The Crucial M500 SSD, the first SSD to offer a very large capacity (960GB) at a reasonable price ($600).

The Best SSDs and HDDs For Your Money?

By that, I mean the drives that offer the best performance, reliability and/or most capacity at a given price.

Why would you want that?
Because you want the best bang for the buck, the best possible drive for your hard-earned money and the highest performance, reliability and capacity possible!

If you have the time…

Reading SSDs/HDDs reviews are a lot of fun. However, most of us don’t have the time to do the research and just want to know the best option for our budget.

This is where this article comes in, by recommending to you the best SSDs and the best hard drives for your money, at various price points.

Keep in mind:
1. This list is based on the best U.S. prices from NewEgg and/or Amazon that I’ve seen as May 21st 2013. Prices and availability change everyday. I can’t keep up with accurate pricing everyday, but I can suggest to you great drives that you won’t regret buying.
2. All prices are based on new drives prices, no used or open box drives are listed; they might be a good deal but come with trade offs such as limited return policy, limited warranty, etc.

This article is in three parts:

1. The Best Solid State Drives (SSDs) For Your Money.
2. The Best Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) For Your Money.
3. RAID 0,1,5 and 10: A quick and easy summary.

The Best SSDs For Your Money:

SSD FAQ:

If you wondering “Who are SSDs for?”, if you want a quick recap on what a SSD is, wonder about reports of SSDs slowing down over time or want to learn more about TRIM and/or TRIM with RAID, I invite you to read our SSD FAQ.

What size should I get for my SSD?
Common sizes are: 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 960GB.

I recommend leaving about 20% of your SSD unused, to keep its performance high.

• 64GB: Good to install the OS and a few select programs. Another drive for additional storage is a must.
• 128GB: Good for the OS and some programs/games with a bit of music. Another drive for additional storage is highly recommended.
• 256GB: Good choice for a some programs, some games, some music files and some TV shows/movies. Another drive for additional storage is recommended, especially if you have a lot of TV/movies, even more so in HD.
• 512GB: Great for many programs, games, your music collection and some TV shows/movies. Another drive for additional storage can be useful for HD content.
• 960GB: Best option if your SSD is your only drive and have many programs, games, a music collection and High-definition TV shows/movies. Another drive for additional storage isn’t necessary, unless you have a vast collection of HD content.

May 2013 Update: Higher performance at lower prices!

- Corsair: Corsair recently launched their Neutron and Neutron GTX line-ups of SSDs. The Neutron isn’t a bad SSD, but suffers from rather poor write speeds. The Neutron GTX offers better writes speeds and higher performance, but is priced high compared to competitors offering similar performance at lower prices or superior performance at similar prices, which is why I don’t recommend the Corsair Neutron and Neutron GTX SSDs.
- Crucial: Crucial launched the M500 series of SSDs. Unfortunately, their performance and prices are nothing to write home about, but the great news is that they offer a 960GB model at a reasonable price, which is great if you want a single high-capacity SSD, for example for a notebook.
- Intel: Avoid the 330 and 520 series, as they are much older products that don’t offer good performance compared to newer SSDs. The 335 series offers pretty good performance, competing with the Samsung 840 (non-Pro) series, but unfortunately at a much higher price, which matches the Samsung 840 Pro (which offers far better performance).
- Kingston: The HyperX SSDs offer good performance, but at far too high prices considering the competition. The V300 series offers lower performance at lower prices, but once again, at prices too high to recommend considering the competition.
- Mushkin: Mushkin hasn’t launched anything interesting lately and their older SSDs aren’t competitive from a performance/price point of view. On top of that, the reliability of Mushkin SSDs is far from top-notch.
- OCZ: Their new Vector SSDs offer great performance, but OCZ terrible reliability keeps hunting them and due to that reason, I recommend avoiding OCZ products..
- Plextor: The M5S series gets beaten by the Samsung 840 (non-Pro) both on performance and prices. The M5P outperforms the Samsung 840 (non-Pro) but with prices approaching the Samsung 840 Pro which offer far superior performance.
- Samsung: Samsung recently launched the 840 and 840 Pro series of SSDs. The Samsung 840 offers great performance (similar to the previous 830 series, which was the fastest 2.5″ SSD prior to the 840 Pro) at outstanding low prices, while the Samsung 840 Pro offers unmatched performance at reasonable prices. On top of that, Samsung SSDs reliability is unmatched. The Samsung 840 and 840 Pro SSDs also offer some of the lowest power consumption at idle for SSDs, making them ideal for notebooks.

SSD Failure Rates:

From Marc Prieur, of hardware.fr, here are the SSDs failures rates according to a French e-tailer as of May 2013:
- Samsung 0,05%
- Plextor 0,16%
- Intel 0,37%
- Crucial 1,12%
- Corsair 1,61%
- OCZ 6,64% (!)

The failure rates are based on parts sold between April 1st 2012 and October 1st 2012, for returns before April 2013, which represents 6 months to one year of usage. The statistics per brand are based on a sample of at least 500 sales.

Do note that although these numbers don’t paint the complete picture of world wide failure rates, but they are still an interesting sample to look at.

All hard drives and all SSDs are prone to failure though, which is why you should Have a Backup System that you can rely on!

Best SSD for $70:

$70 – ADATA S510 60GB 2.5″ SATA III SSD

• Price: $70
• Capacity: 60GB
• Price per GB: $1.17/GB
• Warranty: 3 years
• Includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter? Yes.

At $70, this is the least expensive SSD that I recommend.

Recommended if you want a reliable 64GB SSD with great performance, at a low price.

If you’re looking for a SSD to upgrade an older machine, or simply to host the OS along with a few important applications/games, at a minimum cost, this is my recommendation.

It’s not the largest nor fastest SSD, but for $70, it offers great performance for a SSD its size and it’s a great choice to give a second life to an older machine or laptop that doesn’t need much capacity, or as a boot drive that hosts the OS along with a few important applications/games.

Best SSD for $90:

$90 -Samsung 840 120GB 2.5″ SATA III SSD

• Price: $90
• Capacity: 120GB
• Price per GB: $0.75/GB
• Warranty: 3 years
• Includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter? No.

The Samsung 840 120GB offers great performance, great reliability but more importantly it offers 120GB of storage capacity for only $90, or $0.75 per GB.

Recommended if you want a reliable and fast 120GB SSD at a great price.

It does not includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter, so if you want to use it in a desktop, make sure that either your case supports 2.5″ drives or get a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket, such as the $6- Rosewill RX-C200P 2.5″ SSD / HDD Mounting Kit for 3.5″ Drive Bay adapter.

Best SSD for $130:

$130 -Samsung 840 Pro 128GB 2.5″ SATA III SSD

• Price: $130
• Capacity: 128GB
• Price per GB: $1.02/GB
• Warranty: 5 years
• Includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter? No.

The Samsung 840 Pro is the fastest 2.5″ SSD available on the market right now, it offers top-notch reliability and a 5 years warranty.

Recommended if you want the fastest 128GB 2.5″ SSD.

It does not includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter, so if you want to use it in a desktop, make sure that either your case supports 2.5″ drives or get a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket, such as the $5- Rosewill RX-C200P 2.5″ SSD / HDD Mounting Kit for 3.5″ Drive Bay adapter.

Best SSD for $170:

$171 – Samsung 840 250GB 2.5″ SATA III SSD

• Price: $171
• Capacity: 250GB
• Price per GB: $0.68/GB
• Warranty: 3 years
• Includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter? No.

The Crucial M4 offers great performance and outstanding reliability at a incredibly low price of $170 for 250GB of storage capacity or $0.68/GB!

It does not includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter, so if you want to use it in a desktop, make sure that either your case supports 2.5″ drives or get a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket, such as the $5- Rosewill RX-C200P 2.5″ SSD / HDD Mounting Kit for 3.5″ Drive Bay adapter.

Best SSD for $250:

$240 – Samsung 840 Pro 256GB 2.5″ SATA III SSD

• Price: $240
• Capacity: 256GB
• Price per GB: $0.94/GB
• Warranty: 5 years
• Includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter? No.

Offering top-notch performance (9.5) and top-notch reliability, the Samsung 840 Pro is the fastest 2.5″ SSD, comes with a 5 years warranty and at $240 for 256GB, it’s also an excellent deal for such high-performance.

It does not includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter, so if you want to use it in a desktop, make sure that either your case supports 2.5″ drives or get a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket, such as the $5- Rosewill RX-C200P 2.5″ SSD / HDD Mounting Kit for 3.5″ Drive Bay adapter.

Best SSD for $340:

$350 – Samsung 840 500GB 2.5″ SATA III SSD

• Price: $341
• Capacity: 500GB
• Price per GiB: $0.68/GB
• Warranty: 3 years
• Includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter? No.

The Samsung 840 offers great performance and top-notch reliability at a incredibly low price of $341 for 500GB of storage capacity or $0.68/GB!

It does not includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter, so if you want to use it in a desktop, make sure that either your case supports 2.5″ drives or get a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket, such as the $5- Rosewill RX-C200P 2.5″ SSD / HDD Mounting Kit for 3.5″ Drive Bay adapter.

Best SSD for $475:

$473 – Samsung 840 Pro 512GB 2.5″ SATA III SSD

• Price: $473
• Capacity: 512GB
• Price per GB: $0.92/GB
• Warranty: 5 years
• Includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter? No.

If the Samsung 840 non-Pro isn’t fast enough and you want the fastest 2.5″ SSD, the Samsung 840 Pro 512GB is the way to go.

It does not includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter, so if you want to use it in a desktop, make sure that either your case supports 2.5″ drives or get a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket, such as the $5- Rosewill RX-C200P 2.5″ SSD / HDD Mounting Kit for 3.5″ Drive Bay adapter.

Best SSD for $600:

$600 – Crucial M500 960GB 2.5″ SATA III SSD

• Price: $600
• Capacity: 960GB
• Price per GB: $0.63/GB
• Warranty: 3 years
• Includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter? No

If you want a high capacity and affordable SSD, the $600 Crucial M500 960GB is the way to go!

At a cost of only $0.63 per GB, it also offers the lowest cost per GB on the market for a SSD.

It does not includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter, so if you want to use it in a desktop, make sure that either your case supports 2.5″ drives or get a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket, such as the $5- Rosewill RX-C200P 2.5″ SSD / HDD Mounting Kit for 3.5″ Drive Bay adapter.

Best SSD for $1000:

$982 – OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 480GB PCI-Express 2.0 4x SSD

• Price: $982
• Capacity: 480GB
• Price per GB: $2.05/GB
• Warranty: 3 years
• Includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter? N/A: PCI-Express card.

From AnandTech preview:

“For the majority of users the RevoDrive 3 X2 is simply overkill. I even demonstrated in some of our IO bound tests that you’re bottlenecked by the workload before you’re limited by the hardware. That being said, if you have the right workload – I’ve already shown that you can push nearly 1.5GB/s of data through the card and hit random IOPS numbers of over 180K (~756MB/s in our QD32 test)…”

Simply put, this solution isn’t for the average gamer, it is more targeted to Workstation users, who work with heavy workloads, such as HD+ videos, big databases, etc.

Best SSD for $1500:

OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 960GB PCI-Express 2.0 4x SSD

• Price: $1507
• Capacity: 960GB
• Price per GB: $1.57/GB
• Warranty: 3 years
• Includes a 2.5″ to 3.5″ bracket adapter? N/A: PCI-Express card.

Same as the previous recommendation, simply with twice the storage capacity.

Updating the SSD firmware

Recommended to get the latest bug fixes and the best performance possible out of your SSD.

Before you start using your SSD, I strongly urge you to update the SSD’s firmware to get the latest bug fixes and the best performance. Make sure to read the instructions available on each update page, in order to understand how to properly update the firmware.

Most SSDs have newer firmware available than the one that they are shipped with, so make sure to double-check your SSD’s firmware version and to update it if’s not the latest.

If you update your SSD’s firmware after starting to use it, make sure to backup your data beforehand, as something could go wrong during the update process and you could lose the data on the SSD.

If you have questions regarding firmware updates, contact the manufacturer or visit their support forums.

To find the latest firmware for your SSD, simply visit the manufacturer’s website, find your SSD and look for the latest firmware. Instructions on how to update the firmware should be found on the same page, or in a link to a .pdf file.

The Best Hard Drives For Your Money

May 2013 update:

Performance

Performance wise, the Seagate hard drives top the charts, followed by the Western Digital Caviar Black and Red and the Hitachi drives in last place. Keep in mind that the performance difference between each hard drive isn’t significant enough to make a perceivable impact in the vast majority of situations.

SATA II 3.0Gb/s vs SATA III 6.0Gb/s: No performance difference for hard drives!

SATA 3.0 Gb/s (SATA II) and SATA 6.0Gb/s (SATA III) refer to the speed of the connection between the drive and the motherboard.

However, the best hard drives reach about 210MB/s (or 1.68Gb/s) in best scenarios. SATA 3.0Gb/s is plenty enough to handle that and for hard drives, SATA 6.0Gb/s does not offer any performance advantage, since the hard drives can’t even max out a SATA II 3.0Gb/s connection.

Only SSDs take advantage of SATA 6.0Gb/s due to their higher transfer rates.

In other words, if you take two otherwise identical hard drives, the SATA III model will not be faster than the SATA II model. SATA III for hard drives is just a marketing scheme

Hard Drive Failure Rates:

From Marc Prieur, of hardware.fr, here are the hard drives failures rates according to a French e-tailer as of May 2013:

1. Toshiba 1.15%
2. Seagate 1.44%
3. Western Digital 1.55%
4. Samsung 2.24%. Note that the Samsung hard drive division is now owned by Seagate and consists mostly of rebranded Seagate drives.
5. Hitachi 2.40%

The failure rates are based on parts sold between April 1st 2012 and October 1st 2012, for returns before April 2013, which represents 6 months to one year of usage. The statistics per brand are based on a sample of at least 500 sales.

Do note that although these numbers don’t paint the complete picture of world wide failure rates, but they are still an interesting sample to look at.

All hard drives and all SSDs are prone to failure though, which is why you should Have a Backup System that you can rely on!

The Best Hard Drives For Your Money:

Prices as of May 21st 2013:

The recommended Best Hard Drives For Your Money are in Bold
Alternatives are in Italic

High performance 7,200rpm hard drives:

320GB Hard Drives:

1. $45 – Western Digital Caviar Blue 320 GB WD3200AAJS – Offers good performance and reliability at a reasonable price.
2. $35 – Seagate ST3320620AS 7200.10 320GB – Performance isn’t as high seeing as this is an older model, but it’s also $10 less expensive than the Western Digital drive above.

500GB Hard Drives:

1. $56 – Seagate 500GB 7200rpm ST500DM002 – Less expensive and faster than other alternatives, the Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200rpm ST500DM002 is the way to go if you want a fast reliable 500GB hard drive.

1TB Hard Drives:

1. $70 – Seagate ST1000DM003 1TB 7200rpm - Faster than other alternatives and only $5 more than the much slower Western Digital Blue 1TB, the Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200rpm ST1000DM003 is the way to go if you want a fast reliable 1TB hard drive.

2+TB Hard Drives:

1. $99 – Seagate ST2000DM001 2TB 7200rpm – Fast and inexpensive at 2TB for $99.
2. $132 – Seagate ST3000DM001 3TB 7200rpm – Fast and affordable at 3TB for $132.
3. $178 – Seagate 4 TB ST4000DM000 7200rpm – Fast and reasonably price at 4TB for $178.

Lower performance/lower power consumption hard drives, ideal for a single drive external enclosure:

• $52 – WD Green 500 GB
• $71 – WD Green 1 TB
• $84 – WD Green 1.5 TB
• $99 – WD Green 2 TB
• $131 – WD Green 3 TB

Low power/moderate performance hard drive, designed for 24/7 usage, ideal for a multiple drives enclosures (NAS), workstations and RAID:

• $82 – WD Red 1 TB
• $113 – WD Red 2 TB
• $150 – WD Red 3 TB

RAID 0,1,5 and 10: A quick and easy summary

I’ve been asked by a few of you to explain RAID and the different modes in simple terms. In short, RAID consists of combining two or more hard drives (or SSDs) to improve performance and/or reliability.

While there are other modes than 0, 1, 5 and 10 (1+0), these are the main ones that usually come integrated on motherboards (Not all motherboards support RAID) , so they are the modes that most of you have access to, hence why I’ll focus on these. Let’s get started!

Regarding RAID and SSDs:
While RAID 0 can be used to improve performance and RAID 1 for data redundancy, RAID 5 and other higher levels of RAID are not recommended for SSDs, as they greatly increase the quantity of data writes, reducing the lifespan of SSDs.

An important note on using RAID for data loss protection:

Hard drives and SSDs do fail and RAID is not perfect. Sometimes, multiple drives will fail at once (Due to a faulty power supply, power surge, etc.). RAID has limits and is not a 100% fool proof solution for data backup.

