System Building Guides

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Performance System Building Guide 08-10-2008

In the past we've always spec'd a high-end air cooler for our Performance build, however we've seen a few really good yet inexpensive liquid cooling kits come out recently. Among these was the Swiftech H20-220 Compact that we reviewed several months ago. Coming from a brand like Swiftech you know it's going to be high quality and the performance is really good, even for a pre-assembled kit. If you don't have room for a double-sized radiator in your case, the Swiftech Compact series is also available in a single H20-120 model.

Mainstream System Building Guide 08-08-2008

It's no secret that Intel has been dominating the processor market the past few years, which is why we decided to go with an Intel based system for the Mainstream build. Although the Kentsfield core has been out for some time, prices have only recently fallen to the sub-$200 mark. In fact, the Q6600 made our Performance build the last time out, so it is still quite a capable processor for Mainstream computing. The Q6600 operates at 2.4 GHz, 1066MHz FSB with 2x4M of shared L2 cache. This processor has an excellent price point and is extremely overclocker friendly.

Budget System Building Guide 08-07-2008

For that very reason, we started writing these System Buying Guides a few years back. We have three categories of Buying Guides: Budget, Mainstream and Performance. Our Budget Guide has a spending limit of $600, the Mainstream limit is $1,200 and we allocate $2,400 for our Performance Guide. The systems that we piece together here are designed to give you the best overall experience under the given budget.

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