Peripherals, accessories, and extras
Matters of religion and taste

Now that we've examined operating system choices in detail, let's have a look at some accessories. We don't have a full set of recommendations at multiple price levels in the categories below, but we can make general observations and point out specific products that are worthy of your consideration. What you ultimately choose in these areas will probably depend heavily on your own personal preferences.

Displays
The world of monitors has enough scope and variety that we can't keep track of it all, especially because we don't often review monitors. However, we do appreciate a good display—or two or three of them, since several of us are multi-monitor fanatics—so we can offer a few pieces of advice.

Let's get one thing clear before we begin: LCDs have long since supplanted CRTs as the display type of choice for gamers and enthusiasts. LCDs might have been small and of insufficient quality for gaming and photo editing six or seven years ago, but the latest models have huge panels, lightning-quick response times, and impressive color definition. Unless you're already content with a massive, power-guzzling CRT, there's little reason to avoid LCDs.

Despite their near-universal sharpness and thin form factors, not all LCDs are created equal. Besides obvious differences in sizes and aspect ratios, LCDs have different panel types. Wikipedia has a good run-down of different kinds of LCD panels in this article, but most users will probably care about one major differentiating attribute: whether their display has a 6-bit twisted nematic + film (TN+film) panel or not. The majority of sub-$500 monitors have 6-bit TN panels, which means 18-bit, rather than 24-bit, color definition. Those panels use dithering to simulate colors that are out of their scope, yielding sub-optimal color accuracy, and they often have poor viewing angles on top of that. 8-bit panels typically look better, although they tend to have higher response times and prices.

Don't assume that all IPS panels have eight bits per color channel, either. A new breed of e-IPS displays has emerged with only 6-bit color for each channel. These displays purportedly offer better color reproduction and viewing angles than their TN counterparts, but be aware that you're not getting the full 24-bit experience.

What should you get? We think that largely depends on which of our builds you're going with. For instance, those who purchase the Sweet Spot ought to splurge on a nice 8-bit, 24" display like the HP LP2475w, HP ZR24w, Dell UltraSharp U2410, or Asus PA246Q, all of which have IPS panels, reasonable price tags, and a cornucopia of input ports. (The ZR24w is the only one with a normal sRGB color gamut, though.)

We recommend something bigger, like Dell's 27" UltraSharp U2711 or 30" UltraSharp U3011, for use with our opulent workstation or an upgraded Editor's Choice build. Don't be shy about adding more than one screen, either.

By the way, we should point out that the Radeon HD 6000- and 7000-series graphics cards we recommended in this guide support triple-monitor configurations. This scheme, which AMD calls Eyefinity, even works in existing games. You'll need either an adapter or a display with a native DisplayPort input if you want to run three monitors, though. The first two may be connected to a Radeon's DVI or HDMI outputs, but the third needs to be driven by the card's DisplayPort out.

Nvidia has a competing feature similar to Eyefinity, called Surround Gaming, that enables gaming across three monitors, as well. However, that feature requires the use of dual graphics cards or the pricey GeForce GTX 590.

Mice and keyboards
New mice seem to crop up every other week, but we tend to favor offerings from Logitech and Microsoft because both companies typically make quality products and offer great warranty coverage. (Nothing beats getting a free, retail-boxed mouse if your old one starts behaving erratically.) Everyone has his preferences when it comes to scroll wheel behavior, the number of buttons present, and control panel software features. But here, too, one particular attribute lies at the heart of many debates: wirelessness.

Wireless mice have come a long way over the past few years, and you can expect a relatively high-end one to feel just as responsive as a wired mouse. However, certain folks—typically hard-core gamers—find all wireless mice laggy, and they don't like the extra weight of the batteries. Tactile preferences are largely subjective, but wireless mice do have a few clear advantages and disadvantages. On the upside, you can use them anywhere on your desk or from a distance, and you don't run the risk of snagging the cable. That said, good wireless mice cost more than their wired cousins, and they force you to keep an eye on battery life. Because of that last issue, some favor wireless mice with docking cradles, which let you charge your mouse at night and not have to worry about finding charged AAs during a Team Fortress 2 match.

We can also find two distinct schools of thoughts on the keyboard front. Some users will prefer the latest and fanciest offerings from Logitech and Microsoft, with their smorgasbord of media keys, sliders, knobs, scroll wheels, and even built-in LCD displays. Others like their keyboards simple, clicky, and heavy enough to beat a man to death with. If you're one of the old-school types, you may want to try a Unicomp Customizer 101/104 or an original vintage-dated IBM Model M. $50-70 is a lot to put down for a keyboard, but these beasts can easily last a couple of decades.

If you're part of the mechanical keyboard club and are looking for something a little less... well, ugly, then Metadot's Das Keyboard Professional might interest you. The Das Keyboard is pretty pricey (over $100), but it has a more stylish look and a softer feel than the Model M and its modern derivatives. Cheaper alternatives to the Das Keyboard can be found among Rosewill's line of mechanical keyboards, which come outfitted with all types and variations of MX Cherry key switches, from the clicky and tactile blue switches to the linear and non-tactile black ones. We also like the combination of mechanical switches, macro keys, and backlighting offered by the new Razer BlackWidow Ultimate.

