Christmas 2008 system buyer's guide

If you've been doing things like "going outside" and "socializing" these past few weeks, then you might not have heard about the Core i7. In a nutshell, this new processor series inaugurates Intel's Nehalem architecture, which brings goodies like a native quad-core design, an on-die triple-channel DDR3 memory controller, Hyper-Threading, and mind-blowing clock-for-clock performance. You can check out our review for all the specifics, but the Core i7 is now the fastest desktop processor on the market—by far.

We've put together two Core i7 configurations for this guide. The Crushinator is our $1,700 entry ticket, and it should deliver a balanced mix of CPU, graphics, and storage goodness. If you have (a lot) more cash kicking around, the reborn Double-Stuff Workstation is our fastest configuration ever at just over $3,700. For those who don't want to pay the cost of entry to the Core i7 party, our $500 Econobox, $800 Utility Player, and $1,200 Sweeter Spot systems have returned, as well. Read on for our picks for the best enthusiast hardware on the market.