It should only be used as one of many steps to protect your data, along with a Backup System that you can rely on!

Note:

In most cases, with motherboard’s integrated RAID controller, you must set up RAID within the BIOS and/or disk manager (i.e. Intel Matrix) prior to installing the OS. Consult your motherboard manual for details on how to set up RAID.

RAID 0:

Using a minimum of two drives and as many as you can install (3,4,5,6,etc.), the data is spread across all the drives, basically combining their read and write performance into one ultra-fast array.

The easiest and cheapest option to improve performance, you keep 100% of the combined drives capacity, but if any drive fails, you lose all data.

Important:

The more drives that you have in your RAID 0 array, the more likely it is to fail. You also get diminishing returns as you add more and more drives:

• Two drives, get a theoretical 100% I/O performance gain but double risk of failure.
• Three drives, get a theoretical 50% further performance gain but triple risk of failure.
• Four drives, get a theoretical 25% further performance gain but quadruple risk of failure.
• Five drives, get a theoretical 20% further performance gain and so on…

So you’ll want to avoid putting critical data that you can’t afford to lose on a RAID 0 array or at the very least, you’ll want to back it up somewhere else as well, since this is the least reliable solution, even less than a single drive.

RAID 1:

Using two drives, the second drive is a live backup of the first one, being an exact copy of it.

You lose a bit of write speed compared to a single drive (due to the overhead of copying the same data in real-time to two different drives), do gain read performance (Since the OS can read from both the drives) but you only get the capacity of one of the two drives (Two 1TB drives in RAID 1 =1TB total capacity).

The main pro is that you get a higher level of redundancy/reliability, compared to a single drive.

If one drive fails you do not lose data, you are still able to use the PC, but you will need to replace the drive and rebuild the RAID array before regaining redundancy and data loss protection from RAID 1.

RAID 5:

Requires a minimum of three drives. Unlike RAID 1 where data is identical on every drive, with RAID 5, data is spread across the drives, with parity bits spread across the drives in a way that if one drive fails, the RAID array will continue to function without any apparent change, other than some performance loss.

However, like with RAID 1, if you lose a drive, you’ll need to replace it before regaining redundancy and data loss protection from RAID 5.

RAID 1 vs RAID 5:

Both RAID 1 (mirroring or duplexing) or RAID 5 (striping with parity) offer good data redundancy should a single drive in a RAID array fail. The major difference however can be found in the system performance between RAID 1 and RAID 5.

RAID 5 experiences more heavy write overhead because of the additional parity data that has to be created and is then written to the disk array. RAID 1 does not experience this overhead.

Read performance, on the other hand, is usually better with a RAID 5 setup. This gets even better if your RAID 5 array has more than 3 disk.

RAID 5 read performance increases with more drives in an array because the more drives there are, the more read/write heads there are, and RAID 5 arrays have the awesome ability to read simultaneously from all the drives at the same time.

RAID 1 only has two drives by nature and is therefore limited in the number of read/write heads.

So in short, if all you want is decent redundancy and don’t care that much about performance, RAID 1 will be just fine. If you want more read performance (For faster applications launch, faster OS and game loading) and capacity (since RAID 1 is limited to two drives in most cases and more would be somewhat pointless), RAID 5 is the best out of the two.

RAID 10 (1+0):

However, if you want top notch performance and redundancy, RAID 1+0 (or 10, same thing) is the way to go. Basically, it’s a combination of RAID 1 redundancy with RAID 0 performance.

While RAID 1+0 is possible with two drives, four drives is preferable if you want the performance benefits.

Never built a PC before and need help? No problem.

You don’t have to be a Geek to build a PC!
Building a PC has never been easier. We have hundreds of readers who had no experience and who built their first PC with the help of Hardware Revolution. If they can do it, so can you!

Start by reading our “Building Your First PC?” article, which covers everything that you need to know to get started.

The EVGA Geforce GTX 660 2GB Superclocked, the video card newly recommended for Tier 2.

Click on a section to jump to it:

- Recommended parts summary
- Recommended parts in details
- Want more performance? See our Mainstream/High-End Gaming PCs

About Hardware Revolution’s Budget Gaming Computers:

Performance and reliability at a low-cost

With their low-cost, our Budget DIY(Do-It Yourself) Gaming Computers feature parts that were hand-picked to offer the maximum bang for your buck, or in other terms: to offer the best performance possible at a given price, while fitting within your budget.

However, these low-cost PCs are still designed with reliability in mind. They feature a safe, reliable power supply and a case with good cooling abilities, so that your PC will last you many years and to ensure that it will not overheat.

Tier System:

Instead of having several articles that each cover one specific build, there are Tiers, allowing you to pick one of several systems at broader price points.

The Tiers are color coded as such:

Choose from five Tiers:

Tier 0.5: (Identified by a Dark Red color): $320

This is our lowest cost Tier that’s perfect if all you want to do is play at 1366 x 768 or 720p with medium/high settings, older games, browse the Internet, watch some videos, listen to some music, do some Office work and the like, on a reliable and relatively quiet PC that doesn’t consume much power.

Tier 0.625: (Identified by a Red color): $371

This is our lowest cost Tier that’s perfect for playing games at lower resolutions (1366 x 768) with high graphic settings or higher resolution (1600 x 900) with medium settings. With an alternative motherboard and after-market CPU Cooler, both of which are recommended in this guide, Tier 0.625 can be overclocked to reach even higher performance, despite its rock bottom price!

Tier 0.75 (Identified by a Fuchsia color): $471

This is our lowest cost Gaming PC, which is fine for older games or more modern games at a low or medium resolution (1600 x 900 or 720p HDTVs). 1920 x 1080 should be playable too, although with lower graphic settings. With an alternative motherboard and after-market CPU Cooler, both of which are recommended in this guide, Tier 0.75 can also be overclocked to reach even higher performance, despite its low price.

Tier 1 (Identified by a Green color): $501

Great entry-level gaming machine, perfect for gaming at a 1680 x 1050 or 720p resolution. 1920 x 1080 should be playable too, although with lower graphic settings.

Tier 2 (Identified by an Orange color): $591

This Tier can handle most games at high/maximum settings at 1920 x 1080/1080p.

Need a Tier recommendation for a specific video game?

Ask us on the forums: Tell us about the video game, the level of details that you want (i.e. I just want to be able to play the game, medium, high or maximum details) and the resolution (e.g. 1920 x 1080. NOT the size) of the monitor (HDTVs: 720p or 1080p) that you’ll use.

Recommended Parts Summary:

Main recommendations, upgrades and alternatives:

1. Recommended Components are in Bold, with one or more colors/symbols for the Tier(s).
2. Suggested Alternatives and Upgrades are in Italic. You can upgrade as many parts as you want to, including parts from higher Tiers.
3. All Parts are interchangeable/compatible with each other, except for AMD CPUs that only work with AMD motherboards and Intel CPUs that only work with Intel motherboards. Smaller Mini-ITX and Micro-ATX cases that don’t support larger Micro-ATX and ATX motherboards respectively and may not support some large after-market CPU Coolers. Ask us on the forums if you want us to double-check your build.
4. If this is your first build and if you just a simple template to follow, stick to the recommended parts for a Tier.

Budget Gaming PCs Tiers: Tier 0.5 (in Dark Red): AMD Llano, light gaming, web, music, Youtube, Office, etc. Tier 0.625 (in Red): AMD Trinity APU, can be overclocked with alternative parts Tier 0.75 (in Fuchsia): Lowest cost Gaming PC with a dedicated video card Tier 1 (in Green): Our classic $500 Gaming PC Tier 2: (in Orange): Low cost 1080p Gaming PC Click on a component’s name (e.g. CPU) to jump to the detailed section of it.	Price $320 $371 $471 $501 $591
CPU AMD Llano APU: Only compatible with FM1 motherboards. Tier 0.5: AMD A8-3850 Llano APU (CPU+GPU) Radeon HD 6550D AMD Trinity APU: Only compatible with FM2 motherboards. Tier 0.625: AMD A10-5800K Trinity APU (CPU+GPU) with Radeon HD 7660D AMD Phenom II CPUs: Only compatible with AM3 motherboards. Tier 0.75-1: AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 Quad-Core 3.4Ghz Unlocked Intel CPUs: Only compatible with LGA1155 motherboards. Tier 2: Intel Core i3 3220 Dual-Core + Hyper-Threading 3.3GHz Intel Core i5-3350P Quad Core 3.1-3.3GHz Turbo No IGP	- - $85 - $129 - $85 - $110 $180
Motherboard FM1 motherboard: Only compatible with AMD Llano APUs. Tier 0.5: MSI A55M-P33 FM1 Micro-ATX: For Llano APUs FM2 motherboards: Only compatible with AMD Trinity APUs. Tier 0.625: ASRock FM2A75M-DGS FM2 Micro-ATX: For Trinity APUs ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M FM2 Micro-ATX: For Trinity APUs ASRock FM2A75 Pro4 FM2 SATA6Gb/s USB3 ATX: For Trinity APUs AM3+ motherboards: Only compatible with AMD Phenom II/FX CPUs Tier 0.75-1: Asrock 960GM/U3S3 FX Micro ATX AM3+ For OCing: GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ ATX LGA1155 motherboards: Only compatible with Intel CPUs. Tier 2: ASRock B75M-DGS LGA1155 SATA 6Gb/s USB3 Micro-ATX ASRock B75M-ITX LGA 1155 SATA6Gb/s USB3 Mini-ITX ASRock Z75 Pro3 LGA 1155 Z75 ATX ATX form factor motherboards: Compatible with ATX cases only Micro-ATX form factor motherboards: Compatible with Micro-ATX/ATX cases Mini-ITX form factor motherboards: Compatible with Mini-ITX/Micro-ATX and some ATX cases	- - $48 - $55 $75 $80 - $55 $104 - $50 $90 $85 - - -
RAM Tier 0.5-0.625: G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1.5v DDR3 1866MHz $68 – G.Skill 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866MHz Tier 0.75-1-2: ADATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600MHz ADATA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600MHz	- $38 $68 $37 $56
Video Card Tier 0.5: Radeon HD 6550D – Integrated Tier 0.625: Radeon HD 7660D – Integrated Tier 0.75: Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 1GB Tier 1: Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 OC 1GB Tier 2: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED 2GB	- Free Free $115 $145 $205
Storage Hard drive: Tier 0.5-0.625-0.75-1-2: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 64MB cache SATA III Western Digital Red 2TB SATA III Western Digital Red 3TB SATA III SSD (Solid State Drive): Sandisk 2.5″ 64GB SATA III SSD Samsung 840 2.5″ 120GB SATA III SSD Samsung 840 2.5″ 250GB SATA III SSD	- - $57 $67 $115 $151 - $64 $100 $171
Optical Drive All Tiers: Lite-On SATA 24X DVD Burner Pioneer Black 15X SATA Blu-Ray/CD/DVD Burner	- $24 $65
Power Supply All Tiers: Antec VP-450 450W SilverStone Strider 500W 80 PLUS SilverStone 600W 80 PLUS SilverStone ST50F-P 500W 80PLUS BRONZE Modular SilverStone PP05 Set of Short Cables for PSU	- $38 $56 $65 $75 $20
Case ATX cases: Compatible with ATX/Micro-ATX motherboards, some with Mini-ITX Tier 0.5-0.625: NZXT GAMMA Classic 1x 120mm fan Tier 0.75-1: Corsair Carbide 200R 2x120mm USB 3.0 x2 Tier 2: Rosewill R5 3x120mm USB 3.0 Fan Controller NZXT Source 210 Black 1x120mm NZXT Source 210 White 1x120mm NZXT Source 210 White Elite 2x120mm Cooler Master Storm Scout 1 x 120mm, 2 x 140mm Rosewill Blackbone 2 x 120mm fans Cooler Master Elite 430 2 x 120mm fans COUGAR AF-2 Black & Army Green 1x120mm Cooler Master HAF 912 2x120mm Rosewill Line Glow USB 3.0 4x120mm NZXT Apollo 2 x 120mm fans NZXT M59 2 x 120mm fans NZXT Tempest 210 1x120mm NZXT Tempest 410 2x120mm NZXT Guardian 921 3 x 120mm fans NZXT Lexa S 3 x 120mm, 1 x 140mm Cooler Master Storm Enforcer, 1 x 120mm, 2 x 200mm Cooler Master HAF 922 Red LEDs 1 x 120mm, 2 x 200mm NZXT H2 H2-001-BK Black 3x120mm SILVERSTONE Precision PS06B-W 1x180mm 1x120mm Corsair Carbide 400r 3x120mm Rosewill Challenger Mid-Tower 2 x 120mm, 1 x 140mm fans COUGAR Challenger Black 1x120mm 1x200mm COUGAR Challenger Orange 1x120mm 1x200mm COUGAR Evolution Black Window 2x120mm COUGAR Evolution White Window 2x120mm Fractal Design Define Mini Micro-ATX 2 x 120mm fans NZXT Phantom 410 Black 1x140mm + 2x120mm fans NZXT Phantom 410 White 1x140mm + 2x120mm fans NZXT Phantom 410 Black Orange 1x140mm + 2x120mm fans NZXT Phantom 410 Gunmetal 1x140mm + 2x120mm fans NZXT Phantom 410 Red 1x140mm + 2x120mm fans Antec Eleven Hundred 1 x200mm + 1x120mm fans Antec Three Hundred Two 1x140mm 1x120mm Corsair Vengeance C70 Black 3x120mm Corsair Carbide Series 300R 1x140mm 1x120mm Corsair Carbide 400R 3x120mm COOLER MASTER HAF XB Cube 2x120mm COOLER MASTER Storm Scout 2 Black 1x120mm Antec P280 Sound proofing panels and foam 3x120mm Fractal Design Define R4 Black 2x140mm Fractal Design Define R4 Window Black 2x140mm Fractal Design Define R4 White 2x140mm Fractal Design Define R4 Window White 2x140mm Fractal Design Define R4 Titanium 2x140mm Fractal Design Define R4 Window Titanium 2x140mm Corsair Carbide 500R Black 3x120mm 1x200mm Corsair Carbide 500R White 3x120mm 1x200mm LIAN LI PC-7HX 1x120mm 2x140mm Aluminum Corsair Vengeance C70 Black 3x120mm COOLER MASTER HAF XM 1x140mm 2x200mm Corsair Obsidian 550D 3x120mm Micro-ATX cases: Compatible with Micro-ATX/Mini-ITX motherboards NZXT Crafted Series Vulcan Micro-ATX 2x120mm SilverStone SST-PS07B Micro-ATX USB 3.0 2x120mm SilverStone SST-PS07W White Micro-ATX USB 3.0 2x120mm Fractal Design Define Mini Micro-ATX USB3.0 2x120mm Thermaltake A30 Micro-ATX USB 3.0 1x230mm 1x90mm 2x60mm SilverStone TJ08B-E Micro-ATX USB3.0 1x180mm 1x120mm LIAN LI PC-A04B Aluminum Micro-ATX USB3.0 3x120mm Fractal Design Arc Mini Micro-ATX USB 3.0 3x120mm fan contr. Micro-ITX cases: Compatible only with Mini-ITX motherboards BitFenix Prodigy Black 2x120mm BitFenix Prodigy White 2x120mm BitFenix Prodigy Red 2x120mm BitFenix Prodigy Orange 2x120mm LIAN LI PC-Q08B Black Aluminium 1x140mm 1x120mm LIAN LI PC-Q25B Black Aluminium 1x140mm 1x120mm	- - $30 $60 $70 $35 $40 $50 $70 $45 $40 $50 $62 $60 $70 $50 $45 $60 $70 $80 $80 $100 $100 $90 $98 $50 $76 $81 $110 $95 $100 $100 $100 $100 $100 $100 $100 $75 $120 $80 $98 $100 $100 $110 $110 $110 $110 $120 $110 $120 $119 $100 $100 $130 $120 $130 - $70 $75 $84 $100 $109 $100 $130 $100 - $90 $80 $90 $90 $110 $120
Cooling All Tiers: Stock Cooler Included with CPU Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler for Micro-ATX cases: COOLER MASTER GeminII M4 120mm CPU Cooler for Mini-ATX cases: The BitFenix Prodigy supports CM Hyper 212 Evo, use this alternative for other Mini-ITX cases: COOLER MASTER Vortex Plus 92mm Cooling fans: CM Barometric Ball .6k-2k RPM 26-86CFM 13-30dBA PWM Rosewill 1.2k-2.2k RPM 43-87CFM 23-38dBA Blue LED fan contr. AC Fluid Dynamic .3k-1.35k RPM Max 57 CFM w/ 4 Pin PWM Silverstone 2Ball .8k-2.4k RPM Max 110CFM 17-40dBA fan contr. Noctua NF-P12 SSO .9k-1.3k RPM PWM Cooler Master 120mm Red LED Fan Cooler Master R4 Series Silent 140mm Fan 200mm Red LED fan for Cooler Master HAF cases	- Free $28 - $35 - - $25 - $18 $10 $12 $17 $19 $10 $10 $15
Sound All Tiers: 5.1/7.1 sound card: Integrated on motherboard ASUS Xonar U3 USB Sound Card w/ Headphone Amplifier ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card Speakers: 2.0 (2 satellites no sub-woofer) Logitech X-140 2.0 5W Creative Inspire T12 2.0 18W Creative Gigaworks T20 Series II 2.0 28W 2.1 (2 satellites + sub-woofer): Logitech Z313 2.1 25W Logitech Z323 2.1 30W Logitech Z523 2.1 40W Logitech Z623 2.1 200W 5.1 (5 satellites + sub-woofer) Logitech Z506 5.1 75W Headphones/Earphones: Open Design Headphones: Koss KSC75 Clip on headphones Koss PortaPro Superlux HD668B Grado SR-60i Audio Technica ATH-AD700 Grado SR-80i Closed Design Headphones: Koss UR-20 Audio-Technica ATH-M30 Shure SRH440 Audio Technica ATH-M50S (Straight 10ft Cable) Audio Technica ATH-A700 Audio-Technica ATH-M50 (Coiled Cable) In-Ear Headphones: Logitech Ultimate Ears 200 Sennheiser IE 4 Earphones Microphone: Syba 3.5mm microphone with stand Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone Headsets: Yapster TM-YP100A Koss SB-45 Corsair Vengeance 1100 Sennheiser PC 151 Razer Moray Plus ARCTIC Sound P531 SteelSeries Siberia V2 Logitech G35 Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Wrath Wireless Logitech G930	- Free $43 $30 - - $24 $56 $71 - $40 $60 $75 $129 - $75 - - $16 $45 $53 $79 $100 $99 - $19 $44 $88 $107 $130 $102 - $14 $60 - $9 $65 - $13 $27 $58 $44 $57 $50 $84 $95 $84 $110
Network All Tiers: Ethernet Up to 1000 Mbps: Integrated on motherb. Rosewill 802.11b/g/n 300Mbps Wireless USB2.0 5dBi Antenna TRENDnet TEW-684UB Dual Band 802.11b/g/n 450Mbps USB2.0 Wireless Routers: TP-Link WL TL-WR841N 300Mbps TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND 300Mbps USB D-Link DIR-645 300Mbps USB ASUS RT-N56U Dual-Band 600Mbps	- Free $20 $35 - $26 $52 $64 $99

