? A few have unlocked the fourth core too! The builds are perfectly stable too!! I wonder how people with their "not capable of working properly" 790GX motherboards have achieved this!!?? It is amazing that none of them were over £105 too!!

Perhaps you need to check your prices properly:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Search.aspx?q=790gx

Not a single motherboard is over £130 and many good ones are around £100 and under!! It is also funny that many other websites and users on forums have reviewed these motherboards and had very few issues too. If anything a few of the earlier 790GX motherboards needed a BIOS update but if anything these updates have been around since early February. Your review of the AM3 processor was near the middle of February which means boards shipped since Feburary would have been shipped with the latest BIOS.


Also what is with this e-peen with people needing 3.5ghz+ processors to do anything too?? By the time you reach 3.5ghz for a Phenom II or Core2 what difference does it make for most people gaming at 1680x1050 or lower then??

It makes you think how does everyone else manage to play modern games smoothly with their "slow" sub 3.5ghz processors??

If you look on forums people have overclocked the Phenom II X4 920 even with a cheap motherboard like an ASUS M3A78-EM to over 3.5ghz!

The ASUS M3A78-EM costs £61 delivered:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150278

Welcome! :)

I wouldn't use a 780G motherboard for overclocking and I wouldn't buy one without the SB750 southbridge either.

I've just personally not found one that works that well yet, so how can I go and recommend one? I don't read how other reviews turn out quite simply because they often don't do the breadth of tests we do: stability, compatibility, CrossFire+single card, overclocking, ACHI, USB, SATA performance.

We're recommending a graphics card that'll do 1920, or 1680 with all the dandies on. The 920 is not unlocked and will need a HTT overclock - certainly not a guaranteed solution from a microATX 780G motherboard. It's typically easier to do FSB oveclocking on an Intel.

I might go for the Biostar or the Asus M3A78-T, but I haven't used them so can't recommend them and we try not to suggest stuff we haven't used. Our guide is not the end all answer and there are still excellent alternatives out there - this is simply our choices and you can sub in your own personal options wherever you want! :)

Originally Posted by aron311
You've left a bit of a price gap here in the displays, at £320 i think the BenQ FP241W still deserves a mention, as theres nothing between £165 and £425...

You simply can't buy it anymore :(

Originally Posted by GoodBytes
I realized that all the Samsung computer monitor I saw (from stores, computer stores, friends), have something in common... they all have backlit bleeding. I don't get what's Samsung problem to not fix this issue even on their more professional screen line (I don't know about the LED and high-end models).

I have noticed that aswell. Total backlight bleeding on my 2232BW on dark loading screens (like the Vista loading bar or some games).

Nice, better article compared to the almost recycled march recommendation.

Windows 7 is coming out soon, so you might want to include an article about W7 proof system or some sort. I think June would be good time to introduce the new build just for W7. Just my 2 cents

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2009/04/04/what-hardware-should-i-buy-april-2009/4

On Page 4: The GTX 260 & 4870 US Prices are switched. The 260 should be $178.99 & the 4870 $189.99
The 4870 also lacks free shipping, there's another $7+.
While the 260 is costing $20-something less than the 4870, I'd have to recommend it unless someone prefers ATI drivers over Nvidia.

Graphics Card
First Choice: 2x Nvidia GeForce GTX 260-216
UK Pricing: £313.98 (inc. VAT) for two
US Pricing: $379.98 (ex. Tax) for two

Following the huge drop in pricing for the GeForce GTX 260-216 in the last four weeks, we thought we'd reconsider our premium graphics solution, and it soon became clear the dual GPU cards like the Radeon HD 4870 X2 and the GeForce GTX 295 couldn't hold a candle to a pair of Nvidia's mid range cards in SLI.

The link for the US Pricing on Newegg.com links to a Radeon 4870.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801

Interesting article, I enjoyed the expanded build options. Even though I have been on another forum defending Bit-Tech's honour against some blatant fanboism, it would be useful to see a non high-end AM3 or AM2+ 790 /SB750 motherboard review, anything in the works?

The choice of the Q6600 on the Gaming Workhorse build, on the basis of price, is something I disagree with.
Because of the high price of the Maximus MB (£179), if you instead selected a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R (£156), i7 920 (£240) and 6GB CorsairXMS3 1333MHz (£63), you end up with a much faster system, and greater overclocking potential, for only £100 extra expenditure.
N.B. Core i7 & component prices were from Scan.

