System Builder Marathon, Sept. '09: $650 Gaming PC

Features
By Paul Henningsen
published

Graphics Cards And Hard Drive

Graphics Cards: 2 x Sapphire 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB

These Sapphire boards were the least expensive Radeon HD 4850s available, and the pair was $5 cheaper than any single Radeon HD 4890. Together, they offer an amazing amount of graphics power for under $200.

Read Customer Reviews of Sapphire's Radeon HD 4850 512MB

At first glance, these may appear to be the same Sapphire 100245L used in past SBMs, but closer inspection reveals these have one DVI, one D-sub, and one HDMI output, as well as a welcome variable speed four-wire fan.   

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB

Read Customer Reviews of Western Digital's Caviar Blue 500GB

While we keep hoping to fit a 640GB Western Digital Caviar Black hard drive into one of our budget gaming machines, at purchase time, the extra $18 was too much to squeeze into this build while still retaining all other desired components. The $57 Caviar Blue 500GB spins at 7,200 RPM, has a 16MB cache, and is backed by a three-year manufacturer’s warranty.

Paul Henningsen
94 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dirtmountain
    A nicely done build, great work with overclocking on a stock cooler and an impeccable write up. Thanks for the great article Mr. Henningsen. AMD did a good job for a budget build, especially at stock clocks.
    Reply
  • one-shot
    Great article! It's crazy to see all of that packed into a case for only ~$650.
    Reply
  • I usually love reading these, but this time I just went directly to the comment section. There's no point in building or owning an amd box, they are too weak compared to modern Intel/Nvidia based systems.
    Reply
  • anamaniac
    Wonderful. =D

    What about the new $100 quad core athlon with no L3?
    I know I like extra cores. Wonderful choice regardless.

    I wonder what the quad core athlon with a 512MB 5850 (which would increase the budget though) will be like. Both cheap yet highend parts. =D

    Nice to see what only a pocketful of cash can get you.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    i know it wasn't available at the time but what about that 100 dollar quad core the athlon II x4?
    Reply
  • rdawise
    Good article. I know you stated you were leaving the "unlocking" of the other cores to the winner of the contest, but were you guys able to unlock? If so, could you re-run those benchmarks? Again great article.
    Reply
  • stray_gator
    While "forcing" all AMD builds for a single marathon is a good idea, the timing is somewhat unfortunate.
    An article which explores the performance and value of a complete Lynnfield build is something I (and many others, i'd dare to guess) would like to see but haven't yet, and this month's SBM is a missed opportunity in that regard.
    Reply
  • jj463rd
    That's a bitchin budget gamer system especially looking at the gaming benchmarks.Just this month I was thinking about building a similar type of system with the Phenom II X2 550BE.I was going to go with gigabytes 785G type board (just one graphics card slot) though however I may reconsider that especially with what you presented here although I was shooting for a much cheaper budget build (about $180 less than what you have),Newegg did have a gigabyte 785G board with the Phenom II X2 and $20 off in a combo deal until the end of this month.
    I think that your choices were better than mine (more powerful).
    Reply
  • gkay09
    Another alternate mobo - 785G ...they are availbale in AM3/AM2+ flavours and have SB 710, which can allow core unlocking -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394
    But not sure about their o/c potential though...
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    Nice to see a cheap system still using a quality motherboard.
    Reply