Hardware best of the best

[Screwballl 196]

this will be updated Monthly to show what the current best of each area is accordring to several sources.

OCT 2003

video card: ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 256

Budget video card: Radeon 9600 Pro

soundcard: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum

SerialATA hard drive: WD 360GD Raptor (36GB)

ParallelATA: Western digital WD2500JB (250GB)

CD-RW: Plextor PlexWriter Premiun

DVD burner: Pioneer DVR-A06 (A zero six)

LCD monitor: Sharp LL-1820

high end CRT (standard) monitor: Sony F520

P4 motherboard: Intel D875PBZ

AthlonXP mobo: Asus A7N8X Deluxe Revision 2

Photo Printer: Epson Stylus Photo 1280

5.1 Speakers: Logitech Z-680

4.1 Speakers: Logitech Z-560

2.1 Speakers: Klipsch Promedia 2.1

EDIT, heres the highest rated publicly available CPUs:

Pentium 4C 3.2GHz (the P4EE should be on for next month)

AMD AthlonXP Barton 3200+

AMD Athlon64 FX-51 2.2GHz

 

almost all of these components are basic litsed items as every individual company has their own best hardware and everyone has their own opinions about these as well. Most of these items were taken from several computer magazines and the most common and most mentioned items put here. As i have no actual experience with most of this stuff i cannot physically test them myself so i have to rely on my 50-100 or so known sources for the most reliable and unbiased information.

[rockefella 0]

Nice idea, Screwballl ! You should also tell people to check out www.sharkyextreme.com which also posts latest best-in-class part selections. By the way, isn't there supposed to be a "ZS" in Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum? The salesguy told me the ZS makes a big difference (I don't know what).

Also, isn't 36 gig a little small for the hard drive? Should you get 2 and put in RAID array?

Thanks again !

----------------

On 10/19/2003 9:27:09 PM Screwballl wrote:

this will be updated Monthly to show what the current best of each area is accordring to several sources.

OCT 2003

video card: ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 256

Budget video card: Radeon 9600 Pro

soundcard: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum

SerialATA hard drive: WD 360GD Raptor (36GB)

ParallelATA: Western digital WD2500JB (250GB)

CD-RW: Plextor PlexWriter Premiun

DVD burner: Pioneer DVR-A06 (A zero six)

LCD monitor: Sharp LL-1820

high end CRT (standard) monitor: Sony F520

P4 motherboard: Intel D875PBZ

AthlonXP mobo: Asus A7N8X Deluxe Revision 2

Photo Printer: Epson Stylus Photo 1280

5.1 Speakers: Logitech Z-680

4.1 Speakers: Logitech Z-560

2.1 Speakers: Klipsch Promedia 2.1

----------------

[elerium 0]

You're looking at the 36GB Serial ATA drive he lists, which most people won't get because they don't have hardware that supports it. (It will replace parallel ATA one day, it's much faster.)

The parallel ATA drive he lists is 250GB, which I think should get most people by nicely .

All these "best" specs though only make me feel like I need to upgrade soon... maybe it's time for a Radeon 9600.

[rockefella 0]

I think a lot of the new computers nowadays use Serial drives. I definitely plan to get one. Lots of serial drives come in the 60, 80, 120 gig configurations, last I looked.

I think that WD SATA drive goes at 10,000 RPM, as opposed to your normal 7,200 RPM or 5,400 RPM. That's blazing fast. That may be why it's only 36 gig. I'm not sure though. But I don't think it has to do with the fact that it's a serial drive.

----------------

On 10/19/2003 10:13:13 PM elerium wrote:

You're looking at the 36GB Serial ATA drive he lists, which most people won't get because they don't have hardware that supports it. (It will replace parallel ATA one day, it's much faster.)

The parallel ATA drive he lists is 250GB, which I think should get most people by nicely

.

All these 'best' specs though only make me feel like I need to upgrade soon... maybe it's time for a Radeon 9600.----------------

[elerium 0]

Yeah true, when speed is a factor thew WD drive wins the serial ATA category. That's probably why he also selected the WD JB "special edition" series for the parallel ATA hard drive. With it's 8MB cache it beats most other hard drives in performance easily.

But I meant most computers as in people who aren't buying a new computer. If you're buying a whole new computer, sure get serial ATA support and a serial ATA drive, and all those other goodies on his list. If you've had a computer for a while, you might have to "settle" for a parallel ATA drive, or just skip it and look for some other upgrade.

