Hardware Revolution

Tech Report’s Econobox vs Hardware Revolution’s $500 Gaming PC

Mathieu — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:30:34 +0000

As you surely know, Hardware Revolution is not the only website that offers information on which parts to choose to build your own computer. There are hundreds, if not thousands of other sites offering the same type of information. Of course, I do everything that I can to offer you the best information on this topic.

I order to keep improving Hardware Revolution and the builds featured on this website, it’s wise to compare it to builds from other websites.

There’s nothing like some friendly competition to create some sparks, controversy and get attention. It’s also a lot of fun for me, an occasion for everyone to learn and I also try to help everyone pick the best possible parts for a given price.

In this post, I’ll be comparing one of our build with the build from another website, one part at a time. Enjoy!

For our “fight” today, we have:

In the blue corner, we have Tech Report’s “Econobox”, their $534 Gaming PC.
In the red corner, we have our own $500 Gaming PC, currently priced at $529.

We’ll begin this “fight” by comparing the specifications of both builds:

Tech Report’s Econobox Specifications:

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 630 – $100
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 5670 – $100
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 – $95
RAM: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 – $58
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB – $75
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S223L – $27
Case/PSU: Antec NSK 4482B w/380W PSU – $80
Audio/LAN: Integrated – Free
Total: $534

Hardware Revolution’s $500 Gaming Build Specifications:

Featured in Friday’s post, $500 Gaming PC: It’s Time For A Quad-Core 2.8GHz CPU!
In Bold, you’ll find our main recommendations.
In Italic, you’ll find our recommended upgrades, for an extra cost.

Components	Make, Model and Specifications	Price
CPU/Processor	AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Quad-Core AM3 95W	$100
Motherboard	ASRock M3A770DE: Socket AM3, AMD 770 Chipset, ATX GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB3.0 ATX	$60 $95
RAM	G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 CAS 9 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 CAS 7 1.35V	$94 $105 $120
Video Card	Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 DirectX 10.1 Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11 Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11	$95 $140 $155
Hard Drive	Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Western Digital 640GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s SAMSUNG HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s	$50 $65 $90
Optical Drive	SAMSUNG SATA 24x DVD Burner	$25
Power Supply	Antec BP550 Plus 550W Modular SeaSonic SS-550HT 550W 80 PLUS Certified SILVERSTONE ST60EF 600W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified	$65 $74 $90
Case	NZXT GAMA-001BK Antec Three Hundred	$40 $55
Cooling	AMD CPU Stock Cooler included with CPU COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU Cooler ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound CORSAIR All-in-One Water-Cooling CPU Cooler NZXT 120mm Case Fan (Case will take another 5)	Free $35 $8 $78 $2
Sound	8 channels sound card: Integrated on the motherboard Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 24-bit PCI	Free $35
Network	Ethernet RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mbps: Integrated on the motherboard	Free
Total price	Not Including OS, Shipping nor handling. Within -/+ 5% of Budget	$529

Comparing Tech Report’s Econobox and Hardware Revolution’s $500 Gaming PC:

Round 1: Cpu
AMD Athlon II X4 630 vs AMD Athlon II X4 630

This one is rather simple: We both picked the same CPU, which goes to show you how much value it offers.

This one is a tie.

Round 2: Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 vs ASRock M3A770DE:

Both are based on the AMD 770 chipset, support AM3 processors and DDR3 RAM.

Features wise, both comes with USB 2.0 ports and two E-Sata ports. However, the Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 also comes with Firewire and USB 3.0 ports, unlike the ASRock M3A770DE. It also comes with ‘official’ support for DDR3 1866MHz, compared to 1600MHz for the ASRock M3A770DE. Finally, the Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 comes with support for USB 3.0 and SATA 6.0 Gb/s.

The Tech Report’s recommendation, the Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 has the upper when it comes down to features.

However, it costs $95 vs $60 for the ASRock M3A770DE.

In my opinion, the main advantages of the Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 (USB 3.0 and Sata 6.0Gb/s) are pointless for a $500 Gaming Build.

Here’s why SATA 6.0Gb/s is useless for a: Mainstream hard drive barely hit 150MB/s, while Sata II 3.0Gb/s allows for up to 300Mb/s in theory. The only drives that currently can take advantage of SATA 6.0GB/s are high-end SSDs, which cost more than this entire build!

As for USB 3.0: How many devices have you seen that support USB 3.0 yet? There are very few at the moment.

My point is that these extra features that adds up to the cost of the Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 have very little value for a $500 build and the cash spend on that motherboard would be better used on other components.

Nonetheless, with its extra features, the Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 from the Tech Report’s build win this round.

Round 3: Video Card
Radeon HD 5670 vs Radeon 4850

Features: The Radeon HD 5670 does support DirectX 11 and Eyefinity, however it does the performance to make use of any of these two technologies.

Performance: The Radeon 4850 is clearly superior to the Radeon 5670.

While the Radeon 5670 offers lower power consumption and offers features that on paper looks good, in real-life situations, the Radeon 4850 will prove to be a much better video thanks to its superior performance.

This one is a clear victory for the Hardware Revolution’s Gaming PC, thanks to the performance of the Radeon 4850. After all, the one thing that matters the most in a Gaming PC is how well it can run video games.

Round 4: RAM
2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 vs 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333MHz

Easy call here: 2GB of RAM for the Tech Report’s PC and 4GB of RAM for Hardware Revolution’s PC. Do I need to say more?

Round 5: Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB vs Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB

The Tech Report’s Hard Drive offers an extra 140GB (640GB vs 500GB) , slightly better performance and a better warranty due to it being a Caviar Black Series (More Cache and 5 years warranty) compared to Hardware Revolution’s usage of the Caviar Blue Series (Less cache and 3 years warranty.

This one goes to Tech Report.

Round 6: Optical Drive
Samsung SH-S223L 22x vs Samsung SH-S243N 24X

You could argue that the model in our build is 2X faster, but considering that most disks are compatible at up to 16x, this makes no difference in real-life. Prices are similar too, so this is one is a tie.

Round 7: Case
Antec NSK 4482B vs NZXT GAMA-001BK

Cooling: Both cases come with a 120mm case fan. However, the Antec NSK 4482B is limited to a maximum of 2 case fans (One in back and one in the front), while the NZXT Gama-001BK allows you to install up to six 120mm case fans (One in front, one in the back, two on the side, two on top).

Front connections: The Antec NSK 4482B has audio and two USB 2.0 ports. The NZXT Gama-001BK? Audio, two USB 2.0 ports and one E-SATA port.

Cable management:
Antec NSK 4482B: What cable management?
NZXT Gama-001BK: There are many holes, gaps and space to allow you to tuck away your cables behind the motherboard plate. There’s also a hole behind where the CPU Cooler usually goes, allowing you to install a backplate for your CPU Cooler without removing the motherboard from the case.

Look: That one is more of a personal thing, but personally, with it’s black inside and its shape, the NZXT Gama-001BK looks better to me.

Overall, the NZXT Gama-001BK case recommendation from Hardware Revolution is a superior case to the Antec NSK 4482B recommended by Tech Report. This round goes to Hardware Revolution.

Round 8: Power Supply
Antec 380W 80PLUS Bronze vs Antec BP Plus 550W Modular

Power Output: 380W for the Tech Report’s recommended power supply and 550W for the Hardware Revolution’s recommended power supply.

Efficiency: The Antec 380W is certified 80PLUS Bronze meaning that it has to be at least 82% efficient at 20%/100% loads and at least 85% efficient at at 50% load. Antec claims that the Antec BP550 Plus 550W power supply is “up to 85% efficient”, however, without any 80PLUS certification, this comes down to trusting Antec’s word, something that I just can’t do to be fair.

Tech Report use of the Antec 380W makes a lot of sense with their system configuration, after all they used a much less power-hungry video than we did (Radeon 5670 vs Radeon 4850). However, when it comes down to being able to upgrade and/or overclock your PC, the 550W power output of the Hardware Revolution while prove more important than the higher efficiency of the Tech Report’s recommendation.

Due to its higher power output allowing you to upgrade more down the road and overclock further down without being limited by the power supply, this round goes to Hardware Revolution.

Conclusion

Tech Report’s Econobox PC won 2 round, with the Motherboard and the Hard drive.
Hardware Revolution’s $500 Gaming PC won 4 rounds, with the Video card, RAM, Case and the Power Supply.
The CPU and Optical Drive round was tied.

A clear win for Hardware Revolution’s $500 PC where it matters: Gaming performance:

The Hardware Revolution’s PC will outperform the Tech Report’s PC in most cases due to its better video card and RAM.

I hope that you enjoyed this article and I invite you to leave your comments below.

$500 Gaming PC: It’s Time For A Quad-Core 2.8GHz CPU!

Mathieu — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:00:09 +0000

Recently updated Gaming PCs: $400 Gaming Build, $1000 Gaming Build, $1250 Gaming Build, $1500 Gaming Build and the $2000 Gaming Build.

The NZXT GAMA-001BK, the case featured in this build.

Upcoming Updates:

After updating the $400 Gaming Build yesterday, today I’ll be updating the $500 Gaming Build., I’ll be updating the $600, $700 and $850 Gaming Builds next week.

Later this month, all of the Workstation Builds, as well as all of the HTPCs Builds, will be updated. I’m also planning a few updates to our popular Best PC Parts articles, where I point out which parts offers the best performance for a given price or the best value.

For more details on what is coming up in March, read the following article: Recap of February and the Schedule of March 2010.

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This version compared to the previous version of the $500 Gaming Build:

The CPU was upgraded from an AMD Athlon II X3 425 Rana 2.7GHz Triple-Core AM3 95W to an AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Quad-Core AM3 95W. The Athlon II X4 630 price recently dropped to $100 and considering that it’s faster and has an extra core, it’s a wise investment for better performance today and in the future.

In order to keep costs in check with the $500 budget, the RAM was changed from a kit of G.Skill 2×2 GB DDR3 1600MHz to a kit of G.Skill 2×2 GB DDR3 1333MHz. Rest assured, 1333MHz is plenty fast enough and you won’t see see a difference unless you run benchmarks (Which will show only a few % difference at worst.)

Also in order to keep costs in check with the $500 budget, the Video Card was changed from an AMD Radeon HD 5750 to an AMD Radeon HD 4850. I did this because the Radeon 4850 actually performs a tad faster, while costing a whole $50 less than the Radeon 5750, which recently went up in price. While you give up on DirectX 11 compatibility and Eyefinity by going from the Radeon 5750 to the Radeon 4850, the $50 savings will allow you to use that money elsewhere.

The DVD Burner was changed from a LITE-ON 24x to a Samsung 24X model, which is $2 less expensive.

The Case and Power Supply were changed from a Cooler Master Elite 310 and Antec Neo Eco 400W to a NZXT GAMA-001BK and an Antec BP 550W Plus. The reason for this is that the NZXT case offers much better cooling capabilities for the same price and that the power supply will give you more headroom for overclocking and future upgrades.

Other than that, the build now costs $410 instead of $421, a $11 reduction.

Computer Builds FAQs:

I often get questions such as:

Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?
Can you suggest me a step by step guide to build a computer?
Why should I build a PC instead of buying one in a store?
And many more…

You will find the answers to all of these questions and more in this article: FAQ: How to Build Your Own Computer

Also, if this is your first build, here are 10 Quick Tips for 1st Time Builders to get you started.

About Gaming PCs:

Gaming Computers are all about playing video games. Every year, new video games that pushes the boundaries of visual effects are released and demand more and more power from your computer to run. Being so powerful to handle cutting-edge video games, they are also very good all-around computers, capable of handling photo/video edition, web development, High Definition content playback and much more.

This is why our Gaming Builds Designs focus both on current performance for today’s games, as well as being ready to upgrade, to be ready to handle future games. For Gaming Builds Designs, a big portion of the budget goes to the Video Card and the Processor to ensure high performance in video games, as well as a solid power supply with a case with good cooling abilities, to ensure reliability.

Upgrades will usually focus on the processor and video card for enhanced performance, as well as on the power supply and cooling, to enhance overclocking capabilities. You may choose to upgrade the hard drive for more capacity, or change the case to get one that matches your personal preferences, such as look, cooling, size, etc.

Is this the right type of PC for me?

If you’re looking for a PC to play video games, you’re at the right place. If this is not what you’re looking for, check out our other Computer Systems instead.

$500 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

Explanation:

In the left column, you have the component type, such as the Processor, Video Card, etc.
In the middle column, you have the specific brand, model and a quick look at specifications for that part.
In the right column, you’ll find the best price that I found after double-checking at various trustworthy online sellers such as Amazon.com, NewEgg.com, Buy.com and others.
In Bold, you’ll find my recommendations for the parts that you should buy in order to have the best overall performance while fitting the overall budget.
In Italic, you’ll find the best possible upgrades if you have money to spare. These are the parts that offer better features or more performance, while still being relatively affordable in regard to the overall budget.
In simple terms, if you want a more powerful CPU or video card, pick it from the list of recommended upgrades that are in Italic.
All upgrades are compatible with the rest of the system, as well as other upgrades, meaning that you can choose one or many upgrades without a problem.
If upgrades just don’t cut it, visit the Gaming PCs page, where you’ll find our other gaming computer custom build designs.

