Holiday 2011 Mainstream High-End Buyer's Guide
by Zach Throckmorton on December 9, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
- AMD
- Intel
- Sandy Bridge
- CrossFire
- Sandy Bridge E
- Holiday 2011
- NVIDIA
Final words
When designing and building a higher end PC, it is critically important to understand your needs. It might seem obvious that spending hundreds of dollars on a high end GPU is unwise if you're not going to game, but I frequently must actively discourage clients from spending money on parts they simply don't need. Similarly, it might be difficult to spend $500 on a single component, but if you will benefit from that part's power given your needs, then by all means, buy it.
Also keep in mind that while these systems each cost around $2000, it does not follow that you can't still shop for bargains and sales. Be sure to keep your eyes on prices throughout the holiday season. AnandTech's Hot Deals forum is a great place to learn about and share particularly compelling prices on components.
While this guide covered the computers, we did not detail recommendations about monitors, speakers, keyboards, and other assorted peripherals. PC hardware moves much faster than the other parts of the PC market. While our recent Back to School Guide focused more on less expensive products, it might be useful for higher end shoppers as well. We'll also have a display specific guide in the next week, so if you're in the market for a new LCD keep your eyes peeled for that.
Finally, AnandTech's General Hardware forum is always filled with folks who are knowledgeable about PC design and assembly and are happy to help you build your own PC. Don't hesitate to ask us which parts will suit your needs best.
Happy holidays!
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ckryan - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
I really like the upscale HTPC build. I've been wanting an InfiniTV quad for quite some time now, but I've been told it won't work well with my cable provider (by one of their technicians).I like that all the systems have SSDs (M4s and Samsung 830s). The new Marvel controlled drives with Toshiba toggle NAND have a healthy increase in speed over the Marvel-equipped M4 and it's 25nm Micron *AAB sync NAND. The Corsair undercuts the M4 in price at the 128GB level, but the M4 seems to have gone up in price recently. The Samsung 830 is similarly fast, and I got a free copy of Arkham City with mine.
A5 - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
Unless your provider doesn't issue Multistream CableCards, the Ceton will work fine with any system.konroh - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
As an alternative to the Ceton, consider the HD Homerun Prime from Silicondust (http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun/prim... I have one and love it, every machine (with windows 7 MC) on my network can tune and record cable. It was a little buggy at first but with the latest firmware it's been solid.konroh - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
broken link:http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun/prim...
QChronoD - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
The technician was lying to you."Cable companies in the United States are required to provide CableCARDs conforming to this specification, and must correct incompatibilities between their networks and certified CableCARD devices." - from wiki about cablecards
You will lose some features that the cablebox provides, namely VOD and their guide data and oh-so-lovely GUI.
mdlam - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
WD 2tb Green for $98 at Datavas.com = win.sna1970 - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
helooX79 is supposed to be quad channel memory ... you should add 4x4G there not 2x4
JarredWalton - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
It's two kits of 2x4GB, which is why it says "(2) Crucial 8GB...."chrone - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
the board only have 4 dimm slots dude. Zach already posted that he had choosen 2 8gb kit in the above specs (2 x 2 x 4gb ~ 4 x 4gb). :DMrCrispy - Friday, December 9, 2011 - link
I recently built the following -i5-2500K
Asus P8Z68-V LX
Corsair H80
Seasonic X760
Fractal R3
16GB Ripjaws X
I feel really good about my choices now :) Haven't bought a video card, I can wait till the 7000 series debuts. Already have an old ssd and optical. The whole thing only cost me $640 incl tax+ship, no rebates involved, thanks to all the BF deals. I have a $200 budget for a video card (new or refurb) and it should be plenty.