System Builder Marathon: $625 Gaming PC
Table of contents
System Builder Marathon, February 2009: 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).
- Day 1: The $625 Gaming PC
- Day 2: The $1,250 Mid-Range PC
- Day 3: The $5,000 Enthusiast PC
- Day 4: Performance and Value Dissected
Introduction
Last month we explored the benefits of a more expensive CPU, so it should come as no surprise to the readers who weighed in with their thoughts in the comments section that this month we were determined to add more graphics power to the mix. With the same $625 hardware budget, we had to make sacrifices in pursuit of our goal of building a more capable gaming machine without hampering its performance during our applications and encoding tests. With that said, let’s take a look at the components selected for the task.
For an additional $20 we could have fit a CrossFire'd Radeon HD 4830 setup into this month’s system, but instead stayed within budget and went with the least expensive Radeon HD 4870. This Sapphire came with Molex power adapters and we wanted a name brand power supply with dual six-pin PCI Express (PCIe) power cables and at least 32 A of current available on the 12 V rail(s). This requirement put us in the $70 range (not including rebates), forcing us to put less money into our enclosure. For the CPU, we dropped back down to the Pentium E5200 that showed it could keep up with the more expensive E7300 once both were overclocked. In selecting a CPU cooler, the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro had a price increase from $19 to $36, removing it as an option for both budget and value reasons alike.
| $625 Gaming PC System Components | ||
|---|---|---|
| Component | Model | Price (USD) |
| CPU | Intel Pentium E5200 2.5 GHz | $83 |
| CPU Cooler | Xigmatek HDT-S963 | $25 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L | $100 |
| RAM | G.Skill HK 4 GB DDR2-800 (PC2 6400) | $45 |
| Graphics | Sapphire 100259L Radeon HD 4870 512 MB | $200 |
| Hard Drives | Samsung SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500 GB | $55 |
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio | 0 |
| Network | Integrated Gigabit Networking | 0 |
| Case | Rosewill R222-P-BK | $22 |
| Power | PC Power&Cooling Silencer PPCS500 500W | $70 |
| Optical | LITE-ON 20X DVD±R SATA Model iHAS120-04 | $24 |
| Total Price: | $624 | |
Again, it’s important to stress that prices are almost guaranteed to change for these components and the ones above reflect what we paid based on the availability at that time. This is especially true this month, as significant pricing drops have already now lowered the graphics card, CPU, and motherboard cost by $25, which would impact our component selection if we were making our purchase today. For one, we could easily have now gone with the same Antec Three Hundred case used in the past two months. The Radeon HD 4830 is also now priced at $100 before rebates, and with a change to an Asrock P45 CrossFire-ready motherboard, we could fit dual HD 4830s into the budget and have room left over to better the system’s cooling. C'est la vie, though.
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- 23/12 – System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2011: System Value Compared
- 21/12 – System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2011: $600 Gaming PC
- 20/12 – System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2011: $1200 Enthusiast PC
- 19/12 – System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2011: $2400 Performance PC
- 14/12 – Power Supply 101: A Reference Of Specifications
I've not even read this - and already I'm thinking - who is going to pay $£€625 for a system these days
Can we make a system for a penny? Its doesn't have to run Crysis that well.
"and even an external 3.5” bay that some cases now lack."
They lack it with good reason... Hardly anyone uses them and other cases often supply an adaptor.
Read it now. Thank you Paul. One of the best articles running on the site – keep it up.
The December system looks like its holding its own rather well. How much has that prices dropped? Could be a $500 system in there. Want to keep running totals on all component selections? No neither would I.
As always this is a .co.uk site – where are the pounds?
Good article. Always amazes me how capable a $625 rig is!
What happened to the international $750 cheap computing challenge though? I was interested to see some different rigs battle it out at the same price point.
For those who want prices in pounds... processor costs around 105 GBP, graphics card around 240 GBP, Case around 20 GBP, PSU around 50GBP, Ram is around 54 GBP, while harddrive and optical drive will add up to about 65 GBP. The system will cost just over 400 GBP overall in uk.. (prices from tekheads and venomelectronics as of 10 Feb)
starmate > YOU ARE HIRED! thank you for the effort.
Now all you have to do, is do that, for every single post - every single day. Then mi1ez and I can might me able to get over the "this is a .co.uk" site. I tried to get over it; but failed.
I'm glad you found all the parts, does my head in when they post parts that i can't get without adding $80 postage.
This opens up the other thing. You can get fair Dell for about £400 (no monitor). Is it worth making a DIY rig at this price point?
Yh wax yourwelcome, I'll post one for the articles i like
and i like tthe marathons.. tbh Tomshardware shud do this themselves 
starmate: Hate to point out the obvious but that price is actually well over £500, not £400. And that's after forgetting the CPU cooler
And that said, the CPU and graphics prices seemed way too high. E5200 should be €70-80 (say £70) and I've seen the Sapphire HD4870 for under €170 on Pixmania, so with the weakeneing euro that's £150 GBP. I'm pretty sure that G.Skill RAM could be lower as well.
Here's my build for $825
E8400 3.0Ghz -$140 NIB ebay
Intel dp45sg DDR3 1333mhz -$90 NIB ebay
4Gb DDR3 -$120 tigerdirect
ATI 4870 1gb -$240 NIB ebay
Ultra M923 -$80 tigerdirect
650 Watt -$60 tigerdirect
CDR/RW -$30
650 Watt -$70
steel I don't understand why that was relevant for this article?
I build machines for friends/family too. I look here for benchmarks. When I build someone a system, it needs speakers, monitor, OS, mouse/keyboard, webcam...in order to achieve MINIMUM functionality. All PCs need these things and leaving them out of Tom's builds skews the value argument towards the lower end systems. The value argument should be presented in two ways. 1: As it is now - assuming you already have all the other bits you need. 2: As if you had to buy ALL the parts someone would actually need to have a usable machine. Even with a refurb 19" monitor, low end keyboard/mouse/webcam/speakers and OS, then you're talking another $200 on the price of these builds. Or 30% of this '$625' PC. If you use the REAL price of the system of $825 PLUS shipping then the value versus the mid-range sys with similar perifs would look v different. At least the low and mid range systems need to consider the REAL cost of actually providing a working system to an average user. The prices and value are currently misleading. I'll reiterate that I apprecate the work and visit often, but it could/should be improved and reflect the reality faced by many builders.
Great article, but I reckon that the compromise on the box is a bad one. I was very close to ordering a cheapo box from Asus, but opted instead for one from Antec. In the UK you can pick up the Antec NSK4000 for about GBP40, which is about USD65 at the moment. I got an Antec Pro 120mm fan which can shift 80CFM. This cost about GBP2 after selling the standard Tricool one on Ebay. This fan plugs into the Asus P5Q motherboard, and has its speed controlled from there.
With my e5200 overclocked to 3.4GHz, RealTemp's stress test with Prime95 produces a temperature of 55C on the stock cooling. This means I save GBP15 as I do not need a 3rd party cooler. Overall, my box+120mm fan achieves low temperatures, and looks good, which I don't think you could say about the cheapo Silverstone one in your review.