What is the PC Perspective HW Leaderboard? The PC Perspective Hardware Leaderboard is going to become the first place you look to find the components that will make up your next computer. On this page you will find our editor's combined opinions on the best systems you can build based on three different budgets. You can expand each of the systems (High End, Mid-Range and Budget) to show you all the components that we believe represent the best products in their price ranges.

Why a Leaderboard? We like the idea of a Leaderboard because it presents a no non-sense way of looking at the best hardware available. On this page, you won't find paragraph after paragraph telling you why this processor is better than that processor. Instead you'll find the quick and dirty on our editor's choices for the best hardware you can get. No beating around the bush here. Of course, if you still want to get our full and detailed opinions on various hardware, you can look through our reviews page. But the HW Leaderboard is going to give you our final decisions in one quick look.

Updated Feb 11, 2010:

Along with the PCPer HWLB its self, you can also head to the PCPer Hardware Leaderboard forum! This forum is where you can discuss my selections and offer your own suggestions.  It is also the place for you to talk about the new system build you are working on even if it's NOT based on anything here.  Most of the components in these systems have not changed apart from price in a while.  Don't fret as there is new graphics products coming out from nVIDIA that might challenge the Radeon HD 5xxx family and both AMD and Intel will be adding more cores.  2010 ought to be an interesting year for the hardware enthusiast.

Our Dream System has kept the same processor and motherboard combination for quite a while and as you can't find a faster processor on the market right now, the i7-975 stays. The MSI Eclipse Pro seems to have been discontinued and needs a change.  The Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Extreme also won a Gold Award here thanks to its long list of features and serious overclocking potential and the ability to handle pair of HD 5970s makes this choice perfect for a system that needs to include the best of the best.  DX11 support and a chance to play with three LCDs does have a rather high entrance fee, but that is the cost of being on the bleeding edge.  With the Intel X25-M 80GB solid state drives we are finally seeing the price starting to stabilize around the MSRP and now that TRIM is working with Windows 7 this already fast drive is getting faster.   12GB of DDR3-1800 comes back into the recommended build thanks to a drop in price and the ability of the new Windows to take advantage of that amount of system memory.

The High End System shares a lot of components in common with the Dream System.  Indeed you could consider it your template for an upgrade path; simply pick up a second set of Corsair's DDR3-1600 and slap in either an HD5970 or a second HD5870 and you will be gaming in style, especially if you take advantage of EyeFinity's multiple monitor capabilities.  The biggest change you would need to go through is the switch from a platter based HDD to an SSD.  The Kingston SSD Now! kit is rather inexpensive but it is also the slowest of the SSDs by a wide margin.  You are better off saving up for an Intel Drive.

Our Mid-Range System recommendation has undergone some changes with the advent of Lynnfield, which moves the PCIe controller onto the chip allowing for a significant savings on the motherboard.   The new P55 motherboard that houses your components comes from Gigabyte; while their 2oz copper design and dual-BIOS features are impressive but not the real reason that the board has been chosen.  The GigaByte P55A-UD3 is the first board on the market with native USB 3.0 support!  The move to a P55 board also necessitates a change in DDR3 choice, in this case Corsair provides 4GB of dual channel DDR3-1600.  The biggest change to the system also gives it a jump in performance, the HD 5770 gives a drop in price along with the exact same benefits as the HD 5870.  You might also notice we abandon Xi-Fi in preference of a new sound card choice from ASUS using the Xonar chipset.

The Budget Leaderboard has picked up a bit of a CPU upgrade with the Athlon II X4 630, four cores of processing power on a budget rig that will run rings around previous generations in BOINC and Folding@Home applications.  Josh's favourite value AM3 board, the Gigabyte MA770T-UD3P has serious staying power, for the cost you pay you get a great deal. This month the HD5750 drops out of the Budget Rig thanks to the price of various components creeping upwards.  Instead it is the slightly less powerful and definitely less expensive HD5670.  For use in an HTPC it excels and it can handle light gaming if you keep the resolution reasonable.  It can also be handy if this machine is intended for productivity or browsing then the ability to have a second display is rather nice.  The sale on Corsair's XMS3 Xtreme Performance RAM is back, though not quite as cheap as it has been in the past 2GB of DDR3-1333 is well worth it.

That's it for this month readers! Don't forget to drop by the Hardware Leaderboard forum to share your comments!

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Dream System Leaderboard

Estimated Cost: $3586

High End System Leaderboard

Estimated Cost: $1820

Mid Range System Leaderboard

Estimated Cost: $982

Budget System Leaderboard

Estimated Cost: $525