System Builder Marathon, June 2010: $550 Gaming PC
Table of contents
- 1. The Budget Build Returns
- 2. CPU And Cooler
- 3. Motherboard And Memory
- 4. Graphics Cards And Hard Drive
- 5. Case, Power Supply, And Optical Drive
- 6. Assembly
- 7. Overclocking
- 8. Test System Configuration And Benchmarks
- 9. Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- 10. 3D Games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 And Crysis
- 11. Benchmark Results: DiRT 2 And S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat
- 12. Benchmark Results: Audio/Video Encoding
- 13. Benchmark Results: Productivity
- 14. Power Consumption And Temperatures
- 15. Performance Summary, Efficiency, And Conclusion
System Builder Marathon, June 2010: The Articles
Here are links to each of the four articles in this month’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published). And remember, these systems are all being given away at the end of the marathon.
To enter the giveaway, please check out this Google form, and be sure to read the complete rules before entering!
Day 1: The $2,000 Performance PC
Day 2: The $1,000 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $550 Gaming PC
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected
Introduction
The $500 gaming rig has a long history here at Tom's Hardware. But, through a desire for more performance, plus combating a trend of price increases, we allowed our low System Builder Marathon (SBM) budget to creep up 50% above the one from a couple years ago. Most readers appreciated the performance and value squeezed from our March 2010 $750 SBM gaming PC, but many of you expressed an interest in once again seeing a true budget-oriented gaming build.
Given the shaky state of the economy, $500 was the starting point for this month’s budget gaming rig, and we knew right away that the resulting configuration would no doubt offer excellent bang for the buck, even while coming in $5 under budget. It features a three-core processor, after-market CPU cooler, a 500GB hard drive, and a trusty ol’ Radeon HD 4850 512MB graphics card. The value of the Radeon HD 4850 is and remains undeniable, earning it repeated appearances in our SBMs, as well as Don Woligroski’s monthly Best Graphics Card For The Money articles.
Of course, swapping in a Radeon HD 5750 would have matched (or even beaten) this performance level, while adding features and DirectX 11 support for our updated gaming suite. Unfortunately, available models were still priced relatively high in comparison. However, for roughly $10 more than a 1GB Radeon HD 5750, the PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 could have offered the performance and features we desired, at a budget “stretching” we could justify. Through hefty sacrifices in storage space, stock cooling, processing cores, and enclosure design, each netting just a small savings, it would have been possible to squeeze this card into a true $500 build. But exercising flexibility within our budget allowed for an all-around much better machine.
$550 Gaming PC System Components
| Component | Model | Price (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Athlon II X3 435 | $71 |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper TX3 | $30 |
| Motherboard | Asus M4A77TD | $85 |
| RAM | Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR3-1333 (PC3 10600) Model CTKIT12864BA1339 | $58 |
| Graphics | PowerColor AX5770 1GBD5-H Radeon HD 5770 1GB | $152 |
| Hard Drive | Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD502HJ 500GB 7,200 RPM SATA 3.0 Gb/s | $55 |
| Sound | Integrated | $0 |
| Network | Integrated | $0 |
| Case | Cooler Master Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Black | $40 |
| Power | Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus RS-500-PCAR-A3 500W | $40 |
| Optical | Samsung Black 22X DVD Burner SATA Model SH-S223C | $22 |
| Total | $545 |
The above $545 total reflects the pricing of components we chose and purchased for this build. The processor is now cheaper, while the price of the CPU cooler, power supply, and graphics card has increased, making the total cost $13 higher if purchased today.
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- 29/03 – System Builder Marathon, March 2012: System Value Compared
- 28/03 – System Builder Marathon, March 2012: $2600 Performance PC
- 27/03 – System Builder Marathon, March 2012: $1250 Enthusiast PC
- 26/03 – System Builder Marathon, March 2012: $650 Gaming PC
This system would (obviously) have more worth if it could reliably run unlocked and at a slightly better frequency, thus allowing it to be far closer in many of the AV benchmarks. Like you said though, it's the luck of the draw.
This system would (obviously) have more worth if it could reliably run unlocked and at a slightly better frequency, thus allowing it to be far closer in many of the AV benchmarks. Like you said though, it's the luck of the draw.
It would have performed better in the productivity benches, but not in gaming benchmarks. A 435 is already good enough to let even a 5870 breathe fully. This system's performance is GPU limited, the CPU can't change that.
He he..so my 2 year old PC can still keep up with the new technology. The only thing new is my video card witch is a 5770(check my member configuration). Glad i did not sell it
.
Thank you for the article.
No way! a gamer machine should have 4 gb min! I wouldn't call this machine a gamer.I could build for £600 a beast...
In how many games do you really need more then 2 Gb of RAM? Base your response on facts. I never used more then ~1900 Mb.
