The Ultimate Gift Giving Guide 2009

The Sound of Music and Games

As of a few years ago sound cards became pretty much standard fare on a motherboard, this along with ethernet or LAN cards being integrated into the motherboard pretty much took the wind out of the sails of the aftermarket industry for both products. In fact it comes as a surprise to us now when we see a board without these features. While no one has yet to prove to us that an aftermarket LAN card offers significantly better performance over one included on board the jury is still out on aftermarket sound cards.

For sound cards there  is really one manufacturer that claims the majority of the market and that is Creative Labs. Their line of X-Fi cards has claimed top dog in the sound arena which is helped in no small part by the backing of Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel a huge icon in gaming circles.

The High Performance Category:

Creative PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series $124.99 Chosen by professional gamers, the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series sound card delivers the ultimate PC gaming audio experience. You’ll hear realistic EAX 5 sound effects and 3D positional audio that’s so accurate you can locate opponents by sound – even over headphones. Plus, get unbeatable performance in your games with hardware accelerated audio and X-RAM. When I’m competing I need top-notch performance and the most realistic sound to help me know where my opponents are and Sound Blaster X-Fi really delivers for me…there is nothing faster or better. Johnathan Fatal1ty Wendel is the best-known professional gamer in the world with 38 1st place wins in nine years of tournament play.

The Mid Range Category:

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCI Express Sound Card $97.08 EAX 5.0 sound effects and 3D positional audio for total game immersion Precise and detailed surround sound – even with headphones Hardware acceleration that boosts gaming performance Restores the details and vibrance to your MP3s Works with your PCI Express equipped PC Get extreme audio performance from your PC with the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium sound card. You’ll hear realistic EAX 5.0 sound effects and 3D positional audio in your games that’s so accurate you can locate opponents by sound – even over normal stereo headphones. Plus, get unbeatable performance with hardware accelerated audio. All your music and movies will sound better too with Xtreme Fidelity audio technology that restores the detail and clarity to compressed music files like MP3s.

The Budget Performance Category:

Creative X-Fi PCI Express Sound Blaster Xtreme Audio Sound Card – PCI Express – 24 bit $45.76 Why settle for basic, built-in sound? Your music and movies deserve Xtreme Fidelity. Add the PCI Express Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio sound card to your PC and turn your downloaded music into your own personal concert. Watch DVDs or downloaded videos with full cinematic surround sound. Plus experience 3D audio and EAX effects in games.

The Memory Game

Unlike a sound card your system cannot function without RAM. Since nearly all new systems ship with a 64 bit OS the new rule of thumb for RAM is the more the better with a typical sweet spot at around 4GB for AMD systems and for i7 (socket 1366) around 6GB. The situation becomes a bit more confused when you add to the mix dual and triple channel memory kits as well as DDR2 and DDR3 types of memory.

So lets start with a few facts to assist you in making a selection. First off current AMD based boards are all dual channel and most are DDR3 based while some still use DDR2. Intel meanwhile complicates things with the intermixing of memory types and product names but here are their general guidelines. Intel based systems that use socket 1366 CPU’s are triple channel in nature while those Intel CPU’s that are socket 1156 are dual channel. Most Intel boards are DDR3 based currently. Consult the specs on your chosen motherboard for the type of memory you would need.

If you are upgrading an existing system and can’t find the specifications of your motherboard then we suggest you download and run CPUZ, a simple tool which will help you quickly figure out what CPU and memory you have.

For DDR3 Triple Channel

DDR3 High Performance (Triple Channel) Category:

Kingston HyperX memory – 12 GB ( 6 x 2 GB ) – DIMM 240-pin – DDR3 Cas Latency: 9 Voltage: 1.65V ECC: No Buffered/Registered: Unbuffered Multi-channel Kit: Hexa-Channel Kit Parts: Lifetime limited Labor: Lifetime limited $456.95 Click Here

DDR3 Mid Range (Triple Channel) Category:

Corsair XMS3 CMX6GX3M3A1600C9 Tri Channel 6GB PC12800 DDR3 Memory – 1600MHz, 6144MB (3 x 2048) $163.99 Click Here

DDR3 Budget Performance (Triple Channel) Category:

OCZ Platinum XTC Triple Channel Kit – memory – 3 GB ( 3 x 1 GB ) – DIMM 240-pin – DDR3 $112.95 Click Here

For DDR3 Dual Channel

DDR3 High Performance (Dual Channel) Category:

Kingston HyperX memory – 8 GB ( 4 x 2 GB ) – DIMM 240-pin – DDR2 Cas Latency: 9 Voltage: 1.65V ECC: No Buffered/Registered: Unbuffered Multi-channel Kit: Quad Channel Kit Heat Spreader: Yes Features: Supports Intel Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) Parts: Lifetime limited $263.95 Click Here

DDR3 Mid Range (Dual Channel) Category:

Corsair Dominator DHX TW3X4G1600C9D 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 RAM – PC12800, 1600MHz, 4096MB (2x20248MB) $151.99 Click Here

DDR3 Budget Performance (Dual Channel) Category:

Patriot Viper II PGV34G1600ELK 4096MB PC12800 DDR3 Dual Channel Memory Upgrade – 4GB (2 x 2048MB), 1600MHz, w/ 3DMark Vantage $124.99 Click Here

For DDR2 Dual Channel Memory

DDR2 High Performance Category:

Kingston HyperX 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Quad Kit Desktop Memory Cas Latency: 4 Timing: 4-4-4-12 Voltage: 2.1V ECC: No Buffered/Registered: Unbuffered Multi-channel Kit: Quad Channel Kit Heat Spreader: Yes Parts: Lifetime limited $263.95 Click Here

DDR2 Mid Range Category:

Patriot 4GB DDR2 RAM 2GB USB Drive 3DMark Bundle Patriot 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Desktop Memory Upgrade $99.99 Click Here

DDR2 Budget Performance Category:

OCZ ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Dual Channel – memory – 4 GB ( 2 x 2 GB ) – DIMM 240-pin – DDR2 $79.95 Click Here

SATA Hard Drive Storage

Who couldn’t use a bit of extra storage space in their PC for storing family pictures, movies, games, and your personal data? Everyone could so pick up one of the large drives below and watch how fast your favorite geek installs it into their PC.

Western Digital

Western Digital WD5000AAKS Caviar Blue Hard Drive – 500GB, 7200rpm, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM $54.99 Click Here

Seagate

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 – hard drive – 750 GB – SATA-300 $82.95 Click Here