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.
- Building a Budget Intel-Based MicroATX Gaming Cube
- Deepcool Steam Castle
- MSI H97M-G43 and Intel Pentium G3258
- Deepcool Maelstrom 120: Closed-Loop Liquid Cooling
- Storage Installation
- PSU Installation and Cabling
- Installing the Graphics Card and Finishing Touches
- Overclocking Temperature and Sound
- Picking Parts For Your Own Build





I would get a X4 760K with a better GPU instead of a G3258 with a more expensive motherboard...
Yeah a I5 would totally be better, but as for gaming, it would not push a 750 TI much more than a G3258 would. But you are right to think that a water cooling is not a good idea budget-wise
AIO $ 80, ODD $16 , RAM 8GB (2x4GB) $73
Most of these budget build makes no sense when there is no strict budget cap. Next time when there is another budget build and there is something that just got to have it, but cost like $100 more, let's up the price cap and still call it a budget build!
exactly my first thoughts. I'd go with a Fractal Design Core 1000, an EKL Alpenfohn Sella, and just get a MX100 256GB instead of the HDD. If you really need more space, you can always get a big HDD later, or just buy an external USB 3.0 one, or use an NAS or cloud. Also a good 300W PSU should be more than enough for this system, even if you overclock to 4.5 GHz.
exactly my first thoughts. I'd go with a Fractal Design Core 1000, an EKL Alpenfohn Sella, and just get a MX100 256GB instead of the HDD. If you really need more space, you can always get a big HDD later, or just buy an external USB 3.0 one, or use an NAS or cloud. Also a good 300W PSU should be more than enough for this system, even if you overclock to 4.5 GHz.
Yeah, but in a budget build I would use a HDD only. Games these days are about 20-40gigs. That's a lot. SSD's will only increase the loading times, nothing else, no graphical improvements. I would just go with a WB black and spend the saved money on a better CPU/GPU.
And a 400-500W PSU would be the better way, since good 300W PSU's are hard to find everywhere. Plus if the graphics card gets pumped up, the power will too. The Seasonic S520II is the best budget PSU right now.
G3258 $79
MSI Z87M GAMING motherboard $179
Kingston hyper x fury black $99
western digital caviar blue $69
2nd hand 500W psu $15
2nd hand GTX 660 $140
3 coolermaster sickleflow x green fans x3 $12 ($36)
1 bitfenix spectre pro 200mm green $27
gigabyte k7 force keyboard $59
razer naga hex green $79
and a generic cd rom $19
this is a nice looking budget build and performs really well
and if you where to buy a new GTX 660 it would be $199
and a new 500 w psu it would be $49 so it would be $895
and the G3250 can be overclocked to 4.5 on the stock cooler for me.
I play watchdogs a lot high textures and ultra graphics setting and I get between 25-50 fps average is around 40fps
this is a high performance budget build and stays really cool