[Screwballl 196]

yes most new computers and hard drives use the Serial ATA as it will eventually replace Parallel ATA... speed wise Serial has the capability of at least 20x the current Parallel drives. Unfortunately for now they will live side by side and alot of motherboards are allowing room for both. Parallel hard drives are able to go up to 10K RPM using UltraATA133 but even at 7200 its still well worth it, especially as new 500GB (with 16Mb cache) hard drives should be out any day now. We may see as big as 50GB SATA drives by the beginning of '04.

As for the ZS, it may be somehting that is coming out soon or they have a specific bias towards or may just have reached the market, it is hard to keep track of every single item .

[rockefella 0]

Hey question for y'all (and Screwballl of course).

Is it a big deal if the case is kind of flimsy?  In Korea, all the cases look like they're made of aluminum foil.  But the salesguys told me, that's because people like cases that aren't too heavy.  They also said: Just don't drop it.  Then you won't have problems.

What do you think?

Screwballl suggests the stronger and thicker the better, same with power supplies, the heavier the better.

[elerium 0]

I've seen cases made out of cardboard (literally a "pizza box" machine), wood, glass, etc. It really doesn't matter what the case is made of if your machine isn't going to be taking physical punishment.

I'd buy a lighter case (especially if it was cheaper). I don't kick or drop mine ever, and if I needed to move it I'd prefer it to be lighter.

[Skippydam73 0]

----------------

On 10/19/2003 10:33:13 PM Screwballl wrote:

yes most new computers and hard drives use the Serial ATA as it will eventually replace Parallel ATA... speed wise Serial has the capability of at least 20x the current Parallel drives. Unfortunately for now they will live side by side and alot of motherboards are allowing room for both. Parallel hard drives are able to go up to 10K RPM using UltraATA133 but even at 7200 its still well worth it, especially as new 500GB (with 16Mb cache) hard drives should be out any day now. We may see as big as 50GB SATA drives by the beginning of '04.

As for the ZS, it may be somehting that is coming out soon or they have a specific bias towards or may just have reached the market, it is hard to keep track of every single item

.----------------

Screwballl,
So I have a question on the SATA, they can only go to 50GB? I have seen them above 120GB. I am actually looking at building my next one and have had to catch up on stuff from the last couple of years.

[+Guest]

I have to disagree with some of the list.
I think the best video card would be the ATi Radeon 9800 XT 256 MB. It has a higher core and memory clock speed. The best sound card is the Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro. It is available now, you can see it at Soundblaster.com. IMHO, the best P4 mobo is the ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe. Klipsch also makes 5.1 and 4.1 systems, I doubt that Logitech could top them. If at some point you wanted to add ram to your list, I think that Corsair XMS Pro Series modules are the best. These are mostly just my opinions though. Cheers.

EDIT: The most significant change is the addition of 7.1 decoding on the Audigy 2 ZS.

[Skippydam73 0]

----------------

On 10/19/2003 11:05:14 PM Aegypticus wrote:

I have to disagree with some of the list.

I think the best video card would be the ATi Radeon 9800 XT 256 MB. blockquote>

I had actually heard that 256mb cards are not worth buying yet because the unavailability of software to take advantage of it. I have not found anything to read on that yet though.

[Screwballl 196]

Skippy: Actually Serial ATA drives will have a higher capability some time because of their design, the current Parallel ATA drives are expected to max out around 1TB yet the Serial has an unknown max capability as of right now... current availability on most seem to be around max 50GB yet the parallel are surpassing the 250GB mark, most likely hitting 500GB by the beginning of next year. Just so you know Serial ATA and Parallel ATA are two different types of hard drives. Most hard drives up to this point have been parallel (using the wider usually grey cable).

 

Aeg: so many indivdual companies put out specific clocking cores and memory speeds that the items in my list are just the base for the best of each, generalized hardware. the same goes for the Audigy and video and motherboards. As for memory, Kingston really has the top spot, they have unbeatable stability on standard speeds plus major overclocking ability. They even did a test of that this month in MaxPC, Corsair barely squeeked by, heres a few stats on the overclocking potential plus error free results:

Corsair XMS4000 clocked to 500MHz from factory, allowed up to 502MHz

OCZ PC 4000 rated 500Mhz from factory and only gave error free results at 466MHz

Buffalo PC4300U rated 533 factory failed over 516MHz

Muchkin PC3700 enhanced rated 466MHz was able to be pumped up to 516MHz

Kingston HyperX KHX4000K2 rated at 500 hit 526MHz error free

Also Buffalo, Corsair and Mushkin used the exact same chips on the sticks (Hynix) yet each was only able to go to 516MHz each. Also running each at standard 400Mhz should give you unwavering error free usage for years to come.

