System Builder Marathon, December 2010: $500 PC

By Paul Henningsen
published

Case, Power Supply, And Optical Drive

Case: Antec NSK 4482B Black

Antec’s gaming enclosures, such as the popular Three Hundred, have frequented many of our System Builder Marathon builds. A couple of years have passed, however, since we’ve chosen a member of the “Solution” series.

Read Customer Reviews of Antec's NSK 4482B Black Chassis

Offering subtle styling and a single tri-cool 120 mm exhaust fan, the NSK 4482 is better suited for general home/office computing, rather than an enthusiast level build. What made the case particularly attractive for our $500 gaming PC is the included 80 PLUS Bronze-certified EarthWatts 380D Green power supply.

Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 380D Green

Quiet and efficient, the EarthWatts 380D Green offers the kind of value and reliability we seek from a PSU. A single six-pin PCIe power connector means we have to use a Molex adapter for today’s build. But a maximum combined +12 V rating of 28 A should be plenty for powering our GeForce GTX 460 graphics card.

Optical Drive: Lite-On 24x DVD Burner SATA iHAS 124-04

Read Customer Reviews of Lite-On's iHAS 124-04

At this budget, we're looking to spend as little as possible on a reliable SATA DVD burner, and chose a 24x OEM Lite-On to fill the system’s optical needs.

Paul Henningsen
111 Comments Comment from the forums
  • LuckyDucky7
    And this is really the only PC build that will stay relevant come January- it will remain the only budget platform that can be overclocked, after all.

    Incidentally, this would be the only PC you'd want to contemplate building right now (since the new Core i3s don't come out immediately like the i5s and i7s do- and the Pentium G8XX series doesn't allow overclocking of its platform.)
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    Ah, much better than the previous build!
    Reply
  • Proximon
    Great job squeezing everything into a very small budget.
    Reply
  • adbat
    Good build - but again it would be good to see old spec on test system page.
    Reply
  • rohitbaran
    That is a great combination for that budget. Balanced.
    Reply
  • yyk71200
    I wouldn't be very comfortable using a 380 watt PSU for a long time for GTX 460 even if it is good quality. Perhaps, I would put in something of 450 watt or higher.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    LuckyDucky7And this is really the only PC build that will stay relevant come January- it will remain the only budget platform that can be overclocked, after all.Incidentally, this would be the only PC you'd want to contemplate building right now (since the new Core i3s don't come out immediately like the i5s and i7s do- and the Pentium G8XX series doesn't allow overclocking of its platform.)So you think there's going to be a replacement platform for the $2000 PC in January? That's not going to happen for a while. Or are you suggesting the next $2000 PC should be downgraded to P67?
    Reply
  • dragoon190
    I haven't been keeping up with the system marathon much, but what's the reasoning for choosing nVidia card over AMD's? Just wondering since I'm thinking about upgrading my computer soon.
    Reply
  • jj463rd
    A really nice build this time.However the price of the case and power supply has gone up in price over at newegg.I haven't checked the prices of the other components though.This build seems to perform quite well especially in the gaming benchmarks.Good job!
    Reply
  • tstng
    I would've gone with a 6850 instead of the 460. It's a tad cheaper, not at all slower if you don't start cranckin' up the tesselation, and should fit the 380W psu a lot better. But a solid build by all means.
    Reply