Recommendations in details:

Motherboard:

Tier 0.5:

$48 – MSI A55M-P33 FM1 Micro-ATX: For Llano APUs

Compatible only with AMD Llano APUs, not AMD Trinity APUs nor Intel CPUs.

This motherboard offers AMD FM1 Llano CPU support and UEFI support at a great price ($47), making it an excellent choice for the lowest cost Budget Gaming PC Tier.

Despite its low cost, it’s equipped with solid capacitors for long-term reliability and it comes with a three year warranty.

It comes with VGA and DVI video outputs.

Ports, expansion slots, features, what’s included in the box, etc.

Ports on the back: Six USB 2.0 ports, two PS/2, VGA, DVI, Gigabit LAN and 6 Channels audio on the back.

Expansion slots: On the board itself, you have one PCI-Express 2.0 16X, one PCI-Express 2.0 1x and one PCI slot.

Other connectors/features on the motherboard: Three fan connectors (Two four pins, one three pins), six SATA 3.0Gb/s and three USB 2.0 headers.

Included in the box: Motherboard, two SATA cables, manual, CD with drivers/utilities and I/O backplate.

Tier 0.625:

$55 – ASRock FM2A75M-DGS FM2 USB3 SATA6Gb/s Micro-ATX: For Trinity APUs

Compatible only with AMD Trinity APUs, not AMD Llano APUs, AMD AM3 CPUs, nor Intel CPUs.

This motherboard offers AMD FM2 Trinity CPU support and UEFI support at a great price ($55), making it an excellent choice for the 2nd lowest cost Budget Gaming PC Tier.

Despite its low cost, it’s equipped with USB 3.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, solid capacitors for long-term reliability and it comes with a three year warranty.

It comes with VGA and DVI video outputs.

Note that due to its limited amount of Phase PWM, it’s not the ideal choice for overclocking the Tier’s 0.625 unlocked APU. If you intend to overclock, consider one of the two alternatives below.

Ports, expansion slots, features, what’s included in the box, etc.

Ports on the back: Four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0, two PS/2, VGA, DVI, Gigabit LAN and 6 Channels audio on the back.

Expansion slots: On the board itself, you have one PCI-Express 2.0 16X, one PCI-Express 2.0 1x and one PCI slot.

Other connectors/features on the motherboard: Three fan connectors (Two four pins, one three pins), six SATA 6.0Gb/s, one USB 3.0 header and three USB 2.0 headers.

Included in the box: Motherboard, two SATA cables, manual, CD with drivers/utilities and I/O backplate.
Alternatives

• $75 – ASRock FM2A75 Pro4-M FM2 USB3 SATA6Gb/s Micro-ATX: For Trinity APUs – Equipped with 6 phase PWM, in a Micro-ATX form factor, this motherboard offers better overclocking capabilities than the recommendation above. It also features HDMI output, E-SATA and a total of four fan connectors.
• $80 – ASRock FM2A75 Pro4 FM2 SATA6Gb/s USB3 ATX: For Trinity APUs – Also equipped with 6 phase PWM, in an ATX form factor. Features six fan connectors, a total of six USB 3.0 ports, HDMI output, LED debug, reset and power buttons and includes four SATA cables. A great choice if you plan on keeping/upgrading your PC for a while, thanks to all its expansion ports.

Tier 0.75-1:

$55- Asrock 960GM/U3S3 FX Micro ATX AM3+

Compatible only with AMD Phenom II/FX CPUs, not AMD Llano/Trinity APUs nor Intel CPUs.

This motherboard offers AMD AM3+ support at a great price ($55), making it an excellent choice for Tiers 0.75 and 1 of the Budget Gaming PCs that are equipped with AMD AM3+ CPUs.

It comes with an integrated graphic processor, so that you can use your PC without a dedicated video card if necessary. This is great if you’re waiting to get your dedicated video card or to troubleshoot your PC if your dedicated video card isn’t working.

Note that while it is compatible with the 125W AMD Phenom II X4 965 recommended for this Tier, don’t expect to overclock it much with this motherboard, due to low number of power phase and lack of VRM cooling. See the alternative motherboard if you want one that offers good overclocking capabilities.

Also something to note: It features an IDE (PATA) port, allowing you to re-use your older IDE/PATA hard drives and/or optical drives.

Ports, expansion slots, features, what’s included in the box, etc.

Ports on the back: Four USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, two PS/2, VGA and DVI outputs, Gigabit LAN and 6 Channels audio on the back.

Expansion slots: On the board itself, you have one PCI-Express 3.0 16X, one PCI-Express 1x slot and one PCI slot.

Other connectors/features on the motherboard: Three fan connectors (Two four pins, one three pins), two SATA 6.0Gb/s, four SATA 3.0Gb/s, one IDE/PATA and two USB 2.0 headers.

Included in the box: Motherboard, two SATA cables, manual, CD with drivers/utilities and I/O backplate.

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Alternatives

• $103 – GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 AM3+ ATX – If you have the money, the GIGABYTE GA-970A-UD3 is a great upgrade, providing excellent overclocking ability (provided you use an after-market CPU Cooler), a USB 3.0 header (so you can connect a case front panel USB 3.0 port to it), four RAM slots and six SATA 6.0Gbps ports. Note that it has no video outputs, so you must have a video card to use it. Also make sure your case can fit ATX motherboards.

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Tier 2:

$50 – ASRock B75M-DGS Rev.2.0 LGA1155 SATA 6Gb/s USB3 Micro-ATX: For Intel CPUs

Compatible only with Intel 2nd and 3rd generation of “Core” CPUs, not AMD Llano APUs nor AMD CPUs.

This motherboard offers Intel LGA1155 and UEFI support at a great price ($50), making it an excellent choice for the higher Tiers of the Budget Gaming PCs that are equipped with Intel CPUs.

It also allows you to use the integrated graphic processor (IGP) from the CPU, so that you can use your PC without a dedicated video card if necessary. This is great if you’re waiting to get your dedicated video card or to troubleshoot your PC if your dedicated video card isn’t working.

Ports, expansion slots, features, what’s included in the box, etc.

Ports on the back: Two USB 2.0 ports, twoUSB 3.0 ports, two PS/2, VGA and DVI HDMI outputs, Gigabit LAN and 6 Channels audio on the back.

Expansion slots: On the board itself, you have one PCI-Express 3.0 16X and one PCI slot.

Other connectors/features on the motherboard: Three fan connectors (Two four pins, one three pins), one SATA 6.0Gb/s, three SATA 3.0Gb/s, USB 3.0 header and two USB 2.0 headers.

Included in the box: Motherboard, two SATA cables, manual, CD with drivers/utilities and I/O backplate.

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Alternatives

• $90 – ASRock B75M-ITX LGA 1155 SATA6Gb/s USB3 Mini-ITX: For Intel CPUs – If you’re building a small form factor PC, this Mini ITX motherboard will give you all the features you need (and HDMI, SATA 6Gb/s, USB 3.0) while still being very compact.
• $85 – ASRock Z75 Pro3 LGA 1155 Z75 ATX: For Intel CPUs – If you have the money, the ASRock Z77 Pro4 is an excellent upgrade, providing overclocking ability (assuming your CPU supports overclocking), a PCI-e 3.0 X16 slot as well as a PCI-e 2.0 X16 slot, and of course HDMI/SATA 6Gb/s/USB 3.0 support. Make sure your case can fit ATX motherboards.

In short, if you intend to invest into your PC and upgrade it as time goes by, the last motherboard is as future-proof as it gets.
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CPU:

Regarding “Trinity”, the new 2nd generation of AMD’s APUs:
As you may have heard, AMD recently launched “Trinity”, their 2nd generation of their APU (Accelerated Processing Unit), a combination of a CPU and a relatively powerful GPU (video card) on a single chip, for the desktop platform. Featuring even faster GPUs, they are now fast enough in my opinion to be recommended for the Budget Gaming PCs.

Tier 0.5

$85 – AMD A8-3850 Llano APU (CPU+GPU) Radeon HD 6550D

Powerful APU at a low price:
The AMD A8-3850 is based on AMD’s first generation of APUs, Llano. It features a 2.9GHz Quad-Core CPU and the Radeon HD 6550D onboard GPU.

VS the competion:
Intel only offers dual-core offerings with rather underwhelming integrated graphic processor at this price range, hence why the AMD A8-3850 is easy to recommend.

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Tier 0.625:

$129 – AMD A10-5800K Trinity APU (CPU+GPU) with Radeon HD 7660HD

High-end APU at a reasonable price:
The AMD A10-5800K is based on the 2nd and latest generation of APUs, Trinity and features the Radeon HD 7660D onboard GPU. This is AMD’s fastest APU.

Relatively low cost:
While it may seem expensive when compared to the CPU recommendation for Tier 0.75 and 1, keep in mind that those Tiers also need a discrete video card, bringing up the cost way higher when you compare the Tier 0.625′s AMD APU ($129 for CPU and video card) to the Tier 0.75 ($200) and Tier 1 ($230) CPU and discrete video card combos.

For the AMD A10-5800K integrated video card performance and what you can expect of it, see the video card Tier 0.625 section.

Unlocked and ready to be overclocked:
Being an AMD “K” series processor, it is fully unlocked and can easily overclocked. However, for maximum overclocking potential, I recommend upgrading the motherboard to the recommended alternative for overclocking and I recommend getting the alternative after-market CPU Cooler.

If you overclock it, I recommend overclocking the GPU (video card) cores, as they will give a bigger performance boost in games vs overclocking the CPU cores.

Tier 0.75 and 1:

$85 – AMD Phenom II X4 965 AM3 Quad-Core 3.4Ghz Unlocked

VS the Competition:
Intel offers no dual-core + Hyper-Threading or Quad-Core CPUs at this price range and with games now taking more and more advantage of quad-core CPUs, you don’t want to settle for only a dual-core CPU.

The AMD Phenom II X4 965 is a 3.4GHz Quad-Core CPU and on top of that, it can easily be overclocked, thanks to its unlocked multiplier. If you do choose to overclock it though, make sure to upgrade the motherboard and CPU Cooler to handle the additional power draw and heat, in order to maximize the CPU’s overclocking capabilities.

Ideal for:
A budget Gaming PC, when you can’t afford faster CPUs.

However, if you have a bit more money to invest and can afford a Core i3-3220, then by all means, go for it. AnandTech’s bench tool clearly shows how much more powerful the Core i3-2100 is versus the Pentium G850 , the G850 being a slightly slower version of the Pentium G860.

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Tier 2:

$110 – Intel Core i3 3220 Dual-Core + Hyper-Threading 3.3GHz

Replacing the Core i3-2120:
Based on the 3rd generation of Core processors, codename “Ivy Bridge”, the Core i3-3220 replaces the Core i3-2120. While they both run at the same frequency (3.3GHz), the Core i3-3220 has a slight performance advantage (5-10%) and a slighly lower power consumption compared to the Core i3-2120.

VS the Competition:
While AMD’s APUs offer great performance for lower Tiers, when you start using a dedicated video card, the Intel CPUs just have the edge when it comes to performance in video games with a dedicated video card.

Don’t let the dual-core part fool you vs AMD “quad-core” processor available at the same price: Intel’s and AMD’s definition of a core isn’t the same thing any more so an AMD quad-core isn’t comparable to an Intel quad-core.

AMD’s FX line-up stand no chance either. While they offer competitive performance for multi threaded programs and workstations loads, the similarly priced FX-4170 just can’t keep up in gaming performance vs the Core i3-3220.

On top of that, the Core i3-3220 consumes about 100W less at load compared to the AMD FX 4170 and roughly 20 Watts less at idle!

Alternative:

For $60 more, you can upgrade to the $180 – Intel Core i5-3350P Quad Core 3.1-3.3GHz Turbo No IGP, which offers two extra cores, which results in a solid performance bump. Note that it doesn’t come with integrated graphics, which doesn’t matter since you’ll have a discrete video card.

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Video Card:

A few important recommendations and notes regarding video cards:

• Get the latest version of the video card drivers directly from AMD or Nvidia. That way, you’ll be sure to get the latest bug fixes as well as the best performance possible from your video card(s).
• Most video cards require one or two PCI-Express 6 or 8 pin power connector(s) to be plugged into them to function properly. Make sure that your power supply comes equipped with enough 6 and/or 8 pin connectors for your video cards. Of course, I double-checked that already for the recommendations in this article, I simply mention it if you decide to modify a build to your own taste.
• Looking for a monitor recommendation? Visit The Best Monitors For Your Money article.

Tier .05:

Free – Radeon HD 6550D – Integrated

The Radeon HD 6550D is the integrated video card featured on the AMD A8-3850 APU.

What games can this video card handle?

The Radeon 6550D is capable of handling the vast majority of games at 1366 x 768 or 720p with medium/high graphic settings. Older games should be playable with higher graphic settings.

The recommended motherboard has VGA and DVI video outputs.

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Tier 0.625:

Free – Radeon HD 7660D – Integrated

The Radeon HD 7660D is the integrated video card featured on the AMD A10-5800K APU.

What games can this video card handle?

The Radeon 7660D is capable of handling the vast majority of games at 1366 x 768 or 720p with high or maximum graphic settings and at 1600 x 900 with medium/high settings, although you might have to lower details for the most demanding games.

The recommended motherboard has VGA and DVI video outputs.

Tier 0.75:

$115 – Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 1GB

Replacing the Geforce GTX 550Ti is the Radeon HD 7770 1GB.

The Radeon HD 7770 HD outperforms the Geforce GTX 550 Ti in the vast majority of games and also consumes roughly 35 Watts less under load, resulting in also a more quiet card.

What games can this video card handle?

This card is capable of handling the vast majority of games at 1600 x 900, although you might have to lower details for the most demanding games. 1920 x 1080 should be playable too, although with lower graphic settings.

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Tier 1:

$145 – Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 OC 1GB

Replacing the previously recommended Geforce GTX 650 Ti is the Radeon HD 7790.

I’m recommending the Radeon HD 7790 over the  Geforce GTX 650 Ti simply because it offers a a 12% performance advantage overall, it consumes roughly 12 Watts less under load and it’s more quiet at idle and under load, all according to AnandTech.

The Radeon HD 7790 will do the job at 1680 x 1050 and even 1920 x 1080 although you might have to lower details in more recent and more demanding games.

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Tier 2

$205 – EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SUPERCLOCKED 2GB

Performance:
Replacing the previously recommended Radeon HD 7850 1GB is the Geforce GTX 660 2GB

Thanks to price cuts, the Geforce GTX 660 is only $35 more than the Radeon HD 7850, and for that price, you get significantly higher performance, as well as a more future-proof video card, thanks to the 2GB of onboard memory, compared to 1GB for the Radeon HD 7850.

