System Builder Marathon, February 2009: The Articles
Here are links to each of the four articles in this month’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published).
- Day 1: The $625 Gaming PC
- Day 2: The $1,250 Mid-Range PC
- Day 3: The $5,000 Enthusiast PC
- Day 4: Performance and Value Dissected
Introduction
Last month we explored the benefits of a more expensive CPU, so it should come as no surprise to the readers who weighed in with their thoughts in the comments section that this month we were determined to add more graphics power to the mix. With the same $625 hardware budget, we had to make sacrifices in pursuit of our goal of building a more capable gaming machine without hampering its performance during our applications and encoding tests. With that said, let’s take a look at the components selected for the task.
For an additional $20 we could have fit a CrossFire'd Radeon HD 4830 setup into this month’s system, but instead stayed within budget and went with the least expensive Radeon HD 4870. This Sapphire came with Molex power adapters and we wanted a name brand power supply with dual six-pin PCI Express (PCIe) power cables and at least 32 A of current available on the 12 V rail(s). This requirement put us in the $70 range (not including rebates), forcing us to put less money into our enclosure. For the CPU, we dropped back down to the Pentium E5200 that showed it could keep up with the more expensive E7300 once both were overclocked. In selecting a CPU cooler, the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro had a price increase from $19 to $36, removing it as an option for both budget and value reasons alike.
| $625 Gaming PC System Components | ||
|---|---|---|
| Component | Model | Price (USD) |
| CPU | Intel Pentium E5200 2.5 GHz | $83 |
| CPU Cooler | Xigmatek HDT-S963 | $25 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L | $100 |
| RAM | G.Skill HK 4 GB DDR2-800 (PC2 6400) | $45 |
| Graphics | Sapphire 100259L Radeon HD 4870 512 MB | $200 |
| Hard Drives | Samsung SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500 GB | $55 |
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio | 0 |
| Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking | 0 |
| Case | Rosewill R222-P-BK | $22 |
| Power | PC Power&Cooling Silencer PPCS500 500W | $70 |
| Optical | LITE-ON 20X DVD±R SATA Model iHAS120-04 | $24 |
| Total Price: | $624 | |
Again, it’s important to stress that prices are almost guaranteed to change for these components and the ones above reflect what we paid based on the availability at that time. This is especially true this month, as significant pricing drops have already now lowered the graphics card, CPU, and motherboard cost by $25, which would impact our component selection if we were making our purchase today. For one, we could easily have now gone with the same Antec Three Hundred case used in the past two months. The Radeon HD 4830 is also now priced at $100 before rebates, and with a change to an Asrock P45 CrossFire-ready motherboard, we could fit dual HD 4830s into the budget and have room left over to better the system’s cooling. C'est la vie, though.
- Higher FPS
- CPU And Cooler
- Motherboard And Memory
- Graphics Card And Hard Drive
- Case, Power Supply, And Optical Drive
- Assembly And Overclocking
- Test System Configuration And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Crysis And Unreal Tournament 3
- Benchmark Results: World In Conflict And Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
- Benchmark Results: Audio/Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- Power Consumption
- Conclusion

*THUMBS UP*
It would have been awesome to see a system based on the Phenom II X3 "700 Series" at this price point....especially paired w/ the ATI 4830 or 4850. Dont'cha think a 4870 is a tad much for a "$625 system?" - you would have had a "Dragon Platform" - very doable at your price range. You wouldn't have had to do DDR3 either - DDR2 would have worked quite nicely.
International competition is in edits--almost ready to go live! Interesting results there, too.
That Rosewill case (and all their cheap ones like it) will take a front mounted 120mm fan. You had $6 left over, so it would have fit in your budget.
I hate being picky...but...
The links aren't imbedded in those 4 article designations at the top of the article, as of the writing of this note.
Sorry
Because they haven't been published yet ;-)
Couldn't edit my comment; trying again...
...so really a sub-$500 build). I was going to go AMD, but discovered that an Intel 5200 is actually going to be cheaper, unless I give up a lot of performance. So, Caamsa, I expect the SBM articles will continue to use Intel chips at this price point.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2060350368%204027&bop=And&Order=PRICE
Just cut $100 off for the OS, or go with Ubuntu.
1. Don't buy a crappy case. A good case can be used over and over again. You'll upgrade the cpu, gpu, mobo, etc...but you can keep using a case. There's plenty of great $50 cases (Centurion CAC5, Antec 300, etc). Pony up another $25, and get a solid case.
2. The same applies to the powersupply (Tom's picked a good one).