System Configurations
First things first, you can see that prices are essentially equivalent, but that is due in part to the components we selected. The Pentium D platform costs a bit more than the AM2 platform, as does the Sempron 754 system. We could always spend more money to add additional performance, but we're trying to stick to the upper end of the budget price range. We could have upgraded the AM2 processors slightly, for example by switching to an Athlon 64 3000+, but the difference in performance really isn't that substantial. We're not intentionally trying to handicap AM2, but the simple fact of the matter is that Intel has much better prices on lower end components. The Pentium D chips are all priced much lower than the equivalent Athlon X2 chips, to the point where we simply wouldn't consider getting anything but a dual core processor if we were to buy an Intel system. That said, the price cuts on the Athlon X2 3800+ will drop that to the point where you can actually consider it as an upgrade. It will still cost more than the Pentium D 805, but it will simply reverse the situation from now where our "Budget Pentium D" costs more than the "Budget Sempron AM2" configuration. (And for another $30 or so, you could then upgrade from the X2 3800+ to the Core 2 Duo E6300, and before you know it you're spending well over $1000 on your "budget" computer....)
You can see that most of the other areas are equivalent. All of the motherboards are reasonable budget offerings that still offer a decent amount of overclocking capability. The socket 754 motherboard is clearly cheaper, but it's also older and has fewer features than some of the newer boards. Looking at the motherboards, the Biostar TForce 550 is clearly superior to the other two. Gigabit Ethernet, support for all AM2 processors, high definition audio and a nice, clean layout make the price of $85 more than reasonable. The other two motherboards only include 100Mb Ethernet, but unless you have a gigabit switch it won't matter. They also include lower quality AC'97 audio solutions, but the onboard audio is still sufficient in most cases for people on a budget. If you're interested in getting better quality audio, simply adding a Chaintech AV-710 for $23.00 or a Creative Labs Audigy SE for $28.00 is a definite improvement over AC'97 audio, though when you're talking about budget PCs there are many $20 upgrades that can improve various aspects of the system, so for this article we're sticking with the integrated audio options.
The graphics card was chosen as a very reasonable budget gaming option. The GeForce 7600 GT packs a lot of bang for the buck compared to other GPUs currently being sold. X1800 GTO is also competitive in this price range, but the 7600 GT cards have much better availability. Note that while we used an XFX 7600 GT XXX, there are other 7600 GT cards that are priced a bit better, like the EVGA models; mail in rebates are also widely available, knocking off another $30 or so from the price of most 7600 GT cards. That means you can get some of the models for about $140 after rebate(s). If you're thinking that $140-$195 on a graphics card is far from being a "budget" selection, our reasoning is that you're building a budget PC, but you also want to be able to play games. We assume that most people need a PC in their home these days, so when people consider a gaming PC versus one of the consoles like an Xbox 360, they often end up concluding that the consoles cost a lot less. We figure you're already spending about $500 for a PC whether or not you have a gaming console, so really you're only spending another $150 to turn your PC into something that can play most of today's games. If you would like better video performance, of course, you could also go with a faster graphics card and spend more money. Prices on the 7900 GT cards have dropped to $265 before rebates (about $240 after rebate), so graphics performance scales almost linearly with additional money. If you don't need graphics performance at all, you can of course go with an integrated graphics solution or something cheaper.