I still don't get it... Sorry, if I missed anything as I'm dead tired at the moment [just came back from a weekend in London with an old friend from school ;)] but why the 260 SLI instead of 285 in SLI or even dual 4870X2 in CF-X?
I mean, isn't the whole idea of the most expensive option to get the best performance out there with more or less stock parts?

Anyways, I like the new split of the mid-section into two and think it's just another quality article... as [almost] always. ;)

Originally Posted by Turbotab
Interesting article, I enjoyed the expanded build options. Even though I have been on another forum defending Bit-Tech's honour against some blatant fanboism, it would be useful to see a non high-end AM3 or AM2+ 790 /SB750 motherboard review, anything in the works?

The choice of the Q6600 on the Gaming Workhorse build, on the basis of price, is something I disagree with.
Because of the high price of the Maximus MB (£179), if you instead selected a Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R (£156), i7 920 (£240) and 6GB CorsairXMS3 1333MHz (£63), you end up with a much faster system, and greater overclocking potential, for only £100 extra expenditure.
N.B. Core i7 & component prices were from Scan.

But the EX58 is a very basic Core i7, and the Maximus II and Q66 affords not only more core features but plenty of overclocking headroom - not to mention cheaper DDR2 than a triple channel DDR3 kit. You can get plenty of performance from a ~3.5GHz quad core - many people here will tell you its fast enough.

Im trying to do AM3 motherboard reviews but so far I've come across 3 different brands and 3 different issues with the hardware on all of them which prevents reviews being finished because I simply cannot test them. They all fail at something or other right now and I wouldn't recommend one.


Likewise the premium build is not about the most dickswinging rig available, otherwise we'd be specing up 10 Intel X25-Es in RAID 5 on a PCI-E RAID controller. Our build guides are about getting the best value in set budget range :)

Originally Posted by perplekks45
I still don't get it... Sorry, if I missed anything as I'm dead tired at the moment [just came back from a weekend in London with an old friend from school ;)] but why the 260 SLI instead of 285 in SLI or even dual 4870X2 in CF-X?
I mean, isn't the whole idea of the most expensive option to get the best performance out there with more or less stock parts?

Anyways, I like the new split of the mid-section into two and think it's just another quality article... as [almost] always. ;)

I think the reason why they didn't bother with 2x GTX 285s or 2x HD4870X2s was just that it was much to exuberant of a price for practically no real gain(+$200 for not even 15fps).

Now what I don't understand is why they didn't suggest 2x GTX 275s..

I have to say, this article definitely made me happy about my i7 920 + P6T deluxe + 6GB OCZ RAM decision. Now I'm definitely going to buy a Spinpoint F1 1TB to top it off! These articles have really helped me out, thanks bit-tech! Now if I can ever find a job, a GTX 260 might be in my future... but that's a ways off for sure.

F1 1TBs are nice, i got two of them silent, fast and quiet? :P

but the Gaming Workhorse is kind wrong, dont take it the wrong way but a phenom II 720 should be there, why? it has a gaming performance level way higher than its price
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2009/02/11/amd-phenom-820-810-720-710-am3-cpus/

sure the Premium Player option should contain top notch no compromise parts, but I guess even rich people have a limit for how much they want to waste. You could probably spend a million dollars on a computer if you bought a gold plated case for it decorated with diamonds, but that doesn't give you better performance does it?

Originally Posted by Slyr7.62
...unless someone prefers ATI drivers over Nvidia.

I can't believe there are still people who think ATI drivers suck.

When have you last tried an ATI card? What kind of problems have you had with recent drivers?

I miss the AMD alternatives!

Originally Posted by yeknom
I miss the AMD alternatives!

+1

At least give use some alternatives..:)

Originally Posted by Saivert
sure the Premium Player option should contain top notch no compromise parts, but I guess even rich people have a limit for how much they want to waste. You could probably spend a million dollars on a computer if you bought a gold plated case for it decorated with diamonds, but that doesn't give you better performance does it?

I still think you would see quite a difference in performance, especially in resolutions as high as 2560x1600, by going 285 SLI instead of 260 SLI.

Originally Posted by perplekks45
I still think you would see quite a difference in performance, especially in resolutions as high as 2560x1600, by going 285 SLI instead of 260 SLI.

Wouldn't It be smarter at that point to buy a GTX 295?

Or dare I say: 2 GTX 275s?

Thanks ever so much for these guides, they really are an invaluable, easy source of reliable info both for myself and for referring friends to that are looking to build their first systems, or upgrade from existing ones.