PC Perspective Hardware Leaderboard

PC Perspective

Along with the PCPer HWLB its self, you can also head to the PCPer Hardware Leaderboard forum! This forum is where you can discuss my selections and offer your own suggestions. It is also the place for you to talk about the new system build you are working on even if it's NOT based on anything here.

Our Dream System remains mostly unchanged from last month, the ASUS Maximus IV Extreme-Z sports an NF200 chip which makes dual 16x SLI a possibility. A pair of XFX HD 6970 2GBs provide you with graphics, a pair of GTX580s will cost you an extra $320 and give you a good 10% performance bump if you feel that is a good investment. That puts the i7-2600K in the CPU socket and 8GBs of Corsair DDR1600 in the memory. A 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD will ensure you have the fastest storage media available.

There is also an alternative Dream System, the system so powerful it has gone to plaid! The price more than doubles but you will be running a dual Xeon X5650s and a four of HD6970s.

The new High End system is quite happily embracing Intel's brand new SandyBridge platform; in more ways than one. With the new Z68's, specifically the ASUS P8Z68-V Pro, not only do you get the advantage of the i7-2600K's iGPU and your discreet GPU, you can overclock as well! The second bit of good news is just how well Intel's Smart Response Technology is when it comes to turning a small SSD into a Supa-pagefile for a regular hard drive, for $165 you get a HITACHI Deskstar 1.5TB and an Intel 310 40GB SSD. A pair of Sapphire Radeon HD 6950 Dirt3 Edition 2GB cards provide enough graphical power for you to seriously consider EyeFinity, especially if the BIOS unlock to HD 6970 works. read more...