Components	Make, Model and Specifications	Price
CPU/Processor	AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Quad-Core AM3 95W	$100
Motherboard	ASRock M3A770DE: Socket AM3, AMD 770 Chipset, ATX GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB3.0 ATX	$60 $95
RAM	G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 CAS 9 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 CAS 7 1.35V	$94 $105 $120
Video Card	Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 DirectX 10.1 Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11 Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11	$95 $140 $155
Hard Drive	Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Western Digital 640GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s SAMSUNG HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s	$50 $65 $90
Optical Drive	SAMSUNG SATA 24x DVD Burner	$25
Power Supply	Antec BP550 Plus 550W Modular SeaSonic SS-550HT 550W 80 PLUS Certified SILVERSTONE ST60EF 600W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified	$65 $74 $90
Case	NZXT GAMA-001BK Antec Three Hundred	$40 $55
Cooling	AMD CPU Stock Cooler included with CPU COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU Cooler ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound CORSAIR All-in-One Water-Cooling CPU Cooler NZXT 120mm Case Fan (Case will take another 5)	Free $35 $8 $78 $2
Sound	8 channels sound card: Integrated on the motherboard Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 24-bit PCI	Free $35
Network	Ethernet RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mbps: Integrated on the motherboard	Free
Total price	Not Including OS, Shipping nor handling. Within -/+ 5% of Budget	$529

$500 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard:

ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX

A basic, yet reliable motherboard at a great price that supports everything in this system. Come with six USB ports, two of them being Hybrid E-SATA/USB ports, S/PDIF Out via Optical and Coaxial, two PS/2, Gigabit LAN and 8 Channels audio on the back.

Two PCI-Express 2.0 16X (Green at 16X, Orange at 4x), one PCI-Express 1X and three PCI slots, four SATA ports and the usual IDE port, etc.

If you wonder who is ASRock, they belong to ASUS. Simply put, they are their budget brand, offering the same reliability known from ASUS, but with lower prices.

Recommended upgrade:

If you want a motherboard that offers SATA 6.0Gb/s and USB 3.0 for a more future-proof platform, the GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3 AM3 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB3.0 ATX is the motherboard that I recommend for that.

CPU:

AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Quad-Core AM3 95W

Now at a new low price of only $100, the 2.8GHz Quad-Core Athlon II X4 630 is an excellent all-around processor, capable of handling today’s and tomorrow’s games.

While you could gain a few extra frames per second with a Phenom II X4 series CPU, thanks to the extra L3 cache, the least expensive Phenom II quad-core processor, the 2.8GHz X4 920, starts at $140.

In my opinion, for the same frequency, only adding on 6MB of L3 is not worth an extra $40. You’re better off spending that $40 elsewhere. Besides, you can just overclock the Athlon II X4 630 and get similar performance to the Phenom II X4 line-up. At $100 for a 2.8GHz Quad-processor, this recommendation is all about value.

Video Card:

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 DirectX 10.1

For $95, this is one sweet deal considering all the performance that you’ll get from this card. Note that it’s starting to run low in stock, as its being phased in favor of the new Radeon 5750, so this might be your last chance to grab one, especially at this price!

It is capable of handling the vast majority of games at 1680×1050 with high visual quality or at 1920 x 1080 if you’re ready to sacrifice some visual quality.

Finally, it is HDCP Ready and will handle Blu-Ray and other 1080p content playback, with audio over HDMI as well.

Recommended upgrades:

Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11 – The Radeon HD 5750 performs a tad slower than the Radeon 4850, but it offers DirectX 11 support for new games coming out this year and its 1GB memory buffer will help you for games such as GTA: 4. It also consumes a lot less power than the Radeon 4850.
Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11 This one offers performance on the level of the 4870 1gb, while consuming way less power at idle (15W!) and at load (108W) than any card offering this level of performance thanks to the 40nm process it’s based on. Support DirectX 11 as well.

RAM:

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333

4GB of RAM is pretty much mandatory to handle the latest video games along with Windows and background background such as your anti-virus, web broswer, music/video player, etc.

Considering the price of RAM these days and the ever-expending memory use of games and programs, 4GB of high-speed DDR3 memory is a no-brainer.

I went with G.Skill for their high reliability and compatibility with the majority of motherboards. I chose these particular sticks due to their low price.

In my opinion, there is little incentive to move to faster frequency RAM, as it brings only a small performance increase (According to Tom’s Hardware ) for a much higher price.

Recommended upgrades

If you do happen to want those extra % of performance, for only $11 more, you can get the G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 CAS 9 memory kit.

If you want a kit that has lower latencies and needs only 1.35V to run at 1600MHz, take a look at the G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 CAS 7 1.35V memory kit.

Hard Drive:

Western Digital Caviar Blue 3.5″ 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

A standard SATA hard drive, that offers 160GB of storage, plenty enough to handle your video/music collection and all your games.

I went with Western Digital because their hard drive offers the highest reliability in my experience, being less prone to failure on average. The Blue Caviar series drives come with a 3 year warranty.

Recommended upgrades:

Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s - ($50) Over three times the capacity for $11 more.
Western Digital 640GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s – ($65) Four times the capacity for $26 more.
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB – In Tom’s Hardware latest hard drive article, the SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB finishes on top of all transfer rates benchmarks, even ahead of what used to be my recommendation for high-end builds, the Western Digital Caviar Black.

Optical Drive:

SAMSUNG SATA 24x DVD Burner

This drive is able to read and burn CDs and DVDs. Silent, compatible with all major formats including DVD-RAM.

The motherboard includes two SATA cables (One will be used for the hard drive and one for this DVD Burner), so no need to worry about cables.

Also, seeing as DVD Burners are often go out of stock lately, here are a two alternatives that you can use to replace it. All are SATA based.

Case:

NZXT GAMA-001BK

For $40, this case from NZXT offers tremendous value. It’s comes with a single 120mm case fan, yet allows you to add up to five more, for a total of six 120mm case fans. The inside is painted in black, which is amazing considering that it’s a $40 case!

Recommended upgrade:

The Antec Three Hundred is an excellent alternative and for only $15 more than the NZXT Gama, you should at least take at look and consider it.

Power Supply:

Antec BP550 Plus 550W Modular

This power supply is capable of delivering up to 550W, not that should rely on this information only as I often point in posts such as Warning: 6 Surefire Ways of Blowing Up Your Computer Due to an Inadequate Power Supply, but more importantly 32A on the 12V line, the most important factor when it comes to choosing a power supply for a gaming computer.

Best of all, it is modular, meaning that you just plug in the cables that you need, making your life easier when it comes to routing your cables and keeping the mess inside your case to a minimum.

Power Consumption:

According to the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator, it is estimated that this system will consume at load (peak usage):

309W with the recommended Athlon II X3/X4 and a Radeon 4850.

As you can see, this power supply will have no trouble handling this setup, even if you do overclock.

However, if you more headroom or a more efficient power supply, take a look at the recommended upgrades below:

Recommended upgrades:

If you’re looking for a power supply that’s more efficient than the Antec BP550 Plus 550W, consider the SeaSonic SS-550HT 550W 80 PLUS Certified. For only $9 more than the Antec, it comes with a 80 PLUS certification, meaning that it’s certified to run at least at 80% efficiency at 20%, 50% and 100% load. A highly efficient power supply will reduce your electricity costs, run cooler and be more silent.

For something with a bit more of a punch (600W) and even higher efficiency (80 PLUS Bronze: Certified to run at at 82% efficiency at 20%/100% loads and 85% at 50% loads.), go with the SILVERSTONE ELEMENT ST60EF 600W 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified.

Cooling: Stock cooling

To save on costs, I recommend using the cooler included with the CPU. While there are better coolers, the one that is included is good enough to handle the cpu under normal operation. The case includes cooling fans as well to help you keep your system cool.

However, there are two reasons why you may choose to upgrade your cooling system:

To keep your computer components cooler, which in return extend their lifespan and allows you to overclock to higher speed.
To keep your system silent, as the stock cooling can get noisy at times, especially during prolonged gaming sessions.

Alternatives:

Cpu Cooler: If you have any intention of overclocking, I cannot stress enough the importance of a good cooler.The COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU Cooler offers the best value regarding performance for the price.
Thermal Compound: Use the ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound either with the stock cooler or better, with the upgraded CPU cooler to lower your CPU temperatures further more. For $8, this is a wise investment.
Case cooling:You can add up to five additional 120 mm fans in the NZXT case, one in front, two on the side and two on the top. If you’d like the same model that comes with the case, go with the NZXT FN-120RB 120mm Case Fan. With a rifle type of bearing, it’s a bit more expensive, but also more durable.

Sound Card: 8 channels sound card: Integrated on the motherboard

Integrated with the motherboard, this sound card will handle many different sound setups, including headphones, a microphone and more. While integrated audio on a PC used to be absolutely horrible, it has gotten much better in the last few years, thus why I have no trouble recommending it.

Recommended upgrade:

For $35, you can get the Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 24-bit PCI, which will definitely provide a nice boost in audio quality.

Network: Ethernet RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN: Integrated on the motherboard

Integrated with the motherboard, this network adapter will allow you to access your local network and Internet.

Recommended operating systems:

The operating system cost, if there’s one, is not included in the total cost. The two reason for this are:

The budget only considers hardware.
You may be able re-use a previous license, go with an open-source OS such as Linux or , if you’re so inclined and are aware of what you’re doing, use torrents.

If you decide that you need a need OS, here are some recommendations:

Windows 7

Despite Linux gaining more and more support, Windows still is the platform of choice for compatibility at the moment. Considering that you’ll have 4GB of RAM or more, along with a dedicated video that also has memory (512MB or 1GB), you’ll need a 64-bit version, as 32-bit is limited to 4GB of memory for the entire system, which is not enough now, nor in the future if you decide to upgrade.

Windows 7 is by far better than Windows Vista, looks better, more functional, less annoying, consumes less resources and brings DirectX 11 to the table.

Three Available Versions:

Windows 7 Home Premium: The basic edition, with all the looks, most of the functionality and DirectX 11.
Windows 7 Professional: If you want the virtual XP mode, you’ll need at least the Professional edition. Also required if you want to backup to a network, using the built-in backup mode in Windows.
Windows 7 Ultimate: To help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker and to work and switch between 35 languages.

OEM vs Retail:

The OEM version allows you to only install it once on a computer. You cannot transfer the license to another computer in the future and you do not receive support from Microsoft. It’s the same type of license you get when you get Windows on a desktop or laptop that you buy from Dell, HP and such. It’s less expensive, but gives less flexibility. Ideal if you intend on keeping your computer for many years.

The Retail version is the full version, which allows you to transfer the license to another computer in the future and you can call Microsoft if you need any form of support. Ideal if you intend on upgrading/changing your computer down the road.

Other than that, you get the same features on both, only the license differs. The price between the two differs obviously.

OEM Versions:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM – $105
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OEM – $140
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OEM – $175

Retail Versions:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Retail – $184
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Retail – $275
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Retail – $292

Linux

A lot of people these days boots more than one OS. Linux is a wonderful choice: powerful, cool, and cheap. Take your pick of distributions and have fun! For Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, and Mandrake, try Distrowatch.com, Cheapbytes.com, LinuxQuestions.org or one of the many others.

While Linux does not offer the wide compatibility of Windows with video games, gaming on Linux is still possible, through projects such as Wine, Cedega and Crossover. For more on the topic of Linux Gaming, I invite you to read this excellent article from AnandTech: Linux Gaming: Are we there yet?

What about Word processing, Excel and other Windows-based programs that you need? Linux being an open platform, there are many free alternatives that will answer your needs. For Word/Excel and such, try OpenOffice.

Cost: Free

Conclusion

What do you think of this updated version of the $500 Gaming PC?

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Building this system?

Do you need a guide on how to build a computer or do you have some questions?

Consult our: FAQ: How to Build Your Own Computer

Also, if this is your first build, here are 10 Quick Tips for 1st Time Builders to get you started.

Finally, if your newly built computer won’t start, I invite you to read Help me: Why won’t my newly assembled PC start or boot?

Did you enjoy this build? Support me and Hardware Revolution

For each article, I spend many hours of research and many hours of writing/editing and I generously offer it to you and everyone else for free.

In the last few months, My current “workstation” from which I manage Hardware Revolution and write articles on, an HP tx1000 tablet laptop, has been plagued with problems for the last few months and could now fail at any time. Despite various attempts to fix it, the problem remains.

My solution is to build a new Workstation PC from scratch, based on a mix of the $500 and $1000 Workstation Builds.

Starting today and until the end of March, I’ll be raising funds toward building this new Workstation in order to replace my failing laptop and to help me keep improving Hardware Revolution for you.

My goal is to raise $1000, which will cover the build, a monitor, shipping and taxes.

To learn more details about this, read: Raising Funds for Hardware Revolution’s New Workstation PC

If this website helped you before, this is your chance to return the favor and help me this time.

Donate what you can (I suggest $5 to $20, but it’s up to you) via the ChipIn widget below (Which will track the donations), which will bring you to a secure Paypal page where you can donate.

Thank you very much for your support,

Mathieu

(If you don’t see the widget, you can donate by clicking the following link:)

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=MEKXWKCGJFVU6

$400 Gaming PC

Mathieu — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:00:31 +0000

Recently updated Gaming PCs:

$1000 Gaming Build, $1250 Gaming Build, $1500 Gaming Build and the $2000 Gaming Build.