 

skippy: yes as of right now (until HL2) there will not be anything that comes even close to straining the video cards, so anythuing over the Ti4800 or Radeon 9600 is truly overkill.

[joerg 281]

I dont think your list is really very accurate and why no CPUs and Memory?

 

And i dont think you took anything other than performance into account. For instance the reliablity of the raptor drive is lacking and it produces enought heat to put other components at risk not to mention it costs a fortune and really isnt that great of a performer. The best serial ATA drive is the Segates. As for the CDRW im really not understanding your selection there either it has long sense beeen determined that plexter isnt all that and that LiteOn beats them in all most categories a cdrom can compete in not to mention they are quite abit cheaper. But  as far as top performer TDK will win. And then there is the P4 motherboard why in the world would you put an Intel board. I mean come on Intel makes boards for reliability not performance and even then they overprice. Where as man recent Abit and Asus as well as Gigabyte boards for the P4 are very far ahead of there Intel counterparts. And for the speakers why throw the Klipsch in at the very last they would take every category if you are judging that way. Klipsch makes speakers that simply murder there Logitech couterparts. And while i would agree the Logitechs are the better buy i cant say they are the better speaker.

[rockefella 0]

Everyone is raising excellent points. But I want to point out that we should thank Screwballl for having the guts and initiative to even put out a list like he did, particularly among a crowd as smart and talented as the Simtropolis crowd, which we all know is not your usual internet rabble. He probably did it knowing he would be sparking a debate.

Thanks all.

[Skippydam73 0]

----------------

On 10/20/2003 12:13:36 AM Screwballl wrote:

Skippy: Actually Serial ATA drives will have a higher capability some time because of their design, the current Parallel ATA drives are expected to max out around 1TB yet the Serial has an unknown max capability as of right now... current availability on most seem to be around max 50GB yet the parallel are surpassing the 250GB mark, most likely hitting 500GB by the beginning of next year. Just so you know Serial ATA and Parallel ATA are two different types of hard drives. Most hard drives up to this point have been parallel (using the wider usually grey cable).

[simfanheatermayor 17]

And do not forget: AMD Athlon64 FX,,, its 2,2gig, but a lot faster than P4 3,2gig.

[Screwballl 196]

ok i missed a few months because this thread got buried quick but here are the mid Jan. Best of the best:

Jan2004

video card: ATi Radeon 9800 XT

Budget video card: BFG Asylum Geforce FX 5700 Ultra

soundcard: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum

SerialATA hard drive: WD 740GD Raptor (74GB) or IBM 7k250

ParallelATA: Western digital WD2500JB (250GB)

CD-RW: Plextor PlexWriter Premiun

DVD burner: Plextor PX-708A

LCD monitor: Sharp LL-1820

high end CRT (standard) monitor: Sony F520

P4 motherboard: Chaintech 9CJS Zenith

AthlonXP mobo: Asus A7N8X Deluxe Revision 2

Photo Printer: Canon i900

5.1 Speakers: Logitech Z-680

4.1 Speakers: Logitech Z-560

2.1 Speakers: Logitech Z-2200

 

The highest rated publicly available CPUs:

Pentium 4C 3.2GHz (the P4EE should be on for next month)

AMD AthlonXP Barton 3200+ (32bit) 

AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (64bit)

AMD Athlon64 FX-51 2.2GHz (64bit)

 

Highest Commercial Overclocked: P4 @ 3.8GHz

[golfbunny 7]

DO NOT BUY A DVD BURNER

 

Next month, all the major manafacturers will be releasing their new models...Including Sony, Plextor, LG etc.

[GrampaAl 76]

What? No dual channel RAID drives?

 

How about the new AMD 64's with the DUAL channel memory and the HUGE on board L2 cache?

 

 

[simfanheatermayor 17]

I think 9800XT is the best of the best! not the 9800pro

[skreet 0]

There are 120 GB SerialATA drives now. However at 10,000 RPM's it's not currently possible to break the 36 GB limit and maintain the speed.