This particular EVGA card is factory overclocked, for even higher performance than the standard Geforce GTX 660.

The Geforce GTX 660 is capable of handling most games at 1920 x 1080, although you might have to lower details a tad in more recent and more demanding games.

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Need a monitor recommendation?

No problem, I invite you to visit The Best Monitors For Your Money article.

RAM:

Tier 0.5 and 0.625:

$38 – G.Skill 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1.5v DDR3 1866MHz

AMD Llano and Trinity APU performance under video games dramatically increase when using DDR3 1866MHz RAM versus slower RAM, which makes sense considering that the integrated video card relies on the system RAM for storing data.

In other words, it’s the exception to the rule that faster RAM usually doesn’t boost performance much.

Alternative

• $68 – G.Skill 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866MHz – Our recommendation if you’d rather have a 8GB kit of DDR3 1866MHz RAM, in order to future-proof your build.

Tier 0.75, 1 and 2:

$37 – ADATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600MHz

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 browser, 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 this particular kit from ADATA for their great low price and excellent reliability.

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Is it worth it to get more than 4GB of RAM?
Except for a few exceptions, according to Tom’s Hardware, current games and applications won’t take advantage of more than 4GB.

However, if you intend on keeping this Gaming PC for more than say, 2-3 years, I’d highly consider getting more than 4GB of RAM now, considering that RAM prices have never been this low!

Faster or More RAM?
Can’t decide between getting faster (Higher frequency) RAM, or more (More GB) RAM?

I recommend going with more RAM, as this will allow your PC to be more future-proof and it will improve its responsiveness when you’re using demanding programs/games.

In short: More RAM will give you more performance, in the long run.

Maximum amount of RAM: Motherboards in this guide that supports two sticks of RAM can be equipped with up to 8GB (2 x 4GB) of RAM and the motherboards that support four sticks of RAM, can be equipped with 16GB (4x4GB) of RAM.

If you want more than 4GB of RAM, here’s my recommended upgrade:

• $56 – ADATA 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600MHz – Inexpensive and reliable choice for a 8GB kit of RAM.

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Heatsinks and CPU cooler clearance:
Every kit that I recommend in this guide feature either no heatsinks or small heatsinks that don’t raise too much above the RAM sticks.

Why?

1. Because RAM heatsinks barely make any difference when it comes to RAM temperatures. Besides, even if you overclock it/raise the voltage (at your own risk), RAM temperatures aren’t a problem as long as you have decent airflow in your case.
2. Tall RAM heatsinks can get in the way of larger aftermarket CPU Coolers, preventing you from installing your aftermarket CPU Cooler!

Important: RAM can require manual configuration within the BIOS to reach its full potential or function properly!
By default, some RAM kits will boot at lower frequencies than they are rated for. This is perfectly normal, it does not mean that your RAM is defective.

You simply have to go within the BIOS/UEFI (The first thing that you see when your PC starts) and enable XMP, for your RAM to function at its rated speed. If XMP is not available or doesn’t work for some reason, you can adjust the RAM settings manually, such as frequency (In MHz, usually linked to the CPU, look for a CPU:RAM ratio), voltage (e.g. 1.50v) and timings (a series of numbers, such as 9-9-9-24). Refer to your motherboard manual and your RAM specifications for more information.
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Storage:

Tier 0.5, 0.625, 0.75, Tier 1 and Tier 2:

$57 – Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III

The Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB hard drive is available for $57 and it’s pretty much the least expensive reliable modern hard drive that’s available on the market right now.

SATA III hard drive on a motherboard with SATA II? Not a problem.
The SATA standard is backward compatible, meaning that SATA III hard drives will work on a motherboard equipped with SATA II.

As I explain below, this will not result in any performance bottleneck, seeing as no hard drive offers performance that’s high enough to be bottlenecked by a SATA II connection.

SATA II 3.0Gb/s vs SATA III 6.0Gb/s: No performance difference for hard drives!
SATA 3.0 Gb/s (SATA II) and SATA 6.0Gb/s (SATA III) refer to the speed of the connection between the drive and the motherboard.

However, the best hard drives reach about 210MB/s (or 1.68Gb/s) in best scenarios. SATA 3.0Gb/s is plenty enough to handle that and for hard drives, SATA 6.0Gb/s does not offer any performance advantage, since the hard drives can’t even max out a SATA II 3.0Gb/s connection.

Only SSDs take advantage of SATA 6.0Gb/s due to their higher transfer rates.

In other words, if you take two otherwise identical hard drives, the SATA III model will not be faster than the SATA II model. SATA III for hard drives is just a marketing scheme

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Hard Drive alternatives:

1. $67 – Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 64MB cache SATA III – For only $10 more you can double your capacity and get one of the best performing and most reliable 7200RPM drives on the market.
2. $115 – Western Digital Red 2TB SATA III – Replacing the Samsung F4 HD204UI, which I no longer recommend now that it’s a rebranded Seagate hard drive and is thus no longer what I’d consider a reliable hard drive, is the Western Digital “Red” 2TB hard drive. While it’s optimized for NAS (Network Attached Storage) usage, it’s also an excellent hard drive for a desktop PC, offering great performance, great reliability being designed for 24/7 usage, low power consumption and noise as well as a 3 years warranty. Thanks to its 1TB platters, its performance is excellent, despite its lower rotation speed and low power consumption/noise, being capable of trading blows with the much more expensive Western Digital Caviar Black hard drives.
3. $151 – Western Digital Red 3TB SATA III – Same series as the drive above, but with 3TB of storage capacity.

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Solid State Drives
SSDs dramatically improve storage performance. SSDs are for you if you want:

1. Much faster OS boot, Shutdown, Sleep and Hibernation
2. Much faster program and game loading, meaning that you don’t have to wait as long for your program or your game to load.
3. A system that feels more responsive.

Ideally, what you want to do is get a SSD to store Windows and your favorite (or most demanding) games, with the rest of your media/games on the hard drive.

Here are my recommendations, in order of storage capacity and price:

1. $64 – Sandisk 2.5″ 64GB SATA III SSD – 64GB is a great choice for a boot drive with a few games.
2. $100 – Samsung 840 2.5″ 120GB SATA III SSD – A high performance, reliable 120GB SSD that’s selling for only $100.
3. $171 – Samsung 840 2.5″ 250GB SATA III SSD – A high performance, reliable 250GB SSD that’s selling for only $171.

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Optical Drive:

All Tiers:

$24 – Lite-On SATA 24X DVD Burner

This drive is able to read and burn CDs and DVDs. Relatively silent (it obviously makes some noise when reading/burning at high speed), compatible with all major formats including DVD-RAM.

The motherboards for all Tiers includes two SATA cables, of which one will be used for the hard drive and one for this DVD Burner, so you don’t need an additional cable, unless you decide to add a SSD, another hard drive or another optical drive.

If you need additional SATA cables, we recommend this SATA cable: $3- 18″ SATA Cable w/Locking Latch

Upgrade for Blu-Ray playback and burning:
If you’d like to watch BluRay movies or TV shows and want the ability to burn Blu-Ray disks as well, then the $65 – Pioneer Black 15X SATA Blu-Ray/CD/DVD Burner is what you want.

Regarding Blu-Ray playback:

As far as I know, you still require a specific software to playback Blu-Ray disks on a PC.

Based on various reviews and feedback on various forums, PowerDVD 13 3D Ultra is the software that I recommend to you. You’ll want at least the professional version for Blu-ray playback.

It is fully compatible with Windows 7/8 and shouldn’t give you any problems.
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Case:

Tier 0.5 and 0.625:

$30 – NZXT GAMMA Classic 1 x 120mm fan

• Cooling wise, this case includes one 120mm case fan, which is enough for Tier 0.5-0.625.You can also add five additional 120mm case fans (Two on the side, two at the top, one in the front) if you wish to.If you live in warm weather without A/C, adding a front 120mm case fan is recommended. See the cooling section for my case fans recommendations.

Features wise, you get:

1. Plenty of ventilation holes, so your parts won’t starve for fresh air.
2. 2x USB 2.0, 1x eSATA, Audio out, MIC in at the front.
3. Various holes and space to route and hide your wires.

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Tier 0.75 and 1

$60 – Corsair Carbide 200R 2x120mm USB 3.0 x2

• Cooling wise, this case includes two 120mm case fans, insuring proper cooling for your Gaming PC. You can also add many more case fans if you wish to. Here’s what possible: (x5) 120mm/140mm fan mount locations, (x3) 120mm fan mount locations, Includes (x1) front-mounted 120mm fan and (x1) rear 120mm fan

Features wise, you get:

1. Tool-free SSD, hard drive, and optical drive installation.
2. The inside of the case is painted in black
3. 2x USB 3.0, Audio out, MIC in at the top.
4. An hole on the back panel, to easily install after-market CPU Cooler without having to remove the motherboard from the case.
5. Various holes and space to route and hide your wires.

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Tier 2:

$70 – Rosewill R5 3x120mm USB 3.0 Fan Controller

A new case from Rosewill, the R5 is an excellent case for the price, offering a lot of features for $70.

• Cooling wise, this case includes three 120mm case fans, ensuring proper cooling for your Gaming PC. The R5 supports up to 10 fans (6 x 120 / 140mm + 4 x 120mm)

Features wise, you get:

1. Removable top and front compartment panels with filter
2. The inside of the case is painted in black
3. An hole on the back panel, to easily install after-market CPU Cooler without having to remove the motherboard from the case.
4. Various holes and space to route and hide your wires.
5. 2x USB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, E-SATA, Audio out and MIC in on top of the case.
6. 6 internal drive bays that support for 2.5″ (e.g. SSDs and laptop hard drives) and 3.5″ drives.
7. A fan controller to adjust the speed of the case fans.

Recommended alternatives:
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If you a want with a different look, more case fans, a smaller form-factor, an handle (LAN parties anyone?) and/or other features (e.g. fan controller, USB 3.0 front ports, etc.), take a look at my list of other recommended cases.

The vast majority of them are compatible with any Tier, although it’s always good to check the video card length clearance, CPU Cooler height clearance and the accepted motherboard form factors (ATX, Micro-ATX, Mini-ITX, etc.).

Of course, there are many other cases available on the market, so feel free to look at other options if you’re looking for something different.

Ask us on the forums if you have a doubt about whether a case is compatible or not with your build.

ATX cases alternatives: Compatible with ATX, Micro-ATX and some of them are also compatible with Mini-ITX motherboards:

• $35 – NZXT Source 210 Black 1x120mm
• $40 – NZXT Source 210 White 1x120mm
• $50 – NZXT Source 210 White Elite 2x120mm
• $45 – Rosewill Blackbone 3 x 120mm fans
• $40 – Cooler Master Elite 430 2 x 120mm fans
• $50 – COUGAR AF-2 Black & Army Green 1x120mm
• $62 – Cooler Master HAF 912 2x120mm
• $60 – Rosewill Line Glow USB 3.0 4x120mm
• $70 – NZXT Apollo 2 x 120mm fans
• $50 – NZXT M59 2 x 120mm fans
• $45 – NZXT Tempest 210 1x120mm
• $60 – NZXT Tempest 410 2x120mm
• $70 – NZXT Guardian 921 3 x 120mm fans
• $70 – NZXT Vulcan 2 x 120mm, 1 x 200mm fans + handle
• $70 – NZXT Lexa S 3 x 120mm, 1 x 140mm
• $70 – Cooler Master Storm Scout 1 x 120mm, 2 x 140mm
• $80 – Cooler Master Storm Enforcer, 1 x 120mm, 2 x 200mm
• $100 – Cooler Master HAF 922 Red LEDs 1 x 120mm, 2 x 200mm
• $100 – NZXT H2 H2-001-BK Black 3x120mm
• $90 – SILVERSTONE Precision PS06B-W 1x180mm 1x120mm
• $98 – Corsair Carbide 400r 3x120mm
• $50 – Rosewill Challenger Mid-Tower 2 x 120mm, 1 x 140mm fans
• $76 – COUGAR Challenger Black 1x120mm 1x200mm
• $81 – COUGAR Challenger Orange 1x120mm 1x200mm
• $110 – COUGAR Evolution Black Window 2x120mm
• $95 – COUGAR Evolution White Window 2x120mm
• $100 – Fractal Design Define Mini Micro-ATX 2 x 120mm fans
• $100 – NZXT Phantom 410 Black 1x140mm + 2x120mm fans
• $100 – NZXT Phantom 410 White 1x140mm + 2x120mm fans
• $100 – NZXT Phantom 410 Black Orange 1x140mm + 2x120mm fans
• $100 – NZXT Phantom 410 Gunmetal 1x140mm + 2x120mm fans
• $100 – NZXT Phantom 410 Red 1x140mm + 2x120mm fans
• $100 – Antec Eleven Hundred 1 x200mm + 1x120mm fans
• $60 – Antec Three Hundred Illusion 3x120mm 1x140mm fans
• $75 – Antec Three Hundred Two 1x140mm 1x120mm
• $120 – Corsair Vengeance C70 Black 3x120mm
• $80 – Corsair Carbide Series 300R 1x140mm 1x120mm
• $98 – Corsair Carbide 400R 3x120mm
• $100 – COOLER MASTER HAF XB Cube 2x120mm
• $100 – COOLER MASTER Storm Scout 2 Black 1x120mm
• $110 – Antec P280 Sound proofing panels and foam 3x120mm
• $80 – Fractal Design Define R4 Black 2x140mm
• $110 – Fractal Design Define R4 Window Black 2x140mm
• $110 – Fractal Design Define R4 White 2x140mm
• $120 – Fractal Design Define R4 Window White 2x140mm
• $110 – Fractal Design Define R4 Titanium 2x140mm
• $120 – Fractal Design Define R4 Window Titanium 2x140mm
• $119 – Corsair Carbide 500R Black 3x120mm 1x200mm
• $100 – Corsair Carbide 500R White 3x120mm 1x200mm
• $100 – LIAN LI PC-7HX 1x120mm 2x140mm Aluminum
• $130 – Corsair Vengeance C70 Black 3x120mm
• $120 – COOLER MASTER HAF XM 1x140mm 2x200mm
• $130 – Corsair Obsidian 550D 3x120mm

Micro-ATX cases (Only compatible with Micro-ATX and Mini-ITX motherboards) :
Note that some of them may not support larger after-market CPU Coolers, so pick a smaller CPU Cooler (see the cooling section for our recommendations) and preferably ask us on the forums to double-check your build to ensure that everything is compatible and will fit.

• $70 – NZXT Crafted Series Vulcan Micro-ATX 2x120mm
• $75 – SilverStone SST-PS07B Micro-ATX USB 3.0 2x120mm
• $84 – SilverStone SST-PS07W White Micro-ATX USB 3.0 2x120mm
• $100 – Fractal Design Define Mini Micro-ATX USB3.0 2x120mm
• $109 – Thermaltake A30 Micro-ATX USB 3.0 1x230mm 1x90mm 2x60mm
• $100 – SilverStone TJ08B-E Micro-ATX USB3.0 1x180mm 1x120mm
• $123 – LIAN LI PC-A04B Aluminum Micro-ATX USB3.0 3x120mm
• $100 – Fractal Design Arc Mini Micro-ATX USB 3.0 3x120mm fan contr.

Mini-ITX cases (Only compatible with Mini-ATX motherboards) :
Note that some of them may not support larger after-market CPU Coolers, so pick a smaller CPU Cooler (see the cooling section for our recommendations) and preferably ask us on the forums to double-check your build to ensure that everything is compatible and will fit.

• $90 – BitFenix Prodigy Black 2x120mm
• $80 – BitFenix Prodigy White 2x120mm
• $90 – BitFenix Prodigy Red 2x120mm
• $90 – BitFenix Prodigy Orange 2x120mm
• $110 – LIAN LI PC-Q08B Black Aluminium 1x140mm 1x120mm
• $120 – LIAN LI PC-Q25B Black Aluminium 1x140mm 1x120mm

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Power Supply:

All Tiers:

$38 – Antec VP-450 450W

The Budget Gaming PCs parts are fairly energy efficient and don’t feature very power hungry components, so you don’t need a power supply that’s very powerful.

However, the power supply is one of the most important components when it comes to the stability and reliability of a PC.

This is why I’m not cutting corners here, by making a recommendation for a fairly high-quality Antec 450W power supply.

Mind you, at $38, it is a very affordable power supply considering its quality.

It is capable of delivering up to 450W, but more importantly, 30A on the 12V lines, the most important lines for a power supply in a modern PC.

Note that if you intend on overclocking Tier 0.75, 1 or 2, you’ll want to upgrade to the 600W PSU recommended below. Tier 0.5 and 0.625 can be overclocked with the Antec VP-450.

