Budget AMD-Based Gaming PC
The Budget AMD-Based Gaming PC was narrowed to five entries from the forum this quarter. Community members voted to pick their favorite from there.
Zared619’s “Red Storm” took a commanding lead in the polls, earning an absolutely astounding 36 votes. The second-place finishers tied at only 14 each!
Congratulations to forum member Zared619 for having his recommended build picked by the Tom's Hardware community this year!
In a complete reversal from 2011’s Budget AMD-Based Gaming PC, Zared619’s Red Storm is more gaming than budget. This $1,000 build is easily twice the PC of its predecessor. The triple-core Athlon II X3 was replaced by AMD’s top-of-the-line triple-module CPU, the Vishera-based FX-6300. The ever-popular Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo gives the FX headroom for overclocking.
Zared619 chose the GA-990-FXA-UD3 motherboard from Gigabyte. This board has all of the standard amenities like USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s, gigabit Ethernet, and two-way CrossFire/SLI support.
A pair of 4 GB G.Skill Ares Series DDR3-1600 modules give this rig amble memory for playing today's game titles.
With a Radeon HD 7970 from HIS backing up the processor, this machine should be able to handle any game at 1080p with high settings. Two-way CrossFire and four-module FX chips leave a little room for upgrades, though not much more horsepower is required with this configuration.
A 120 GB SSD from Mushkin is paired up with a 1 TB Barracuda drive from Seagate, ensuring snappy operation with plenty of room for archiving. A 750-watt 80 PLUS Bronze-certified PSU from Antec finishes off the system internals.
Everything is wrapped in the stylish (yet muted) Zalman Z9 Plus, which sports tool-less, side-loading drive trays, a bottom-mounted PSU, and interior paint for just $60. Sony once again manufactures the standard DVD writer.
The total build price when originally configured by Zared619 was $999.89. The current prices of “Red Storm” can be found in the BestConfigs shopping tables.