[shadowryche 0]

Uhmm... Best Buy in Battle Creek MI has a 300 GB SATA hard drive. Not quite 10,000 RPM. But damn... I think with in the year, maybe next we'll be seeing some home users with a Terabyte of hard drive space.

[BionixWV 3]

Well,I didn't thoroughly read Screw's list,but I do know that the zipzoomfly.com site has some pretty killer prices on stuff like that.I'm definitely going to be adding some more upgrades to my pc with my tax check,like adding a second HD,upping the CPU to a 2.8 GHz (Current one is a 1.3 GHz Celeron).Oh,speaking of ATI,I have a 7000 AGP 32MB,and it handles all we do on our 'puter just fine.Good idea keeping all informed ,S-Balll..........

[Screwballl 196]

ok i was on vacation for 3 weeks starting middle of Feb so this list didnt get updated then and just now remembered as i was looking through the latest MaximumPC.

Want to know the best of the best as of Mid March 2004? Look at Jan04 items, SAME LIST!

Right now hardware companies are working on so many new technologies that they arent releasing anything new and spectacular until early June probably. The only special news that isnt that special is the release of the Intel P4 Prescott but perfomance wise it is lower performance than the AMD Athlon64 FX51, and the P4Extreme Edition (P4EE is literally EQUAL to the FX51, all UNBIASED benchmark scores are within 0.5-1% of the other).

 

Current top of the line CPUs available:

Intel:

Pentium 4C 3.2GHz 800MHz bus (P4C)

Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.4GHz with 800MHz bus and L3 cache (P4EE)

Pentium 4 Prescott 3.4GHz 800MHz bus 90nm process (P4E)

soon to be released P5 Tejas 90nm 1066MHz bus improved HyperThreading, also will be released with PCIX, DDR2 and 24-bit audio spec for motherboards (named Azalia), High Definition Audio.

 

Prescott info: 3.4GHz, 800MHz bus, 112mm2 die size, 90nm process, 125 million transistors, 16KB L1 cache, 1MB L2 cache, no L3 cache, Special Instructions include MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, 31 stage pipeline, capable to over 10GHz speed...

 

AMD:

Athlon64 FX-51 3400+ dual channel DDR 800MHz bus

Athlon64 3400+ single channel DDR 400MHz bus

AthlonXP Barton 3200+ single channel DDR 400MHz

 

dual channel DDR means you use two 400MHz DDR sticks of memory and use it as if it was one stick thus the 800MHz capability. single channel is what almost all of us have whether we have PC100, PC133 or any standard DDR. Soon to be released will be DDR2 which is equal to the dual channel literaly on one memory stick plus allowing for faster speeds so it will be able to run at 400MHz a piece to start with and over 1GHz (1066MHz) not to far into the future. DDR2 has also been called QDR (DDR means Double Data Rate, so DDR2 or QDR is Quadruple Data Rate). SDRAM (PC133) ran memory core and I/O at 133MHz each for longer data flow and slower speeds. DDR 400MHz runs core and I/O at 400MHz for a shorter and faster flow of data. DDR2 400MHz will run at 100MHz core speed and 200MHz I/O for a slightly longer flow but also its being sped through at twice the speed of standard 400MHz DDR.

Also PCIX is a new specification based on the current PCI bus (all of us will have a PCI modem, ethernet card, video card or sound card) which runs at a flat 33MHz and 8xAGP runs at 264MHz. PCIX *should* run at 200MHz for standard items (modem, NIC) and 200-400MHz for a seperate PCIX graphics bus. Within 1-2 years of PCIX they should be running around 800MHz PCI bus speed. This means Gigabit ethernet will truly run up to 100GB per second. Also video cards will change tremendously to the point that say CounterStrike will run at 300fps or better (to start).

 

Soon we will be talking about the AMD Athlon64 90nm SanDiego on Windows64 with a 1GB per sec internet connection and a nvidia Geforce64 7250 Ultra getting 400fps on SC4 lol.

 

ok im done for tonight

[jamespetts 0]

Let me clear up some confusion about hard drives.

1. SATA vs. PATA. SATA drives are not in any way a different type of drive to PATA drives: only the interface is different, that's the system that the drive uses to connect itself to the motherboard (or controller card). Everything else about the hard drive is exactly the same. It is therefore extremely unclear why the 7K250, which is available in both SATA and PATA versions, is listed as one of the top drives for SATA but not PATA. SATA drives are not any faster (or slower) than PATA drives at the present. The advantage of SATA is just that it is a better interface: smaller, easier to use cables, and likely to be compatible with systems long after PATA is obsolete. There may be speed advantages in the future, if hard drive mechanics ever surpass the 133Mb/sec limitation of PATA technology, but that is some time away yet.