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Upgrades:

1. $56 – SilverStone Strider 500W 80 PLUS – For $18 more, you get an additional 50W and a more efficient power supply that’s 80 PLUS certified.
2. $65 – SilverStone 600W 80 PLUS – For $27 more you can get an extra 150W. Ideal for overclocking Tier 0.75, 1 or 2.
3. $75 – SilverStone ST50F-P 500W 80PLUS BRONZE Modular – A more efficient power supply as well as a modular one to reduce cable mess. If you’re going to use a Mini-ITX motherboard/case, I highly recommend getting the set of shorter PSU cables below, so that you don’t have way too long cables in your smaller case.
4. SilverStone PP05 Set of Short Cables for PSU – A set of shorter cables for the SilverStone ST50F-P power supplies, ideal for Mini-ITX cases.

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Power Consumption:

How to calculate power consumption:
I recommend using the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator. Here are the settings that I used:

• CPU depending on the Tier, 90% TDP.
• Video Cards depends on the Tier, None if integrated
• Two sticks sticks of DDR3
• One regular SATA drive
• 1 DVD-RW/DVD+RW Drive
• 4 USB Devices
• 4 x 120mm regular fans
• System Load: 90%
• Capacitor Aging: 20%

A quick note about the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator:
While this is the main tool that I use to estimate power consumption, do note that sometimes, I’ll do some additional research on my own to verify these numbers. This is why you may notice that the numbers that I give below may or may not match what the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator gives you. In doubt, stick with my numbers or ask us on the forums.

Give your power supply some overhead:
While you can match a 650W PSU with a 630W requirement, it is good practice to add about 75-100W of overhead, so that your PSU doesn’t run at full capacity all the time, as that will reduce its lifespan, increase its chance of failure, increase its heat output and its noise output.

Estimated Power Consumption, per Tier:
According to the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator, with the settings that I described above, it is estimated that this system will require at load (peak usage), the following numbers. The minimum requirements are in Italic, while my recommendations (including overhead) are in Bold:

277W/350W with the AMD A8-3850 and the integrated Radeon HD 6550D (Tier 0.5).
277W/350W with the AMD A10-5800K with the integrated Radeon HD 7660D (Tier 0.625).
345W/450W with the AMD Phenom II X4 965 and the Radeon HD 7770 (Tier 0.75). Upgrade to the 600W PSU for overclocking.
360W/450W with the AMD Phenom II X4 965 and the Radeon HD 7790 (Tier 1). Upgrade to the 600W PSU for overclocking.
350W/450W with the Intel Core i3-3220 and the Geforce GTX 660. (Tier 2). Upgrade to the 600W PSU for overclocking.

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Cooling:

CPU Cooler:

All Tiers:

Stock Cooler

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 keep the CPU at safe temperatures.

The recommended case includes one or several cooling fans as well to help you keep your system cool.

However, here are two reasons why you may choose to upgrade your CPU Cooler:

1. To keep your CPU temperatures lower, which improves the reliability of your PC and the longevity of your CPU.
2. To lower noise, as the stock cooler can get noisy at times, especially during prolonged work sessions, or in a warm room.

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Alternative:

$28 – Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO

The Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO is the improved version of the Hyper 212 Plus and now that it’s only $3 more than the 212 Plus, it offers the a better bang for your buck, offering great cooling performance and much lower noise compared to the stock cooler, for only $28.

Need help figuring out how to put the Thermal Compound with the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo?

Follow this tutorial, where they compare different methods to figure out the best one.

Thermal compound:
All recommended CPU Coolers include thermal compounds which are pretty good, so no need to spend more money on a tube of thermal compound.

Micro-ATX

• $35 – COOLER MASTER GeminII M4 120mm – Recommended if you want an after-market CPU Cooler with a Micro-ATX case. Note that the Bitfenix Prodigy cases support the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, so use that instead for those cases.

Mini-ITX

• $29 – COOLER MASTER Vortex Plus 92mm – Recommended if you want an after-market CPU Cooler with a Mini-ITX case.

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CPU and Case Fans:

On the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, you can add a second 120mm fan to improve performance.

If you want to add a different fan to your CPU Cooler, or simply want to add a case fan to help keep your computer components cool, here are my recommendations:

• $18 – CM Barometric Ball .6k-2k RPM 26-86CFM 13-30dBA PWM
• $10 – Rosewill 1.2k-2.2k RPM 43-87CFM 23-38dBA Blue LED fan contr.
• $12 – AC Fluid Dynamic .3k-1.35k RPM Max 57 CFM w/ 4 Pin PWM
• $17 – Silverstone 2Ball .8k-2.4k RPM Max 110CFM 17-40dBA fan contr.
• $19 – Noctua NF-P12 SSO .9k-1.3k RPM PWM
• $10 – Cooler Master 120mm Red LED Fan
• $10 – Cooler Master R4 Series Silent 140mm Fan
• $15 – 200mm Red LED fan for Cooler Master HAF cases

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Sound:

5.1 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:
However, if you do want better sound quality, all the recommended and alternative motherboards (except the ASRock B75M-ITX Mini-ITX, see below) have space for a PCI sound card. I recommend the $30 – ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card

The only exception is the ASRock B75M-ITX Mini-ITX alternative motherboard for Tier 2, which has no space for an add-on card. If you want a better sound card, simply get the $43 – ASUS Xonar U3 USB Sound Card w/ Headphone Amplifier which is a USB sound card.

Both are equipped with an headphone amplifier, with three settings in the control panel, which will bring out the best out of your headphones and speakers.

Speakers:

While I do not include speakers in the Tiers budgets, seeing as you may already own some or simply do not want any, here are some recommendations for great speakers at various price points:

Note that the power output is in RMS Watts, a more accurate measurement.

2.0 speakers: 2 satellites and no sub-woofer:

• $24 – Logitech X-140 2.0 5W
• $56 – Creative Inspire T12 2.0 18W
• $71 – Creative Gigaworks T20 Series II 2.0 28W

2.1 speakers: 2 satellites and a sub-woofer:

• $40 – Logitech Z313 2.1 25W
• $60 – Logitech Z323 2.1 30W
• $75 – Logitech Z523 2.1 40W
• $129 – Logitech Z623 2.1 200W

5.1 speakers: 5 satellites and a sub-woofer:

• $75 – Logitech Z506 5.1 75W

Headphones/Earphones

I do not include headphones nor earphones in the Tiers budgets, seeing as you may already own a pair or simply do not want any.

Also keep in mind that sound quality is subjective, so while these are some great recommendations, in my opinion, at their respective price points, those recommendations are based on my own research, not yours. I do recommend that you do your own research, to figure out the best headphones for your needs, based on the type of music that you listen to and the games that you play.

Open Design Headphones:
As the name implies, an open hear headphone means that it doesn’t cover or seal off the ear from hearing outside noises.
Pros: Enough airflow to keep your ears cool. On average lighter than closed design headphones. Resonance is significantly reduced providing better audio quality and a better audio experience.
Cons: You hear outside noises, so they can’t be used in noisy environments. They leak out sound, so they provide no privacy and can bother people that are close to you.

1. $16 – Koss KSC75 Clip on headphones
2. $45 – Koss PortaPro
3. $53 – Superlux HD668B
4. $79 – Grado SR-60i
5. $100 – Audio Technica ATH-AD700
6. $99 – Grado SR-80i

Closed Design Headphones:
These are the opposite of open design headphones. These headsets usually have larger ear cups that isolate the user’s ears from his surroundings and its design is typically meant to block out outside sounds.

Pros: 1- Closed ear cups that seal off the ear from the outside world so you can expect sounds not to leak in and out of the headphones.
2- You can enjoy exclusive audio entertainment particularly in a typically noisy environment.

Cons: 1- Due to the closed ear design, airflow is greatly minimized or prevented, producing more resonance and this can negatively affect the quality of sound.
2- Due to how they isolate you from outside noise, it makes you more vulnerable to accidents.

1. $19 – Koss UR-20
2. $44 – Audio-Technica ATH-M30
3. $88 – Shure SRH440
4. $130 – Audio Technica ATH-A700 – Usually $150+, currently at a great price.
5. $107 – Audio Technica ATH-M50S (Straight Cable) – There’s also the $102 – Audio-Technica ATH-M50 (Coiled Cable), non-S version, which comes with a coiled cable. I personally ordered myself a pair of the ATH-M50 a few months ago and I love them, they sound better than any other ~$100 headphones that I tried before and isolate fairly well from the sound. They are tight at first, so you need to “flex” them a bit. Of course, as in with any good pair of headphones/earphones/speakers, having a good source of source makes all the difference in the world. I use them on the laptop with an ASUS Xonar U3 and they are a great combo.

In-Ear Headphones:
Simply put, these are headphones that you insert straight into your ear, to create a seal between the headphones and your ears.

Important: Make sure to take your time to properly test the different size of included tips, to find the ones that best fit your ears. This will make all the difference between a poor sounding pair and a good sounding one.

1. $14 – Logitech Ultimate Ears 200
2. $60 – Sennheiser IE 4 Earphones

Microphone:

If you want a dedicated microphone, to talk to your teammates online or for any other purpose, I recommend the $9 – Syba 3.5mm microphone with stand, which is an excellent low-cost option with perfectly fine audio quality and build quality (Well, unless you have an habit of throwing your microphone around after losing a game… ).

Personally, I recommend going for a pair of headphone with this dedicated microphone versus going with a headset that has a microphone, for two reasons:
1- The sound quality is on average superior with a dedicated pair of headphones and a dedicated microphone vs a headset at comparable price points.
2- If the microphone on the headset breaks down (and they do more often than not…), you’ll be stuck without your headset if you get it replaced, or either getting a new headset ($$) or a separated microphone. If either the headphones or the microphone breaks down, you still have the other that you don’t have to replace.

However, if you do high quality broadcasts such as podcasts, or you record music I recommend the $65 – Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone which gives excellent sound quality for only $65.

Headsets:

Headsets are basically headphones with an integrated microphone.

If you go with an headset, make sure to check them all out, since they vary considerably in design.

1. $13 – Yapster TM-YP100A
2. $27 – Koss SB-45
3. $58 – Corsair Vengeance 1100
4. $44 – Sennheiser PC 151
5. $57 – Razer Moray Plus
6. $50 – ARCTIC Sound P531
7. $84 – SteelSeries Siberia V2
8. $95 – Logitech G35
9. $84 – Creative Sound Blaster Tactic 3D Wrath Wireless
10. $110 – Logitech G930

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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, using a standard LAN (RJ-45) cable.

If a LAN network is not an option or if a wireless network is preferable for you, know this before you use wireless for a Gaming PC:
The problem with wireless is that:

• It’s not as reliable as LAN, with signals dropping out, interference and the like.
• It induces additional latency compared to LAN, which is the last thing that you want when you’re playing online, especially with first-person shooters.

In short, for reliability and getting a low ping, LAN is simply superior (and cheaper!).

If you understand that and still want to go with wireless, here are my suggestions:

I recommend two adapters:
1- If you want a fast adapter without spending a fortune, I’d consider the $20- Rosewill RNX-N180UBE Wireless USB 2.0 Dongle 802.11b/g/n w/ 5 dBi Antenna, which connects in a USB 2.0 port. It comes with a base, so that you can move it away from the PC for better reception and a 5dBi external antenna to improve reception further more. It support 802.11b/g/n, with transfer rates up to 300Mbps.

2- The best solution is the $35 – TRENDnet TEW-684UB Dual Band 802.11b/g/n 450Mbps USB2.0 which offers the best range and the best throughput at 450Mbps

Recommended wireless routers:

Need a wireless router too? No problem. Here are my recommendations, in an ascending order of performance and price:

1. $26 – TP-Link WL TL-WR841N 300Mbps – A great basic no-frill fairly reliable 300Mbps router.
2. $52 – TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND 300Mbps USB – Similar to the one above, but with an extra antenna and a USB port, to share a printer, storage, etc.
3. $64 – D-Link DIR-645 300Mbps USB – Higher performance than the TP-LINK TL-WR1043ND, hangs out with more expensive routers, but at a lower price.
4. $99 – ASUS RT-N56U Dual-Band 600Mbps – High-performance dual-band router, with great looks too!

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Recommended operating systems:

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

1. The budget only considers hardware.
2. 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

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.

64-bit drivers are widely available for pretty much any devices nowadays.

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:

1. Windows 7 Home Premium: The basic edition, with all the looks, most of the functionality and DirectX 11.
2. 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. Also good to know: You’ll need at least the pro version to take advantage of Remote Desktop Connection.
3. 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 Versions:

1. Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM SP1 – $90
2. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OEM SP1 – $136
3. Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OEM SP1 – Currently unavailable
   

Retail Versions:

1. Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Retail – $170
2. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Retail – $292
3. Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Retail – $330

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.
Click here to go back up to parts summary

Windows 8

Released on October 26th 2012, Windows 8 is Microsoft’s latest version of the popular Windows operating system. While it uses the same core as Windows Vista and Windows 7, visually it is a departure from these two OS, using colourful tiles and a look often referred to as “Metro”.

While you can switch back to the classic desktop look, “Metro” loads up by default. The “Start” button and menu are gone too. While this will irratate some users, it is possible to have the desktop load by default and it is also possible to bring back the start button and menu by installing third parties apps.

The vast majority of applications that ran on Windows Vista and 7 should have no problem running on Windows 8.

For more information on Windows 8, there are countless reviews of it available online that will do a better job than I can fully describing the changes that it brings to the Windows OS.

Let’s address the obvious question:
Should you use Windows 7 or 8 for your gaming PC?

While I welcome novelty and change, gaming performance doesn’t improve on Windows 8 and the “Metro” looks makes it less efficient to multi-task and switch back and forth between various open applications, which is problematic for some of us who use their Gaming PCs for everything.

More importantly, Windows 8 is a brand new OS, while Windows 7 has been around for three years. What this means is that Windows 7 bugs have been nearly all fixed, while Windows 8 is crippled with bugs, as any new operating system usually is.

Considering these two points, I’d sticking with Windows 7 for now. Don’t get me wrong though, Windows 8 definitely brings some good changes to Windows and it has the potential of being a great OS for gaming PCs, but it still needs some time to get its bugs fixed to be reliable enough for a workstation laptop. Perhaps when its first service pack (SP) will be released, Windows 8 will be the OS of choice.

Note that to fully take advantage of all Windows 8 features (such as secure boot) you will need a motherboard that features UEFI. All the recommended and alternatives motherboards in this guide feature UEFI, so no need to worry about that.

To find out more about Windows 8, I invite you to read one of many reviews available online that get deep into what has changed from Windows 7 to WIndows 8.

That said, if you’re interested in Windows 8, there are two versions available:

• $95 – Windows 8 System Builder DVD 64-Bit
• $135 – Windows 8 Professional System Builder DVD 64-Bit

Linux

A lot of people these days boot more than one OS. Linux is a wonderful choice: powerful, cool, and cheap. Take your pick of distribution and have fun! For Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, and Mandriva, 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, has many free alternatives for you. For Word/Excel and such, try LibreOffice.
Cost: Free

Conclusion

What do you think of the latest version of the Budget Gaming PCs? Let me know if you have any suggestion to improve this article or your opinion on it by leaving a comment below. Additionally, if a part goes out of stock, let me know.

Don’t agree with my choices? Have a better idea?

Feel free to leave a comment. There’s always place for improvement and after some research I may change the part according to your suggestion.

Building this PC?

If you build this system, I invite you to share your experience on how well it runs: What applications do you use, what type of work do you do, how well does this PC performs, is there anything that slows it down? Your feedback will help other people make an informed decision on what to buy for their own needs.

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

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…

1. You will find the answers to all of these questions and more in this article: FAQ: How to Build Your Own Computer
2. Is this your first build? Here are 10 Quick Tips for 1st Time Builders to get you started.
3. Newly built computer won’t start? I invite you to read Help me: Why won’t my newly assembled PC start or boot?
4. Visit our forums here, where you can join our helpful community and ask questions

Recommended step-by-step guides to build your PC:

Newegg TV has three great videos on how to build your PC. The first covers choosing your parts, which we help you with in this article, so I chose not to include it. The second one, below, shows you in detail how to assemble your PC. The 3rd one shows you how to install Windows and software.

If you prefer a text version with pictures, here are two great guides by ArsTechnica, the first one covering the assembling and the second one covering Windows and software:

1. Arstechnica Outstanding Guide for Hardware (Building the PC)
2. Arstechnica Outstanding Guide for Software (EFI/BIOS, Windows, etc.)

Free Assistance

If you have any question(s) about the build, simply head over to the forums and our community will be there to assist you.

No worries, there are no stupid questions here on Hardware Revolution. We all started from scratch and learned through our mistakes. We”ll just help you make sure to avoid those mistakes

If you want to have your final build double-checked and get my opinion on it before ordering, or for anything else, don’t be shy, just post a thread on the forums.

Build your Gaming PC today!

Why should you?
For the same price, you’ll get more performance out of your custom PC, or you’ll save money while getting the same performance compared to a retail PC. Not to mention that retail PCs come with tons of bloatware and limited warranties. Why settle for less?