The Rosewill TU-155 II: The Case featured in this Build.

Upcoming Updates:

Starting today, I’ll be updating all the lower-end Gaming PCs, with the $400 Gaming Build today, the $500 tomorrow, along with the$600, $700 and $850 Gaming Builds next week.

For more details on what is coming up in March, read the following article: Recap of February and the Schedule of March 2010.

Automatically receive our future articles for free via RSS or Email:

Did you know that you can get our future articles for free via RSS or Email? That way, you never have to check the site for updates again because you get the latest and greatest articles delivered automatically in your RSS reader or Email inbox around 7PM EST, every day that I publish an article. If you’re not familiar with RSS technology, here an article that explains What is RSS?

If the fact that you’ll be receiving outstanding custom PC designs for free is not enough to convince you, here are 7 Reasons to get our posts via RSS or Email.

What is the secret of building a Gaming Computer for $400?

It’s quite simple: Be realistic. For $400, you won’t get that huge tower, with flashy neons, LEDs and water-cooling (Although that’s available as an upgrade ).

However, you can and will get very respectable performance, plenty enough to handle gaming at a 1440 x 900 or lower resolution with good graphic quality and still a very nice case. Mind you, gaming at a resolution of 1680 x 1050 is possible with most games if you’re ready to sacrifice some visual quality.

This version compared to the previous version of the $400 Gaming Build:

In order to keep costs in check with the $400 budget, the RAM was changed from a kit of G.Skill 2×2 GB DDR3 1600MHz to a kit of G.Skill 2×2 GB DDR3 1333MHz. Rest assured, 1333MHz is plenty fast enough and you won’t see see a difference unless you run benchmarks (Which will show only a few % difference at worst.)

The DVD Burner was changed from a LITE-ON 24x to a Samsung 24X model, which is $2 less expensive.

The Case and Power Supply were changed from a Cooler Master Elite 310 and Antec Neo Eco 400W to a Rosewill TU-155 II which comes with a very decent 500W power supply. The reason for this is that the Antec Neo Eco 400W power supply went up in price, to $50 and with the $40 Cooler Master Elite 310, it was bringing the cost for these two parts to $90. At $70, the Rosewill TU-155 II and its included 500W power supply will get the job done just as well while costing $20 less.

Other than that, the build now costs $410 instead of $421, a $11 reduction.

Computer Builds FAQs:

I often get questions such as:

Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?
Can you suggest me a step by step guide to build a computer?
Why should I build a PC instead of buying one in a store?
And many more…

You will find the answers to all of these questions and more in this article: FAQ: How to Build Your Own Computer

Also, if this is your first build, here are 10 Quick Tips for 1st Time Builders to get you started.

About Gaming PCs:

Is this the right type of PC for me?

If you’re looking for a PC to play video games, you’re at the right place. If this is not what you’re looking for, check out our other Computer Systems instead.

$400 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

Explanation:

In the left column, you have the component type, such as the Processor, Video Card, etc.
In the middle column, you have the specific brand, model and a quick look at specifications for that part.
In the right column, you’ll find the best price that I found after double-checking at various trustworthy online sellers such as Amazon.com, NewEgg.com, Buy.com and others.
In Bold, you’ll find my recommendations for the parts that you should buy in order to have the best overall performance while fitting the overall budget.
In Italic, you’ll find the best possible upgrades if you have money to spare. These are the parts that offer better features or more performance, while still being relatively affordable in regard to the overall budget.
In simple terms, if you want a more powerful CPU or video card, pick it from the list of recommended upgrades that are in Italic.
All upgrades are compatible with the rest of the system, as well as other upgrades, meaning that you can choose one or many upgrades without a problem.
If upgrades just don’t cut it, visit the Gaming PCs page, where you’ll find our other gaming computer custom build designs.

Components	Make, Model and Specifications	Price
CPU/Processor	AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz Dual-Core AM3 65W AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Dual-Core AM3 65W AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz Dual-Core AM3 65W AMD Athlon II X3 425 Rana 2.7GHz Triple-Core AM3 95W AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana 2.9GHz Triple-Core AM3 95W AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Quad-Core AM3 95W	$59 $61 $65 $70 $75 $100
Motherboard	ASRock M3A770DE: Socket AM3, AMD 770 Chipset, ATX	$60
RAM	G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333	$94
Video Card	Radeon HD 4670 512MB DDR3 Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 DirectX 10.1 Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11 Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11	$63 $95 $140 $155
Hard Drive	Western Digital 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Western Digital 640GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s	$39 $50 $65
Optical Drive	SAMSUNG SATA 24x DVD Burner	$25
Power Supply	Rosewill 500W Power Supply Included with the Case	Free
Case	Rosewill TU-155 II w/ 500W Power Supply	$70
Cooling	AMD CPU Stock Cooler included with CPU COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU Cooler ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound CORSAIR All-in-One Water-Cooling CPU Cooler Rosewill RFA-80-K 80mm Case Fan	Free $35 $8 $78 $2
Sound	8 channels sound card: Integrated on the motherboard	Free
Network	Ethernet RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mbps: Integrated on the motherboard	Free
Total price	Not Including OS, Shipping nor handling. Within -/+ 5% of Budget	$410

$400 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard:

ASRock M3A770DE AM3 AMD 770 ATX

Two PCI-Express 2.0 16X (Green at 16X, Orange at 4x), one PCI-Express 1X and three PCI slots, four SATA ports and the usual IDE port, etc.

If you wonder who is ASRock, they belong to ASUS. Simply put, they are their budget brand, offering the same reliability known from ASUS, but with lower prices.

CPU:

AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz Dual-Core AM3 65W

The other contenders in the same price range would have been the Intel E5300 (2.6GHz $70) or E5400 (2.7GHz $90).

I picked the AMD Athlon II X2 240 over them for the following reasons:

The motherboard & CPU ($58) is less expensive with the AMD platform.
The AMD Athlon II X2 240 outperforms the more expensive E5300 ($70) and even the much more expensive E5400 ($90) when it comes to gaming in five benchmarks out of six.
Here are the said benchmarks comparing the E5300/E5400 and the X2 240/245 for you:

You get more value out of upgrading with AMD CPUs as you can see below.

Recommended upgrades:

AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Dual-Core AM3 65W – For $2 ($61) more, you get the same CPU, but with an additional 100MHz.
AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz Dual-Core AM3 65W – For $6 ($65) more this time, same CPU again, but an additional 200MHz
AMD Athlon II X3 425 Rana 2.7GHz Triple-Core AM3 95W – For $11 ($70) more, you lose 100MHz, but gain a very valuable third core. Most games use two cores, which mean that the third core handle background programs, allowing the two first cores to focus on the game, thus increasing the performance compared to a dual-core processor.
AMD Athlon II X3 435 Rana 2.9GHz Triple-Core AM3 95W – For $16 ($75) more, you get an extra core and an extra 100Mhz.
AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Quad-Core AM3 95W For $41 ($100) more, you get 4 cores running at the same frequency as before.

Video Card:

Radeon HD 4670 512MB DDR3

For $63, you’ll not find a card that offers as much performance. The Radeon HD 4670 also happens to be one of the most powerful cards that does not a power connector, a testimonial to its lower power consumption.

It is capable of handling the vast majority of games at 1440 x 900 with high visual quality or at 1680 x 1050 if you’re ready to sacrifice some visual quality.

Finally, it is HDCP Ready and will handle Blu-Ray and other 1080p content playback, with audio over HDMI as well.

Recommended upgrades:

Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 DirectX 10.1 – The Radeon HD 4850 will allow you to play the vast majority of games at a resolution of 1680 x 1050 without having to lower visual quality or at least, not nearly as much as the Radeon HD 4670.
Radeon HD 5750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11 – The Radeon HD 5750 performs a tad slower than the Radeon 4850, but it offers DirectX 11 support for new games coming out this year and its 1GB memory buffer will help you for games such as GTA: 4
Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11 This one offers performance on the level of the 4870 1gb, while consuming way less power at idle (15W!) and at load (108W) than any card offering this level of performance thanks to the 40nm process it’s based on. Support DirectX 11 as well.

RAM:

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1333

4GB of RAM is pretty much mandatory to handle the latest video games along with Windows and background background such as your anti-virus, web broswer, music/video player, etc.

Considering the price of RAM these days and the ever-expending memory use of games and programs, 4GB of high-speed DDR3 memory is a no-brainer.

I went with G.Skill for their high reliability and compatibility with the majority of motherboards. I chose these particular sticks due to their low price.

In my opinion, there is little incentive to move to faster frequency RAM, as it brings only a small performance increase (According to Tom’s Hardware ) for a much higher price.

Hard Drive:

Western Digital Caviar Blue 3.5″ 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s

A standard SATA hard drive, that offers 160GB of storage, plenty enough to handle your video/music collection and all your games.

Recommended upgrades:

Western Digital 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s - ($50) Over three times the capacity for $11 more.
Western Digital 640GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s – ($65) Four times the capacity for $26 more.

Optical Drive:

SAMSUNG SATA 24x DVD Burner

This drive is able to read and burn CDs and DVDs. Silent, compatible with all major formats including DVD-RAM.

The motherboard includes two SATA cables (One will be used for the hard drive and one for this DVD Burner), so no need to worry about cables.

Also, seeing as DVD Burners are often go out of stock lately, here are a two alternatives that you can use to replace it. All are SATA based.

Case:

Rosewill TU-155 II w/ 500W Power Supply

For $70, this case from Rosewill also comes with a very decent 500W power supply, making it an excellent choice for this $400 Gaming PC. It offers a relatively nice design (It all depends on your tastes right?), it’s solid (not flimsy metal usually found on cases at this price), a side window and includes a 80mm Blue LEDs case fan.

The case comes with one 80mm case fan on the back. That’s nothing spectacular, but for a $70 case that comes with a decent 500W power supply, I wouldn’t complain.

Power Supply:

Rosewill 500W Power Supply Included with the Case

This power supply is capable of delivering up to 500W, not that should rely on this information only as I often point in posts such as Warning: 6 Surefire Ways of Blowing Up Your Computer Due to an Inadequate Power Supply, but more importantly 31A on the 12V line, the most important factor when it comes to choosing a power supply for a gaming computer.

Best of all, it is 80 PLUS certified, meaning that it’s always at least 80% efficient, resulting in less heat, more silence and a lower electricity bill for you.

Power Consumption:

According to the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator, it is estimated that this system will consume at load (peak usage):

212W with the recommended Athlon II X2 240 and the Radeon 4670.
238W with an Athlon II X3/X4 and a Radeon 5750.
256W with an Athlon II X3/X4 and a Radeon 5770.
309W with an Athlon II X3/X4 and a Radeon 4850. This is the worse case scenario.

This goes to prove how efficient these new Radeon 57xx cards are, especially compared to the older Radeon 4850. The power supply will have no problem handling any of the recommended upgrades, even in the worse case scenario. However, if you intend on overclocking, I cannot recommend enough that you upgrade the power supply.

Cooling: Stock cooling

However, there are two reasons why you may choose to upgrade your cooling system:

To keep your computer components cooler, which in return extend their lifespan and allows you to overclock to higher speed.
To keep your system silent, as the stock cooling can get noisy at times, especially during prolonged gaming sessions.

Alternatives:

Cpu Cooler: If you have any intention of overclocking, I cannot stress enough the importance of a good cooler.The COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU Cooler offers the best value regarding performance for the price.
Thermal Compound: Use the ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound either with the stock cooler or better, with the upgraded CPU cooler to lower your CPU temperatures further more. For $8, this is a wise investment.
Case cooling:You can add up to two additional 80 mm fans in the Rosewill TU-155 II, both in the front. At $2 a pop, you should consider adding at least one, if not two Rosewill RFA-80-K 80mm Case Fan in order to improve airflow.

Sound Card: 8 channels sound card: Integrated on the motherboard

Network: Ethernet RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN: Integrated on the motherboard

Integrated with the motherboard, this network adapter will allow you to access your local network and Internet.

Recommended operating systems:

The operating system cost, if there’s one, is not included in the total cost. The two reason for this are:

The budget only considers hardware.
You may be able re-use a previous license, go with an open-source OS such as Linux or , if you’re so inclined and are aware of what you’re doing, use torrents.

If you decide that you need a need OS, here are some recommendations:

Windows 7

Windows 7 is by far better than Windows Vista, looks better, more functional, less annoying, consumes less resources and brings DirectX 11 to the table.

Three Available Versions:

Windows 7 Home Premium: The basic edition, with all the looks, most of the functionality and DirectX 11.
Windows 7 Professional: If you want the virtual XP mode, you’ll need at least the Professional edition. Also required if you want to backup to a network, using the built-in backup mode in Windows.
Windows 7 Ultimate: To help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker and to work and switch between 35 languages.

OEM vs Retail:

Other than that, you get the same features on both, only the license differs. The price between the two differs obviously.

OEM Versions:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM – $105
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OEM – $140
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OEM – $175

Retail Versions:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Retail – $184
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Retail – $275
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Retail – $292

Linux

Cost: Free

Conclusion

What do you think of this updated version of the $400 Gaming PC?

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Building this system?

Do you need a guide on how to build a computer or do you have some questions?

Consult our: FAQ: How to Build Your Own Computer

Also, if this is your first build, here are 10 Quick Tips for 1st Time Builders to get you started.

