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Best Configs - Budget Intel-Based Gaming PC

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Which Budget Intel-Based Gaming PC do you like the best?

Total: 336 votes (88 blank votes)

  • The Dalauder Build
  • 20 %
  • The Derbixrace Build
  • 20 %
  • The Ksampanna Build
  • 32 %
  • The Wolygon Build
  • 7 %
  • The LuigiVN Build
  • 24 %

Our editorial team has selected the top builds submitted by users for our Best Configs feature. Please vote on your favorite of the following builds:

Dalauder
Processor: i7-930
Motherboard: ASUS Sabertooth X58 USB 3.0
RAM: 6GB Mushkin Blackline 1600MHz Cas7
Graphics Card: GIGABYTE Radeon 5850
Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB
Case: Linkworld Steel ATX Mid Tower
Power Supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro 600W
DVD Burner: (w/ OCZ600MXSP) LG Black DVD Burner

Link to Build

Derbixrace
CPU: i5 750
Mobo: Asus P7P55D EVO
RAM: Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB DDR3 1600MHz CL7
GPU: Asus GTX 470
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1Tb
Case: CM HAF 922
PSU: Corsair VX550
DVD Burner: Lite-On 24x Black SATA

Link to Build

ksampanna
Processor - Intel i5 760
Motherboard - BIOSTAR T5 XE CFX-SLI
Memory - OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) XMP-Ready Rev.2
Graphics - 2 X Galaxy 60XMH6HS3HMW GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) GC 768MB
HDD + Power Supply : Samsung Spinpoint F3 + OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W
Case - Antec 300
CPU Cooler - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm Fluid Dynamic CPU Cooler
Optical Drive - Sony Optiarc CD/ DVD Burner

Link to Build

Wolygon
Intel i3 530
ASUS P7P55
HD5870
G.Skill Ripjaws 1600MHz C7 4GB
Combo: Antec 300 Illusion & Antec EA-750W
Samsung Spinpoint F3 500GB
Sony DVD burner
CM Hyper 212+ $50

Link to Build

LuigiVN
Processor: Intel Core i3 530
Motherboard: ASRock H55DE3 LGA 1156 Intel H55 HDMI ATX
RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
Graphics Card: SAPPHIRE 100283-3L Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
Case:COOLER MASTER CM 690
Power Supply: Antec BP550 Plus 550W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.2 Modular Active PFC
DVD Burner: LG Black 22X

Link to Build

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I think of the first four, only Derbixrace's build doesn't make me shake my head over at least one "sore thumb" issue, from reliance on dubious sources (e.g. eBay) to using one or more substandard and/or potentially under-performing parts.
LuigiVN should get an honorable mention for his interpretation of "budget," but going strictly by the rules, it is considerably weaker than the others.
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please people it is a budget build.

sorry but 5870/470 much less a pair of 460's
backed with a i7 930 and 4 or 6 gigs of ram at 60 bucks per 2gb

luigiVN gets my vote as the only one to build a "budget" system

I guess some are right saying for "budget" system. So I guess there had to be a price limit when the made the article/post ... Well if there wasn't the price problem I'd defentetily vote for Derbixrace but since this is a budget system my vote goes for LuigiVN!

In future please post a price limit for budget PCs

Perhaps $600 (even that is a little generous)

Like the AMD section, with the exception of one entry, these are all far too expensive to be considered budget by any stretch of the imagination.

ksampanna's build would likely win on performance at stock, but the PSU is a little too weak. It wouldn't support any kind of overclock, and would likely have a short life even as-is. Also, the Antec 300 (non-Illusion) only has one fan.

frederico said:
In future please post a price limit for budget PCs

Perhaps $600 (even that is a little generous)

Like the AMD section, with the exception of one entry, these are all far too expensive to be considered budget by any stretch of the imagination.


Agreed... the top 4 are not 'budget' beyond the sense that they have a budget that is very high. There is only one on there that tries to adhere to something of a reserved spending limit. That and it really uses a solid, well-balanced build.

I voted for Derbixrace's build. ksampanna's build is nice but with two 768M cards I fear you would limit any of the benefits gained from SLI, unless playing games at a lower resolution/detail, thus negating the point of SLI in the first place.

Onus said:
Also, the Antec 300 (non-Illusion) only has one fan.
Two fans, 140mm top and 120mm rear. Its fairly acceptable even without a front fan. Its also very common for the Illusion to be the same price or only $5 more than the 300 black model. The timing of this contest was bad for certain parts if you took sale and combo prices.


Like many others here, I did not vote for ksampana's build though it looks on paper to be the strongest. If you actually built it with those brands and models I suspect you would not be a very happy owner.

