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Building An Intel-Based MicroATX Gaming PC On A Budget
By , Arne Weigold,
1. Building a Budget Intel-Based MicroATX Gaming Cube

Back in May, we published a story called Build A Balanced AMD-Based Gaming PC On A Budget, which showed you how to construct a low-cost system using AMD's Athlon X4 750K CPU and appropriately-quick graphics cards, all housed in an attractive case. After all, just because you kept an eye on your budget doesn't mean your gaming box needs to be ugly.

This time around, we wanted to do something similar on the Intel side, particularly in light of the good press its Pentium G3258 has been receiving. Our own coverage (Intel Pentium G3258 CPU Review: Haswell, Unlocked, For $75 and The Pentium G3258 Cheap Overclocking Experiment) shows that, even though the Pentium is a dual-core processor lacking Hyper-Threading technology, overclocked, it's still able to out-perform the quad-core Athlon in a great many workloads. It's cheaper, too, which we like.

Component vendor Deepcool has been offering to send us hardware for years, and we typically declined because the company's products weren't readily available in the U.S. More recently, however, it scored a spot on Newegg, and so the Steam Castle enclosure we're using today is something you can actually go out and buy. We thought we'd give the $100 enclosure a test run.

In addition, we have the company's Maelstrom 120 closed-loop liquid cooler. That one isn't available yet, though we're assured it will be soon.

The core of this DIY project is MSI's H97M-G43 motherboard, which sells for about $90, and Intel's overclocking-friendly, multiplier-unlocked Pentium G3258, available at $70 on Newegg.

We don’t blame you if you do a double-take: overclocking on a H97-based board? Yup. You've already seen us do this on an inexpensive H81-based platform using beta firmware. So we can't guarantee that Intel won’t kill this feature through some upcoming microcode update. But given the overwhelmingly-positive community response, we've only heard a token protest from the chip giant (and not even through official channels). 

Our overclock was an overwhelming success, peaking at 4.7 GHz through a massive voltage increase. This is neither reasonable nor practical, though, and we've trolled the G3258 user reviews, noticing a great many power users hitting ceilings around 4 GHz, too. As a result, we settled in on a 4.4 GHz clock rate, which requires very few changes in the BIOS and should be possible with most Pentiums.

Then we added a $160 MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti Twin Frozr Gaming graphics card, completing our well-proportioned budget-oriented gaming machine. It has no trouble handling AAA titles. Just don't expect to run at the highest resolutions with overly taxing detail settings. Not everyone needs a high-end system and its associated price tag. With that in mind, we're happy to present this alternative to our previous AMD build, which should give you years of great performance, despite its conservative cost.

2. Deepcool Steam Castle

Unboxing

Deepcool packages its unique-looking Steam Castle in foam. You can easily grab both pieces and dump them into the recycling bin.

All necessary accessories are enclosed. There is an instruction booklet, screws, a tiny wrench for the motherboard stand-offs, lots of cable ties, and even a piezo speaker. The bundle covers the bases; nothing is missing.

Technical Specifications

Exterior: Look And Feel

This Deepcool case is attracting case modders who associate its shape with steampunk and fancy jukebox designs. But even if you don’t alter the enclosure, it's unique enough to stand out from the crowd and draw attention.

Yes, we understand that its looks are polarizing. While the German online retailer Caseking deemed the case unsellable and refused to stock it, apparent successes in other countries suggest that there's at least a market for the Steam Castle.

Let’s take a look at the exterior of the case:

The dull rubber-coated surface is homogenous and easy to work with; you can remove stains and fingerprints with a soft cloth. It looks much better than brushed or dull plastic. We suggest going with the black model. More brightly-colored alternatives may lack the dark finish's higher-end appeal.

Interior and Construction

The interior warrants a closer look as well. Deepcool went for a feature-rich cross between mid-tower and cube, and appears to have achieved its goal.

Frankly, we view the 3.5” drive bay not as a feature, but a nuisance. Most problematic is when it interferes with long, thick graphics cards, though some folks will understandably want a single high-capacity storage drive in a machine like this one.

The back plate for the motherboard seems perfect, and the PSU mounting bay is at the bottom of the case, allowing your power supply to draw intake air through openings down there. A filter keeps the dust out.

Since this is a particularly wide case, a cage for two SSDs sits behind the PSU. Solid-state drives can be mounted without tools, which is something we really appreciate.

The front bezel and lid are easily removed. You need to do the former when you want to install an optical drive, though removing the lid is only necessary if you want to install two additional fans or a radiator.

For what it's worth, what appear to be four small wind turbines up top, well, aren’t.