Stop relying on HP, Dell and other companies:
Build your own custom PC today. It’s easier than you think!

This Build includes all the parts/cables that you need and it was double-checked to ensure compatibility. Simply order your parts, set aside some time, grab a screwdriver and build your own personal PC. No worries, we’ll (the HR community) be there to assist you if you have questions or need help.

Then you’ll be able to say, “See that computer over there? Yeah, I built that.” Talk about being proud of a job well done.

Want or need a more powerful Gaming PC? No problem.

If you’re looking for a Gaming PC that boots and launch games/applications faster thanks to a SSD (Solid State Drive) and that can handle most of the latest video games at a 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution at their maximum graphic settings, head over to our Mainstream Gaming PCs article.

If you’re looking for a Gaming PC that can handle all of the latest video games maxed out at a 1080p (1920 x 1080) on a 120Hz monitor or to play video games on a multiple monitor setup or to play games in 3D, head over to our High-End Gaming PCs article.

Don’t miss our future articles!

Make sure not to miss our future articles and updates by subscribing for free via RSS or E-mail and automatically receive our future posts.

If the fact that you’ll be receiving outstanding articles for free is not enough to convince you, here are 7 Reasons to Subscribe.

The Corsair Obsidian 550D, the case recommended for the High-End Workstations, thanks to its looks, sound dampening, cooling performance and ease of components installation.

Six reasons to choose HR’s Workstations:

1. Every single part is hand-picked to ensure top-notch reliability and performance.
2. We don’t cut corners by using a no-brand low-quality power supply, cheap sleeve fans or any other parts that are likely to fail early.
3. Designed to run cool and relatively quietly.
4. For the same price, you’ll get more performance out of your custom workstation, or you’ll save money while getting the same performance compared to a retail PC.
5. Longer warranties on individual parts vs a shorter warranty on the whole PC. Parts have 1 to 6 years or even lifetime warranties.
6. No time wasted on uninstalling pre-installed bloatware and useless programs that you didn’t want in the first place.

Stop relying on, overpaying and being disappointing by HP, Dell and other big companies:
Build your own custom workstation today. It’s easier than you think!

This Build includes all the parts/cables that you need and it was double-checked to ensure compatibility. Simply order your parts, set aside some time (a few hours at most), grab a screwdriver, get a table with a lot of light and build the workstation.

Then you’ll be able to say, “See that computer over there? Yeah, I built that.” Talk about being proud of a job well done.

High-End Workstations VS Mainstream Workstations:
The High-End Workstations, compared to the Mainstream Workstation, offer:

• Much higher CPU performance thanks to the two physical CPUs with up to 16 cores in total.
• The possibility of adding more RAM, up to 128GB, thanks to more RAM slots.

Choose Your Tier, based on your needs:

We offer four different tiers (configurations) in this article, to match different workload requirements. Go right below this section to see our recommendations depending on which program you use.

Tier A: High-End Workstation, with support for up to 4 or 8 monitors.

Tier A is the basic high-end Workstation, equipped with dual CPUs and one or two video cards to handle up to 4 or 8 monitors at once. This Tier is ideal if all you need is a lot of CPU processing power, with support for multiple monitors.

Tier B: For 3D modeling, CAD and the like.

Tier B is equipped with a Nvidia Quadro K5000, in order to handle your 3D, CAD and the like. Supports up to 4 monitors.

Tier C: For more GPU computing performance, with Nvidia Maximus, combining the power of a Quadro card and a Tesla card

If you need strong computing performance for GPU Computing applications (e.g. Seismic processing, CFD, CAE, Financial computing, Computational chemistry and Physics, Data analytics, Satellite imaging, Weather modeling, etc.), Tier C is the way to go.

It supports Nvidia 2nd generation “Maximus” technology, where you combine two video cards: A Quadro card for graphic (display) purposes and a Tesla K20 5 GB GPU Computing Accelerator card for computing (rendering) purposes. By sharing the loads on two specialized cards, you get better computing performance than using only a Quadro card with your CPU(s).

Tier D: DAW (Digital audio workstation) for Audio Professionals

Tier D is equipped with dual CPUs, one video card that supports up to four displays and a pro sound card, the ESI juli@ XTE.

Which Tier do you need for your applications?

Based on your comments and requests from the Workstation Builds: Throw in your Requests and Suggestions! post, I’ve come up with a list of recommendations, based on programs and their requirements.

• Adobe Applications: Creative Suite 5 Master Collection, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, Lightroom, Illustator, Indesign, Bridge, Bibble, Flash, Dreamweaver, etc.: Tier A. If you have intensive work that brings a modern (Quad-Core and higher) PC that its knees, consider faster CPUs. The faster that your CPUs are, the faster that the rendering/work will complete. Upgrading to more RAM (64GB) would be a good idea if you work with many very large files.
• AutoDesk Suite (AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit, etc.): Tier B. If your CAD workflow involves a lot of heavy rendering, computing and/or simulation, go with Tier C for higher performance.
• CAD: Tier B. If your CAD workflow involves a lot of heavy rendering, computing and/or simulation, go with Tier C for higher performance.
• Camtasia: Tier A
• Cinema 4D: Tier A, Tier B for higher-performance. While it will run just fine with the High-End Workstation as it is, this is an application which scales very well when you add performance to your PC, meaning that the better that are your parts, the faster that your renderings will be completed. A faster Quadro card will improve performance and so will faster CPUs, especially the 8-core variants.
• CorelDRAW Premium Suite X6: Tier A
• DAW (Digital Audio Workstation): Tier D
• Development (General coding, for web, Oracle, Java, pretty much any computer language): Tier A
• FL Studio: Tier D
• Microsoft Office Professional: Tier A
• Microsoft Visual Studio: Tier A
• Nvidia CUDA: Tier B or if you want even higher performance, Tier C.
• Oracle Database: Tier A
• Pinnacle Studio 16: Tier A, Tier B for higher performance thanks to Nvidia CUDA
• Rhino 5: Tier B
• Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate (formerly Sage Timberline Office): Tier A. Go with Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate; Home Premium isn’t supported.
• Sony Vegas 12 Pro: Tier A
• Sound Forge: Tier D
• Other Programs: Got another program that you’d like to know if it would run well on the High-End Workstation or would require upgrades? Leave a comment at the end of this article and I’ll get back to you with my recommendations.

Need a Tier recommendation for your specific workload?

Simply leave a comment at the end of the article. Note that if you want me to recommend to you a completely custom workstation which is different from the four Tiers outlined in this article, I offer consulting services as well. Simply scroll down to the Consulting section towards the end of the article for more information.

Recommended Parts Summary:

Main recommendations, upgrades and alternatives:

1. Recommended Components are in Bold.
2. Suggested Alternatives and Upgrades are in Italic.
3. Some parts can be upgraded on any Tier and some parts can only be upgraded on some Tiers. See the indications below.

High-End Workstations Tiers: – Tier A: Basic High-End Workstation, with support for up to 4 or 8 displays - Tier B: For 3D modeling, CAD and the like. - Tier C: More GPU computing performance, Nvidia Maximus: Quadro + Tesla card - Tier D: For Audio Professionals, with ESI juli@ XTE sound card Click on a component’s name (e.g. CPU) to jump to the detailed section of it.	Price $3932 $5627 $9020 $4179
CPU: Can be upgraded on any Tier without modification All Tiers: Two Intel Xeon E5-2630 2.3-2.8GHz DDR 1333 Six-Core+HT 95W Two Intel Xeon E5-2640 2.5-3.0GHz DDR3 1333 Six-Core + HT 95W Two Intel Xeon E5-2650 2.0-2.8GHz DDR3 1600 Eight-Core + HT 95W Two Intel Xeon E5-2660 2.2-3.0GHz DDR3 1600 Eight-Core + HT 95W Two Intel Xeon E5-2665 2.4-3.1GHz DDR3 1600 Eight-Core + HT 115W Two Intel Xeon E5-2670 2.6-3.3GHz DDR3 1600 Eight-Core + HT 115W Two Intel Xeon E5-2680 2.7-3.5GHz DDR3 1600 Eight-Core+HT 130W Two Intel Xeon E5-2690 2.9-3.8GHz DDR3 1600 Eight-Core+HT 130W	- $1240 $1760 $2200 $2740 $2960 $3100 $3520 $3940
Motherboard All Tiers: ASUS Z9PA-D8 ATX Dual LGA 2011 Server Motherboard	- $370
RAM: Can be upgraded on any Tier without modification All Tiers: 32GB: Two Kingston 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz 1.5v ECC Reg. 64GB: Two Kingston 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz 1.5v ECC Reg. 128GB: Two Kingston 64GB (4x16GB) DDR3 1600MHz 1.5v ECC Reg.	- $360 $640 $1062
Video Card Tier A+D: Radeon HD 7770 1GB Flex 3 monitors support, 4 with adapter *Tier A only: 6 to 8(w/ adapters) monitors:2x Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 1GB Flex* Display Port to VGA Active Adapter for additional monitor support Display Port to DVI Active Adapter for additional monitor support Tier B+C: Nvidia Quadro K5000 4GB Dual-slot *Tier C*: NVIDIA Tesla K20 5GB GPU for Computing Dual-slot *With 2 video cards, you can’t install a RAID card. You’ll need a NAS for RAID 6 on hard drives.*	- $140 $280 $30 $26 $1750 $2870 -
Storage SSDs: Use the motherboard SATA ports. Can be upgraded on any Tier. All Tiers: Two Samsung 840 Pro 256GB in RAID 1. Total capacity: 256GB Two Samsung 840 Pro 512GB in RAID 1. Total capacity: 512GB Hard Drives: You’ll need a RAID card or a NAS for RAID 6. Upgradable on any Tier. All Tiers: Four Western Digital Red 1TB in RAID 6, Total capacity: 2TB Four Western Digital Red 2TB in RAID 6. Total capacity: 4TB Four Western Digital Red 3TB in RAID 6. Total capacity: 6TB RAID card or NAS for RAID 6: Tier A, B and D: ARC-1213-4I-MS PCI-E 4x drives SATA RAID Controller Card Required cable for RAID card: HighPoint Mini-SAS to 4SATAx 3 feet Cable Tier C + A (for 2x video cards setups only): Qnap TS-469-PRO-US NAS	- - $502 $968 - $320 $468 $588 - $370 $17 $815
Optical Drive: Can be upgraded on any Tier without modification All Tiers: Lite-On SATA 24X DVD Burner Pioneer Black 15X SATA Blu-Ray/CD/DVD Burner	- $24 $70
Power Supply: Can be upgraded on any Tier without modification Tier A and D: Seasonic X-850 850W 80 PLUS Gold Modular 5yrs war. Tier B: Seasonic X-1050 1050W 80 PLUS Gold Modular 5yrs war. Tier C: Seasonic X-1250 1250W 80 PLUS Gold Modular 5yrs war. UPS/Surge Protector: Cyberpower PP1500SW-T2 UPS 1000W PureSine 7-Outlet Cyberpower PP2200SW UPS 1500W PureSine 8-Outlet	- $160 $205 $300 - $311 $441
Case All Tiers: Corsair Obsidian 550D	- $130
Cooling: See full section for where and in which direction to install the case fans. All Tiers: Two (2x) Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler All Tiers: Two (2x) Noctua NF-P12 120mm Case Fan Tier A and D: Four (4x) Noctua NF-A14 FLX 140mm Case Fan Tier B and C: Six (6x) Noctua NF-A14 FLX 140mm Case Fan	- $140 $36 $80 $120
Sound: Tier A, B, C: SIIG IC-510111-S2 DP 5.1 PCI-Express 1x Sound Card Tier D: ESI juli@ XTE PCI-E 1x	- $43 $290
Network All Tiers: Onboard 3x Gigabit LAN RJ-45: 2 x Intel® 82574L + 1 x Mgmt USB Wireless network adapters: Rosewill RNX-N180UBE Wireless USB 2.0 802.11b/g/n with 5 dBi Antenna ASUS Dual-Band Wireless-N900 USB-N66	- Free - $20 $65

Trying to reduce the price of your Workstation?
Here are a few things that you can do to cut down on the total cost:

• Remove both SSDs (-$500) and only use the hard drives. Sure, the OS, programs and files won’t load as fast, but this won’t affect the processing/rendering speed much, if at all.
• Go from two SSDs in RAID 1 to a single SSD (-$250), where you lose both performance and redundancy.
• Buy only one CPU and 16GB of RAM (4x4GB, just get a single kit) instead of two CPUs and 32GB (8 x 4GB) of RAM, to save $800. Needless to say, this involves a massive performance hit. Not recommended unless you intend on adding the second cpu/set of RAM later on, otherwise the Mainstream Workstation will offer more performance at an even lower price point.

Building this System, Got a Question, Need Help?

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?
• 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.

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?

Have questions, need to consult with an expert?

I offer consulting services if you require my help. Simply scroll down toward the end of the article, to the consulting section, for more information.

High-End Workstation Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard:

All Tiers:

$370 – ASUS Z9PA-D8 ATX Dual LGA 2011 Server Motherboard

What makes this motherboard great is the fact that it features two LGA 2011 sockets, allowing for a Dual-CPU setup, on the practical ATX format, allowing you to use a regular power supply and case, instead of far more expensive server parts based on far less common standards.

- It supports two Xeon 26xx series CPUs with a TDP of up to 135W for each CPU.
- It supports up to eight RAM sticks, with a frequency up to 1600MHz (depending on the CPU, see the CPU section for more info). I recommend filling them all, in order to get as much bandwidth as possible by taking advantage of quad-channel RAM (quad-channel: 4 RAM slots per CPU x 2 CPUs).

During installation, do note that you need to plug in a 24-pin power cables and TWO 8-pin power cables in order for the motherboard to function properly. Rest assured that the recommended power supplies do come with those power cables.

Back Ports:
On the back, you have two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, one PS/2, a serial port, a VGA output and three LAN ports (Two Intel 82574L 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN ports and one mgmt LAN port).

Expansion ports + Storage Ports on the board:
Two PCI-Express 3.0 16X, three PCI-Express 8X slots, one PIKE slot (Used for Audio Card), two SATA 6Gbps and four SATA 3Gbps ports. Note that the board does not support floppy drives nor IDE-based drives.

In which expansion slots should you install the expansion cards (video, RAID and sound cards):
From top (closest to CPU sockets) to bottom:

• Tier A (single video card): Top PCI-Express 8x slot: Sound card, top PCI-Express 16x slot: Video Card, bottom PCI-Express 8x slot: RAID card
• Tier A (dual video cards): Top PCI-Express 8x slot: Sound card, top PCI-Express 16x slot: 1st video Card, bottom PCI-Express 16x slot: 2nd video card. No RAID card, make sure to get a NAS for the hard drives in RAID 6 (see storage section).
• Tier B: Top PCI-Express 8x slot: Sound card, top PCI-Express 16x slot: Video Card, bottom PCI-Express 8x slot: RAID card
• Tier C: Top PCI-Express 8x slot: Sound card, top PCI-Express 16x slot: Quadro K5000, bottom PCI-Express 16x slot: Tesla card. No RAID card, make sure to get a NAS for the hard drives in RAID 6 (see storage section).
• Tier D: Top PCI-Express 16x slot: Video Card, bottom PCI-Express 16x slot: sound card, bottom PCI-Express 8x slot: RAID card

Additional information:
Note that the motherboard includes six SATA cables, so you don’t need to buy any additional SATA cable, unless you add a lot more drives, since the build only needs three cables (two SSDs and one optical drive, the hard drives have cables with the RAID card or don’t need any in the NAS).

CPU:

All Tiers:

$1240 – Two (2x) Intel Xeon E5-2630 2.3-2.8GHz Turbo Six-Core + HT 95W

Note that the price is for two (2) CPUs.

The Xeon E2630 is the second lowest-end entry-level Xeon CPU from the E26xx family. It features six cores + Hyper-Threading, so it can handle up to 12 threads. Its base frequency is 2.3GHz but just like the consumer class Core i5 and i7 CPUs from Intel, it can automatically and safely boost its frequency, up to 2.8GHz for the E-2630, when faced with heavy workloads.

Did I say entry-level? That’s relative, considering that this setup will outperform any comparatively priced system. Needless to say, for your workloads, this setup will outperform any single cpu setup, whether it’s from AMD or Intel, in the vast majority of workstation type of workloads. If you need raw CPU power, a dual-CPU setup is a great upgrade from a single-CPU setup.

The dual-socket 2011 platform gives you access to Quad-Channel RAM and also allows you to upgrade to the 8-core Xeon CPUs (See the available upgrades below) if you want even more performance.

Note that no CPU Cooler is included with them, hence why I recommend a CPU cooler further down in this article.

Regarding RAM frequency:
Note that the maximum RAM frequency supported by the E-2630 is 1333MHz. If you want 1600MHz RAM support, you’ll need to upgrade to the E-2650 or an higher-end model. Higher RAM frequency means more memory bandwidth, which can improve performance with some programs.

