• Review

System Builder Marathon, Q1 2013: $600 Gaming PC

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179 Comments

Case, Power Supply, And Optical Drive

Case: Xigmatek Asgard II B/B CPC-T45UC-U01 ATX Mid Tower

Off we went in search of an affordable mid-tower case with at least one 120 mm exhaust fan. If what we found looks somewhat familiar, that's because we've used Xigmatek's Asgard II on three prior occasions.

This case employs 0.8 mm SECC steel construction with an aluminum front bezel, along with the black painted interior that many builders favor nowadays. A single 120 mm PWM-controlled exhaust fan comes installed, and you're afforded room for up to three additional coolers.

Read Customer Reviews of Xigmatek's Asgard II CPC-T45UC-U01 Case


Xigmatek addresses varying personal tastes by selling this chassis with three different bezel highlight colors. This is the second time we’ve chosen the all-black version. However, we've also used the silver and orange models in Marathons past.

Power Supply: Antec Neo Eco 400C 400 W

Read Customer Reviews of Antec's Neo Eco 400C 400 W


Although AMD recommends a 500 W power supply with its Radeon HD 7850, the card only comes equipped with a single six-pin power lead. Moreover, at idle, we expect this combination of parts to sip power.

One 30 A +12 V rail is plenty; Antec's Neo Eco 400C (rated at 400 W) easily covers this system's requirements with reserve to spare. Features include 80 PLUS certification, active PFC circuitry, a quiet 120 mm fan, and Antec’s three-year warranty.

Optical Drive: Samsung DVD Burner 24x SATA Model SH-224BB/RSBS

Read Customer Reviews of Samsung's SH-224BB/RSBS 24x DVD Burner


More and more of you let us know in the comments section that you no longer require an optical drive. But we're not inclined to ditch our desktop’s burner just yet. Priced at a paltry $16 for a 24x SATA-based writer, that's affordable enough to cover those occasions when an optical drive does prove useful.

Previous Next
Summary
  1. Gunning For Gold At $600
  2. CPU And Cooler
  3. Motherboard And Memory
  4. Graphics Card And Hard Drive
  5. Case, Power Supply, And Optical Drive
  6. Assembling Our Budget-Oriented Box
  7. Overclocking
  8. Test System Configuration And Benchmarks
  9. Results: Synthetics
  10. Results: Battlefield 3 And The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  11. Results: F1 2012 And Far Cry 3
  12. Results: Audio And Video
  13. Results: Adobe Creative Suite
  14. Results: Productivity
  15. Results: Compression
  16. Power Consumption And Temperatures
  17. Gaming Performance Summary
  18. Did We Accomplish Our Mission?
About the author
Paul Henningsen
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179 comments
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  • Proximon
    Sounds about right. Not quite the sweet spot for a budget rig, but then we don't get too many requests for $600 firm. A higher clocked i3 would have been the way to go.
  • esrever
    I think you can fit the 7870 LE in there if you choose a cheaper mobo and went with an i3 or an AMD build.
  • EzioAs
    As usual, love the system builder article.

    This $600 build seems nice. Personally, I would drop the optical drive, replace the Z75 board with a cheaper H77 motherboard, get a cheap 8GB (2x4GB) memory kit and a 2GB version of the Radeon HD7850. I think it's possible that it'll be between $600-610.

    That's just what I would change. This build is still nice to be honest. :)
  • itzsnypah
    Why isn't noise a benchmark? Every build you showcase you ignore acoustics. A very noisy build should affect it's overall performance negatively, while a quiet one should affect it positively. Noise is a very important factor in Case Reviews so why isn't it a factor here?
  • ARICH5
    noise isnt a factor in a gaming rig...thats for htcp stuff
  • g-unit1111
    55656 said:
    Sounds about right. Not quite the sweet spot for a budget rig, but then we don't get too many requests for $600 firm. A higher clocked i3 would have been the way to go.


    That 3350P is a pretty nice CPU though. It performs at near FX-8320 levels while consuming 1/2 the power. I'd definitely use it in a low budget rig over anything else.
  • ARICH5
    i question the longevity of a 400w psu in a build like this though
  • slomo4sho
    The CPU budget is higher than the GPU budget for this gaming machine? I understand the desire for a 4 core processor but you could definitely have a better gaming rig by investing more in the GPU and trimming the CPU budget.
  • slomo4sho
    arich5i question the longevity of a 400w psu in a build like this though

    ~54%(216W) capacity when under CPU + GPU load. There shouldn't be any concern with the PSU failing under these loads.
  • lunyone
    It would have been interesting with a 7870 GPU, like below:

    / /

    CPU: ($123.79 @ Amazon)
    Motherboard: ($76.99 @ Amazon)
    Memory: ($29.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: ($49.99 @ Newegg)
    Video Card: ($209.99 @ Newegg)
    Case: ($25.98 @ Newegg)
    Power Supply: ($29.99 @ Newegg)
    Optical Drive: ($17.99 @ Newegg)
    Total: $564.71
    (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
    (Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-26 02:52 EST-0500)

    But the 3350P makes things interesting when an app can benefit from more cores! I had to get a better PSU to fit the 7870 into the budget. There is also $50 in MIR's equated into the final price, so the actual price paid would be $614 out the door. I'm not sure the i3 would have been a better overall CPU, but it would have made things interesting in the gaming department :)
  • lunyone
    Links didn't work above, so I'll put out the Plain Text version, so you can see the parts details.

    PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/G55N
    Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/G55N/by_merchant/
    Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/G55N/benchmarks/

    CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($123.79 @ Amazon)
    Motherboard: ASRock Z75 Pro3 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($76.99 @ Amazon)
    Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($29.99 @ Newegg)
    Storage: Toshiba 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($49.99 @ Newegg)
    Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($209.99 @ Newegg)
    Case: Zalman Z5 ATX Mid Tower Case ($25.98 @ Newegg)
    Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)
    Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($17.99 @ Newegg)
    Total: $564.71
    (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
    (Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-26 02:56 EST-0500)
  • de5_Roy
    Nice. :)
    going with a core i3 and 7870xt woulda allowed for better gpu-bound gaming experience, but imo a core i5 will likely offer better online multiplayer gaming experience than dual cores and amd counterparts.
    core i5's overclocked power consumption looks impressive, nearly same as sb pentium's with prime 95... i guess.
  • shikamaru31789
    It seems to me that the GPU was more of a bottleneck than the CPU in this build. I'd go with a cheaper H77 mobo, an i3, and a 7870 LE. I think you would have got more impressive numbers in games.
  • stickmansam
    Why is Canada not included in the draw? I want my rights you hear me! QQ

    AFAIK there are no restrictions to contest stuff in Canada
  • vitornob
    arich5i question the longevity of a 400w psu in a build like this though

    Do not question. Falcon northwest (a reliable company) builds the Tiki PC with a 450w psu.
    Uses an OC i7 3770k with the new GTX Titan.
  • abbadon_34
    No really surprise here, an i5 beats a Pentium, all other parts the same, an extra $100. I'd say keep the optical drive, if anything replace it with a Blu-Ray burner. If anything do a series of cpu/mobo/ram only, these are the true "system" upgrades, and show the true difference in AMD/Intel builds. Just as the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and OS are excluded (even though they are essential, the same OS & apps are used in each one) the case, psu, and hard drives either would be reused or be similar enough to be irrelevent or simply cover up the real differences. A $200, $400, $600 cpu/mobo/ram would be perfect.
  • MrPintar14
    55656 said:
    Sounds about right. Not quite the sweet spot for a budget rig, but then we don't get too many requests for $600 firm. A higher clocked i3 would have been the way to go.


    Yeah it didn't make sense to me that they jumped from a Pentium to an i5 and kept the same graphics card. I would've gone with an i3 and got at least a 7850 (maybe I'm biased because that's what I have in my PC)
  • excella1221
    I would've done something like this for a gaming PC.
    If it *must* strictly be <=$600, then at least a 2gb 7850 or a GTX660.

    PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/G6db
    Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/G6db/by_merchant/
    Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/G6db/benchmarks/

    CPU: Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz Dual-Core Processor ($122.98 @ SuperBiiz)
    Motherboard: ASRock H77M Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
    Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.98 @ Amazon)
    Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.73 @ Compuvest)
    Video Card: HIS Radeon HD 7870 2GB Video Card ($219.99 @ Amazon)
    Case: NZXT Source 210 (White) ATX Mid Tower Case ($29.99 @ Newegg)
    Power Supply: Antec 450W ATX12V Power Supply ($38.24 @ Amazon)
    Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($18.98 @ Outlet PC)
    Total: $607.88
    (Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
    (Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-26 07:17 EST-0500)
  • phate1337
    nice work again guys!
  • Onus
    While not really groundbreaking in any way, this was a good build. It should make a nice baseline; as a general purpose / family PC, it's what a LOT of people "ought to build," perhaps with minor tweaks.

    Btw, it is my understanding that these builds are sponsored by Newegg. This makes any pricing from any other store, no matter how nice, irrelevant in discussion of the build. Alternate vendors may be great suggestions in the forums, but not here.
  • pauldh
    esreverI think you can fit the 7870 LE in there if you choose a cheaper mobo and went with an i3 or an AMD build.

    Yes, B75, i3, and 7870 LE should just about fit in budget now, and would get my vote for a pure gaming rig. But unlike the last 4 budget gaming PCs, this was not at all meant to be a pure gaming rig, rather a pure SBM rig, built with a goal to put up the most overall bang in a test suite that is only 30% games. Given $100 more, and competing against $800 and $1000, this time I was going to at least try to win. i3 would sacrifice too much in threaded applications to remain competative in overall performance and value.

    The current 400W PSU should still be fine for that too, with use of a Molex adaptor. With a cheaper but more power hungry overclocked Phenom II X4 965BE, I would want to bump the power supply up a notch. But actually the day I priced my rig, i3+ 7870LE would not have worked... it was $260 ($95 more) to step up to 7870 LE, something that quickly changed to $240 after my order was submitted. Doesn't matter the performance and low power use of Core i5 was key to the system's goal.
  • krneki_05
    2core vs 4 core CPU.

    For gaming it all depends on the game engine, if the game utilizes all for 4 cores the i3 will suffer.

    A suggestion, can you please specify in the benchmark how many cores the game utilizes? This way even if you don't have the knowledge about a particular game you have an idea about the CPU power.
  • Yuka
    Ok, it's a nice article and all, but... Why not just ditch the Optical drive?

    There are a lot of external/portable optical drives that work wonders and could be used instead of these bulky ones inside the case.

    My point is, you only need 1 of those for the entire house (if you have more than 1 PC or whatever that might need one) and keep on including it just damages the overall value. Those ~$20USD could go into RAM or CPU or VGA budget IMO.

    Cheers!

    EDIT: Also, are there no microATX or ITX boards that could be used? That could drop the overall price some more, without changing the performance in a meaningful way, I think.
  • pauldh
    arich5i question the longevity of a 400w psu in a build like this though

    Have no fear there. Our power measurements are what is pulled from the wall. Factoring the efficeincy (loss) of the PSU, this 400W unit was outputting under 190W at peak load. It was in fact overkill, as built, and could handle a bump in graphics if your willing to use a Molex power adaptor. I'd feel comfortable running the far more power hungry Tahiti LE based 7870 on this PSU, especially paired with a Core i3.
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