If you're wondering about the memory choices and memory timings, there are many options available that are worth considering. The Patriot RAM used in the Sempron 754 motherboard was chosen because it was available, and because TCCD RAM remains highly regarded in the world of DDR memory. Consider it something of a handicap for the old socket 754 platform; it will also make things a lot easier when it comes to overclocking, so we're giving socket 754 every chance to maintain pace with the faster newcomers. If you opt for value DDR memory, you will need to use various memory ratios in order to be able to overclock the Sempron 754 chip, so overall performance will likely drop 5-15%. We began DDR2 benchmarks using 2x512MB G.Skill PC2-5300, but given the price discrepancy between socket 754 and the other platforms, as well as the fact that we are overclocking, we switched to the OCZ PC2-6400 as a moderate upgrade. It is certainly possible to overclock using value DDR2-667 RAM, but it is almost always less of a hassle to overclock with higher-quality memory. Depending on the memory you purchase, you may or may not be able to run the same timings we achieved, and in general we found that all three budget boards required slightly more relaxed timings than high-end enthusiast motherboards. With more time and effort we could probably improve performance slightly, but we're really only talking about minor differences anyway, and as we'll see in the benchmarks the memory subsystem isn't normally a bottleneck for the systems. The AM2 configurations are also somewhat interesting, in that the memory dividers do not provide exact memory speeds in most instances. For example, the Sempron 3400+ is really only running the memory at DDR2-720, as there is no integer divider to get DDR2-800.
There will probably be complaints about using a cheap, generic 400W power supply. This power supply was purchased for exactly that reason six months ago, and I was hoping to cause the power supply to fail by putting a constant load on it. It has been happily running the overclocked Pentium D 805 system with two instances of Folding@Home 24/7 for most of that time, without any difficulty. We'll get to the power numbers later, but basically the entire system power draw is still under 400 W (though just barely in certain stress situations), and we are only using a single hard drive and a budget processor. A better motherboard, heatsink, power supply, memory, etc. would likely improve our overclocking results, but all of those expenses would defeat the purpose of building a budget system. Yes, the power supply is a lower end model, but sometimes that's all you really need. Many OEM systems also use relatively low-quality power supplies, and while a few people might encounter difficulties, most of these PSUs will last several years. If/when it fails, you will probably be ready to replace your entire system anyway. One last comment on the power supply: we really have no problem using this power supply with the Sempron systems, but especially with the overclocked Pentium D system, getting something a bit nicer would be prudent.
Finally, you can see that we included a couple of upgraded AM2 motherboards. We used the Gigabyte board to retest the Sempron AM2 chip, as the results we achieved with the Biostar board were lower than expected. We also included a system running an "Athlon X2 3800+" (simulated) processor using a Foxconn 590 SLI motherboard. The actual CPU is a 5000+, but lowering the CPU multiplier to 10X generates performance identical to the X2 3800+. We "overclocked" this particular CPU to 2.6 GHz for now, which seems reasonable for normal X2 3800+ chips (especially considering that's what most people get out of socket 939 X2 3800+ processors). The reason for the inclusion of this CPU is that it will drop substantially in price in the near future, and we felt it was only fair to show how the cheapest AM2 dual core processor performs in comparison to the cheapest Pentium D processor. It will still cost more than the Pentium D 805 even after the price cuts, but there are certainly other advantages which we will cover throughout this article. The Foxconn motherboard was used with this processor (as opposed to the Gigabyte 590 SLI board) due to the fact that the Foxconn board properly supports CPU multipliers with the latest AMD CPU driver installed. The Gigabyte and Biostar motherboards both revert to the default CPU multiplier once Windows loads, which obviously affects our ability to overclock or to simulate a lower speed processor. The AMD driver is required in order to get correct results from PCMark05, and the performance differences between the Gigabyte board and the Foxconn motherboard are otherwise insignificant.
Update: If you'd like to see some cheaper alternatives with integrated graphics, please refer to the comments section. We have provided alternatives for all three sockets that are priced under $400, and almost at $300 for the AM2 configuration.