Available upgrades:
Note that core count and frequencies are compared to the E5-2630.

1. $1760 – Two Intel Xeon E5-2640 2.5-3.0GHz Turbo Six-Core + HT 95W – Base and Turbo frequency higher by 200Mhz, identical otherwise. RAM will run at 1333Mhz.
2. $2200 – Two Intel Xeon E5-2650 2.0-2.8GHz Turbo Eight-Core + HT 95W – Two additional cores (8 vs 6 cores), base frequency lower by 300Mhz, Turbo frequency identical. RAM will run at 1600Mhz.
3. $2740 – Two Intel Xeon E5-2660 2.2-3.0GHz Turbo Eight-Core + HT 95W – Two additional cores (8 vs 6 cores), base frequency lower by 100Mhz, Turbo frequency higher by 200MHz. RAM will run at 1600Mhz.
4. $2960 – Two Intel Xeon E5-2665 2.4-3.1GHz Turbo Eight-Core + HT 115W – Two additional cores (8 vs 6 cores), base frequency higher by 100Mhz, Turbo higher by 300MHz. RAM will run at 1600Mhz.
5. $3100 – Two Intel Xeon E5-2670 2.6-3.3GHz Turbo Eight-Core + HT 115W – Two additional cores (8 vs 6 cores), base frequency higher by 300Mhz, Turbo higher by 500MHz. RAM will run at 1600Mhz.
6. $3520 – Two Intel Xeon E5-2680 2.7-3.5GHz Turbo Eight-Core + HT 130W – Two additional cores (8 vs 6 cores), base frequency higher by 400Mhz, Turbo higher by 700MHz. RAM will run at 1600Mhz.
7. $3940 – Two Intel Xeon E5-2690 2.9-3.8GHz Turbo Eight-Core + HT 130W – Two additional cores (8 vs 6 cores), base frequency higher by 600Mhz, Turbo higher by 1000MHz (1GHz). RAM will run at 1600Mhz. This is the fastest Xeon CPU available that’s compatible with this build.

Video Card:

Tier A and D:

$140 – Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 1GB Flex 3-4 monitors support

While the motherboard comes with a VGA output, I recommend avoiding using it, as its based on the awful Aspeed AST2050 onboard video chipset with a mere 16MB of memory, which is completely underwhelming and useless for a Workstation.

The video card that I recommend for Tier A and D, the Sapphire Radeon HD 7700 1GB Flex may look like a rather basic video card, but it has the capability of outputting to up to three DVI monitors without any adapters.

It can also output to up to four monitors at once, if your 4th monitor has a Displayport connection or with one of the two following adapter:
- For VGA monitors: $30 – Display Port to VGA Active Adapter
- For DVI monitors: $26 – Display Port to DVI Active Adapter

This is unique to Sapphire Flex video cards, other Radeon video cards support two video cards out of the box or three with an adapter. For more information on Sapphire FleX technology, I invite you to visit this page on their website.

Need support for more than 4 monitors?

If you need support for more than 4 monitors, you can add a second Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 Flex to your system, without any other modification to the workstation. Out of the box, you’ll have support for 6 displays. By adding one or two adapters recommended above, you’ll get support for 7 or 8 displays respectively.

Compatibility notes:
- This option is only compatible with Tier A, as the other Tiers have other video or sound cards that will prevent you from installing two Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 Flex in your system.
- If you use two Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 Flex, you will be unable to install a RAID controller card. To be able to have four hard drives in RAID 6, you’ll have to purchase a NAS (Network Attached Storage). I recommend the $815- Qnap TS-469-PRO-US for its high performance (Dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM, Dual LAN ports), reliability, solid build and top-notch customer support. It will store the four hard drives, will allow you to run them in a RAID 6 array and connects directly to your workstation via two LAN ports. Alternatively, you can connect it to your network, so that other users can easily access it.

Tier B and C:

$1750 – Nvidia Quadro K5000 4GB Dual-slot

Recently launched, the Nvidia Quadro K5000 4GB is the most powerful professional card from the Nvidia Quadro line-up. It will easily take care of 3D rendering, CAD programs and the like, as well as accelerating programs UI and video decoding of course.

It is capable of handling four monitors, with DVI-I DL + DVI-D DL + DP 1.2 + DP 1.2 display connectors.

FirePro vs Quadro:
Performance wise, the latest Quadro line-up (K series, avoid the older non-K series) has the edge over the FirePro series, thanks to superior drivers that simply deliver more performance. Quadro cards are also supported by more applications and finally, their drivers are more optimized for greater performance in some applications.

While the AMD FirePro line-up of cards can be an interesting alternative thanks to their relatively low cost, they are just not supported by as many applications as the Nvidia Quadro line-up cards are.

Considering the cost of this workstation, I’m sure that you’ll want to get top-notch performance all over the place in all apps, including Adobe apps and top-notch drivers, hence why I only recommend Nvidia Quadro cards in this build.

Professional 3D Workstation Video Cards:

What applications benefit from or truly need AMD Firepro or Nvidia Quadro Cards and what’s the difference between consumer cards (Radeon/Geforce) and professional cards (FirePro/Quadro)?

Accuracy & reliability:

“Exact pinpoint renders for things such as vehicle/building/contraption etc design, think many moving parts working together such as an engine prototype….things where a millimeter or so off could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars or much much more lost or even death…. They are tools for professionals, and if you really need one you’ll know it.

Gaming cards and workstation cards are very similar, but the differences are major. Consumer cards are built for speed at the cost of accuracy, gaming renders need to be fast…not perfect.

Workstation cards are the opposite, they need to be perfectly accurate at all times, speeds good but not priority, major differences in the cards are ECC ram (expensive, but a lost bit could be catastrophic) and very robust and detailed driver support…the drivers are really where the bulk of the expense comes from and , they have to work and have to work well, we gripe and moan about bugs in our games…when the card is holding you back from your livelihood….

It cost money to make money and or move things forward to a large degree, great designs aren’t doodled out on a napkin in a country diner anymore.

Similar to other class of products on the market, i.e consumer vs pro cameras:

There are many products out that scale the same way, look at cameras, a $200 point and shoot for the trip to disney world or the $5000+++ used to shoot what we see in magazines and such, a nice solid sub $500 Asian import guitar vs a $3K+ made in the USA model, the latter has better quality components and much more time and care in construction.

Back to the cards a lot of pro level applications will work to a degree on consumer cards (with some hacking and preening), but thats more like an artists sketch pad….good for practice and education, or proof of concept work but nothing mission critical…for most pro applications key features are disabled and their is no formal support unless a proper card is being used.”

“Workstation card core chips are mostly identical to the consumer grade stuff (except for the memory controller), but everything around it is usually made of much higher quality components. The heatsinks and fans are made of better materials etc. etc.”

Thanks to our reader EBOBO and the folks on the forums of DesktopReview.com for that great explanation.

Other than that, Quadros and Firepros have optimizations in their drivers for various specific applications as well for the usual workload that a Workstation will be used for. These optimizations are only activated when a Quadro or Firepro is detected.

Tier C:

$2870 – NVIDIA Tesla K20 5GB GPU for Computing Dual-slot

Need more computing performance?
If you need strong computing performance for GPU Computing applications (e.g. Seismic processing, CFD, CAE, Financial computing, Computational chemistry and Physics, Data analytics, Satellite imaging, Weather modeling, etc.), Nvidia offers their 2nd generation “Maximus” technology, where you combine two video cards: A Quadro card for graphic (display) purposes and a NVIDIA Tesla K20 5 GB GPU Computing Accelerator card for computing (rendering) purposes. By sharing the loads on two specialized cards, you get better computing performance than using only a Quadro card with your CPU(s).

For more information on Nvidia’s Maximus technology, performance improvements that you can expect and testimonials, visit this page.

If your computing needs aren’t that demanding yet, you can stick to only a Quadro card and upgrade to the highest-end Quadro (K5000) if necessary. If you have a Quadro K5000 already and need more computing power or if you just know that you need as much computing power, then adding a NVIDIA Tesla K20 5 GB GPU Computing Accelerator computing card to your workstation that also contains a Quadro K5000 makes sense.

Note that the Tesla card has no display outputs, so you must have a Quadro card to handle your monitors. As explained above, combining it with a Quadro K5000 is the best and most powerful option, hence why that’s what I’m recommending for Tier C.

Warning about a possible compatibility issue:
The downside of using a Tesla K20 card with a Quadro K5000 card is that due to the dual-slot size of both cards, you will be unable to install a RAID controller add-on card, due to the lack of space on the motherboard to do so.

In other words, you can still have two SSDs in RAID 1 with the Tesla K20 card and the Quadro K5000 card, but four hard drives in RAID 6 (which requires an add-on RAID controller card) won’t be possible, unless you get a NAS (Network Attached Storage), which is an external enclosure that can be connected directly to LAN port(s) to ensure high transfer rates, with four hard drives in RAID 6, along with two SSDs in RAID 1 in the PC case.

I recommend the $815- Qnap TS-469-PRO-US for its high performance (Dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM, Dual LAN ports), reliability, solid build and top-notch customer support. It will store the four hard drives, will allow you to run them in a RAID 6 array and connects directly to your workstation via two LAN ports. Alternatively, you can connect it to your network, so that other users can easily access it.

RAM:

All Tiers:

$360 – Two Kingston 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz 1.5v ECC Registered

Note that you need to buy two (2) of those kits, so that you get a total of eight (8) RAM sticks, to fully populate the motherboard’s RAM slots, in order to take advantage of quad-channel and get as much RAM bandwidth as possible.

32GB of memory: Run lots of programs with many large files with no problem!
32GB of RAM will allow you to run many programs at once, with a lot of larges files open at the same time, with minimum latency.

Kingston RAM: Highly reliable
I recommend Kingston for their high reliability (lowest return rate in the RAM industry, according to hardware.fr who gets their data from a major e-tailer) and compatibility with the vast majority of motherboards.

ECC Memory:
I recommend with ECC (Error-correcting code) memory, which is a type of memory that:

“(…) can detect and correct the more common kinds of internal data corruption. ECC memory is used in most computers where data corruption cannot be tolerated under any circumstances, such as for scientific or financial computing.

ECC memory maintains a memory system immune to single-bit errors: the data that is read from each word is always the same as the data that had been written to it, even if a single bit actually stored, or more in some cases, has been flipped to the wrong state. Some non-ECC memory with parity support allows errors to be detected, but not corrected; otherwise errors are not detected.“

ECC memory may be more expensive than standard memory, but it’s also a lot more reliable and a lot less prone to failure, two highly important factors for a Workstation.

Alternatives: Need more than 32GB?
If you need more than 32GB for your specific needs or just want to future-proof your workstation with more RAM, here’s a 32GB (x2 = 64GB) and 64GB (x2 = 128GB) kit.

Remember that you need to buy two kits, so that you get a total of eight (8) RAM sticks, to fully populate the motherboard’s RAM slots, in order to take advantage of quad-channel and get as much RAM bandwidth as possible.

• 64GB: $640 – Two (2x) Kingston 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz 1.5v ECC Registered
• 128GB: $1062 – Two (2x) Kingston 64GB (4x16GB) DDR3 1600MHz 1.5v ECC Registered

Storage:

High-availability solution that ensures that your data is available even with multiple drives failure:
For the High-End Workstations, I’m recommending two Samsung 840 Pro SSDs in RAID 1 and four Western Digital Red hard drives in a RAID 6 array.

The reason for this recommendation is two-fold:
1. The SSDs will give very high performance for the OS, demanding programs and large files that you are currently working on, while the hard drives will provide a lot of storage space to save your projects and other large files for backup.
2. By backing up your SSD content onto the hard drives, you ensure that you have two redundant storage solutions, so if against all odds you get a critical failure on your SSDs, you still have your data safe on the hard drives, which are setup with RAID 6, which allows for two drive failure, so if you lose one hard drive and when you re-construct the array you lose another (more common than you think, especially with large 1+TB hard drives), you will not lose any data, unlike with RAID 5.

In other words, even if you lose both SSDs AND two hard drives, your data is still available.

Here are a few examples of possible failures and the outcome:
- One of the two SSDs in RAID 1 fails: The other SSD still contains all the data from the failed SSD. Simply replace the failed SSD and rebuild the RAID 1 to ensure data availability on both SSDs. No data loss.
- Both SSDs fail: Replace both SSDs and load a saved image of their content from the hard drives. No data loss.
- One hard drive fail: Replace the failed hard drive and rebuild the RAID 6 array. No data loss.
- One hard drive fail and a second hard drive fail during the RAID array rebuild: Replace the faulty hard drive and rebuild RAID 6 array. No data loss.
- Both SSDs fail and two hard drives fail: My, what are the odds of that? Still, replace the faulty hard drive, rebuild RAID 6 array. Then you replace both SSDs and load a saved image of their content from the hard drives. No data loss.

As you can see, this is a solid solution that ensures that your data is safe.

However, if you have a 3 or 4 hard drives failure, you WILL lose your data, so to be certain, backups over other locations (external hard drive, other NAS, online server, optical disks, USB key, etc.), preferably off-site (to avoid data loss in the case of fire or theft) are recommended to be absolutely confident that you will not lose critical data even in the worse case possible.

RAID is NOT a backup solution:
RAID is not a backup solution, all it means is that if a drive fails, the data is available on another drive. However, it doesn’t protect you from an accidental file deletion, viruses, problems with software or OS updates causing issues and the like. RAID is not going to help you with any of those problems, because all drives will have the same problems.

Taking the time to setup a proper backup system is critical to avoid headaches that will cost you precious time and money later.

That said, let’s move on to the recommendations.

RAID controller or NAS:

For Tier A (single video card), B and D:

To run RAID 6 on your four hard drives, you’ll want a RAID controller card. I recommend the $370 – ARC-1213-4I-MS PCI-E 4x drives SATA RAID Controller Card – Extra Text.

Note that it doesn’t include the necessary cable to connect the hard drives to the controller card. I recommend the following cable: $17 – HighPoint Internal Mini-SAS to 4SATA(SFF8087 to SATA) 1M (3 feet) Cable

For Tier A with dual video cards and Tier C:

Since you can’t install a RAID controller card due to the lack of space caused by the two video cards, you’ll want a NAS. I recommend the $815- Qnap TS-469-PRO-US for its high performance (Dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM, Dual LAN ports), reliability, solid build and top-notch customer support. It will store the four hard drives, will allow you to run them in a RAID 6 array and connects directly to your workstation via two LAN ports. Alternatively, you can connect it to your network, so that other users can easily access it.

SSDs: All Tiers:

$502 – Two Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SATA III 2.5″ SSD in RAID 1: Total capacity: 256GB

Why the Samsung 840 Pro (not to be confused with the 840 non-Pro series) SSDs?

Two very simple reasons:
1. Reliability: From my research and customers feedback, Samsung produce the most reliable SSDs right now, hence why I recommend them for a Workstation.
2. Performance: The Samsung 840 Pro tops the charts, pretty much all professional reviewers online praise its high performance, even under very demanding workloads.

Samsung 840 Pro SSDs have a SMART attribute “Wear_Leveling_Count” which counts down from 100 to 0 as the drives wear out. This allows you to track their usage and to predict when you’ll need to replace one of them if necessary when the time comes. Note that this is likely to take many many years.

Thanks to RAID 1, if one of them fails, the other one still holds your data.

The case natively supports 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives, so you don’t need any adapter.

The motherboard includes six SATA cables, so you don’t need to buy any additional SATA cable, since the build features two SSD and one optical drive, for a total of three SATA drives. The hard drives are connected to the RAID controller card (which has a dedicated cable to handle the four SATA hard drives) or a NAS, which doesn’t require any cables. In other words, you shouldn’t need any additional SATA cables.

Need more than 256GB of ultra-high-speed storage?
Simply upgrade to: $968 – Two Samsung 840 Pro 512GB in RAID 1, total capacity: 512GB

Hard Drives: All Tiers:

$320 – Four Western Digital Red 1TB in RAID 6, total capacity: 2TB

Why the Western Digital Red series?
1. They are designed for 24/7 usage.
2. They are designed for RAID environments, no dropout after a short amount of time.
3. Three years warranty with 24/7 support.

Simply put, they offer great reliability, can be used in RAID, in a NAS, are designed designed for 24/7 usage and offer a great warranty. Ideal for a workstation.

2TB isn’t enough for you?

No problem, you can stick with the same RAID 6 solution and move up to 4 or 6TB of storage capacity with the following hard drives:

• $468 – Four Western Digital Red 2TB in RAID 6, total capacity: 4TB
• $588 – Four Western Digital Red 3TB in RAID 6, total capacity: 6TB

Optical Drive:

$24 – Lite-On SATA 24X DVD Burner

This drive is able to read and burn CDs and DVDs. Relatively silent (it obviously makes some noise when reading/burning at high speed), compatible with all major formats including DVD-RAM.