I concur with what others have said. 2x $170 GTX 460s is not budget. Neither is a $200 dollar i5. seriously, with just those three parts you have already reached "budget" range. $600 dollars for a gaming rig is budget with the current rates.

That includes a HD 4870, an i5 processor, 4 gbs of ram, a psu, and the rest.

nilesh348 said:
see this
inter workstion board
i7-930
2x hd5770
600 PSU
4gB DDR3 AT 1333
24 samsumg monitor


in india




dude nilesh.....where in india do u live? really m8 how much did that config cost u

when i asked ... i7 930 was like Rs13000....tell me where did u source this stuff

guardianangel42 said:
I concur with what others have said. 2x $170 GTX 460s is not budget. Neither is a $200 dollar i5. seriously, with just those three parts you have already reached "budget" range. $600 dollars for a gaming rig is budget with the current rates.

That includes a HD 4870, an i5 processor, 4 gbs of ram, a psu, and the rest.

I agree totally. A "Budget" build should be around $500 or so, that is why I voted for the most "Budget" friendly build here. I do like the CM 690 case, but it isn't the most "Budget" friendly, but it is a very nice case to say the least (I have built 2 systems off of the CM 690 case). The PSU is a bit much for a budget build, but definitely allows room for upgrades and some OC'ing too.

cschuele said:
How do $1300+ computers count as budget. Pitting i3 vs i7 930 x58 systems is a joke who put this matchup together, its not even worth voting for


Did anyone read the thread before this? All systems are built to $1000 price limits. They all cost the same. The differences are how they tweaked PSU/Mobo/Case to leverage the best GPU/CPU. But they're all the same "budget" $1000.

Thanks everyone for your votes.. It's good to know that people like my truly budget build ;P. But as I said in the original thread, some people (like me me) don't even have $700 for their towers...

Quote:
How do $1300+ computers count as budget


Agree.

Quote:
I do like the CM 690 case, but it isn't the most "Budget" friendly[..] The PSU is a bit much for a budget build, but definitely allows room for upgrades and some OC'ing too


I know, A friend of mine's got one of those and I've got the CM 690 II Basic. Both versions are really well made, the airflow is excellent and screwless systems are very secure... The Antec PSU is great, not very pricy and it could take a 2x 5770 setup for future upgrades with no problems. My rig is designed so the user can upgrade it when he's got the chance (or he/she needs to), you can change the i3 for a i5 760 or i7 870, add another 5770, put an aftermarket cooler and do some OC...

Again, Thanks everybody.

Understandably there seem to be a lot of scepticism regarding my build, & I'll try & clear away most of it.

The power supply is too weak

May I point out the following chart:



Remember this was with a 980X @ 4 Ghz, 6 GB mem, & a WD Velociraptor (which is a power hog amongst the HDDs).
Thus, my build, with a 550W OCZ unit, will comfortably run the twin cards with a sizable CPU overclock.


While building, I went for outright current performance rather than future potential in upgradability.
Also there is a general perception that a $200 quadcore with twin cards doesn't qualify to be in a "budget" build. However, I'm just adhering to Toms' requirement that the upper limit be $1000. Whether that's too much for "budget" per se, is subjective. What I have tried is to fit the max bang within the buck.

ksampanna said:
Understandably there seem to be a lot of scepticism regarding my build, & I'll try & clear away most of it.

The power supply is too weak


http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/181
Anandtech showed a 530W usage under furmark for a pair of 460s, and thats not overclocked 460s. As that PSU ages and outputs less power, your system will start locking up, blue screening and eventually fail. It might even fail new under stability testing. Performance only counts if the system actually runs.


I challenge you to build and run that system for a year. I strongly suspect you will run into problems and be a very unhappy owner. The very borderline power and low quality parts makes your build something I could not recommend to anyone, regardless of what the stats look like on paper.

Do you really want Toms Hardware to present a flimsy build like that as a "best"? I would think especially someone with official status here would want to be sure they presented an absolutely reliable machine with quality parts not a thrown together barely functional menagerie of bargain basement brands.

I would love to accept the challenge except that we both know it's not possible.

We all know that furmark is only used as an academic interest. Gaming is the main concern here & no matter which games you play, they draw a lot less power than furmark, about 20-25W less per card, so about 50W less in total. Which is substantial.
PSU aging doesn't become a factor before atleast a couple of years & that too, if it is really cheap (which I assure you, the OCZ is not).

By "flimsy", "low quality parts", "barely functional menagerie of bargain basement brands", I assume you are referring solely to the motherboard. Granted, it might not be from the top-tier brands; but more importantly, it gets the job done, if you've read its reviews. Morever, there isn't a full assurance that everything will work if you buy only from the elite brands since even they are prone to the occasional DOA. The day there is a 100% guarantee with them, is the day I stop recommending any other brand.