| AMD Sempron 754 System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Sempron 64 3100+ (256KB Cache 1.80 GHz) | $84.00 |
| Motherboard | DFI nForce4 Infinity 4X | $75.00 |
| Memory | 2x512MB Patriot DDR-400 Extreme Performance XBL (2-2-2-10-2T) | $139.00 |
| Video Card | XFX GeForce 7600GT XXX 256MB (590/1600) | $192.00 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital SATA3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Caviar SE16 | $83.00 |
| Optical Drive | NEC 3550A 16X DVD+/-RW | $35.00 |
| Case and PSU | Generic case with iCute 400W PSU (Purchased Locally) | $50.00 |
| Bottom Line | $658.00 | |
| AMD Sempron AM2 System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Sempron 64 3400+ (256KB Cache 1.80 GHz) | $95.00 |
| Motherboard | Biostar TForce 550 | $85.00 |
| Memory | 2x512MB OCZ PC-6400 EL Gold | $111.00 |
| Video Card | XFX GeForce 7600GT XXX 256MB (590/1600) | $192.00 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital SATA3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Caviar SE16 | $83.00 |
| Optical Drive | NEC 3550A 16X DVD+/-RW | $35.00 |
| Case and PSU | Generic case with iCute 400W PSU (Purchased Locally) | $50.00 |
| Bottom Line | $651.00 | |
| Intel Budget System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Pentium D 805 (2x1MB Cache 2.66 GHz 533FSB) | $108.00 |
| Motherboard | Biostar TForce4U-775 | $85.00 |
| Memory | 2x512MB OCZ PC-6400 EL Gold | $111.00 |
| Video Card | XFX GeForce 7600GT XXX 256MB (590/1600) | $192.00 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital SATA3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Caviar SE16 | $83.00 |
| Optical Drive | NEC 3550A 16X DVD+/-RW | $35.00 |
| Case and PSU | Generic case with iCute 400W PSU (Purchased Locally) | $50.00 |
| Bottom Line | $664.00 | |
| Other Tested Components | ||
| Processor | Athlon X2 3800+ AM2 (2x512KB Cache 2.0 GHz) | $302.00 |
| Motherboard | Foxconn C51XEM2AA | $199.00 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-M59SLI-S5 | $209.00 |
First things first, you can see that prices are essentially equivalent, but that is due in part to the components we selected. The Pentium D platform costs a bit more than the AM2 platform, as does the Sempron 754 system. We could always spend more money to add additional performance, but we're trying to stick to the upper end of the budget price range. We could have upgraded the AM2 processors slightly, for example by switching to an Athlon 64 3000+, but the difference in performance really isn't that substantial. We're not intentionally trying to handicap AM2, but the simple fact of the matter is that Intel has much better prices on lower end components. The Pentium D chips are all priced much lower than the equivalent Athlon X2 chips, to the point where we simply wouldn't consider getting anything but a dual core processor if we were to buy an Intel system. That said, the price cuts on the Athlon X2 3800+ will drop that to the point where you can actually consider it as an upgrade. It will still cost more than the Pentium D 805, but it will simply reverse the situation from now where our "Budget Pentium D" costs more than the "Budget Sempron AM2" configuration. (And for another $30 or so, you could then upgrade from the X2 3800+ to the Core 2 Duo E6300, and before you know it you're spending well over $1000 on your "budget" computer....)
You can see that most of the other areas are equivalent. All of the motherboards are reasonable budget offerings that still offer a decent amount of overclocking capability. The socket 754 motherboard is clearly cheaper, but it's also older and has fewer features than some of the newer boards. Looking at the motherboards, the Biostar TForce 550 is clearly superior to the other two. Gigabit Ethernet, support for all AM2 processors, high definition audio and a nice, clean layout make the price of $85 more than reasonable. The other two motherboards only include 100Mb Ethernet, but unless you have a gigabit switch it won't matter. They also include lower quality AC'97 audio solutions, but the onboard audio is still sufficient in most cases for people on a budget. If you're interested in getting better quality audio, simply adding a Chaintech AV-710 for $23.00 or a Creative Labs Audigy SE for $28.00 is a definite improvement over AC'97 audio, though when you're talking about budget PCs there are many $20 upgrades that can improve various aspects of the system, so for this article we're sticking with the integrated audio options.