Finally, if your newly built computer won’t start, I invite you to read Help me: Why won’t my newly assembled PC start or boot?

Did you enjoy this build? Support me and Hardware Revolution

For each article, I spend many hours of research and many hours of writing/editing and I generously offer it to you and everyone else for free.

My solution is to build a new Workstation PC from scratch, based on a mix of the $500 and $1000 Workstation Builds.

My goal is to raise $1000, which will cover the build, a monitor, shipping and taxes.

To learn more details about this, read: Raising Funds for Hardware Revolution’s New Workstation PC

If this website helped you before, this is your chance to return the favor and help me this time.

Donate what you can (I suggest $5 to $20, but it’s up to you) via the ChipIn widget below (Which will track the donations), which will bring you to a secure Paypal page where you can donate.

Thank you very much for your support,

Mathieu

(If you don’t see the widget, you can donate by clicking the following link:)

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=MEKXWKCGJFVU6

Hardware Revolution: Questions and Answers #7

Mathieu — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:21:32 +0000

Every two weeks or so, Mathieu from Hardware Revolution goes through his email inbox, previous comments and answers five to ten of the best questions left by you, the readers, on Computer Builds, the Best PC Parts and more.

Got a question? Post it in the comments below this post. Also, know that you can subscribe to the comments via email or RSS to read my answer, as well to be informed of other people’s questions and my answers to them.

Q #1: What would you recommend for editing/encoding HD content for the web? I saw your $500 Workstation(didn’t seem enough) and $1000 Workstation (seemed like too much). I would like to be able to upgrade later if possible for under $1000 but more than $500.

A: For Editing/Encoding HD content for the web, the $500 Workstation Build will do the job, offering you plenty of horsepower for the job.

As for upgrading:

You’ll be able to upgrade to a six-core processor from AMD later this year (April 26th according to the latest rumors), which will provide a nice reduction in video encoding time. Thuban (The codename for the six-core processor) will debut in three variants branded Phenom II X6 1035T, Phenom II X6 1055T, and Phenom II X6 1075T. All three processors should be compatible with AM2+ and AM3 sockets, so they should work in existing AMD motherboards, although a BIOS update might be in order first, which can easily done with an USB key.

Otherwise, AMD and Intel will be coming with new platforms in 2011. You could choose to then change the CPU and motherboard, while keeping the rest of the system. That would probably cost you anywhere from $300 to $600+ depending on your pick and prices when these platforms launch.

Overall, you’re best off with upgrading the CPU, that’s where you’ll see the most performance increase in HD edition/recording. Mind you, if you use the CPU/Motherboard/Video from the $1000 build with the rest of the parts from the $500 Build, you end up with a cost of about $770, which offers much more performance then the $500 Build to begin with and is similar in performance to the $1000 Build. Food for thoughts

Q #2: I’ve recently stumbled across this Nvidia Geforce Barebone kit and it runs for $500 and gives you everything you need to get a pc up and running. My question is: How does it compare to the $500 Gaming PC?

A: In simple terms: There’s no comparison to be made, our $500 Gaming PC is superior in about every way compared to that barebone kit. There’s two reasons that explains this:

The sellers of barebone kits make a profit, which they you pay. I’m not here to make money off you and the prices that you see on this site are the prices that you’ll pay on NewEgg, Amazon, etc.
I update my builds every 2-3 months, with the best parts available at the moment considering the budget. I wonder, when was the last time that they updated that barebone kit?

In technical details, let’s compare, part per part:
Barebone vs our build:

CPU: Intel Dual-Core E5300 2.6GHz vs AMD Triple-Core X3 425 2.7GHz: The extra core on the AMD CPU will give you the edge in games (most games use 2 cores now, so the third core will take care of overhead such as anti-virus and other background programs), video conversion and other CPU intensive programs.
Motherboard: MSI G31TM-P21 vs ASRock M3A770DE: Where do I start? The MSI is based on the older G31 chipset and socket 775. New Intel CPUs are now on the socket 1156 and 1366, if you want to upgrade your CPU in the future, you’re pretty limited. DDR2 support instead of DDR3 in our build. On the back, the MSI has two PS/2, 4 USBs, LAN and audio. The ASRock featured in our build has an AM3 socket as well as DDR3 support, making it much more future-proof, as well as two PS/2, four USB, two USB/E-SATA combo, LAN and audio.
RAM: Single-channel 1 stick of DDR2 2GB 667MHz vs Dual-Channel two sticks of DDR3 1600MHz 2 GB, for a total of 4GB. Do I need to explain more here?
Video Card: Nvidia Geforce 9800GT vs Radeon 5750. Not only the Radeon 5750 is faster than the Geforce 9800GT, it also consumes less power and supports the lastest DirectX 11.
Hard Drive: Seagate 250GB vs Western Digital 320GB: An extra 70GB in our build, not to mention that Wester Digital drives are considered more reliable.
DVD Burner: LG 22X vs LITE-ON 24x: Once again, our part is faster.
Power Supply: Ultra 500W vs Antec NEO 400W 80PLUS Certified: At a quick glance, the barebone power supply may seem better. However, total power output is only one of many factors to consider in a power supply, as I discussed in Warning: 6 Surefire Ways of Blowing Up Your Computer Due to an Inadequate Power Supply. The problem with the Ultra power supply is the brand: It’s not known for selling reliable power supplies. I had one in the past and I wouldn’t recommend that brand to anyone. Besides, the Antec is more efficient, meaning that it save you a few bucks on your electricity bill, exhaust less heat and be more silent.

In the end, our $500 Gaming PC will offer you much better performance and reliability for the same price.

Q #3: My current system is comprised of a Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H [partly because of the HD3300 on-board GPU, PhenomII 705e 2.5ghz cpu,4gb of OCZ Reaper, 1066mhz ram, WD caviar green 500gb drive,Acer H243H flat panel,and Thermaltake 430watt psu. Not long after putting the system together I got disgusted with the Realtek on-board audio and got a Asus Xonar DX to upgrade.

Then I was looking for better graphics score on the Windows Experience Index,currently 4.6 so i hunted for a low-end video card to use with the on-board GPU, i came up with Gigabyte HD2400XT which has 800mhz clock, so i knew it would at least match the on-board GPU's 700mhz. The Crossfire worked, however the Windows Exp Index remained at 4.6 and 3dMARK wouldnt even run. so i have given up the Hybrid Crossfire idea and are lookin for an ATI card with at least 700mhz clock and 512 or 1gb of [G]ddr3 or better that is going to run with my power supply and also not empty my wallet. Im not a gamer, i basically use the comp for watching movies,streaming video and video conferencing. What would you suggest?

A: I’m curious to know, other than the Windows index score, what is wrong with the onboard Radeon HD 3300?

As far as I know, it should be able to playback movies, stream videos and so on without a problem (Make sure to have updated to the latest drivers though.) and you shouldn’t need a dedicated video card for what you intend to do.

However, if for a particular reason, you really want a dedicated video card with a reasonable price and power consumption, I would suggest taking a look at the Radeon HD 4670.

lt doesn’t require an additional PCI-Express power connector, has 320 Stream Processors (In comparison, the onboard Radeon HD3300 and the Radeon 2400XT have only 40 Stream processors, so the Radeon 4670 has 8 times their the processing power) and a core frequency of 750MHz.

Q #4: I am looking into the Intel i7 860 cpu with the Asus Maximus III Formula. I was wondering if this was the best motherboard in this price range for this chip or is there something else you would recomend?

A: When it comes down to having a lot of ports, features and overclocking headroom, the ASUS Maximus III Formula is considered one of the best motherboard for socket 1156 processors, such as the Intel Core i7 860.

However, at a cost of $250 for the ASUS Maximus III Formula, it’s not exactly cheap. So here are three other, less expensive, options that you should consider:

The GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 is $135 ($115 less!) and also offers SATA 6.0Gb/s as well as USB 3.0 support. The downside is that you don’t get Crossfire support though.
For $170, the ASUS P7P55D PRO will offer most of the features found on the Maximus III Formula, while costing a whole $80 less. Here you get Crossfire support, but no SATA 6.0Gb/s nor USB 3.0
Finally, for $185, the GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P is, in my opinion, the motherboard that offers all the features that you could want (Crossfire, SATA 6.0Gb/s AND USB 3.0) at the best price.

Q #5: I’m currently looking for a video card with VGA out for my TV. I was looking at a GeForce 9800 GTX for 134.99 dollars or the GeForce GT 220 for 109.99 dollars and was wondering if this was a good buy or if there was something better for around the same price?

A: First of all: Avoid the Geforce GT 220 like the plague. It’s anemic power won’t run many games. The 9800 GTX is a good card, but for $135, it is overpriced compared to other options available.

For $95, the Radeon HD 4850 will offer performance comparable to the Geforce 9800GTX while costing you $40 less. It comes with VGA, DVI and HDMI outputs.

Q #6: I have noticed you quit recommending A-data memory, any reason for that?

A: In the end, it usually come downs to price. For many months, A-data had very competitive prices on memory kits and they are known for making reliable memory, hence why I recommended them. Right now, G.Skill are offering great prices on memory kits, hence why I’m recommending them, nothing against A-Data.

Conclusion

Have any question? Leave it below in the comments and I’ll answer it.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this post and that is was useful to you. I’ll publish more of these Q&A in the incoming weeks, to answer all of your questions.

Upcoming Updates:

In March, you can expect to updates to the lower end Gaming PCs, all of the Workstation Builds, as well as all of the HTPCs Builds. I’m also planning a few updates to our popular Best PC Parts articles, where I point out which parts offers the best performance for a given price or the best value.

For more details on what is coming up in March, read the following article: Recap of February and the Schedule of March 2010.

Automatically receive our future articles for free via RSS or Email:

If the fact that you’ll be receiving outstanding custom PC designs for free is not enough to convince you, here are 7 Reasons to get our posts via RSS or Email.

Was this article useful to you? Support me and Hardware Revolution

For each article, I spend many hours of research and many hours of writing/editing and I generously offer it to you and everyone else for free.

My solution is to build a new Workstation PC from scratch, based on a mix of the $500 and $1000 Workstation Builds.

My goal is to raise $1000, which will cover the build, a monitor, shipping and taxes.

To learn more details about this, read: Raising Funds for Hardware Revolution’s New Workstation PC

If this website helped you before, this is your chance to return the favor and help me this time.

Donate what you can (I suggest $5 to $20, but it’s up to you) via the ChipIn widget below (Which will track the donations), which will bring you to a secure Paypal page where you can donate.

Thank you very much for your support,
Mathieu

(If you don’t see the widget, you can donate by clicking the following link:)
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=MEKXWKCGJFVU6

Best Hard Drives & Best SSDs For Your Money: March 2010

Mathieu — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:00:46 +0000

The Internals of a traditional hard drive and a SSD

The Best Hard Drives and Solid State Drives (SSD):

Most of you know well mechanical hard drives and it’s most probably what’s inside of your computer.

In the last few years and more and more as capacity increase and prices decrease, Solid State Drives are slowly but surely about to take over as the best choice for storage.

Solid State Drives have much lower latencies and higher transfer rates compared to mechanical hard drives and at this rate, will be the become the de facto choice for storage in computers in the near future.

Currently at a price of about $145 for 64GB of storage capacity, they are coming down in price quickly, but are still too expensive for the mainstream market at this point. However, if you’re interested in a solution that boots your OS much faster, loads your programs much faster and transfer data faster, you should take a look at SSDs.

For most of you, mechanical hard drives offers a lot of storage for a reasonable price/reasonable performance and remains the best choice. Hence why I’ll be covering both type of drives in this article, separated in two parts:

Best Hard Drives For Your Money
Best SSDs For Your Money

Part 1: The Best Hard Drives For Your Money

If you have the time, reading detailed hard drive reviews and specs are a lot of fun. However, most of us don’t have the time to do the research and just want the answers. In other words, what you want to know is what is the best hard drive within your budget.

So if you don’t have the time to do the research, or just don’t care to do it, don’t worry. I’ll come to your help with this guide of the Best Hard Drive for your money.

Best Hard Drive for ~$50:

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB

A standard SATA II 3.0Gb/s hard drive, that offers 500GB of storage, plenty enough to handle your video/music collection and all your games.

Best Hard Drive for ~$90:

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s

In Tom’s Hardware latest hard drive article, the SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB finishes on top of all transfer rates benchmarks, even ahead of what used to be my recommendation, the Western Digital Caviar Black. Considering that it’s faster and less expensive, there’s no reason for me to not recommend this drive from now on.

This drive offers 1TB (1000 GB) of storage, plenty enough to handle your video/music collection and all your games. This drive comes with 32MB of cache and a 3 years warranty.

Best Hard Drive for ~$110:

SAMSUNG EcoGreen F2 HD154UI 1.5TB

With 1.5TB of storage for only $110, this is the sweet spot when it comes to price per GB, with a cost of ~0.07$ per GB.

This is a “green” drive, meaning that it’s not geared toward the best performance, but rather low power consumption and low noise. Mind you, it’s far from being a slow drive and will be just fine for the majority of you.

At $110 for 1.5TB, it’s perfect for anyone looking for a lot of space at a good price. Since it’s a “green” drive, it’s also good for a HTPC build.

Covered by a 3 years warranty.

