This Friday is Black Friday, and I can’t wait to browse for some cheap CD’s and DVD’s to add to my already huge collection. If you are willing to buy computer parts to upgrade your system, to build a whole new PC or to upgrade your home theater setup, I have some suggestions of products that, in my opinion, offer a terrific cost/benefit ratio and might be on sale this Friday. Read on.
The links will redirect you to Shopping.com website, where you can compare prices among several different stores. Don’t forget to check the prices again on Friday!
Computers
- CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600. I think that E6600 provides the best cost/benefit ratio for users looking for a high-end CPU but not willing to pay a fortune.
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35C-DS3R. Matches greatly current Intel CPUs and provides a terrific overall quality. There are other good solutions around, tough: if you want SLI ASUS P5N-E SLI provides a terrific cost/benefit ratio.
- Memory: If you have the money you can buy a high-end 2 GB Corsair PC2-8500/DDR2-1066 Dominator kit. But if you are like me you will probably be 100% satisfied with a cheaper 2 GB PC2-6400/DDR2-800 kit from OCZ. Looking at the current trend on memory market I personally believe that memories will be “the” hot cake this Friday and you will be able to buy this OCZ 2 GB kit for less than $70. Even if you don’t want to upgrade your whole computer, buy more memory! with that price you won’t have an excuse for not improving your PC!
- Video card: With prices dropping you can find several terrific options around, in particular with “old” ATI video cards, like Radeon X1950 Pro. I believe that for the average user that likes playing games but doesn’t want to buy a very expensive video card this is probably the best pick today. Of course if you are an nVidia fan you will probably find good GeForce 8600 GT deals around. If you want to spend more and go high-end, the product of the season is GeForce 8800 GT.
- Case: I like the Antec Sonata III 500 a lot, for two reasons. First, it has a great looks and it is a better case than the majority of cases around. Second, it already comes with an Antec 500 W power supply, so you can save some money buying the bundle. I am using this case here on my personal computer with a GeForce 8800 GT and so far it is running great, both in temperature and stability.
- Power Supply: If you want to upgrade your power supply I believe that OCZ StealthXStream 600 W provides a terrific cost/benefit to the average user, as it is cheaper than competing units and provides the necessary power for even a high-end system.
- Hard disk drive: Prices dropped and you can find several bargains around if you are looking for disks with “lower” capacity like 160 GB. If you want more disk space, Barracuda 7200.10 500 GB from Seagate is a great pick: it holds three times more data than a 160 GB drive and it isn’t three times more expensive.
- DVD Burner: Go dual-layer. You can buy DL burners below $50, which is fantastic. The problem is that DL media is still pretty expensive – a pack with 35 DL disks from Sony is more expensive than the burner! –, so I hope we can find DL media on sale next Friday.
- Video monitor: You don’t have a second display yet? Go for it. After working with two monitors you can’t go back to single monitor. Ideally your second monitor should be identical to your current monitor. I personally like the cost/benefit ratio from Samsung monitors, and currently I think that 19” widescreen models are the best pick.
- Keyboard and mouse: I have to admit that I have a personal preference for Logitech products. They have literally hundreds of products and I think that their latest fancy keyboard, Wave, and their VX Revolution mouse provide a great experience, even though we couldn’t call them the cheapest products around (they are affordable, though).
Home Theater
Here are some suggestions and tips if you want to build a new home theater system or want to upgrade your current setup.
- DVD player: Personally I don’t think that the time for buying an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player has come, even though we are finally seeing some high-def discs at Hollywood Video, Blockbuster and Netflix. If you also think that, then you may want to consider upgrading your DVD player with one that provides 1080p upconverting. Translation: the DVD player will increase the video resolution to 1080p to match your HDTV’s resolution. Great idea, isn’t it? I personally like Sony DVPNS77H, which is a really inexpensive DVD player. There are only two flaws with this Sony model, though. First, it doesn’t play DivX movies. So if you want a player that can really play ANY format you will need to buy a different (and more expensive) model. Second, its HDMI output doesn’t carry audio. This flaw can be solved by the use of a coax or optical SPDIF cable. The only “problem” is that you will have one more cable coming out of your player.
- Blu-Ray player: Well, so far it seems that Blu-Ray is winning the battle for the high definition format because there are more titles released under this format than under HD-DVD. Like I said I don’t think the time is right, but if you want to buy a Blu-Ray player – for example, you have already a hell of a home theater system – maybe you will find some on sale next Friday. Samsung BD-P1000 is today one of the cheapest players around, priced for less than $400 and if you can find it below $350 on Friday you should buy one.
- Receiver: Choosing a good receiver is hard, as prices vary a lot. I personally like the models that provide video switching, i.e. instead of you connecting video sources directly to your TV, you connect to the receiver and then when you change the audio input, the video input is also automatically changed, saving you the hassle of having to press buttons on your TV (you will need a model with HDMI switching and cheaper models don’t have this feature). Of course these models are more expensive. I personally like Sony STRDG510, as it provides a good cost/benefit ratio. If you have already have a good 5.1 receiver maybe it is time to upgrade it to a 7.1 model, like Sony STR-DA5200ES. If you want a cheaper option, try Yamaha RX-V661, which is cheaper providing 7.1 audio and HDMI switching.
- Speakers: Well, I am sure that you don’t want to spend over a thousand bucks on the cheapest speaker system from Bose but also don’t want to buy a $100 brandless Made in China system that will make explosions to hear like firecrackers. You should buy a system with active subwoofer, of course, and I think that the best cost/benefit ration goes to JBL SCS500.5 (of course if you have a 7.1 system you will need to buy a 7.1 speaker system). It is not the cheapest product around but hey, it is a JBL.
- LCD TV: You should buy a 1080p TV. Period. Today there is a big price gap between 52” displays and smaller ones like 47” so I think unless you have a lot of money to spare you should stick to models up to 47”. The brand and the size will depend on how much you have. If you have around $1,500 my personal favorite is LG 47LC7DF. If you have around $1,200 an interesting option is Vizio Gallevia GV42LF.
- Cables: Don’t forget that you will need to buy cables to hook up everything. Research carefully because a cable that is sold at Best Buy by $50 can be found by less than $10 on another store.
Originally at http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/blog/79
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