Maximum PC

Take example this one:

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/featur ... page=0%2C0

1.) Spending $90 extra bucks on the Core i7 860 instead of a Core i5 750 is just a waste of money, since the PC is a gaming PC.

2.) Why spend $220 on a P55 motherboard? That's more like X58 prices. The Gigabyte EP55M-UD2 is a better choice.

3.) The OCZ Osidian DDR3 1600 is just as good as the Corsair, but it's only $79

4.) Why the HIS 5870? Why not the Asus one which comes with a free copy of Dirt 2 (The XFX model is currently not listed on Newegg).

5.) The Corsair 850TX is way overkill, the Corsair 650TX or 750TX would be better.

I strongly agree with this. I kind of felt a bit of a sinking feeling when I saw some of the recommendations, like the i7 860 (what games use 8 threads?), the memory that could be had much cheaper, and the outdated Cav Black HDD. The Samsung SpinPoint F3's are much faster and cheaper. I guess the 850W does provide ample wattage for adding two more 5870's, but...
Now the biggest problem I had with the build- the case, the 902. Why ever recommend a case based on such an antiquated design, that has been matched by far cheaper designs nowadays? The GPU spacing is still the same one designed for the 7900GTX, a 5870 fits in there very cramped, where, say, a $100 HAF 922 has much more space. It's a good starting point. Also, a point I'd like to make- I may sound rather anal pointing this out, but it's just plain misleading to say "the Radeon 5780 absolutely stomps the 4870 X2 of last year".
No, it doesn't. In fact, performance is quite comparable. I'd link to benchmarks, but they're all from competing tech sites.

You know, with that budget, they might as well have recommended an X58 motherboard with a 920 CPU (or step down as you've mentioned). Gotta agree on this one too.

The new NAS build is also pretty bad, although I mostly just disagree with the choice to use a Rosewill PSU. Those things suck. My friend bought one and it fried his motherboard.

Rosewill? Are you serious?

Man. That is almost worth posting a screencap on failblog.

o look! There's a new one!
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/featur ... ome_pc_647
It's actually... euh... decent. Stock cooler is good, 5770 is good, power supply is, meh, okay. While the CM RS-460 is a respectably reliable PSU, it's certianly not among the best and it's efficiency is pathetic. HDD is a great choice. mobo+RAM choice, not too great. Why not just 4GB of DDR3-1066? I don't see why on earth you'd ever invest in a new DDR2 system nowadays. Athlon II X4 620... they mentioned encoding, so it's nice for that... otherwise, a higher-clocked Athlon II X3 is probably a better option. Again, a decidedly okay choice. Swap the mobo and RAM out for something at least somewhat modern, and you've got yourself a very nice budget video editor and gamer.

Yeah, the OCZ DDR3 1066 from Newegg is cheaper than the DDR2 that they bought, so why go DDR2?