The motherboard includes six SATA cables, so you don’t need to buy any additional SATA cable, since the build features two SSD and one optical drive, for a total of three SATA drives. The hard drives are connected to the RAID controller card (which has a dedicated cable to handle the four SATA hard drives) or a NAS, which doesn’t require any cables. In other words, you shouldn’t need any additional SATA cables.

Upgrades:
If you want the ability to read and burn Blu-Ray disks, then the $70 – Pioneer Black 15X SATA Blu-Ray/CD/DVD Burner is what you want.

Regarding Blu-Ray playback:

As far as I know, you still require a specific software to playback Blu-Ray disks on a PC.

Based on various reviews and feedback on various forums, PowerDVD 12 3D Ultra is the software that I recommend to you. You’ll want at least the professional version for Blu-ray playback.

It is fully compatible with Windows 7/8 and shouldn’t give you any problems.

Case:

All Tiers:

$130 – Corsair Obsidian 550D

A powerful workstation needs a case to match it. It needs to be capable of ensuring proper cooling, while being discrete enough to not get some odd stares (Lots of noise is annoying and flashy LEDs look out of place in a corporate environment).

With a subtle yet good looking style design including a diamond-cut brushed aluminum front panel, sound proofing and an ease of components installation that their rivals could learn from, the Corsair 550D is what I recommend to you.

• Cooling wise, this case includes three case fans but unfortunately, they have sleeve bearing, which tend to fail within a year and can be noisy.To ensure proper cooling with enough airflow, low noise and many years of service, you’ll be replacing them. See the cooling section for more details.

Features wise, you get:

1. A solid case. No flimsy panel, nor sharp edges here.
2. A case that facilitates your PC assembly. Working in this case to assemble your PC is a lot easy and simpler than in some other cases.
3. Outstanding wire management.
4. Magnetically mounted dust filters
5. One-button side panel removal
6. A tool-less system that works.
7. Support for up to six 2.5″ and 3.5″ drives, perfect for two SSDs and four hard drives.
8. 2 x USB 3.0 and Audio out/MIC in at the top. Unfortunately, USB 3.0 aren’t supported by the motherboard, but the case includes a converter to USB 2.0, which is supported by the motherboard. So you’ll effectively have two USB 2.0 ports on the front of the case. Rest assured that you also have two USB 3.0 and two more USB 2.0 ports on the back of the motherboard.
9. 5 years warranty

Power Supply:

Tier A and D:

$160 – Seasonic X-850 850W 80 PLUS Gold Modular 5yrs war.

This power supply has a maximum power output of 850W, not that should rely only on this information as I often point in posts such as Warning: 6 Surefire Ways of Blowing Up Your Computer Due to an Inadequate Power Supply.

More importantly, it can output a maximum of 70A on the 12V line, one of the most important factors when it comes to choosing a power supply.

Best of all, it is 80 PLUS Gold certified, meaning that it’s always at least 85% efficient, resulting in less heat, more silence and a lower electricity bill for you, compared to a less efficient power supply.

Also good to know: It’s modular, meaning that you only plug in the power cables that you need, instead of being stuck with a bunch of unused cables that you have to tuck away somewhere in your case.

The Seasonic X series is known for the very high quality of its components and its reliability. That and the fact that features two EPS 12V 8 pins connector, a must for the dual-CPU motherboard that requires two EPS 12V connectors. Many power supplies only offer one EPS 12V connector and would be inadequate for this workstation.

Finally, it comes with a solid 5 years warranty.

Tier B:

With its Quadro K5000, Tier B requires a more powerful power supply. I recommend the $205 – Seasonic X-1050 1050W 80 PLUS Gold Modular 5yrs war..

Tier C:

With the Quadro K5000 and the Tesla card, you’ll need an even more powerful power supply. The $300 – Seasonic X-1250 1250W 80 PLUS Gold Modular 5yrs war. is what I recommend.

UPS/Surge Protector:

I highly recommend getting a UPS, especially if you’re in an area with a lot of thunderstorms, brownouts or in a work area with older electric wiring. If you lose power, the UPS will keep your PC running for a few minutes, enough for you to save your work and to properly shutdown your PC.

The two recommended UPS below also protects against electrical surges, protecting your PC and other equipment plugged into the UPS, from dangerous power surges, which are one of the main causes of defective computers.

PC components are extremely fragile and the last thing that you want is to plug all that expensive equipment equipped straight in a power outlet. You want it plugged in a surge protector (featured in the UPS units below), which will protect your expensive equipment.

My recommendation:

• The $311 – Cyberpower PP1500SW-T2 UPS 1000W PureSine 7-Outlet is my recommendation for Tier A and D. Keep in mind that the UPS also has to power your monitor and anything else plugged in it, hence the overhead here.
• For Tier B and C, you’ll want the $441 – Cyberpower PP2200SW UPS 1500W PureSine 8-Outlet instead. Note that it requires a NEMA 5-20R receptacle, or in other words, a different power outlet. If you have no such outlet, you can simply use this $18 – Conntek 1-Foot 15-Amp to 20-Amp NEMA 5-15P to 5-15/20R Power Adapter Cord and use a standard 15A power outlet for your UPS.

Yes, there are less expensive UPS units available, but nothing that’s as reliable as the units above. These are designed for network-grade, mission-critical servers and other environments where a power loss without a chance to save current projects would be disastrous and unacceptable. The recommended UPS units above are made solid, batteries are replaceable and the UPS units work when they need to.

Cooling:

$140 – Two (2x) $140 – Noctua NH-U12S CPU Cooler

This Workstation is based on a server-type platform, meaning that the CPUs don’t include CPU Coolers. Also, since this is a dual-socket motherboard, you have to be careful to pick a heatsink that will both fit and that will be capable of offering proper cooling, in order to ensure reliability, even when you run your workstation under a 24/7 load.

The Noctua NH-U12S will do exactly that and after a lot of research, it is my recommendation.

Equipped with the Noctua NF-F12 fan which features a high-quality SSO bearing, you can be sure that it will last many many years while being fairly silent. Rest assured that if for any reason you wish to change the fan, it’s something possible with this CPU Cooler.

To top it off? Noctua offers a six years warranty! The customer service is top-notch and the long warranty is a statement to the quality of this product.

Remember though: You’ll need to buy two, since you have two physical CPUs in this system.

Thermal Compound:
The thermal compound is what you’ll put between the CPU and the CPU Cooler, and its job is to transfer heat between the two. Using an high-quality thermal compound ensure that your CPU temperatures will be as low as possible.

The great news is that the Noctua NH-U12S includes some NT-H1 thermal compound. It’s a top-notch product that I have no problem recommending.

Case Fans

To ensure proper cooling, low noise and longevity, you’ll be replacing the case stock fans with the following Noctua fans.

Why Noctua fans?

• Exceptional quality, with SSO bearings that are reliable and will last many many years (MTBF rating of more than 150.000 hours, or over 17 years running 24/7) without making more noise, clicking or anything that you’d expect from an aged fan.
• Good airflow to noise ratio: They provide good airflow while being next to silent. A few fans from other companies offer slightly better performance, but none are as reliable as the Noctua fans.
• 6 years warranty

All Tiers:

Two 120mm case fans, to be placed in the front of the case, as intake fans (pulls air inside of the case. Find the arrow on the side of the fan to determine the direction of the airflow):

$36 – Two (2x) Noctua NF-P12 120mm Case Fan

Tier A and D:

$80 – Four (4x) Noctua NF-A14 FLX 140mm Case Fan

You’ll want to place:

• Two at the top of the case as exhaust (pushes air outside of the case)
• One at the back of the case as exhaust
• One at the bottom of case, as an intake fan (pulls air inside of the case)

Tier B and C:

$120 – Six (6x) Noctua NF-A14 FLX 140mm Case Fan

You’ll want to place:

• Two at the top of the case as exhaust (pushes air outside of the case)
• One at the back of the case as exhaust
• Two on the side of the case as intake fans (pulls air inside of the case)
• One at the bottom of case, as an intake fan

Sound:

Tier A, B and C:

$43 – SIIG IC-510111-S2 DP 5.1 PCI-Express 1x Sound Card

Seeing as the motherboard has no onboard sound, I recommend a basic 5.1 sound card.

Because it’s so small, it will fit in the top PCI-Express 8x slot, next to the RAM slots, allowing you to install two video cards or one video card and a RAID card.

Tier D:

$290 – ESI Juli@ XTE PCI-Express 1x Sound Card

Of course, for a digital audio workstation, a basic 5.1 sound card won’t cut it.

For Tier D, I recommend the $290 – ESI juli@ XTE PCI-E 1x.

If you want one of the best, if not THE best professional sound card available, this is it.

• It features highest quality 24-bit 192Khz ADC (114dB) and DAC (112dB).
• Its unique swappable I/O socket allows you to choose your analog connectors between unbalanced RCA jacks and balanced TRS jacks, making Juli@ XTe the perfect solution for any stereo I/O application, analog and digital.
• The EWDM drivers of Juli@ XTe provide unparalleled performance and stability, and provide support for all professional audio applications using ASIO. Of course, Windows 7 and 8 are supported.
• With its digital I/O and the integrated MIDI interface, Juli@ XTe is perfect for post-production studios, one man bands and use with mixers and you can monitor the inputs and outputs directly through the digital mixer.
• Juli@ XTe features optical and digital outputs that allow AC3/DTS pass through for Dolby digital and DTS surround sound playback.

Of course, if you already have your own PCI-Express sound card and would rather use it, it should work without any issue in this workstation.

Note that PCI sound cards are NOT compatible with this build, because the motherboard has no PCI slots.

Network: Three Gigabit LAN connectors on motherboard

Integrated on the motherboard are three Gigabit LAN connectors.

However, if a LAN network is not an option or if a wireless network is preferable for you, I recommend either the:
- Inexpensive and reliable – $20 – Rosewill RNX-N180UBE Wireless USB 2.0 802.11b/g/n with 5 dBi Antenna, which connects into a USB 2.0 port. It comes with a base, so that you can move it away from the PC for better reception and a 5dBi external antenna to improve reception further. Support 802.11b/g/n, 300Mbps max.
- Supports up to 900Mbps- $65 – ASUS Dual-Band Wireless-N900 USB-N66, which connects into a USB 2.0 port. The receiver is a base, so that you can move it in the best spot for better reception. Support 802.11b/g/n. Dual-band 3×3, up to 900Mbps.

Recommended operating system:

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

1. The budget only considers hardware.
2. You may be able re-use a previous license, have a corporate license (volume license), etc..

If you decide that you need to buy an OS, here are our 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:

1. Windows 7 Home Premium: To avoid, as it supports a maximum of 16GB of RAM, while the High-End Workstations are equipped with at least 32GB. Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate support up to 192GB of RAM.
2. 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. Also good to know: You’ll need at least the pro version to take advantage of Remote Desktop Connection.
3. 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:

1. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OEM SP1 – $136
2. Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OEM SP1 – $199

Retail Versions:

1. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Retail – $300
2. Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Retail – $310

Windows 8

Released on October 26th 2012, Windows 8 is Microsoft’s latest version of the popular Windows operating system. While it uses the same core as Windows Vista and Windows 7, visually it is a departure from these two OS, using colourful tiles and a look often referred to as “Metro”.

While you can switch back to the classic desktop look, “Metro” loads up by default. The “Start” button and menu are gone too. While this will irratate some users, it is possible to have the desktop load by default and it is also possible to bring back the start button and menu by installing third parties apps.

The vast majority of applications that ran on Windows Vista and 7 should have no problem running on Windows 8.

For more information on Windows 8, there are countless reviews of it available online that will do a better job than I can fully describing the changes that it brings to the Windows OS.

Let’s address the obvious question:
Should you use Windows 7 or 8 for your workstation PC?

While I welcome novelty and change, performance doesn’t improve that much on Windows 8 (not when you have such a powerful workstation anyway) and the “Metro” looks makes it less efficient to multi-task and switch back and forth between various open applications, which is problematic for a typical workstation workload

More importantly, Windows 8 is a brand new OS, while Windows 7 has been around for three years. What this means is that Windows 7 bugs have been nearly all fixed, while Windows 8 is crippled with bugs, as any new operating system usually is.

Considering these two points, I’d sticking with Windows 7 for now. Don’t get me wrong though, Windows 8 definitely brings some good changes to Windows and it has the potential of being a great OS eventually, but it still needs some time to get its bugs fixed to be reliable enough for a workstation laptop. Perhaps when its first service pack (SP) or the rumored Windows “Blue” will be released, Windows 8 will be the OS of choice.

To find out more about Windows 8, I invite you to read one of many reviews available online that get deep into what has changed from Windows 7 to WIndows 8.

That said, if you’re interested in Windows 8, there are two versions available. Note that there isn’t any “retail” version, you can re-install it as often as you need to:

• $96 – Windows 8 System Builder DVD 64-Bit
• $139 – Windows 8 Professional System Builder DVD 64-Bit

Hardware Revolution consulting services:

About me:
I’m a computer expert with over 12 years of experience in recommending, building, fixing and modifying computers. I’ve assisted countless people and companies over the years with completely custom designs ranging from $300 to $25,000+ and of course, I’ve assembled many systems myself. In the last two years, I’ve recommended for over 10 millions dollars in various computer equipment purchases.

I’m not your average Joe, nor your Mom & Pop’s consultant. People trust me because I’m independent, neutral, stay on top of new technologies and because I recommend only what I would buy myself.

Testimonials:

Andrew:
The computer looks amazing. Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much for your help.

Kevin:
Thanks for all your help! The computer is a beast! You were a great help as I do not have the knowledge base concerning individual components and compatibility. (…) matching the individual pieces to produce a level performance field was key. I could not be more happy with the system!

Paul J. Klein:
I’ve known Mathieu for some time now and while his knowledge of computer hardware has continued to astound me, I’ve been even more impressed with his personable, affable nature! (…) if I were you, I’d hire him without hesitation!

Get Mathieu’s services today!

Basic services:

Configuration verification for compatibility, what’s best for your needs, etc.

- Are you hesitating on what’s best for your needs?
- You want to have your final build double-checked and get my opinion on it before ordering?

My rate for basic services consulting is $99.95.

For this price, you’ll get:
- My recommendation on what’s best for your needs.
- My confirmation that your workstation parts are indeed compatible and are the best choice for your budget or alternatively, will tell you that this is not the case and offer you alternatives that are compatible, reliable and offer the best performance at a given price.

I accept Paypal only, which allows for credit card payments or electronic transfer from your bank account. Once your payment is completed, please contact me with your questions at the e-mail found further down in this article.

Advanced services:

Custom build for your specific workload needs. Basically any modification to a Workstation that requires a part that isn’t recommended/suggested in this article is considered advanced services.

- Need a high-end workstation with more than 4 hard drives for additional storage?
- Need 256GB of RAM?
- Need to modify a workstation Tier to match your needs?
- Have a lot of questions that will requires a lot of my time?
- Want a custom workstation that’s different from the four Tiers recommended in this article?

My rate for advanced services consulting is $299.95.

For this price, you’ll get:
- My recommendations for parts for a completely custom workstation that matches your specific needs
- Unlimited e-mail support with fast replies (usually within 24 hours, often faster).
- I’ll be there to assist you until you’re satisfied with your custom workstation and order your parts.

Note that if you need more than one custom configurations (for a few or many different workload types or different budgets), please contact me at the e-mail address below so that we can negotiate a reasonable rate based on your needs.

I accept Paypal only, which allows for credit card payments or electronic transfer from your bank account. Once your payment is completed, please contact me with your questions at the e-mail found further down in this article.

Custom services:

- Need assistance or have any questions that aren’t addressed here?

My rate varies depending on your needs. Please contact me with your question(s) at the following e-mail address:

(Yes, this is an image, you’ll have to manually copy the e-mail address. While this may be a slight inconvenience, this is necessary for me to avoid spam e-mails.)

Show your appreciation for this article

If you liked this article, if it helped you save money and time and if you appreciate the website for providing valuable, up-to-date, unbiased information, I kindly ask you to help us by making a donation via PayPal.

I suggest donating 1% of your build cost, or part of what you saved by using our recommendations in this article. Of course, feel free to donate as much as you wish or can. Thank you.

Conclusion

Don’t agree with my choices? Have a suggestion to improve this build?

I do realize that even if I took a year to write this guide, it wouldn’t be perfect and it wouldn’t cover every possible software/scenario.

This is why if you don’t agree with one or several of my choices, think that you can come up with a way to improve this build, have requests, comments, etc. by all means, please let me know by leaving a comment below.

Would you like to see an additional feature? Let me know.

One or several parts are out of stock?

Simply drop a comment below to let me know. I’ll personally recommend to you an equivalent alternative and I will update the build shortly after.

What do you think?

What’s your opinion on this build?
Did you find a typo or error in this article?
Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Don’t miss out on the Workstations updates!

We’ll soon be updating the Mainstream and Entry-Level Workstations. Also, as time goes by, parts go out of stock, new more powerful/efficient parts come out and more reasons cause me to update the builds. To make sure that you don’t miss an update, you can receive our updates for free via RSS or E-mail.

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