So yeah, I would disagree with you on all counts; but thanks for your comments.

54000 rupees = 1213 US dollars... you could build Derbixrace's, ksampanna's, dalauder's or mine (you would save big money but you would loose some perfomance..)

Assuming prices are the same (I highly doubt it) you could build almost anyone of those... A fried of mine told me that in India everything is pretty expensive, so try searching for the prices of everything...

Budget is in the pocket of the buyer. I looked at the "High End" systems for $2000. In my opinion, $2000 is a budget machine. I'm looking to put 4 x $600 graphic cards in a system so the graphics cards kick me out of qualifying for the "High End" machines just because the graphics cards come in at $2400.

wifiwolf said:
I doubt that system with 2x GTX 460 will do with 550W PSU!!!

You are very probably right, the 550W PSU will probably experience a very early death. If my memory serves me correct, those 2 GTX 460s would need at least a 750W PSU to not have excessive power drain.

The article you are referencing only stresses the GPU's: which gives the 433W power drain.

"BTW we stress the GPUs here"

And the article goes on to say:

"not the processor, so you need to add another 100~150W for overall power consumption."

By that article, you have 533 ~ 583W overall power consumption. So, with a 550W PSU you are basically running the PSU at it's max or worse case slightly over which will result in failure of the graphic cards or the best case, the PSU dies early. Personally, I like a little more headroom so I'm not pushing the limit. Since the machine will require at least 533W, I'd add 30% so as not to stress the PSU and to have a little room for future upgrades. So, 30% of 533 is 160 and 30% of the top end 583 is 175. Simple math comes up with a PSU between 693 and 758. I'd tend to choose to error on the side of caution and go with a 750W PSU.

I ALREADY KNOW THAT! I just recommended A 600w.... You don't need to get a 750w. It also depends on his cpu... If he got something like a Phenom 945 he'd only need a 600 watt at the most. 693 - 758 watts IS HUGE headroom.... That's an extra 20-30$ you can tack on to a price tag. For instance the xfx 650watt - xfx 750 watt, is 110$-130$ which is 20$ I mean if he's not on a budget though a 750watt is good too but... If he is on one a 600-650 is really all you need.

LuigiVN said:
54000 rupees = 1213 US dollars... you could build Derbixrace's, ksampanna's, dalauder's or mine (you would save big money but you would loose some perfomance..)

Assuming prices are the same (I highly doubt it) you could build almost anyone of those... A fried of mine told me that in India everything is pretty expensive, so try searching for the prices of everything...



yes my friend 54000 rupees =1213 $...but you forget to take into account customs,excise,vat and what not...not to mention....hardwre inindia is severly over quoted and most of the dealers are outright thieves...

an i7 920 cpu costs rs 14500/- a gigabyte x58-ud9 costs rs 33000!!!! a gigabyte xx58- ud 7 costs 27k and a -x58-ud3r costs rs 19000

thtas a total of 47500 just for the mother board and cpu......(if you want a high end cpu)....as for ram....most of the people have never even heard of G-skill,Corsair,Transcend etc...... even to get our hands on kingston ...we have to pre order themm......

a single gtx 460 (reference) costs rs 12000/- an sli would eat up half of his budget (eating up half of mine too..am getting ready with almost the same budget)

my point being rs 54000 in reality is not equal to 1213 $ as that very same $1000 build translates to a rs 75000/- + build here...

i can get myself a brand new yamaha and cruise around town..... :pt1cable: 

Hey people, I am trying to assemble a config, similar to ksampanna's. Because, I don't live in USA, we don't have all the same parts avilable here, in eastern-europe, that is why, I am searching alternatives for all parts.
Here is what I have gathered:
  1. CPU	      Intel Core i5-760, 2800/2.5GT/8M
  2. CPU cooler    ARCTIC COOLING - 1366/AM2 Freezer7 Pro Rev2
  3. MB	        (havent found)
  4. RAM	       DDR3 4GB PC1600 CL9 KIT (2x2GB) OCZ Obsidian retail
  5. GPU	       MSI GeForce GTX460 CYCLONE, 1GB, 256bit, GDDR5
  6. Case	     (not needed)
  7. PSU	       OCZ Fatal1ty OCZ550FTY 550W
  8. CD-ROM	   (not needed)
  9. HDD

Only thing that differs, is GPU (1gb in place of 768mb, cause it is just 20$ more).
Please, suggest alternative motherboards to BIOSTAR T5 XE CFX-SLI , that could be used for this configuration, and I will try to search for it, at our stores...
Thanks!
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