
Case: Rosewill Blackbone ATX Mid-Tower
Although it looks like we splurged and spent an extra $10 this quarter to get Rosewill’s Blackbone, the reality is that every one of the $30 ATX cases that we wanted was more than $40 with shipping added. Priced at $42, shipped, the Blackbone gave us two pre-installed 120 mm cooling fans, four front-mounted USB 2.0 ports, and plenty of room to house our components and route our wiring.
Read Customer Reviews of Rosewill's Blackbone Mid-Tower Case
Power Supply: Antec VP-450 450 W
Despite the fact that AMD says you need a 500 W power supply for its Radeon HD 7850, it only exposes one six-pin lead, and our fully-loaded system is going to sip power otherwise.
With a combined +12V rating of 30 A, the affordable Antec VP-450 could yet again cover our power needs, with reserve. A quiet 120 mm fan, protection circuitry, and Antec’s two-year warranty add additional peace of mind.
Read Customer Reviews of Antec's VP-450 450 W Power Supply
Optical Drive: LG 24x GH24NS90-OEM DVDN Burner
Given our budget, we look to spend as little as possible on a reliable SATA-based DVD burner. This time around, LG’s 24x GH24NS90 is just what we need to satisfy our optical needs.
- Squeezing More Bang From The Same Buck
- CPU And Cooler
- Motherboard And Memory
- Graphics Card And Hard Drive
- Case, Power Supply, And Optical Drive
- Assembling Our Budget-Oriented Box
- Limited Overclocking Strikes Again
- Test System Configuration And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3
- Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Benchmark Results: F1 2012
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power Consumption And Temperatures
- Is This Our Best $500 Gamer Ever?




Exactly. Couldn't've said it better.
Linux for a gaming desktop I dont think so.
What about the Phenom II 965? It's only $75 at TigerDirect.
I think they'd be better off with a B75 motherboard, 4GB RAM and an i3-3220.
Exactly. Couldn't've said it better.
It's too expensive.
This was a hardware test. You're OS complaints are irrelevant and there's no practical difference between Home and Pro versions when it comes to simple performance tests. such as these.
Several Linux distros works pretty well with most modern popular games, just FYI. Also, getting Windows for free legally is easy if you care to do it. Dreamspark has many free versions available to college students and most people know at least one, even if by proxy. Even in the unlikelihood of not knowing any, there's still the eval copies that MS gives away for free on their own website.
I disagree. The current drivers for Windows 8 are pretty much on-par with the Windows 7 drivers. Heck, they're better than AMD's pre-Catalyst 12.6 drivers.
Meh, I would've preferred seeing at least an A8-5600K with a cheaper motherboard and memory kit or keep the same memory kit and get a cheaper case. It could have fit, IDK why Tom's didn't do it. Maybe there weren't good prices on other components at the time
Windows home still costs $100 which is still some how not part of the budget.