Instead of four fans, those domes house multi-color LEDs. They're purely for show. Several different light effects can be selected. There really are slots in the top though, which may help with ventilation.

Fans, Fan Control, and the Front Panel

Speaking of air, two fans comes installed in the case, and their speeds can be electronically controlled. While the rear fan is all but inaudible, the front fan is, paradoxically, quite noisy at low RPM settings and nearly quiet at full throttle.

The front panel is really a side panel, which sits at the right side of the case and sports two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports, HD Audio jacks, the on/off button, a reset button, and a knob for controlling fan speed. That knob doubles as a push-button for selecting different LED effects.

The rear side of the panel is nicely laid-out. If necessary, all cables can be unplugged.

Whether or not you like the Steam Castle's looks is a matter of personal preference. But Deepcool does manage to show us something new in a well-made product.

3. MSI H97M-G43 and Intel Pentium G3258

Small and Overclockable: Intel Pentium G3258 Anniversary Edition

For the 20th anniversary of the Pentium, Intel released a cool entry-level CPU for hardware enthusiasts. We've already established in our previous stories about the processor that this is a rare piece of equipment from the more conservative company.

Previously, if you wanted to overclock a budget CPU, AMD was your only outlet. Its Athlon X4 750K/760K fared well, even if it was hot at 100 W. Finally, Intel showed up to compete in this space, though.

Depending on your luck (where on the wafer your CPU die comes from, among other factors), up to 4.7 GHz can be achieved with the Pentium G3258 if you're willing to push crazy voltages. Aside from the two G3258s tested in our SoCal lab, the Tom's Hardware Germany team experimented with an additional five and found that all of them hit 4.4 GHz without a voltage increase. Only a multiplier adjustment was needed, and the motherboard automatically increases the core voltage, if needed.

A Suitable Platform: MSI's H97M-G43 + Custom BIOS

For the record, Intel only allows mainboards with the more expensive Z-series chipset to sport overclocking functionality. But for end users, it doesn’t make sense to put a $67 entry-level CPU on a high-end motherboard. Find out how to use an inexpensive H-series motherboard anyway, with this one weird trick:

You can use this motherboard for overclocking if you flash it with the BIOS from one of the following download links. This BIOS is not officially supported by MSI and was purportedly leaked from MSI’s R&D department.

Using the leaked, unofficial BIOS may void your motherboard’s warranty and MSI support cannot be contacted about any issues arising from its use. You have been warned!

While not officially supported, it worked perfectly. We found the unofficial BIOS at various file hosting sites, all of which hosted the very same image:

MSI H97M-G43 BIOS Download Links
Dropbox:
Download-Link #1
Google-Drive:
Download-Link #2
Mega:
Download-Link #3

Naturally, a $90 motherboard doesn’t sport a luxury-grade bundle, but everything you need is there: an ATX I/O shield, two SATA cables, a comprehensive manual, a quick-start guide, and a CD containing drivers and tools.

Since the two 16x PCIe slots are amply spaced, a CrossFire setup seems possible. However, the USB and HD Audio connectors would interfere with the second graphics card. Plus, most mATX enclosures have room for only four expansion slots; that bottom card could only be one slot-wide to work.

Then again, if you're on a budget, buying a Pentium and an inexpensive motherboard, multi-GPU arrays probably aren't on the menu anyway. Rather, this platform is aimed at a more value-oriented demographic.

Apart from the typical six-channel analog audio jacks, you also get an optical output. There are four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, one combined PS/2 port for a keyboard or mouse, and one GbE jack.

4. Deepcool Maelstrom 120: Closed-Loop Liquid Cooling

Deepcool Maelstrom 120

We're told that this is an original design from Deepcool, and not another Asetek clone. The pump's resemblance to Asetek's design is purportedly coincidental.

Be that as it may, we're also told that, due to the patent situation in the U.S., certain design changes have to made before this closed-loop liquid cooler can be sold here. Right now, it's only available in Europe.

Deepcool has a Maelstrom 120 and a Maelstrom 240. The latter sports a double-wide radiator, but both models have the same pump. It goes without saying that we picked the smaller cooler for the entry-level Intel Pentium CPU. The water cooler comes with a complete accessory set, including mounting kits for all current AMD and Intel interfaces, screws, a manual, a fan, and the water cooler assembly itself.

Depending on your processor and interface, you need to pick the corresponding bracket and mount it on the pump. Then, you attach four screws to the one-size-fits-all back plate and secure the screws with plastic shoes. An audible click confirms that a screw is locked in place.

Next, you stick the screws through the motherboard’s holes (on AMD motherboards, you need to remove the back plate first).