Folks more interested in gaming than typing may also want to look at Corsair's K60 and K90 keyboards, which feature linear, non-tactile, and non-clicky Cherry Red switches. In layman's terms, the keys are mechanical but don't produce noticeable feedback when actuated (unless you bottom out, that is). We hear gamers are partial to this switch design. The two keyboards use Cherry Red switches for the alpha keys and standard rubber-dome switches for the F-key row and the paging block. The K90 is backlit, and it features a set of 18 macro keys, to boot.

Card reader
This section traditionally included a floppy drive/card reader combo, but we're in 2011 now. We've had the Internet, USB thumb drives, and Windows-based BIOS flashing tools for many years. It's time to let go.

If you absolutely must stick something in that external 3.5" drive bay, we suggest this all-in-one card reader. It costs just over $10 yet has good user reviews on Newegg, and it should happily accept any flash card you find lying around.

Cooling
You might have noticed that all of our recommended processors are retail-boxed variants packaged with stock heatsinks and fans. Retail processors have longer warranties than "tray" or OEM CPUs, and their coolers tend to be at least adequate, with fans that work with motherboard-based temperature control and stay reasonably quiet at idle.

That said, anyone aspiring to overclock or to build a truly quiet PC will likely want to explore aftermarket alternatives. We've singled out three options that ought to suit most needs and budgets: Cooler Master's Hyper 212 Plus, Thermaltake's Frio, and Corsair's H60.

Priced just under $30, the Hyper 212 Plus is a fine no-frills substitute for stock coolers. Its four copper heat pipes, tower-style design, and 120-mm PWM fan should allow for quieter, more effective cooling. Our next step up, the Frio, costs a little under twice as much but provides beefier cooling capabilities that should make it sufficient for air-cooled overclocking setups. Finally, Corsair's H60 is a closed-loop liquid cooler whose radiator mounts over your enclosure's 120-mm exhaust fan. The H60 will set you back about 10 bucks more than the Frio, and we'd recommend it to folks who want a truly quiet PC.

Noctua's NH-U12P SE2 cooler deserves an honorable mention in this section, if only because it now supports Sandy Bridge processors. The original NH-U12P did rather well in our air vs. water CPU cooler showdown a couple of years back. Things have changed somewhat since then, though, and the Noctua cooler no longer costs less than closed-loop liquid-cooling alternatives. In fact, it's about the same price as the H60 right now. The NH-U12P SE2 may be as close to the ultimate air tower as you can get, though.

Backups
You know what they say: it's all fun and games until someone's hard drive starts developing bad sectors and kicks the bucket in a dissonant avalanche of clicking and crunching sounds. If you're unsure how to formulate a backup strategy, you can check out our article on the subject, which recommends a fairly straightforward approach. That article deals with Windows Vista's built-in backup software, which isn't bad. Win7's backup tools are even better, though, and Microsoft has included them in the Home Premium edition of the OS.

All you need to get Windows 7 backups going is a decent external hard drive. For that purpose, Thermaltake's BlacX docking station should work well with any of the hard drives we've recommended throughout this guide (perhaps the 2TB Seagate Barracuda Green). This newer USB 3.0 version of the BlacX made a pretty good impression on us, and backing up large files and drive images with it should be a snap.

Conclusions
This late-winter update to the guide is a bit of a downer, frankly speaking. It's not that things have gotten worse or prices have risen; it's just that we're still waiting for things to get qualitatively better.

AMD's FX-series processors are finally in stock, but they're still overpriced compared to Intel's finest. Samsung's 830 Series solid-state drives are tantalizing alternatives to SandForce-based drives, at least from a stability standpoint, but you might not be able to notice the difference without a stopwatch at hand. AMD's new Radeon HD 7900-series graphics cards are an unequivocal step up from the previous generation, but only if you can spare $450 or more. (The 7700 series is still a disappointment.)

We said this back in December, and it's still true today: the stagnation of mid-range and low-end CPU prices is bothersome. Faced with no strong competition from AMD, Intel has held the prices of sub-$300 desktop CPU prices largely steady over the past year. We're really itching for some genuine upgrades.

Thankfully, we may get our wish before long. Whispers from the rumor mill suggest Intel's next-generation, 22-nm Ivy Bridge processors will arrive in April, at least on the desktop. AMD should have next-gen Trinity APUs in stores around the mid-year time frame, as well. Here's hoping they'll be priced more aggressively than AMD's current A-series Llano APUs.

There are new graphics processors on the horizon, too. AMD's Pitcairn GPU should slot in between the 7700 and 7900 series in the not-too-distant future, and Nvidia's next-gen Kepler GPUs are expected soonish, as well. It's too early to tell if all that new gear warrants holding off on an upgrade, but at least things aren't likely to stay still for much longer.