Best Hard Drive for ~$180:

Two SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s

For $180, you can get two of my $90 recommendation, the Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB hard drive. Add RAID 0 and you’ll get a very fast setup with 2TB of storage capacity, perfect for a build where performance is what matters most.

You can also choose to go with RAID 1 for data safety, where one of the two drives is an exact copy of the other. Note that you’ll only get half the capacity, 1TB in this case, with such a setup.

Covered by a 3 years warranty.

Alternative

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3EG HD203WI 2TB

For $180, you can also choose this single Spinpoint F3EG 2TB drive. At 5400 rpm, it’s not a speed demon, but rather a “green” drive, meant for low power consumption and noise. An excellent choice if you need a lot of storage space for all your media.

Covered by a 3 years warranty.

Best Hard Drive for ~$280:

Western Digital Caviar Black WD2001FASS 2TB

The Caviar Black series is the performance series from Western Digital, that comes with dual-processor on board as well at 64MB of cache.

If you’re looking for a fast, single-drive setup that can hold all your date, this is the way to go.

As usual, the Caviar Black series is covered with a 5 years warranty.

The Best Solid State Drives (SSD):

Solid state drives are the new hot thing in the computer world right now: Everyone see them superseding hard drives in the next few years as their capacity increase and their prices come down.

Right now, they are still expensive, still are quite a new technology and that means that you need to learn about them and shop for them.

Problem is, which brand and which model should you choose? This is where I come in.

So if you don’t have the time to do the research, or just don’t care to do it, don’t worry. I’ll come to your help with this guide of the Best SSD for your money.

A quick recap on what a SSD is:

You know those flash chips that are used in usb sticks and various memory cards? A SSD is basically several of those chips working in parallel with a controller to bring you higher speed.

There are many advantages to a SSD compared to a traditional spinning mechanical hard drive, such as:

There are no noise, as there are no moving parts.
Less heat emission compared to hard drives, as again, there are no moving parts.
Lower power consumption, because you’ve guessed it, there are no moving parts, which results in longer battery life for laptops and mobile devices.
SSD are much more resistant to shocks than hard drives are.
Much lower latency (in the 0.07ms compared to 7-9ms).
Higher transfer rates for reading (Up to 330 MB/s+) and writing files.

Of course, there are a few cons to SSDs as well. This is a new technology, so the cost per GB is much higher.

What about those reports of SSD slowing down over time?

They are true, but let me explain this quickly for you:

SSD are similar to hard drives in the way that they delete files: They don’t. They simply flag the files as deleted.

What’s the problem? With a hard drive, when you want to use the space occupied by the previous file, the hard drive would simply overwrite it. In the case of a SSD, it needs to erase the file to write again.

Until recently, SSD would delete the file right before writing the new one. Needless to say, this slows down write operations a lot, especially as your SSD gets filled up and you need to erase pretty much any previously deleted file to write new data.

TRIM

TRIM is here to change that through. What TRIM does is erase the file right away, allowing you to write at full speed without waiting to erase previously used space.

Now, to use TRIM, you need a OS that supports it, Windows 7 being the only one as far as I know, although OCZ, Intel and other companies offer software that enables a TRIM-like feature on Vista and XP. You also need a SSD that supports TRIM obviously.

Various drives now support TRIM. However note that no SSD setup supports TRIM in RAID at the moment.

If you want to learn more about SSDs, I highly recommend The SSD Anthology: Understanding SSDs article from Anandtech, a very complete and detailed article on SSD. A must read in my opinion.

With that said, let’s move on to my recommendations.

Keep in mind:

I’ll use this opportunity to remind you that this article is only a guideline for the prices I’ve seen on March 8th. You’re letting yourself down if you’re not looking for deals when you decide to purchase.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you read this list:

Prices and availability change everyday. I can’t keep up with accurate pricing everyday, but I can suggest to you great SSD that you won’t regret buying at the price ranges that I list.
This list is based on the best U.S. prices from NewEgg and Amazon. In other countries or in a retail stores, things might be different. All prices are based on new SSD prices.

Best SSD for $145:

Kingston 64GB 200(R)/110(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD TRIM

A great drive for starters, with performance of up to 200MB/s read and up to 110MB/s write and a capacity of 64GB. TRIM is supported out of the box.

This kit comes with a 2.5″ to 3.5″ adapter as well as cloning software. It is backed up with a 3 years warranty from Kingston.

Best SSD for ~$250:

Kingston 128GB 200(R)/160(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD TRIM

Offering performance of up to 200MB/s read and up to 160MB/s write and a capacity of 128GB.

With 128GB of storage for only $250, this is the sweet spot when it comes to price per GB for SSDs, with a cost of ~1.95$ per GB.

This kit comes with a 2.5″ to 3.5″ adapter as well as cloning software. It is backed up with a 3 years warranty from Kingston.

Best SSD for ~$500:

Two Kingston 128GB 200(R)/160(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD TRIM for 256GB

If you want 256GB of storage with SSD technology for the lower price, your best bet right now is to get two of the Kingston 128GB drives that I just recommended above, which will set you back $500 ($250 x 2) for 256GB (128GB x 2)

Now, I recommend that you don’t enable RAID on these, as TRIM is unsupported with RAID at this point.

Each of these drives come with a 2.5″ to 3.5″ adapter as well as cloning software. They are backed up with a 3 years warranty from Kingston.

Best SSD for ~$720:

Kingston 256GB 230(R)/180(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD TRIM

If you prefer to have a single 256GB SSD drive, this is the one that offers the best bang for buck. At $720, it offers performances up to 230MB/s in Read and up to 180MB/s in Write.

This kit comes an 2.5″ to 3.5″ adapter as well as cloning software. It is backed up with a 3 years warranty from Kingston.

Conclusion

Regarding my recommendations of going with Kingston SSDs:

At this point, I’m sure that some of you will think that Kingston paid me to write this review of something. First of all, let me clarify this: No manufacturer has ever paid me or offered me any product, reward or any sort of advantage to write a review that favors them. I intend to keep it that way.

This review is based on my opinions only: At this point in time, here’s why I’m recommending Kingston SSDs:

They offer TRIM support out of the box, without any firmware update, making SSDs a whole lot more user-friendly.
While they don’t THE best performance for SSDs (Read more about performance in these benchmarks from AnandTech), in my opinion they offer the best features (TRIM support out of the box, very respectable performance that will outclass any mechanical hard drive) at a relative low cost for SSDs.

This is why I recommend the Kingston SSDs. In my opinion, they are currently the best offer if you’re looking into buying your first SSD, whether it’s meant as an upgrade to a system or a new boot drive for a new system.

It’s with pleasure that I complete this edition of the Best Hard Drives/SSDs for your money. I hope that it was useful to you.

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For more details on what is coming up in March, read the following article: Recap of February and the Schedule of March 2010.

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$2000 Gaming PC: Who else wants a 128GB SSD?

Mathieu — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 23:00:04 +0000

Recently updated Gaming PCs:

$400 Gaming Build, $500 Gaming Build, $600 Gaming Build, $700 Gaming Build, $850 Gaming Build, $1000 Gaming Build, $1250 Gaming Build and the $1500 Gaming Build.

The Kingston 128GB SSD: The Star of This System.

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For more details on what is coming up in March, read the following article: Recap of February and the Schedule of March 2010.

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About the $2000 Gaming Build:

My thoughts about it:

When I started to consider which parts to recommend for this build, I took a look at the $1500 Gaming Build and asked myself the following: “Which parts should be upgraded in order to offer the most perceivable performance boost? What will offer you (the reader) the best bang for your buck?”

I then looked at every part, one by one. I stop and asked myself if the cost of upgrading a part would bring any real-life benefit. Could the money be invested on another part instead, that would give you a better experience overall?

The choices that I made in my recommendations for this build will reflect that way of thinking. This build, in my opinion, is the pinnacle of what you can get for a $2000 Gaming Build. Enjoy!

What does this enhanced version of the $2000 Gaming Build offers compared to the previous version?

This version makes a switch from an Intel Core i7 920 processor to the faster Intel Core i7-860, which offers an higher default frequency as well as higher frequencies with the Turbo mode, while consuming less power and allowing you to save on the platform cost in order to invest your money on parts that are more worth it.

Obviously, the motherboard had to change, due to the change from socket 1366 to 1156, from the Foxconn FlamingBlade 1366 Intel X58 to the GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P 1156 P55 SATA6Gb/s USB3.0. Not only is it less expensive, it is also offers SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 support unlike the previous recommendation.

Due to the motherboard platform change, the memory was changed from a three-stick kit, the G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 Triple Channel, to a dual-channel kit, with 4 sticks though: G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 1600MHz.

The Video Card changed from the Radeon 5970, which is currently out of stock and up in price to $700, to two Radeon 5850 in Crossfire. While two Radeon 5850 in Crossfire are slightly slower, they cost $80 less, are available and still offer plentyyy enough power to run pretty much any game that you throw at them.

This build now features the excellent Samsung 1TB hard drive, which is faster than the previous recommendation, the Western Digital Caviar Black and allows you to buy two of them and put them in RAID 0 for superior performance, or have secure data with RAID 1. With Western Digital drives, you have to buy their “RAID-Edition” drives, which of course, are more expensive.

The Solid State Drive (SSD) was changed from the previous OCZ Vertex Series 2.5″ 60GB SATA II MLC SSD to the Kingston 128GB 200(R)/160(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD TRIM which offers over two times the capacity for only $10 more!

The Case was changed from the COOLER MASTER HAF 932 to the LIAN LI PC-K62, a slightly more compact case. Some of you complained that the Cooler Master HAF 932 was too big, hence the change. LIAN LI are known for making very high-quality case and the PC-K62 is no exception. Note that the Cooler Master HAF 932 is available as an upgrade option if you still want it.

The power supply was changed from the Corsair 850-Watt Modular CF/SLI/80 PLUS Silver to the Seventeam 850W CrossFire/80 PLUS Bronze Certified. While it is slightly less efficient, it is much less expensive, at $120, allowing you to put money on other parts instead.

Finally, the sound card was changed from on-board sound to a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 24-bit PCI. For only $25, this dedicated sound card will provide much better sound to your ears.

There’s a lot of change to this build, all for the better performance, storage and experience for you. I hope that you like it and I invite you to comment on the changes at the end of the article, in the comments section.

Computer Builds FAQs:

I often get questions such as:

Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?
Can you suggest me a step by step guide to build a computer?
Why should I build a PC instead of buying one in a store?
And many more…

You will find the answers to all of these questions and more in this article: FAQ: How to Build Your Own Computer

Also, if this is your first build, here are 10 Quick Tips for 1st Time Builders to get you started.

About Gaming PCs:

Is this the right type of PC for me?

If you’re looking for a PC to play video games, you’re at the right place. If this is not what you’re looking for, check out our other Computer Systems instead.

$2000 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

Explanation:

In the left column, you have the component type, such as the Processor, Video Card, etc.
In the middle column, you have the specific brand, model and a quick look at specifications for that part.
In the right column, you’ll find the best price that I found after double-checking at various trustworthy online sellers such as Amazon.com, NewEgg.com, Buy.com and others.
In Bold, you’ll find my recommendations for the parts that you should buy in order to have the best overall performance while fitting the overall budget.
In Italic, you’ll find the best possible upgrades if you have money to spare. These are the parts that offer better features or more performance, while still being relatively affordable in regard to the overall budget.
In simple terms, if you want a more powerful CPU or video card, pick it from the list of recommended upgrades that are in Italic.
All upgrades are compatible with the rest of the system, as well as other upgrades, meaning that you can choose one or many upgrades without a problem.
If upgrades just don’t cut it, visit the Gaming PCs page, where you’ll find our other gaming computer custom build designs.

Components	Make, Model and Specifications	Price
CPU/Processor	Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz Quad-Core + HT 1156 95W Intel Core i7-870 Lynnfield 2.93GHz Quad-Core + HT 1156 95W	$280 $540
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P 1156 P55 SATA6Gb/s USB3.0 ASUS Maximus III Formula P55 Crossfire8x/8x	$185 $250
RAM	G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 1600MHz	$240
Video Card	Two XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB in Crossfire Radeon HD 5970 2GB 512(256 x 2)-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11 * Requires one of the larger cases, as it’s a longggg card Two Radeon HD 5870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11 in Crossfire*	$620 $650 $798
Hard Drive	SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s Two SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s RAID 0 or 1 Kingston 128GB 200(R)/160(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD TRIM Corsair 120GB 250(R)/170(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD TRIM Corsair 128GB 270(R)/195(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD TRIM All SSDs come with a 2.5″ to 3.5″ adapter bracket, so no need to buy one.	$90 $180 $250 $330 $370
Optical Drive	LITE-ON Black 24X SATA CD/DVD Burner LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Reader LG 10X Blu-ray, 16X DVD, 48X CD SATA Burner	$24 $62 $149
Power Supply	Seventeam 850W CrossFire/80 PLUS Bronze Certified	$120
Case	LIAN LI PC-K62 1x 120mm, 3x 140mm case fans Mini Towers for a LAN party PC: LIAN LI PC-A05NB Mini Tower* 2 x 120mm* Other “regular” case alternatives: Antec Nine Hundred 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200mm case fans Antec Nine Hundred Two 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200mm case fans COOLER MASTER HAF 922 – 1x 120mm 2x 200mm fans * Antec Twelve Hundred 5x 120mm, 1x 200mm case fans * COOLER MASTER HAF 932 1 x 140mm, 3 x 200mm case fans * SILVERSTONE KUBLAI KL03-BW 2 x 120mm case fans * COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 4 x 120mm case fans * * The Radeon 5970 will only fit in those cases	$100 $100 $100 $110 $110 $160 $160 $170 $180
Cooling	COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU CoolerARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound CORSAIR All-in-One Water-Cooling CPU Cooler Rosewill 120mm Case Fan Scythe 120mm “Slipstream” Case Fan	$35 $8 $78 $4 $9
Sound	Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 24-bit PCI	$25
Network	Ethernet RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mbps: Integrated on the motherboard	Free
Total price	Not Including OS, Shipping nor handling. Within -/+ 5% of Budget	$1977

$2000 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard:

GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD4P 1156 P55 SATA6Gb/s USB3.0

This is an ATX sized motherboard based on the Intel P55 chipset, that supports Core i3/i5/i7 processors with the LGA 1156 socket.