Then, you place the pump/water block combination on the four screws and secure it with as many thumb nuts.

In order to mount the motherboard into the case, remove the enclosure's rear 12 cm fan and install the I/O shield. Complement the installed motherboard standoffs as needed. The case comes with a tiny thumb tool for tightening them.

Carefully lower the mainboard onto the standoffs and attach the radiator to the rear wall of the case.

Finally, you put the case on its back and mount the water cooler’s red fan with the enclosed long screws.

Attach the pump’s cable to the motherboard’s case fan header, boot the board into the BIOS, and ensure that the water pump is not subject to automatic fan control. The pump requires a steady, unmodulated +12 V supply.

The fan’s cable is attached to the motherboard’s CPU fan header, but perhaps you want to set the fan to run a tad faster than the default, as it also has to handle some of the graphic card’s heat. For the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, however, we found this not to be necessary. When we tried a Gainward GTX 760 Phantom for test purposes, it was.

5. Storage Installation

3.5” Cage: Hard Disks

A maximum of two 3.5” hard disks can be mounted on frames and inserted into the cage. No tools are necessary. Deepcool came up with a nifty design for these.

Typically, the mounting frame has to be bent out of shape in order to insert a drive. Deepcool's frame, however, slides apart, whereupon the hard disk is inserted. Then the frame is collapsed, trapping the disk in place. From there, the complete assembly is inserted into the cage.

2.5” Drives (SSDs and HDDs)

Deepcool also cam up with an innovative design for the 2.5” cage. First, four rubber standoffs are screwed into the SSD (or 2.5” hard disk). You don’t need a screwdriver, as there is very little friction.

The SSD cage is at the bottom of the case, behind the PSU. It sports an interesting latch mechanism.

The latch allows you to clamp the SSD into place.

Slightly lift the lever if you want to remove the SSD again.

5.25” Bay: Optical Drive

In order to access the 5.25” bay, the front bezel has to be removed. While this may sound difficult, it isn’t. Just pull the bezel off. It grabs the sheet metal with four hooks.

The 5.25” bay is right underneath the top cover, and the optical drive interferes with the optional top fan. You have to choose between one or the other.

Alas, the optical drive cannot be mounted without a tool. use one screw on each side, at minimum, to secure the optical drive.

6. PSU Installation and Cabling

PSU Installation

While we're happy the folks at Deepcool were able to make inroads making their Steam Castle available in the U.S., it apparently hasn't done as well with power supplies. The DA500 sent over to our German office doesn't show up for sale. Fortunately, there are a lot of good alternatives in the 500 W range. Corsair's CX500 is one. SilverStone and Cooler Master also have strong offerings.

Nevertheless, the DA500 Tom's Hardware Germany received is manufactured at CWT and based on the GPA design. We loaded it up to a mere 300 W and at that wattage it ran quietly.

Only the motherboard cable is sleeved; the other leads are bare. You'd want to make judicious use of cable ties to achieve a visually appealing result. The PSU’s rated output is more than sufficient for this build, and there is even leeway for a more powerful graphics card.

The capacitors on this power supply's secondary side are made by CapXon, and are adequate by our standards. For a low-end PC like this one, you could even dip down into the 300-350 W range. But again, good 500 W units go for as little as $50 online.

One thing we don’t like about the Deepcool PSU is that it is way too large for its rated output. Then again, it served its purpose, fit inside the Steam Castle, and skates by as acceptable if you're in a country where it's available.

Cabling the PC was quick and easy. Short PSU cables can be an asset when the case is a compact one.

7. Installing the Graphics Card and Finishing Touches

Picking the right graphics card for a low-end PC can be tricky. Some inexpensive boards even work without an auxiliary power input. If your card of choice does need more than the PCIe slot's 75 W, they're going to be too short to run behind the motherboard. You need to run them up and over instead. If your card doesn't need that much power, run the leads from your PSU where they won't be seen using cable ties.

Mounting a graphics card is easy: loosen the slot bracket’s screw, remove one or two slot shields (depending on the width of your card), and then carefully insert the graphics card. Clamp it into place using the slot bracket. Finish by tightening the bracket's screw.

MSI's surprisingly long GeForce GTX 750 Ti Twin Frozr Gaming card demonstrates that longer high-end boards would bump into the obsolete and useless externally-facing 3.5” bay.

8. Overclocking Temperature and Sound

If you end up buying MSI's H97M-G43 and the download the BIOS from one of our links, CPU overclocking is completely straightforward. And remember that MSI has several other models that have seen beta firmware leaked (the $45 H81M-P33 used in The Pentium G3258 Cheap Overclocking Experiment, for example).

