Intel Q8300

Intel Q8300 @ Neoseeker

“The Q8300 is easy on your hydro bill, and gives pretty darn good performance for the buck. Its overclocking is limited by the 1333MHz FSB, but you are extremely likely to be able to run at 3.375GHz (450×7.5) on any decent motherboard, and that is 175MHz faster than the stock speed of the extremely expensive QX9770.”

AMD Phenom II X4 810 & X3 720

AMD Phenom II X4 810 & X3 720 @ TechGage

“Phenom II may have just launched last month, but AMD didn’t want to waste time in following-up with their first AM3-based processors. We’re taking a look at two, including the X4 810 and X3 720 ‘Black Edition’. Both offer great performance at their respective price-points, but the X3 became the more appealing chip, thanks to its overclocking ability.”

Gigabyte EP45-DQ6

Gigabyte EP45-DQ6 @ TBreak

“The order of the day is all about a feature packed motherboard from Gigabyte based on the Intel P45 chipset, the EP45-DQ6. It rounds up to being the perfect motherboard for all users thanks to having almost everything one would need.”

DFI LANParty DK 790FX-B M2RSH

DFI LANParty DK 790FX-B M2RSH @ Bit-Tech

“After many years those people who want to run RAID on XP (and thus need a floppy disk to load the drivers) will already have them and the rest of us will be using Windows Vista, which either has the drivers built in or can accept them via a USB key. The lack of a full complement of SATA cables is also disappointing, as most of us will prefer SATA cables for the many hard drives filling our systems these days, especially as mass storage is so cheap.”

MSI G41M-FIDP

MSI G41M-FIDP @ CPU 3D

“Over the past few months, there’s been so much attention with Intel’s new Core i7 processors, that we’ve nearly forgotten about Intel’s other great processors. In fact, Intel’s socket-775 processors are still selling like hot cakes … namely the cheaper dual core Intel processors. Intel’s dual core processors offer one of the best price/performance ratios available … the best bang for the buck.”

ASUS M4A79T Deluxe

ASUS M4A79T Deluxe @ Legit Reviews

“Over the past few weeks I have been able to put the ASUS M4A79T Deluxe motherboard to the test and for being such a new board, I have found it to be an extremely stable board with powerful BIOS features that should make nearly all consumers happy. I even tested out ATI CrossFire and running multiple brands of memory with all four memory banks full and found the board to be solid.”

Foxconn Quantum Force X58 BloodRage

Foxconn Quantum Force X58 BloodRage @ Ninja Lane

“There are a few color combinations that for various reasons are destined to be together, Complementary colors (ie colors opposite on the color wheel) like blue/orange, red/green, yellow/purple make sense, they go well together but are pretty boring when it comes down to it. Some of the more epic color combos are not so well known and almost always involve black. Yellow/Black, Purple/Black and our favorite Red/Black these all look great together and pretty much go with anything.”

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 @ Hardware Canucks

“Currently, Gigabyte is full steam ahead with regard to Intel’s latest chipset, and the company has the second most substantial roster of X58 motherboards, with the current count clocking in at an impressive six models. From the Top-of-the-Line EX58-EXTREME to the surprisingly budget-friendly EX58-UD3R, all the models share the sleek new White & Blue colour-scheme, Ultra Durable 3 design attributes, and enough integrated features to make a smartphone jealous.”

Foxconn Renaissance X58

Foxconn Renaissance X58 @ OC3D

“The re-worked American Megatrends BIOS is also a lot friendlier than past offerings from the Digital Life range – it’s not perfect, but definitely a lot better. Admittedly, the motherboard is targeted towards the HTPC enthusiast and the BIOS configurations reflect that. The Foxconn Renaissance was never meant to be an overclocking behemoth. If you want one of those then check out the Foxconn Bloodrage.”

Leadtek 9800GTX+

Leadtek 9800GTX+ @ Bjorn3D

“With today’s newest additions to graphics cards, it seems like they keep getting bigger and bigger. And along with each rehash we usually see a die decrease, but the card doesn’t necessarily get smaller in size. This is unfortunate for people with smaller cases or mid tower cases where the hard drive cage gets in the way.”