System Builder Marathon, March 2012: $650 Gaming PC

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By Paul Henningsen
published

Case, Power Supply, And Optical Drive

Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower

All of the cases we've used in the past now cost $40 or more. Of the options in our budget, I liked this Rosewill microATX mini tower the best.

Our processor has a locked multiplier, so we knew we probably wouldn't need extra interior volume or more elaborate cooling. We knew all of our components would fit, too. So, the only concern left was whether the included 80 mm exhaust fan made a lot of noise. Unlike other $30 cases, this one also includes a front-mounted 120 mm intake fan.

Read Customer Reviews of Rosewill's FBM-01 Chassis

Power Supply: Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630 W

Despite a beefier Radeon HD 6950 graphics card, we had no doubt that this system would still sip power. Since XFX did'd give us a 12 V power adapter, we decided to focus only power supplies with at least two six-pin connectors.

Rosewill’s Green Series 630 W unit gives us a six-pin and a 6+2-pin lead, one 50 A, +12 V rail, and an 80 PLUS certification. The Green Series 530 W version is now $10 cheaper. That unit sports a single 41 A, +12 V rail and the same PCI Express power leads, making it another (more affordable) option for this build.

Read Customer Reviews of Rosewill's RG630-S12 630 W PSU

Optical Drive: LG GH22NS90B-OEM
22x DVD Burner

Given our budget, we're always looking to spend as little as possible on a reliable SATA DVD burner. This time, we found a well-rated 22x unit from LG for just $16.

Read Customer Reviews of LG's GH22NS90B-OEM

Paul Henningsen
87 Comments Comment from the forums
  • yukijin
    so now that all the 6950's are deactivated or $289+, is this build invalid? because a 7850 is looking really good right now...
    Reply
  • tristan_b
    What yukijin said.
    Reply
  • whysobluepandabear
    I appreciate what they're doing, but at some points, I can't help but feel like a cheap bitch.

    Making decisions overly measly amounts of money ($10) is just dumb. Work an extra day and just get the hardware you want. Or, don't go to the movies or out to eat for a few weeks.

    To me, there's a certain area, at which being cheap, just rips you off - you'd be better off spending a little more, and getting a much better item.
    Reply
  • How do I win this????
    Reply
  • mortsmi7
    Let me get this straight... you raised the budget $150 "as a result of steep price hikes on mechanical storage", then only spent $85 on a HDD. You really just wanted a more expensive graphics card. You could have taken the $70 processor savings and the $65 under-budget HDD savings and nearly have had a $500 build.
    Reply
  • de5_Roy
    very good read.
    nice to see where core i3's limits lie.
    i wonder if you guys will consider amd's new fx 6200 or fx 8120 for the $1200 build, with 78xx series in cfx.
    Reply
  • serhat359
    if I had $600 for a PC, I would go with i3-21xx, 6870, a better mobo and a better case.
    it is probably the best thing to do
    Reply
  • SpadeM
    whysobluepandabearI appreciate what they're doing, but at some points, I can't help but feel like a cheap bitch. Making decisions overly measly amounts of money ($10) is just dumb. Work an extra day and just get the hardware you want. Or, don't go to the movies or out to eat for a few weeks. To me, there's a certain area, at which being cheap, just rips you off - you'd be better off spending a little more, and getting a much better item.It's not an issues of whether they had the money or not, it's a matter of principle, you set your budget and goals at a certain point and then you make choices. Sure, not everyone will be happy with what they chose but that's what forums are for.

    Anyways, anything a bit over 60fps (on a 60hz monitor) really isn't that bad, i mean you might lack the bragging rights but at the end of the day, it's about gaming and feeling satisfied that you shot enough monsters. To further empathize that having 70 fps constant is not total shit because another GPU can serve you 130 (as if you're going to notice without watching the fps counter) my one suggestion for this SBM would be to introduce a different style of graphs. Below 30fps all the colors of the bars to be grey and over 60 the same thing. This to focus the attention on most relevant (to my opinion) segment. I've seen a lot of ppl chase those fps numbers, buying expensive GPUs only to have them sit in a bad enclosure, sub par motherboard or weak CPU.
    Even in gaming, i believe balance is key.
    Reply
  • confish21
    Great Job! These builds keep me at Tomshardware!

    Only thing 1 thing, you said an I3 was used instead of an I5 on this page...
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-gaming-pc-overclock,3159-8.html
    You can check the 600 dec build here...
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i5-overclock-performance-gaming,3097.html
    Pretty sure an I5-2400 was used.
    Reply
  • jerreddredd
    I'm glad they used a i3 2120 for the CPU, but I wish they would have used some of the newer cards like the HD 7950 or the GTX 560 Ti 448. these are roughly the same price. Spending and extra $20 on a PSU was a waste. the EA430D and 380W are the core of the budget build. I would like to see some testing of a few of the less expensive PSU ($50 or less) to see which are junk and which aren't bad.
    Reply