Desktop hardware recommendation

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 05:12:02PM -0400, Thomas Milne wrote:
> I went back to look for one of the 'what would Lennart Do?' posts on
> the list and the last one I found was from a couple of years ago. If
> someone were in the market for a solid performing system for $500 -
> $600 today, what would be the quality hardware?
> 
> I'm already sold on Western Digital for storage and NVidia for
> graphics. I know Asus motherboards are generally solid, but don't know
> what would be a current favourite. I'm assuming the Intel Core I7
> processors are a good choice?

Sure, but not if you want a $500 machine. :)

The current issues with the Sandy Bridge based CPUs is a bit of a concern.

You can find a GTX460 card for around $150 (the 560 is a bit over $200).
A core i5-2400 is $200.
Asus P8P67 boards range from the LE at $135 to the Pro (which supports
SLI) at $185 (there is an EVO at $200 but I think that's all about
overclocking).
The P8Z68 is another line, but looks more highend in orientation.
Add a bit of ram, some cheap case you like, and a decent power supply,
some HD, and you can probably squeeze in around $600 (+ tax).  Aiming for
$800 always gives a way better result than trying to cut everything down
to $500.  The machines advertised for $399 are complete obsolete crap
with every corner possible cut.  In many cases you can double or tripple
almost any feature in them for $50.

$500 would require buying leftover obsolete stuff, which is an option.
There are still a few LGA775 chips out there, DDR2 ram, etc.  I wouldn't.

-- 
Len Sorensen
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