System Builder Marathon: Sub-$1000 PC

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Power Supply: Silverstone ST400

With so many mediocre power supplies on the market, most users don’t know how much power they actually need. We’re certain there will be a lot of discussion about the adequacy of a 400 W unit, but our own testing has shown that even our high-end quad-SLI $4000 build needed less than 600 W peak power.

Knowing that we wouldn’t need more than 400 watts, we looked for a quality part that could truly meet its rated capacity while providing the vast majority of that power over the 12V rails. The Silverstone ST400 suits this purpose perfectly.

Providing up to 18 amps on each 12 V rail but only 348 watts combined 12 V power, the ST400 is strong enough to power all our components even in an overclocked state. Given that most of our power will be going to graphics cards, we’re not so sure that there’s enough power left for any large upgrades, but at least we know Silverstone’s quality will keep this system running in its current hardware configuration for a very long time.

Knowing that some users would be powering a quad-core processor along with many drives and accessories at once, Silverstone didn’t include a second PCI-Express connector for use with “big” cards or SLI. Fortunately, Gigabyte includes 4-pin to PCI-Express power adapters with each 8800 GT graphics card, and our lack of extra drives and accessories left us plenty of connectors and capacity to use one of Gigabyte’s power adapters.

Case Cooling: OKGEAR D12SL-12

Our chosen case included a single intake and single exhaust fan, and the two were perfectly capable of keeping internal temperatures tolerable. So why add fans to such a low-heat system? For overclocking, of course!

Rated at 47 CFM and 28 decibels per fan, the OKGEAR D12SL-12 120mm fans are the best low-cost fans we could find. These are produced by famed high-value fan manufacturer Yate Loon and sell for only $4.50 each.

Our Cooler Master Centurion 590 case supports two additional intake fans on the side and two exhaust fans on top, but we bought only two fans total. These will be attached to the side panel over the CPU cooler and graphics card, since the placement is perfect for cooling these components, turning the top fan mounts into passive outlets for the positive pressure created.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
70 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Haiku214
    I'm glad to know that you don't really need a huge amount of wattage to run the 8800 gt sli. How about for the ati 4850 crossfireX? Is 460 watts with a combined 42 amps for the 12V rail be enough?
    Reply
  • hellwig
    Seeing the new prices for components, couldn't you have stayed with the AMD theme, just to satisfy reader curiosity. I.e. 2x3870 in crossfire (or 3870x2) = $300, AMD 790X/FX MB = $125, Phenom 9850 Black Ed = $235 (or 6400+ X2 Black Ed = $160, making room for 2x4850), Plus all cheaper components from current build. You would have still been under the $1000 mark, and the dual 3870/4850 would have given much closer results in the games category, and the unlocked multiplier would have given AMD a little more benefit in the overclocking category compared to the locked 9500 used previously. This would have been more interesting especially since your $2000 PC was really a $1400 PC (the only difference between $1000 and $2000 now being GTS vs. GT and quad vs. dual).
    Reply
  • randomizer
    The first Crysis graph looks more like Very High, not High. I get around 32FPS with a single 9600GT on high at 1440x900.
    Reply
  • cjl
    Considering that those GT's ran you $188 each, even counting a $30 rebate, that should have left 4850's well within your grasp, and they would have significantly outperformed the GT's. In fact, they probably would have outperformed your
    Reply
  • cjl
    Hmm. Looks like it took my less than sign as HTML tagging. That should have said "outperformed your less than $2000 system"
    Reply
  • yonef
    Same problem in here (like in $2000 system build)!
    Tom's realy starts to annoying me:
    First of all: Why the hell you need crapy 8800GT??! while for the same prize you can buy HD4850s http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121253 -> 2xHD4850=$330 < 2x8800GT=$386 !!!
    Second of all: 2xHD4850 will easy outperform 2x8800GT even in crysis :D(wich is exclusively for nvidia)
    Third, but not least: How the hell whole system with 2X8800GT will run on 400W PS ?!!? I'm so convinced;
    Reply
  • str8ballistik
    This is really dumb. I love how they add up only a tower. you have to add in the monitor, speakers, mouse/keyboard, etc.. That is what a computer is, not a tower. You get peoples hopes up to buy a computer, then they realize, oh yeah, I have to buy this other stuff to actually be able to use the tower. Come on, be more realistic. I would love to see a mid-rang computer, while seeing what size monitor you can get with it.
    Reply
  • randomizer
    yonefWhy the hell you need crapy 8800GT??!It's funny how a suddenly card becomes worse when another card is released better than it, even funnier when a few weeks ago this was THE card to buy. Did you stop to consider when this article was written? Perhaps the card wasn't available when they wrote this, and in order to get the article out on time they had to go with "crappy" cards.
    Reply
  • mf_fm
    AMD + ATi FTW $1000 system
    Reply
  • giovanni86
    If u don't already own a monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers n your reading this thread you are a retard. Like seriously why would you not own those things already. Personally i like these articles they make, it puts together a PC built tower for you already kind of knowing what u could get at such a great price point. And 2ndly in my opinion ATI has nothing on NVIDIA, although ppl claim it to be better and cheaper then NVIDIA's line up i beg the differ. And 3rdly i can't believe that a sli system as well could run off a 400watt PSU.
    Reply