The graphics card was chosen as a very reasonable budget gaming option. The GeForce 7600 GT packs a lot of bang for the buck compared to other GPUs currently being sold. X1800 GTO is also competitive in this price range, but the 7600 GT cards have much better availability. Note that while we used an XFX 7600 GT XXX, there are other 7600 GT cards that are priced a bit better, like the EVGA models; mail in rebates are also widely available, knocking off another $30 or so from the price of most 7600 GT cards. That means you can get some of the models for about $140 after rebate(s). If you're thinking that $140-$195 on a graphics card is far from being a "budget" selection, our reasoning is that you're building a budget PC, but you also want to be able to play games. We assume that most people need a PC in their home these days, so when people consider a gaming PC versus one of the consoles like an Xbox 360, they often end up concluding that the consoles cost a lot less. We figure you're already spending about $500 for a PC whether or not you have a gaming console, so really you're only spending another $150 to turn your PC into something that can play most of today's games. If you would like better video performance, of course, you could also go with a faster graphics card and spend more money. Prices on the 7900 GT cards have dropped to $265 before rebates (about $240 after rebate), so graphics performance scales almost linearly with additional money. If you don't need graphics performance at all, you can of course go with an integrated graphics solution or something cheaper.
If you're wondering about the memory choices and memory timings, there are many options available that are worth considering. The Patriot RAM used in the Sempron 754 motherboard was chosen because it was available, and because TCCD RAM remains highly regarded in the world of DDR memory. Consider it something of a handicap for the old socket 754 platform; it will also make things a lot easier when it comes to overclocking, so we're giving socket 754 every chance to maintain pace with the faster newcomers. If you opt for value DDR memory, you will need to use various memory ratios in order to be able to overclock the Sempron 754 chip, so overall performance will likely drop 5-15%. We began DDR2 benchmarks using 2x512MB G.Skill PC2-5300, but given the price discrepancy between socket 754 and the other platforms, as well as the fact that we are overclocking, we switched to the OCZ PC2-6400 as a moderate upgrade. It is certainly possible to overclock using value DDR2-667 RAM, but it is almost always less of a hassle to overclock with higher-quality memory. Depending on the memory you purchase, you may or may not be able to run the same timings we achieved, and in general we found that all three budget boards required slightly more relaxed timings than high-end enthusiast motherboards. With more time and effort we could probably improve performance slightly, but we're really only talking about minor differences anyway, and as we'll see in the benchmarks the memory subsystem isn't normally a bottleneck for the systems. The AM2 configurations are also somewhat interesting, in that the memory dividers do not provide exact memory speeds in most instances. For example, the Sempron 3400+ is really only running the memory at DDR2-720, as there is no integer divider to get DDR2-800.
There will probably be complaints about using a cheap, generic 400W power supply. This power supply was purchased for exactly that reason six months ago, and I was hoping to cause the power supply to fail by putting a constant load on it. It has been happily running the overclocked Pentium D 805 system with two instances of Folding@Home 24/7 for most of that time, without any difficulty. We'll get to the power numbers later, but basically the entire system power draw is still under 400 W (though just barely in certain stress situations), and we are only using a single hard drive and a budget processor. A better motherboard, heatsink, power supply, memory, etc. would likely improve our overclocking results, but all of those expenses would defeat the purpose of building a budget system. Yes, the power supply is a lower end model, but sometimes that's all you really need. Many OEM systems also use relatively low-quality power supplies, and while a few people might encounter difficulties, most of these PSUs will last several years. If/when it fails, you will probably be ready to replace your entire system anyway. One last comment on the power supply: we really have no problem using this power supply with the Sempron systems, but especially with the overclocked Pentium D system, getting something a bit nicer would be prudent.
