As we expected, the Q9450 is a fantastic processor all-around. It offers a nice clock speed, improved characteristics over the previous 65nm Quad-Cores and is priced right.

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As it stands, it’s a great offering for the price, especially considering that it’s far less expensive than the QX9650, but is only 340MHz slower. That’s even without taking overclocking into consideration.

Read the full review of the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 CPU at Techgage.

There are two ways to look at performance; Absolute performance, which places this card in the middle of the pack under the 8800GT and above the HD 3870. And Performance value, which takes into account the price you pay for this level or performance. This is where this card excels. For the MSRP of this card you just can’t get better performance.

Read the full review of the XFX 9600GT XXX at Bjorn3d

So, overall the GA-EX38-DS4 performed pretty damn well in our test lab, coming away with a great overclock, which while not the highest we have seen in terms of FSB, is definitely one of our highest performance level overclocks ever. With the ability to use two quick ATI graphics cards in Crossfire, or two 3870X2s in CrossfireX, this motherboard would be an outstanding choice for a high performance gaming rig.

Read the full review of the Gigabyte GA-EX38-DS4 motherboard at Pro-Clockers

The ASUS EN9600GT retails for an average of $180, while the TOP version will probably be priced at $20 higher. At $200, it’s hard to out-right recommend this card, because the lesser-expensive 8800 GT models, which perform around >10% better, cost only $10 - $20 more. Some 8800 GT’s are retailing for exactly $200 at many e-tailers, so it will pay to shop around.

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It goes without saying that the 9600 GT is a fantastic GPU and ASUS improves on it with their TOP version. For those who want a great overclock out of the box without having to get their hands dirty, you can’t go wrong here. Sadly, no game is included with many lower-priced ASUS cards, but the addition of an HDMI adapter may sweeten the deal for some.

Read the full review of the ASUS EN9600GT TOP graphics card at Techgage.

The HD3450 is designed as a next generation card supporting all of the newest techlologies and that it does well. This card is not designed for the gaming market and you will not be playing games at those ultra high graphics, but it is great for movie playback and running Vista’s features. The HD3450 has a low profile design which makes it ideal for home theater PCs, but keep in mind the heatsink is big and will take up part of the expansion slot below it, keeping you from placing a card in it. The upside to the size of the heatsink is that it is a passive solution, something that makes the most sense for use in an HTPC case.

I was able to overclock the card to its limits reaching 641MHz on the GPU from 600MHz and 495MHz on the memory from 400MHz. That is a substantial overclock, which added to its performance but also generated quite a bit more heat. If you are looking for a really cost effective video card to a workstation or home theater PC, I would highly recomend the HD3450, but if gaming is your style, stay away and save your money for a more advanced card because you will be disappointed. The things the HD3450 is designed to do, it does well. It reduced the load on the CPU by 9% when compared to the integrated graphics solution, this shows the strength of the onboard decoding capabilities. It worked well with the IGP while in Crossfire mode to increase graphics performance and above all it provided a clear crisp picture, all at a modest price.

Read the full review of the PowerColor HD 3450 graphics card at Overclockersclub

The E8500 is a worthy successor to the Core 2 Duo CPUs released earlier by Intel, with faster clock speeds, higher amount of L2 cache and all of the technologies that are supported by current Intel CPUs including SSE 4, XD, Virtualization Technology and more. At the high end of the Intel CPU spectrum is the QX9775 Quad Core on the Skulltrail platform, but not everyone wants to buy the most expensive solution on the market.

The E8500 is the fastest Core 2 Duo solution on the market with the clock speed set at 3.16GHz, fully 266MHz higher than the next fastest E series CPU. For a MSRP on the Intel CPU price list of $266 this makes an affordable solution for those not wanting to spend $999 on an Intel CPU like the QX9770 that’s upcoming. Dual Core CPUs like the E8500 are excellent choices for the everyday user. The E8500 also overclocks like a beast reaching 4.389 GHz, a nearly 40% overclock on normal air-cooling. Other people have reached over 4.5GHz on theirs. Dual Core processors still have a market as only the Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU reaches this level of price but performance on the E8500 beats that CPU in many cases.

Read the full review of the Intel E8500 CPU at Motherboards.org

ZOTAC have done some magic with the package as well by including not only a full version game but also a decent length HDMI cable for those of you who want to make use of the HDMI connectivity out of the box.

At the moment it looks like the main difference between the GX2 cards on the market include the bundle and the package that comes with them. They all seem to follow the reference clocks and cooler. The ZOTAC manages to stand out a bit more than normal in the package department thanks to the extras included, and it may be put at the top of the list for this reason.

Read the full review of the Zotac GeForce 9800 GX2 graphics card at Tweaktown.

To distinguish itself, MSI has gone through its book of tricks, from overclocking the N9600GT-T2D512-OC to having a custom cooler. The usual MSI proprietary software and applications are mostly missing however, so another ‘Diamond’ edition may be in the works, with features like CoreCell, D.O.T and likely even higher clock speeds. The present version we have now however works at giving users excellent value. No doubt, it is hardly the fastest card, or the quietest or even the coolest. Yet, from our results, it has scored well in all these aspects, making it a well rounded GeForce 9600 GT.

Finally, its value is best exemplified by the very competitive S$299 local price. At this price, one could probably get a basic standard clock GeForce 9600 GT with little frills, though ASUS’ Glaciator equipped GeForce 9600 GT at the same price, does pose an attractive counteroffer to the MSI. The clincher is as we mentioned, a combination of factors that make the MSI an above average choice for those doing comparison shopping. Coupled with the reliability and warranty support of an established vendor, the choice is none too difficult.

Read the full review of the MSI N9600GT-T2D512-OC at Hardwarezone.

This card is just truly kick ass, and Palit have gone out of the way to offer something that stands out from the competition. There is no doubt that this card has the potential to sell well, and with the aggressive pricing we see from Palit the card would suit everyone from a person who enjoys gaming to someone who wants to be display-proof to someone who’s just looking for an awesome card to suit their HTPC which is also capable of doing a bit of gaming.

This card really sets the benchmark for the 9600GT and it’s going to be hard to beat. Palit have done an excellent job of the card and no doubt it’s going to be the card of choice for anyone who wants a card that offers an all round experience that covers everything from outputs to out of the box performance. The Palit 9600GT Sonic is probably going to be the card for you!

Read the full review of the Palit GeForce 9600GT Sonic at Tweaktown.

The nForce 780i SLI suffers from stuff that just hasn’t been updated; no solid aluminium capacitors, no re-FABed chipsets on a cooler process, no updated BIOS flashing utilities, no overclocking safe guards and not even a CMOS button.

Even though the XFX nForce 780i SLI performs well, is stable and looks good, it just simply lacks in features I’d expect an enthusiast board to have. I can’t help but want to look elsewhere to the Tier One manufacturers for a quiet solution that is better kitted out.

Read the full review of the XFX nForce 780i SLI motherboard at Bit-Tech.