We picked a low-hanging goal of 4.4 GHz because none of our five test CPUs required an increased voltage to support it stably. At 4.5 GHz, the processor's power consumption increased noticeably since voltage had to go up (1.3 V or more was necessary). The small performance bump just didn't justify the extra time messing around in the UEFI and subsequently troubleshooting crashes.

Simply increase the processor's multiplier to 44, exit the setup screen, and save the changes. Don’t use MSI's OC Genie for this basic overclocking process.

If necessary (for instance, when you use faster graphics cards), enter a more aggressive fan curve in the BIOS. In case of the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, we didn’t need to do that.

Test Results: Stress Test

And now let’s put the pedal to the metal with 20 minutes of LinX. Prior to this test, we already tested the stability of the overclocked system with Aida64. Here is a look at the core temperatures:

Just one core hits 60 °C, and only barely. The average is well below that. Even at 4.7 GHz using a 1.325 V core voltage, we did not top 75 °C. This proves the mettle of closed-loop liquid cooling. Of course, most value-minded gamers aren't going to spend that much, which is why we revisited Pentium G3258 overclocking in the previously-linked experiment.

What about the core voltage at 4.4 GHz? We measured 1.2015 V at the socket, since the motherboard applies some voltage automatically. You don't need to increase this setting manually.

How much power does the overclocked system draw? Occasionally, the 4.4 GHz system reached 70 W, which is completely acceptable. Had we manually raised the CPU’s core voltage, the wattage would be much higher.

At 4.7 GHz, we saw power peaks in excess of 90 W. While power consumption rises dramatically, the system's performance doesn’t keep pace. We may publish a separate article on extreme overclocking of the Pentium G3258 at a later time, but that's not the focus today.

Test Results: Sound Level

We measured the sound level diagonally from the left side towards the upper-right corner of the case at a distance of 20” and an angle of 35 degrees. This simulates a system under the right side of the desk you're sitting at.

A mere 37.3 dB(A) after 20 minutes of full load is impressive, though the pump's rumble is somewhat annoying. You can experiment with throttling that component, or simply do without the expense of liquid cooling altogether. Just keep an eye on the CPU's temperature as you swap parts in and out, or alter settings associated with performance.

If you can live with 70 to 72 °C core temperature during a stress test, the sound level drops to a mere 33.5 dB(A). That's barely audible.

9. Picking Parts For Your Own Build

This project demonstrates several things. To begin, so long as you don’t buy too much graphics card (as in, a board that's far more powerful than the rest of the platform), an overclocked Pentium G3258 is a great value, even if it's never going to be a truly high-end processor. Cap your goal at a reasonable 4.4 GHz or so and you'll find that little effort needs to go into overclocking.

Once again, we want to emphasize that a reasonable balance between graphics card performance and the CPU should be sought.

MSI's H97M-G43 is a relatively inexpensive option for overclocking the Pentium if you don’t want to spend more money on a Z97-based board. Granted, the firmware that allows overclocking is an unofficial, leaked version, so going down this path is not without risks. And if you want to save even more money, there's always the B81-based MSI motherboard used previously in our Pentium overclocking experiment, which sells for a scant $45.

With that, the CPU, motherboard, and graphics card are a great match. Anything else?

It's certainly not going to appeal to everyone, but Deepcool's Steam Castle is at least something different. Whether you plan to mod it or not, functionality-wise, this is a good case. It sports plenty of nifty details, and we enjoyed building with it. Conversely, the externally-facing 3.5" drive bay is unnecessary and would prefer the audio jacks to be marked. We also found that the front fan slightly rumbles at low RPMs.

We wish we could say it was possible to build an identical copy of this system. However, some of the components that are readily available oversees haven't shown up yet in the U.S. Still, the ideas we're presented translate over. In every country, Nvidia's GeForce GTX 750 Ti is an efficient little card that's plenty fast, even if you're forced to pay a premium for its compact dimensions and Maxwell architecture. Intel's Pentium G3258 makes for an idea complement. And going any faster on the graphics side with such a mainstream platform just wouldn't make sense. Keep balance in mind as you build.

Deepcool's Steam Castle is a visually interesting case that offers some interesting features. You can't get the Maelstrom 120 here, though even if you could, we're not convinced you'd want to spend big on closed-loop liquid cooling for a $70 CPU anyway. Our already-published experiments show you can hit 4.4 GHz using Intel's bundled cooler with a bit of luck.

Regardless of which way you go with your own components, there's lot of fun to be had building your own entry-level PC. It doesn't always have to be all about high-end hardware.