It features the following:

Ports on the back: Six USB 2.0, two USB 3.0, two E-SATA/USB 2.0 Combo, one regular and one mini Firewire, two PS/2, dual LAN, 8 channels HD audio and 1 x Optical, 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF outputs.
Expansion slots: Two PCI-Express 16X 2.0 (One at 16x or Two at 8x), Three PCI-Express 1x, two PCI.
Storage ports: Six SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports, two SATA 6.0Gb/s, one IDE with support for two devices.

I picked this board as it supports Crossfire while giving you the possibility of adding expansion cards, like the sound card that I recommend. Also, unlike boards from ASUS, boards from Gigabyte do not bottleneck USB 3.0/SATA 6.0GB/s when you have two cards in Crossfire/SLI.

Finally, the layout will allow you to put the dedicated sound card in the last PCI port.

Recommended upgrades:

ASUS Maximus III Formula P55 Crossfire8x/8x – This is the enthusiast/overclocker’s choice. If you want all the features and/or push your computer to its limits, this is the way to go. Good to know: It includes a Supreme X-Fi sound card, which is a nice step-up from onboard sound. However, it does not feature SATA 6.0Gb/s nor USB 3.0.

CPU:

Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz Quad-Core + HT 1156 95W

The other contenders in the same price range would have been the AMD Phenom II X4 965BE or Intel’s own Core i7 920. I picked the Intel Core i7 860 over them simply because it is faster than both of them when it comes to gaming, according to AnandTech. They also said this about the Core i7 860 vs the Core i7 920: “In terms of cost effectiveness, the Core i7 860 is the way to go. With cheaper motherboards and higher operating frequencies than a Core i7 920, for the majority of users the 860 will be the better pick.”

I couldn’t agree more with that statement. I also have to mention that the Core i7 860 consumes only 95W instead of 130W for the Core i7 920 and that its turbo frequencies are much higher: Bloomfield processors (Core i7 920 and other socket 1366 Core i7) are limited to a 133MHz boost with 4 active cores or 266Mhz with a single active core. Meaning that the Core i7 920, which at stock runs at 2.66GHz, won’t go any faster than 2.93GHz.

The Lynnfield based Core i7 860, which starts at 2.80GHz, also gets only an extra 133Mhz with 4 or 3 actives cores, up to 2.93GHz. However, things get interesting with 2 active cores will hit 3.33GHz or even better, 3.46GHz with a single active core. If you consider that most programs, especially video games, still only use one or two cores, this is where the Lynnfield based Core i7 860 shines.

Recommended upgrades:

Intel Core i7-870 Lynnfield 2.93GHz Quad-Core + HT 1156 95W – While it’s only 133MHz faster at stock, the Core i7-870 main advantage over the Core i7-860 is its even higher turbo frequencies. With three or four actives cores, it hits 3.20GHz (333MHz more than the Core i7 860), with two cores 3.46GHz and finally, with a single core, nothing short of 3.60GHZ (133 MHz more than the Core i7 860).

Video Card:

Two XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB in Crossfire

Note: By Two, I mean Buy the card twice, so you can link the two cards using the Crossfire Technology.

Second only to the Radeon 5970 or the Radeon HD 5870 in Crossfire, faster than Nvidia’s best single GPU video card, the Geforce GTX 285. This setup is also faster than Nvidia’s best card, the dual-GPU Geforce GTX 295.

When you put two of them in Crossfire, the Radeon 5850 offers a LOT of performance for the price asked. With these cards, can this PC play Crysis, with full details at 1080p? You bet it can, it is not a problem with these cards. For more details on Radeon 5850 Crossfire Performance and how they compare to Nvidia’s cards, see this article from AnandTech.

The Radeon 5850 supports DirectX 11 and it is perfect for gaming at 1920 x 1080 (1080p) or even 2560 x 1600, with high details, AA and AF. It also has a 1GB of memory buffer on each card, to handle games such as GTA: 4.

Finally, it is HDCP Ready and will handle Blu-Ray and other 1080p content playback, with audio over HDMI as well, with most audio setup (2.1, 5.1, 7.1, etc.).

Note that all the recommended motherboards support Crossfire.

Recommended upgrades:

Radeon HD 5970 2GB 512(256 x 2)-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11- If you can find it in stock, the dual-GPU Radeon 5970 is a good alternative to the two Radeon 5850 in Crossfire. This card is basically two Radeon 5870 in Crossfire on one card, although with reduced frequencies, giving you higher performance than two Radeon 5850 in Crossfire, while consuming less power. This is the perfect solution if you don’t want to spend more for a motherboard upgrade.However, due to its length, you’ll need to upgrade the case to one that supports its length. See the Case section lower for more details on that.
Two Radeon HD 5870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11 in Crossfire - If you want to run Crysis: Warhead maxed up at 1920 x 1080 or simply want a future-proof solution, this is the way to go.This is faster than the Radeon 5970 as you get two Radeon 5870 with their full frequencies here.

Quick tip: Remember to attach the Crossfire cable to the two video cards and to download the latest drivers, which can be found here.

RAM:

G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 1600MHz

For a $2000 Gaming Computer, 4GB of RAM will eventually become a bottleneck as video games and programs demand more and more memory, especially if you like to multitask. With a price difference of slightly more than $100 between 4GB and 8GB, you’re better off in the long run with 8GB.

I went with G.Skill for their lifetime warranty, high reliability and compatibility with the majority of motherboards. I chose these particular sticks as they only require 1.35V to run at 1600MHz, resulting in lower power consumption, but more importantly, because they have a low CAS latency of 7 and good tight timings at 7-8-7-24-2N.

With the starting low voltage 1.35V, you have a lot of headroom to raise the voltage (Maximum of 1.65V to not damage the processor) to overclock them even further.

Note: This RAM may not run at 1600MHz to begin with. This is normal, you simply need to adjust your BIOS settings to reach that speed.

In my opinion, there is little incentive to move to faster frequency RAM, as it brings only a small performance increase (According to Tom’s Hardware ) for a much higher price. DDR3 1600MHz is the sweet spot, costing about the same as lower speed, offering good performance and overclocking headroom.

Hard Drive:

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s

This drive offers 1TB (1000 GB) of storage, plenty enough to handle your video/music collection and all your games. This drive comes with 32MB of cache and a 3 years warranty.

Recommended upgrades:

Two SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s RAID 0 or 1 – If one of these top-notch hard drive doesn’t offer enough performance and/or storage, you can simply pick two of them and put them in RAID0 for enhanced performance, but with two hard drives in RAID0 come greater chance of losing your data, as in if either drive fails, you lose all your data .

To prevent that, to keep your data more safe, you may choose to go with RAID 1, which however will give the capacity of only one of the two drives, as the other will be used to backup your data in real-time.

Kingston 128GB 200(R)/160(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD

This SSD from Kingston brings the SSD well-known performance (200MB/s Read – 110MB/s Write transfer rates, not to mention the nearly instant access times, that are light-years ahead of the best hard drives), along with TRIM support with Windows 7, at a new low price of $249, this is one of the few SSDs that I can recommend with a price of less than $2/GB ($1.95/GB to be exact).

With 128GB, you can easily install Windows as well as your important games and programs. The regular hard hard drive has 1TB to store various media content. Note that it comes with a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter to mount this SSD in regular hard drive bays, so no need to buy one.

Recommended upgrades:

Corsair 120GB 250(R)/170(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD TRIM Like the Kingston model, it supports TRIM and comes with a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter. For $80 more than the Kingston model, you get an additional 50MB/s in Read speeds and an additional 10MB/s in Write speed.
Corsair 128GB 270(R)/195(W) MB/s 2.5″ SSD TRIM Like the Kingston model, it supports TRIM and comes with a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter. For $120 more than the Kingston model, you get an additional 70MB/s in Read speeds and an additional 35MB/s in Write speed.

Optical Drive:

LITE-ON Black 24X SATA CD/DVD Burner

This drive is able to read and burn CDs and DVDs. Silent, compatible with all the main formats, including DVD-RAM.

The motherboard includes four SATA cables (One will be used for the hard drive and one for this DVD Burner), so no need to worry about cables.

Also, seeing as DVD Burners are often go out of stock lately, here are two alternatives that you can use to replace it. All are SATA based.

Upgrades:

What if you want more than just a DVD Burner? No problem.

LITE-ON Black 4X BD-ROM 8X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA Reader – This drive will allow you to read CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray disks, for the price of only$62, which is really inexpensive if you remember how much Blu-Ray readers were going for recently. However, note that this drive cannot burn any type of disks, it is exclusively a reader. To burn disks, see the next upgrade below.
LG 10X Blu-ray, 16X DVD, 48X CD SATA Burner – If you want to burn CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray disks, this is the best deal right, at $149.

Case:

LIAN LI PC-K62 1×120mm, 3×140mm case fans

This is a solid case, from Lian Li, known for the quality of their craftsmanship. It looks good, offers plenty of cooling, tool-less installation and best of all, the PC-K62 features cable management clips for the bottom-mounted power supply, helping you keep your build clean.

Interesting Fact: 95% of its buyers on NewEgg gave it either a 4 egg ratings (13%) or a 5 eggs rating (82%), a testament to how satisfied the buyers of that case are.

LIAN LI PC-A05NB Mini Tower 2 x 120mm – If you’re looking for a case to fit a powerful gaming rig that is light, solid and portable enough to carry around to LAN parties, take a look at this case.
Antec Nine Hundred 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200mm case fans – Who hasn’t heard of the Antec Nine Hundred really? One of the most popular cases of all time (as far as I know), a favorite amongst gamers.
Antec Nine Hundred Two 3 x 120mm, 1 x 200mm case fans – The successor to the Nine Hundred, which brings improvements such as adjustable fan speeds on the back of the case, the inside of the case painted in black and more.
COOLER MASTER HAF 922 – 1x 120mm 2x 200mm fans* – Cooler Master’s answer to the Antec Nine Hundred, this is an excellent alternative that I like recommending due to its look (which you either love or hate) and most importantly because you can install a Radeon 5970 video card, currently the longest video card on the market.
Antec Twelve Hundred 5x 120mm, 1x 200mm case fans * Meet the Antec 900’s big brother, the Twelve Hundred. Make no mistake, this is a full-size tower case, which means there’s a lot of ventilation and space for all your parts.
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 1 x 140mm, 3 x 200mm case fans * The Cooler Master HAF 932 is the HAF 922 bigger and meaner version, with more space and more ventilation.
SILVERSTONE KUBLAI KL03-BW 2 x 120mm case fans * – If you want additional cooling for your video card(s), look no further. With slots for 120mm fans on the side (you need to buy the fans unfortunately) dedicated to the video card(s), this is ideal to push your video cards to the limit when overclocking. This case is really targeted to users with long video cards, as it comes with six adjustable fingers to hold peripheral cards in place. When you have long (and heavy) cards it is somewhat common for them to lift a little bit out of their slots during transportation, even if they are correctly screwed to the case, so this is a nice touch from Silverstone.
COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 4 x 120mm case fans * If you’re looking for a case that’s easy to use, has plenty of space and a unique design, look no further. Best of all: The case was designed with sound suppression in mind, for example, the side panel is equipped with sound dampening material.

* The Radeon 5970 video card upgrade will only fit in the cases marked with an asterisk (*)

Power Supply:

Seventeam 850W CrossFire/80 PLUS Bronze Certified

This power supply is capable of delivering up to 850W, not that should rely on this information only as I often point in posts such as Warning: 6 Surefire Ways of Blowing Up Your Computer Due to an Inadequate Power Supply, but more importantly 65A on the 12V line, the most important factor when it comes to choosing a power supply for a gaming computer.

If you haven’t heard of Seventeam before, don’t be afraid. While they are not a well-known company such as Antec or Corsair, they make power supplies of a quality that matches Antec and Corsair power supplies. Moving on to about this power supply: 850W, 65A on the 12V lines and 80 PLUS Bronze certification. With such specs, this power supply will handle the higher-end video cards upgrades available in this build as well as heavy overclocking. For $120, this is a bargain for such a powerful and reliable power supply.

Its 80 PLUS Bronze certification helps this power supply stay cool, silent and keep your electricity bill reasonable.