It would have performed better in the productivity benches, but not in gaming benchmarks. A 435 is already good enough to let even a 5870 breathe fully. This system's performance is GPU limited, the CPU can't change that.
Nah I wasn't thinking of gaming at the time; compared to two 4850s in Crossfire mode, a 5770 isn't ever going to win regardless of the number of cores the CPU has.
I would like to say UK price wise don't ignore the GT250 from Nvidia. Last time I checked it was easier to get hold of then the 4850 and cheaper too!
No way! a gamer machine should have 4 gb min! I wouldn't call this machine a gamer.I could build for £600 a beast...
£600 = $888 so that's $333 more than this had cost.
$550 - £371
How good a machine could you build for £371 with 'rip off Britain' prices, I think you'd really struggle to top this.
As for the 2GB, 4GB question, I tested out a system recently with 1GB of DDR2 800 & an old pentium dual core 1.8 OC to 2.2 and an 8800GT running on Win XP. I was astonished just how well it ran Dirt 2 & Modern Warfare 2 @1280 x1024, both titles were completely playable, neither game had maxed out detail settings but both were ticking along quite nicely most of the time at 40fps. I was gobsmacked. Loading was a bit slower, and the time to exit a game was longer, but it ran surprisingly well.
Interesting article. Nice to see the Athlon II x3 + Radeon 5770 combo giving decent FPS.
However if the price of DDR3 is so prohibitive then I'd consider the slightly older AM2+ route, with its cheaper DDR2 memory. I don't think the performance difference would be that big.
Thanks to AMD's expertise and its relationship with motherboard manufacturers, the AM2+ platform still offers plenty in the way of performance, stability and upgradeability. Look at the success of AMD's 700-series chipsets, for example; most boards that can accommodate the majority of AM3 CPU's available today. Would the lack of DDR3 support be such a big, especially to games? I don't think it would. Same for lower Hyper-Transport speeds.
So, for a budget gaming rig I'd settle with AM2+. The money saved would then go towards a better graphics card and some more RAM. Further savings might be had by using a stock CPU cooler and budget-branded memory.
What do you guys think on this?
Plus some AM2+ boards support Thuban with merely a BIOS update. Extra value there!
@ ionut an "older" game like world of warcraft (6 year old game) uses 75% of my 4gb of ram (ie 3gb) just flying over northrend on an x3 720 & 5770 1gb with 4gb ddr2 1066 all at stock speeds.... 2gb of ram for gaming? get real!
Aion reputedly only uses 1GB. What's going on with the WoW game engine? It's no match for any version of the CryEngine.
@ ionut an "older" game like world of warcraft (6 year old game) uses 75% of my 4gb of ram (ie 3gb) just flying over northrend on an x3 720 & 5770 1gb with 4gb ddr2 1066 all at stock speeds.... 2gb of ram for gaming? get real!
I never played world of warcraft. And as i said i never reached my max RAM on this system(got close to it). If you want to see witch games i play(a few of them) check my review of my card, the link is at my member configuration.
I agree that 4 Gb of RAM should be great but you can play with 2 Gb or RAM most games with no problem.
@ ionut thanks for the suggestion, I went and checked out what you play and what settings you benched your rig at... I think if you had benched Crysis at the native resolution of your monitor (1920x1080) instead of 1680x1050 you might have seen a very different story... still was an intersting read.. the only way to really test your 2gb vs 4gb theory is to run all those benches with 4 gb and again with 2gb... all the same ram & speed of course.... that I would love to see
also note a lot of newer games are coming out with recomendations of 3gb for ram ie Bioshock 2 etc
I know, but the the current prices of RAM DDR2 or DDR3.. it is expensive to invest any more in DDR2. (the games are cheaper to buy)
) . Also that was my first ever review made. Thank's for reading it.
I do not know why but i did not have the option of 1920x1080 in crysis. Also i do not know how many times i updated crysis witch could probably fix that. Anyway beyond 1680x1050 i would have to lower the settings more then i would like.
All of the games ware installed for a wile in my system also.
When i will buy another system you can bet that it will have at list 4 gb of RAM, or more.
At my current sys spec i am satisfied with what it gives me. The CPU even in NFS witch is an intense game not in terms of graphics but in speed, where you need to have more then 30fps to be as fluent as possible at the native resolution of my monitor, it is not at 100% load (core0 and core1 ) so i have no bottleneck because of it. Crysis and NFS heats up my components the most.
I am waiting for crysis 2 to appear. I also finished avatar(witch is kind of new) and want to try metro 2033.
Hoping for a new system next year.
If you know any review that compares the 2 Gb vs 4 Gb in crysis please post the link.
PS: if you found any grammar mistakes, please ignore them
EDIT: typo
Are you mainly mindless gamers who no nothing about systems. I am pretty sure no 32bit application in Windows can heap more than 2GB. WoW is 32bit along with every other *client game today....
I have not looked this up, but if I am wrong please flame away so I will learn!