2. The Raptor. Whoever suggested that this drives has heat and reliability issues, please cite a source. It really is not true: the drive is actually likely to be more reliable than ordinary desktop drives because it uses enterprise-grade mechanics (evidenced by its five-year warrenty, as compared with the three-year warranties of other drives). As to heat, it is slightly warmer than 7.2K drives, but nowhere near hot enough to endanger any other components. Furthermore, there is a genuine speed advantage in this drive over 7.2K RPM drives: whether it's enough to justify the significant extra cost/Gb is a matter of personal priorities. It is, however, the fastest desktop drive that money can buy (faster for desktop, i.e. non-server, applications than even SCSI drives). The Raptor is the only 10K RPM IDE (SATA) drive available at present, and comes in two capacities: 36Gb and 74Gb (the 74Gb drive has two 36Gb platters).

3. Capacities. I don't know whether 500Gb drives will be here any time soon (300Gb is the largest currently available, I understand, and that is a 7.2K RPM IDE drive), but there is no differential capacity limitation as between SATA and PATA: as noted above, the only difference between SATA and PATA is the interface, and this has no affect whatever on capacity.

[Screwballl 196]

ok its been 3 months since last post and a few things have changed... GREATLY!
Jamespetts i will reply to you at the end of this list...
Heres this month's list:
June 2004
video card: ATi Radeon X800 XT Platinum Edition with a VERY near tie with the Geforce 6800 Ultra (both cards are TWICE the speed/power/performance of current top the the line video cards liek the GF FX 5950 Ultra and 9800 XT)
Budget video card: ATi Radeon 9800
soundcard: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
SerialATA hard drive: WD 740GD Raptor (74GB) or IBM 7k250
ParallelATA: Hitachi 7K400 (400 GB)
CD-RW: Plextor PlexWriter Premiun
DVD burner: Plextor PX-708A
LCD monitor: Dell 2001FP
high end CRT (standard) monitor: Sony F520
P4 motherboard: Abit IC7-MAX3
AthlonXP mobo: Asus A7N8X Deluxe Revision 2
Athlon64 mobo: Asus SK8V
Photo Printer: Canon i9900
7.1 Speakers: Creative Labs 7.1 Gigaworks S750
5.1 Speakers: Logitech Z-680
4.1 Speakers: Logitech Z-560
2.1 Speakers: Logitech Z-2200

The highest rated publicly available CPUs:
Pentium 4C 3.4GHz
AMD AthlonXP Barton 3200+ (32bit)
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ (64bit)
AMD Athlon64 FX-53 2.2GHz (64bit)

New Technology mentions:
New motherboard layout will be introduced by the end of this year or beginning of next year, current spec is ATX... the new formfactor which is being pushed by Intel is the BTX. Intel Tejas is dead in favor of creating dual-core processors which will be the new generation Prescotts.
Info-MICA, developed by Japan's NTT Corp. has created a postage stamp sized prototype that holds 1GB of data. It can be stacked over 100 layers and still be readable. This means at 1.7GB per square inch, a 100 layer chip shoudl be able to hold 25GB worth of data. Goodbye CDRW and DVD writables.
Keep an eye out for Alienware's new ALX line. its new setup should double performance of current computers using multiple monitor setup and using 2 PCIX X16 and one PCIX 8x slot.

ok now for james:
1. the difference between SATA and PATA is clear as night and day.. Serial ATA uses Serial technology found in SCSI hard drives and combines them with Parallel technology to create one helluva monster. This is why you see 10K RPM SATA but few PATA. Speeds and capacity will have the capabilities to reach well into the Terrabyte range whereas current PATA technology will stop just short of it. Due to the bottleneck of Parallel speeds, this is why the serial drive will always win. Parallel has a high speed limit of 200 versus serial can scale well past 500. Look at SCSI drives versus PATA drives... Serial is fast and stable as hell whereas parallel are slow and clunky. The main problem until now is capacity. Highest capacity SCSI drive has been around 100GB where the new SATA spec allows for much much more.

2. that is joergs source not mine, i have heard of heat problems but only in poorly ventilated systems.