Power Consumption:

According to the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator, it is estimated that this system will consume at load (peak usage):

~ 400W with the recommended Core i7 860 and the two Radeon 5850 in Crossfire, at stock.
~ 450W with the recommended Core i7 860 heavily overclocked and the two Radeon 5850 in Crossfire (Or the Radeon 5970), at stock.
~ 500-550W with the recommended Core i7 860 heavily overclocked and the two Radeon 5850 in Crossfire (Or the Radeon 5970), overclocked as well.
~ 550-600W with the recommended Core i7 860 heavily overclocked and the two Radeon 5870 in Crossfire, overclocked as well.

This goes to prove how efficient these new Radeon 58xx cards are, especially compared to the older Radeon 48xx series.

Cooling:

COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus 120mm CPU Cooler

Tom’s Hardware recently compared ten CPU cooler for the socket 1156, and declared that the Cooler Master Hyper 212 offered the best performance for the price, or the best value.

The reason for that is that it cools relatively well and costs only $30, a bargain for a good heatsink.

If you have something more high-end, consider the CORSAIR All-in-One Water-Cooling CPU Cooler. Many say that if performs just a well as a custom water-cooling system that you’ve built from separated parts, while obviously being much more simple and less expensive, at $80. Being an all-in-one kit, it requires nearly no assembly, doesn’t require any messy fill up and is surprisingly easy to install.

Also to consider:

Thermal Compound: Use the ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound either with the stock cooler or better, with the upgraded CPU cooler to lower your CPU temperatures further more. For $8, this is a wise investment.
Case cooling: You usually can add up at least one additional 120 mm fans in any of the recommended case and I highly recommend that you add one on the side, to help keep your video card cool, but the best is to get two. Obviously, double-check with the case that you choose first before buying any additional case fans. If you’re on a tight budget and don’t mind a bit of noise at 29.3 dBA, the Rosewill 120mm Case Fan is a good choice. Go for the Scythe 120mm “Slipstream” Case Fan if you’re looking for a higher-quality, more silent fan. This particular model is relatively silent at only 24dBA.

Sound Card:

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 24-bit 96KHz PCI

This sound card will handle many different sound setups, including headphones, a microphone and more. While integrated audio on a PC has gotten much better, for $25 out of a $2000 budget, you’re still much better with a dedicated sound card.

Note: The ASUS Maximus III motherboard upgrades come with a Supreme X-Fi sound card, so no need to buy a sound card for it.

Network: Dual Ethernet RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN: Integrated on the motherboard

Integrated with the motherboard, these dual network adapters will allow you to access your local network and Internet.

Recommended operating systems:

The operating system cost, if there’s one, is not included in the total cost. The two reason for this are:

The budget only considers hardware.
You may be able re-use a previous license, go with an open-source OS such as Linux or, if you’re so inclined and are aware of what you’re doing, use torrents.

If you decide that you need an OS, here are some recommendations:

Windows 7

Windows 7 is by far better than Windows Vista, looks better, more functional, less annoying, consumes less resources and brings DirectX 11 to the table.

Three Available Versions:

Windows 7 Home Premium: The basic edition, with all the looks, most of the functionality and DirectX 11.
Windows 7 Professional: If you want the virtual XP mode, you’ll need at least the Professional edition. Also required if you want to backup to a network, using the built-in backup mode in Windows.
Windows 7 Ultimate: To help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker and to work and switch between 35 languages.

OEM vs Retail:

Other than that, you get the same features on both, only the license differs. The price between the two differs obviously.

OEM Versions:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM – $105
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OEM – $140
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OEM – $180

Retail Versions:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Retail – $180
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Retail – $269
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Retail – $292

Linux

Cost: Free

Conclusion

What do you think of this updated version of the $2000 Gaming PC?

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Building this system?

Do you need a guide on how to build a computer or do you have some questions?

Consult our: FAQ: How to Build Your Own Computer

Also, if this is your first build, here are 10 Quick Tips for 1st Time Builders to get you started.

Finally, if your newly built computer won’t start, I invite you to read Help me: Why won’t my newly assembled PC start or boot?

Did you enjoy this build? Support me and Hardware Revolution

For each article, I spend many hours of research and many hours of writing/editing and I generously offer it to you and everyone else for free.

My solution is to build a new Workstation PC from scratch, based on a mix of the $500 and $1000 Workstation Builds.

My goal is to raise $1000, which will cover the build, a monitor, shipping and taxes.

To learn more details about this, read: Raising Funds for Hardware Revolution’s New Workstation PC

If this website helped you before, this is your chance to return the favor and help me this time.

Donate what you can (I suggest $5 to $20, but it’s up to you) via the ChipIn widget below (Which will track the donations), which will bring you to a secure Paypal page where you can donate.

Thank you very much for your support,
Mathieu

(If you don’t see the widget, you can donate by clicking the following link:)
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=MEKXWKCGJFVU6

Raising Funds for Hardware Revolution’s New Workstation PC

Mathieu — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 23:00:36 +0000

What is this about?

My current “workstation” from which I manage Hardware Revolution and write articles on, an HP tx1000 tablet laptop, has been plagued with problems for the last few months and could now fail at any time.

A design flaw causes this laptop to keep overheating and given some time, this excess heat breaks down the solder connections between the motherboard and the integrated video card, a Nvidia Geforce 6150Go, which is one of the many defective GPUs that Nvidia sold recently.

Unfortunately for me, I was not aware of these problems when I bought this used laptop last year and HP never issued a recall on the TX1000, despite literally hundreds of HP tx1000 owners complaining on HP support forums.

My failed attempts to fix it:

Despite all my attempts to fix the problem, such as modding the laptop cooling system, I couldn’t fix it, simply because at the root of the problems lie a mix of a failing GPU chip and a laptop that has a design flaw, as its cooling system can’t properly exhaust all the heat.

On a daily basis, for the last 3-4 months, I had to underclock and undervolt the CPU to 1.2GHz (From 2.3GHz originally) using RMClock and avoid CPU intensive tasks such as video converting or Flash content, to basically avoid heat from the CPU as much as possible.

In simple words, to keep this laptop in a working state, I had to cripple the CPU to about half its original speed.

In the last two months or so, if I fail to do that or just after 2-3 days of regular use, my laptop will either shutdown unexpectedly or simply refuse to boot.

What I have to do to keep it working:

To temporarily fix it and get it to boot, I have to turn it on (with no boot), wrap it in a thick blanket and leave it on for 45 minutes. All the heat that builds allows the solder that connects the GPU with the motherboard to flow and right after turning off the laptop, I have to press and hold hard the J,K and L keys (located above the GPU) for a minute.

After letting the laptop cool down for 15 minutes, I usually can turn it on and it will boot. Sometimes however, it won’t and I have to repeat that process again.

Needless to say, every time that I have to do this, I waste an hour (or two) of valuable time where I could have written content for Hardware Revolution. Also, eventually, with all heat that builds up during the “fixing” process, a part will most likely fail once and for all, leaving me with no computer to work on Hardware Revolution.

Everyday, I wonder if my laptop is going to last through the day, it’s really not what I would call a reliable computer at this point.

The Solution:

HP offers a motherboard for about $400 USD. However, according to the people who tried this, it doesn’t fix the problem, as the replacement motherboard plagued with the same defective GPU and only fails in the same way after a few months. So I’m not considering this option.

Instead, in April, I’ll build a new desktop Workstation PC from scratch, based on a mix of the $500 and $1000 Workstation Builds.

How can you help:

My goal is to raise $1000, which will cover the build, a monitor, shipping and taxes.

In return, I pledge to post a series in April where I’ll show first-time builders how to build a PC from scratch, with a step-by-step guide with many videos and pictures.

If this website helped you before, this is your chance to return the favor and help me this time.

Donate what you can (I suggest $5 to $20, but it’s up to you) via the ChipIn widget below (Which will track the donations), which will bring you to a secure Paypal page where you can donate.

Thank you very much for your support,
Mathieu

(If you don’t see the widget, you can donate by clicking the following link:)
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=MEKXWKCGJFVU6

Updated Web PC

Mathieu — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 23:00:38 +0000

Today, I took some time to update the Web PC.

I updated the following:

Motherboard: Updated from the now unavailable ASRock N68PV-GS GeForce 7050 Micro ATX to the ASRock K10N78M GeForce 8100 Micro ATX. For only $5 more, this model offers full speed HT link (2600MT/s compared to only 1000MT/s before) as well as the latest generation PCI-Express (2.0 compared to 1.0 before).
RAM: Updated from Kingston 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 MHz to the A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800MHz, due to better price and reviews on the A-DATA kit.
Case: Updated from the now unavailable Rosewill R226-P-BK ATX Mid Tower with 120mm fan to the GIGABYTE gz-ph1a3. Same price, but you can buy the Gigabyte case, as opposed to the Rosewill which is now unavailable.

As you can see, it’s not a big upgrade, with major performance gains, but rather a simple update to make sure all the parts are in stock and to make sure that you get the best parts possible for the price.

You can view the New and Updated Web PC here.

The Best Video Cards For Your Money: March 2010

Mathieu — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:00:41 +0000

Geforce GTX 480: Coming March 26th

March 2010 update:

AMD has been busy in the last two months:

In January, they released the Radeon 5670. Compared to the Radeon 4670 that it replaces, it makes sense, as it faster and support all the goodies from the Radeon 5xxx series: DirectX 11, Eyefinity triple-display outputs and low power consumption.

However, starting at $90, it’s priced too closely to the older, yet much more powerful Radeon 4850, which can be found starting at $100, so it doesn’t get my recommendation as far as getting the best card for your money.

In February, AMD introduced the Radeon 5450, a card not really targeted to regular gamers, rather to HTPC users or casual gamers who play older games.

They also released the Radeon 5570, which is basically a DDR3 version of the Radeon 5670, but with prices starting at $85, it doesn’t make sense to not save up a few more dollars and get a better card such as the Geforce 9600 GT or the Radeon 4850.

Finally, they just launched the Radeon 5830, a card meant to fill the gap between the $160 Radeon 5770 and the $300 Radeon 5850. Compared to the Radeon 4890 that it’s meant to replace, it is only a tad slower. With the Radeon 4890, which can now be found for $220 and is now getting harder and harder to find in stock, the Radeon 5830 is a worthy replacement for only $20 more considering that it requires a lot less power to run, operates cooler and supports DirectX 11 as well as Eyefinity

The best video card for your money?

By that, I mean the cards that offer the best performance at a given price. Why would you want that, you ask?

Because you want the best bang for the buck, because you want the best possible card for your hard-earned money and because you want the highest FPS possible!

If you have the time, reading detailed video card reviews and specs are a lot of fun. However, most of us don’t have the time to do the research and just want the answers. In other words, what you want to know is what is the best video card within your budget.

So if you don’t have the time to do the research, or just don’t care to do it, don’t worry. I’ll come to your help with this guide of the best video card for your money.

Keep in mind:

I’ll use this opportunity to remind you that this article is only a guideline for the prices I’ve seen on January 5th. You’re letting yourself down if you’re not looking for deals when you decide to purchase.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you read this list:

This list is for gamers who want the best bang for the buck. If you don’t play videos games, the cards in this list are way overkill.
This list is based on the best U.S. prices from NewEgg and/or Amazon. Prices and availability change everyday. I can’t keep up with accurate pricing everyday, but I can suggest to you great cards that you won’t regret buying at the price ranges that I list.
All prices are based on new card prices, no used or open box cards are listed; they might be a good deal, but they come with trade offs, such as limited return policy, limited warranty, etc.
ATI’s Stream Processors and Nvidia’s Stream Processors are quite different, so do not rely on that spec to compare cards from both company. Instead, this spec should be used to compare cards within the same company.
Each video card will perform more or less well depending on the game played, as each game have different requirements. Also, some games run better on Nvidia or on ATI/AMD hardware.You may be able to crank up the graphics settings on some games or have to lower it a notch on others, compared to what I say below.
The resolution that I mention below should only be used as a guideline to give you an idea of the capability of the chosen video card on recent games. As a rule of thumb, the older the game, the higher you can set your settings and the other way around with newer games.

Best video card for ~$60:

Radeon HD 4670 512MB DDR3

While there are cards priced at $50 or so, such as the Radeon 4650, they are hard to recommend due to their slower DDR2, which limits their performance pretty badly. You’re better off saving a tad more, to get $60 and a Radeon 4670 with DDR3.

Good to know:
The Radeon 4670 doesn’t need an extra power connector, taking all the power it needs from the PCI-Express slot.

This card will do the job at 1280 x 1024 and even 1680 x 1050 although you might have to lower details in some games.

Be careful to buy a version equipped with DDR3 and not the slower DDR2 that would impair performance.

Alternative: If you prefer Nvidia video cards, the GeForce 9600 GSO 512MB is a worthy alternative, as it offers performance on par with the Radeon 4670. The drawback is that it requires an additional 6-pin PCI-Express power connector and consumes more power.

Best video card for ~$100:

Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3

The Radeon 4850 is still in stock, although we have no idea for how long. This might just be your last chance to grab one at this low price of $100.

This card will do the job at 1440 x 900 and even 1680 x 1050 although you might have to lower details in some games.
Alternatives:

The Radeon HD 4770 512MB GDDR5 is a good alterntive. Although it is slower by a few % compared to Radeon 4850, it is produced on 40nm process instead of 55nm, meaning that it runs cooler and consumes less power. It is also available for $99.

