Making Every Dollar Count
System Builder Marathon, October 2008 : 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 $4,500 Super PC
- Day 2 : The $1,500 Mainstream PC
- Day 3 : The $500 Gaming PC
- Day 4 : Performance And Value, Dissected
How little money can you spend and still build a machine able to serve up decent performance in a wide range of applications and games ? In this System Builder Marathon, we aim to see if it can be done for less than $500.
With such a limited budget for the entry-level system, it seemed obvious that the components would need to take overclocking into consideration in order to truly put up impressive performance results.
Our choice of hardware may not satisfy everyone, nor will they necessarily offer the best performance out of the box, but we are confident that once overclocked, this system will squeeze a serious amount of performance and value out of each and every dollar spent. Let’s take a look at the pieces we picked for this month’s entry-level system.
Component | Model | Price (U.S.D.) |
---|---|---|
CPU | Intel Pentium E2180 | 70 |
CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper TX2 | 30 |
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3L | 85 |
RAM | Wintec AMPO PC2-6400 2x1GB | 35 |
Graphics | PNY VCG88512GXEB-FLB GeForce 8800 GT 512MB | 110 |
Hard Drives | Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3400620AS 400GB | 65 |
Sound | Integrated 8-Channel HD Audio | 0 |
Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking | 0 |
Case | Antec NSK4480B | 80 |
Power | Earthwatts 380W Included w/Case | 0 |
Optical | Lite-On 20X DVD±R SATA Model iHAS120-04 | 24 |
Total Price | $499 |