3. SATA has up to 400GB by Hitachi (Deskstar 7K400) but is still very hard to find since they were just released recntly. This drive is available as either a PATA or SATA drive. www.hitachigst.com $410
There is even an external 200GB SATA drive available from CMS www.csmproducts.com $550 and lower

[Screwballl 196]

ok I just figured I would update this as it has been 18 months and much has changed as it does with technology. This list is taken from the Feb06 issue of MaximumPC and they remove and change things as time goes on so all the categories of the past may not be here....

High End video card: eVGA GeForce 7800GTX KO ACS

Midrange video card: Leadtek WinFast 7800GT TDH Extreme

Soundcard: Creative Labs X-Fi Extreme Music (major kick butt card!!!!!!)

Hard Drive: Western Digital WD400KD

External drive: Western digital dual-Option Media Center 320GB

Portable USB drive: Seagate Portable External Hard drive 100GB

DVD burner: Plextor PX-716A

Widescreen LCD: Dell 2405FPW

Desktop LCD: Samsung SyncMaster 940BF

Socket 939 AMD motherboard: Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe

socket 775 P4 motherboard: Asus P5ND32-SLI

Photo Printer: Canon i9900

5.1 Speakers: M-Audio Studiophile LX4 5.1 (LX4 2.1 with 5.1 expander system)

2.1 speakers: M-Audio LX4 2.1

Mid Tower case: Lian Li PCV-1100

Full Tower case: Silverstone TJ07

hope this keeps a few of you up to date!!

[Screwballl 196]

Ok I know it has been a long time, between work and everything else, haven't had much time here.

This is the list as shown in the Oct 06 MaximumPC:

High end Dual Video card (SLI/Crossfire): XFX Geforce 7900 GTX (model PV-T71F-YDD9)

High end Single Video card: eVGA e-Geforce 7950 GX2

Midrange video card: Saphire Radeon X1900GT

Sound card: X-Fi Xtreme Music

Hard drive: Segate Barracuda 750GB 7200.10

External backup drive: WD Dual-Option Media Center 320GB

Portable USB drive: Maxtor One Touch III 100GB

DVD burner: Plextor PX-716A

Widescreen LCD: Dell 2407FPW

Desktop LCD: NEC 90GX2

Socket AM2 AMD motherboard: Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition

Socket AM2 AMD Processor: FX-62

Socket 775 Intel Core2Duo mobo: Asus P5W DH Deluxe

Socket 775 Intel cpu: X6800 Core2Duo (anything Core2Duo spanks anything AMD right now, even the lowly E6300 spanks the top end AMDs)

Portable mp3 player: Apple iPod

5.1 Speakers: M-Audio Studiophile LX4 5.1 (the 2.1 system with 5.1 expander)

2.1 Speakers: M-Audio Studiophile LX4 2.1

Mid-Tower case: Thermaltake Armor Jr.

Full tower case: Silverstone TJ07

[Screwballl 196]

High end Dual Video card (SLI/Crossfire): XFX Geforce 7900 GTX XXX Edition

High end Single Video card: eVGA e-Geforce 7950 GX2 or ATi Radeon X1950 Pro

Sound card: X-Fi Xtreme Music

Hard drive: Segate Barracuda 750GB 7200.10 or Western Digital RaptorX 150GB

External backup drive: Seagate 750GB Push Button Backup

USB thumb drive: SanDisk Cruzer Titanium 2GB

DVD burner: Plextor PX-7558A

Widescreen LCD: Dell 2407FPW

Desktop LCD: NEC 90GX2

Socket AM2 AMD motherboard: Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition

Socket AM2 AMD Processor: FX-62

Socket 775 Intel Core2Duo mobo: Asus P5W DH Deluxe

Socket 775 Intel cpu: X6800 Core2Duo (anything Core2Duo spanks anything AMD right now, even the lowly E6300 spanks the top end AMDs)

Portable mp3 player: Apple iPod

Portable media player: Archos 604

5.1 Speakers: M-Audio Studiophile LX4 5.1 (the 2.1 system with 5.1 expander)

2.1 Speakers: M-Audio Studiophile LX4 2.1

Mid-Tower case: Thermaltake Armor Jr.

Full tower case: Silverstone TJ09

Information taken from the Dec 2006 Issue of Maximum PC. Building a PC or need more info, come visit me at http://forums.hardwarelogic.com/index.php?referrerid=182as I don't spend a whole lot of time here.

[mightygoose 92]

i think you should have separate catergories for single and dual processors