If you prefer Nvidia cards and don’t mind spending an extra $10, the GeForce GTS 250 512MB GDDR3 is also an excellent alternative as it performs on par with the Radeon 4850, being faster in some games and slower in others.

Best Video Card for ~$120-$140: None

While the Radeon 5750 is a good video card, performing on par with the older Radeon 4850 while offering lower power consumption, DirectX 11 and Eyefinity support, its price went up lately and at its current price of $140, it is too close to our next recommendation at $160, the Radeon 5770, to be worth a recommendation.

Best video card for ~$160 :

Radeon HD 5770 1GB DDR5

With the Radeon 4870 no longer available and the Geforce GTX 260 being expensive, as it is now starting at $200, the Radeon 5770 is the king of the hill at the $160 price point.

Performing pretty much on par with its predecessor, the Radeon 4870, but bringing in DirectX 11 support for future games coming this year and consuming much less power, especially at idle, this card is a nice balance between power, power consumption and price.

This card will do the job at 1680 x 1050 and even 1920 x 1080 although you might have to lower details in some games.

Best video card for ~$240:

Radeon HD 5830 1GB GDDR5

Compared to the Radeon 4890 that it’s meant to replace, the Radeon 5830 is only a tad slower. With the Radeon 4890, which can now be found for $220 and is now getting harder and harder to find in stock, the Radeon 5830 is a worthy replacement for only $20 more considering that it requires a lot less power to run, operates cooler and supports DirectX 11 as well as Eyefinity

From Nvidia, the Geforce GTX 275 is a good alternative, as it tends to slightly edge out the Radeon 5830, however that comes at the price of higher power consumption and lack of DirectX11. The main problem is: Good luck finding a Geforce GTX 275 in stock…

1680×1050 is the sweet spot here, with 1920 x 1080 playable with most games.

Alternative:

If you have a motherboard that supports Crossfire, two Radeon HD 4850 in Crossfire will cost only $200 and outperform the Radeon 5830 with no problem. On the flip side though, this setup will require a much beefier power supply, a case with good ventilation and you will lose DirectX 11/Eyefinity support.

Best video card for ~$300:

Radeon HD 5850 1GB DDR5

AMD brings performance unheard of at this price point, as the Radeon HD 5850 outperforms Nvidia’s Geforce GTX 285 in most benchmarks and do this while being less expensive. Good to know: It also supports Direct X 11, like the Radeon 5870.

If you have some free time, check out AnandTech’s review of the 5850 for benchmarks, power consumption, pictures and more.

The Radeon 5850 stock situation has much improved and it can now be bought without a problem.

Perfect for gaming at 1920 x 1200 (or 1920 x 1080 for 1080p).

Best video card for ~$400:

Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5

Nothing short of the fastest single-GPU card on the planet, bringing performance close to the dual-GPU and much more expensive Geforce GTX 295 at a much more reasonable price and much lower power consumption, lower noise and not to mention not having to worry about SLI scaling/compatibility. Also, the 5870 supports DirectX 11, while the Geforce GTX 295 does not.

If you didn’t have the chance to read about the Radeon 5870 yet, here’s an excellent review of the Radeon 5870 on AnandTech.

The Radeon 5870 stock situation has much improved and it can now be bought without a problem.

This card will run any game at 1920 x 1200 (or 1080 for 1080p) and most games at 2560 x 1600.

Best Video Card for $480:

Two Radeon HD 5830 1GB GDDR5 in Crossfire

If you have a Crossfire compatible motherboard, two Radeon HD 5830 will provide a nice boost over a single Radeon HD 5870.

This setup will run pretty much any game that you throw at it at 2560 x 1600.

Best video card for ~$700:

Radeon HD 5970 2GB GDDR5

Now, ATI brings down the hammer by smashing the GTX 295 performance by offering the Radeon 5890. The Radeon 5890 is made of two Cypress cores, 2 GB (2 x 1GB) of GDDR5, all together on a single card. For a detailed review of it, see this great article on AnandTech.

Other than being a single card, the Radeon 5970 is a great choice because it’s TDP is under 300W, making its power consumption reasonable for a dual-gpu solution. However, it achieves that lower TDP with lower clocks, on the same level as the frequencies of the Radeon 5850.

This card will run pretty much any game that you throw at it at 2560 x 1600.

Best video card for $800:

Two Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 in Crossfire

How do you get the most performance today? Simple: Combine two Radeon 5870, the fastest single GPU video card, in a Crossfire setup. This is even faster than the dual-GPU Radeon 5970, as the frequency of the Radeon 5870 is higher.

Simply enough, this is pretty much the fastest reasonable setup available on the market today.

While perhaps three Geforce GTX 285 in Three-Way SLI or two Geforce GTX 295 in Quad-SLI could possibly be faster in some games, the huge power consumption, along with games that do not necessarily scale well with Three-Way/Quad SLI, not to mention the much higher cost ($1000+) prevents me from recommending those solutions.

Pretty much any current game will run at up to 2560 x 1600 without a problem. This is a great solution if you don’t want to upgrade for a long time.

Conclusion:

AMD/ATI completed their launch of the Radeon 5xxx series. The next big thing now will be the release of Nvidia’s Geforce GTX 470 and GTX 480, scheduled for March 26th. All we know so far is that the GTX 470 should be priced at $299, meaning that it will be facing the Radeon 5850. Rumors go that its power consumption is higher though, due on Nvidia recommending a 550W power supply for the GTX 470, as opposed to the recommended 500W for the Radeon 5850. The rest is unsure.

Until we see reliable benchmarks and reviews, we can’t say for sure what will happen. One thing is for sure though: Nvidia has to deliver, after a delay of nearly six months…

Recap of February and the Schedule for March 2010

Mathieu — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:00:35 +0000

Like February 2009, February 2010 wasn’t a very productive for me here on Hardware Revolution. On top of being overworked at my part time job along with other obligations and being stressed out as I pointed out in Catching Up, I tend to get depressed in February, as I’m a man who likes summer/warmth and the crappy weather in winter gets me depressed after a few months of it.

If I look back at My Five Goals For February 2010:

Goal #1: Set-up a new server and transfer Hardware Revolution
Goal #2: Tweak Hardware Revolution’s design
Goal #3: Keep updating and adding more PC Builds
Goal #4: Update and add new “Best PC Parts” Guides
Goal #5: More networking (Guest posts, commenting, getting noticed, create some controversy, etc.)

Goal #1 and #2 is in the works, but isn’t complete yet unfortunately. For #3, well I did at least publish the new and updated Web PC as well as the $1500 Gaming PC, so that wasn’t a complete failure, although it is far from I hoped to publish in February. Goal #4 was unfortunately not met, however I did meet goal #5 by publishing a guest post (Build A Top-Notch Gaming PC Designed for Overclocking for $700) on OCIA.net.

Spring is around the corner:

We’re now in March and only a few weeks away from spring. I’m now back to a more relaxed schedule at the part-time job and I’m back in black in a good mood. Time to get writing!

Here’s the Schedule for Hardware Revolution in March 2010:

Week of March 1st-7th
Monday March 1st (Today): Recap of February and the Schedule for March 2010
Tuesday March 2nd: The Best Video Cards For Your Money: March 2010
Friday March 5th: $2000 Gaming PC Update
Saturday March 6th: Best SSD/HDDs For Your Money: March 2010
Sunday March 7th: Questions & Answers #7

Week of March 8th-14th
Monday March 8th: $400 Gaming PC Update
Tuesday March 9th: $500 Gaming PC Update
Wednesday March 10th: Tech Report’s $500 PC vs HR’s $500 Gaming PC
Thursday March 11th: $600 Gaming PC Update
Friday March 12th: $700 Gaming PC Update
Saturday March 13th: The Best CPU Coolers For Your Money
Sunday March 14th: The Best RAM For Your Money

Week of March 15th-21st
Monday March 15th: $850 Gaming PC Update
Tuesday March 16th: Tech Report’s $850 PC vs HR’s $850 Gaming PC
Wednesday March 17th: $500 HTPC Update
Thursday March 18th: $1000 HTPC Update
Friday March 19th: $1500 HTPC Update
Saturday March 20th: Best Monitors for your money
Sunday March 21st: Questions & Answers #8

Week of March 22nd-28th
Monday March 22nd: Best CPU for Your Money: March 2010
Tuesday March 23rd: $500 Workstation Update
Wednesday March 24th: $1000 Workstation Update
Thursday March 25th: $1500 Workstation Update
Friday March 26th: $2000 Workstation Update
Saturday March 27th: Best Power Supplies for Your Money: March 2010
Sunday March 28th: Best Cases for Your Money: March 2010

Week of March 29th-31st
Monday March 29th: Best Gaming Laptops Under $1000 Update
Tuesday March 30th: Best Gaming Laptops Under $1500 Update
Wednesday March 31st: Best Gaming Laptops Under $2000 Update

Busy Month:

As you can see, I planned for a lot of new articles as well as many updates in March 2010. With nothing short of 29 articles scheduled, I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I feel confident that I will be able to meet the deadlines of all, if not at least most of these articles. I certainly hope that you will enjoy these new articles and updates to our regular articles.

Automatically receive our future articles for free via RSS or Email:

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Update

Hardware Revolution

Tech Report’s Econobox vs Hardware Revolution’s $500 Gaming PC

Tech Report’s Econobox Specifications:

Hardware Revolution’s $500 Gaming Build Specifications:

Comparing Tech Report’s Econobox and Hardware Revolution’s $500 Gaming PC:

Round 1: Cpu AMD Athlon II X4 630 vs AMD Athlon II X4 630

Round 2: Motherboard Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 vs ASRock M3A770DE:

Round 3: Video Card Radeon HD 5670 vs Radeon 4850

Round 4: RAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 vs 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333MHz

Round 5: Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB vs Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB

Round 6: Optical Drive Samsung SH-S223L 22x vs Samsung SH-S243N 24X

Round 7: Case Antec NSK 4482B vs NZXT GAMA-001BK

Round 8: Power Supply Antec 380W 80PLUS Bronze vs Antec BP Plus 550W Modular

Conclusion

A clear win for Hardware Revolution’s $500 PC where it matters: Gaming performance:

$500 Gaming PC: It’s Time For A Quad-Core 2.8GHz CPU!

Upcoming Updates:

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This version compared to the previous version of the $500 Gaming Build:

Computer Builds FAQs:

About Gaming PCs:

Is this the right type of PC for me?

$500 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

$500 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard:

CPU:

Video Card:

RAM:

Hard Drive:

Optical Drive:

Case:

Power Supply:

Power Consumption:

Cooling: Stock cooling

Sound Card: 8 channels sound card: Integrated on the motherboard

Network: Ethernet RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN: Integrated on the motherboard

Recommended operating systems:

Windows 7

Linux

Conclusion

Building this system?

Did you enjoy this build? Support me and Hardware Revolution

$400 Gaming PC

Upcoming Updates:

Automatically receive our future articles for free via RSS or Email:

What is the secret of building a Gaming Computer for $400?

This version compared to the previous version of the $400 Gaming Build:

Computer Builds FAQs:

About Gaming PCs:

Is this the right type of PC for me?

$400 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

$400 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard:

CPU:

Video Card:

RAM:

Hard Drive:

Optical Drive:

Case:

Power Supply:

Rosewill 500W Power Supply Included with the Case

Power Consumption:

Cooling: Stock cooling

Sound Card: 8 channels sound card: Integrated on the motherboard

Network: Ethernet RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN: Integrated on the motherboard

Recommended operating systems:

Windows 7

Linux

Conclusion

Building this system?

Did you enjoy this build? Support me and Hardware Revolution

Hardware Revolution: Questions and Answers #7

Q #1: What would you recommend for editing/encoding HD content for the web? I saw your $500 Workstation(didn’t seem enough) and $1000 Workstation (seemed like too much). I would like to be able to upgrade later if possible for under $1000 but more than $500.

Q #2: I’ve recently stumbled across this Nvidia Geforce Barebone kit and it runs for $500 and gives you everything you need to get a pc up and running. My question is: How does it compare to the $500 Gaming PC?

Q #4: I am looking into the Intel i7 860 cpu with the Asus Maximus III Formula. I was wondering if this was the best motherboard in this price range for this chip or is there something else you would recomend?

Q #5: I’m currently looking for a video card with VGA out for my TV. I was looking at a GeForce 9800 GTX for 134.99 dollars or the GeForce GT 220 for 109.99 dollars and was wondering if this was a good buy or if there was something better for around the same price?

Q #6: I have noticed you quit recommending A-data memory, any reason for that?

Conclusion

Upcoming Updates:

Automatically receive our future articles for free via RSS or Email:

Round 1: Cpu
AMD Athlon II X4 630 vs AMD Athlon II X4 630

Round 2: Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-770TA-UD3 vs ASRock M3A770DE:

Round 3: Video Card
Radeon HD 5670 vs Radeon 4850

Round 4: RAM
2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 vs 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-1333MHz

Round 5: Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black 640GB vs Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB

Round 6: Optical Drive
Samsung SH-S223L 22x vs Samsung SH-S243N 24X

Round 7: Case
Antec NSK 4482B vs NZXT GAMA-001BK

Round 8: Power Supply
Antec 380W 80PLUS Bronze vs Antec BP Plus 550W Modular