Finally, you can see that we included a couple of upgraded AM2 motherboards. We used the Gigabyte board to retest the Sempron AM2 chip, as the results we achieved with the Biostar board were lower than expected. We also included a system running an "Athlon X2 3800+" (simulated) processor using a Foxconn 590 SLI motherboard. The actual CPU is a 5000+, but lowering the CPU multiplier to 10X generates performance identical to the X2 3800+. We "overclocked" this particular CPU to 2.6 GHz for now, which seems reasonable for normal X2 3800+ chips (especially considering that's what most people get out of socket 939 X2 3800+ processors). The reason for the inclusion of this CPU is that it will drop substantially in price in the near future, and we felt it was only fair to show how the cheapest AM2 dual core processor performs in comparison to the cheapest Pentium D processor. It will still cost more than the Pentium D 805 even after the price cuts, but there are certainly other advantages which we will cover throughout this article. The Foxconn motherboard was used with this processor (as opposed to the Gigabyte 590 SLI board) due to the fact that the Foxconn board properly supports CPU multipliers with the latest AMD CPU driver installed. The Gigabyte and Biostar motherboards both revert to the default CPU multiplier once Windows loads, which obviously affects our ability to overclock or to simulate a lower speed processor. The AMD driver is required in order to get correct results from PCMark05, and the performance differences between the Gigabyte board and the Foxconn motherboard are otherwise insignificant.
Update: If you'd like to see some cheaper alternatives with integrated graphics, please refer to the comments section. We have provided alternatives for all three sockets that are priced under $400, and almost at $300 for the AM2 configuration.
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Gary Key - Monday, July 10, 2006 - link
We are currently testing this board for an upcoming Core 2 Duo article, however, at the time Jarred completed this article the board was not widely available nor did our test board have a bios that fully supported all Conroe CPUs. There is not any AMD bias and we are still waiting on more "budget" boards with Core 2 Duo support to be released. It appears at this time we will have to wait until the beginning of August to see the 946PL, G965, and reworked 945 boards that will be in the $65~$100 range.sprockkets - Monday, July 10, 2006 - link
Ha! VIA chipset.PC Surgeon - Monday, July 10, 2006 - link
Doesn't matter if it is a VIA chipset. It's Conroe compatable and cheap.mesyn191 - Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - link
The whole point of going Intel is so that you can use thier chipsets...VIA is OK, but I'd rather have a nV or Intel based board than a VIA one. That mobo is probably a POS BTW, you might as well look at a PCChips board...
jonp - Monday, July 10, 2006 - link
Some observations/questions about this "budget" system:Memory choice: The DDR2 memory choice is given without much analysis. The specific part would be almost
impossible to determine without the article link. It is part number OCZ28001024ELDCGE-K and according to OCZ
http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_d...">http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/memory/ocz_d...
has timings of 5-5-5-10 at 2.0v where the so called "stock" setting is given as 4-4-4-12-2T at 2.1V.
It appears that this memory is overclocked even in the base performance runs, so those performance numbers
are of no value to the non-overclocker. Some discussion of CAS 5 6400 memory vs CAS 4 5300 memory should have
been included as Newegg has some CAS 4 5300 for $33 less than the 6400 memory chosen which is really CAS 5.
Processor: The choice of a high performance GPU to turn the "budget" system into a gamer has it's own effects.
$192 has overshadowed choices like more memory or faster processors. For only $20 more the processor could
have been an Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2GHz rather than the Sempron 64 3400+ 1.80GHz unit.
Case/Power Supply: Now here is a non-starter. Great that this one "cheap" power supply has lasted for a while.
Lots of us have experience with "cheap" power supplies that would have us avoid choices of this type in the
future. Also, being able to build the exact system has always been a plus with the AdandTech system recommendations.
How could we, in general, duplicate "generic case with iCute 400W PSU purchased "locally"?
DVD: You keep picking the NEC 3550A but without much justifcation relative to equivalent cost Lite-On or other.
Motherboard: You pick the Biostar TForce 550 and then you say "...it seems to be in need of some updates...".
What are we to take from that? Is it a recommendation or not? How was it chosen among the many, many MBs?
Net: I am not really sure what to take from this guide. I don't think I would build this system as such. I am not
sure who the audience is (the only serious gamers I know buy XBox or PS). It doesn't give enough analysis/
criteria information to help make component selections beyond the specifics. I think this one is puzzling.
JarredWalton - Monday, July 10, 2006 - link
I can give you some 5-5-5-15 DDR2-667 numbers as well as 4-4-4-12 DDR2-533, both using G.Skill DDR2-667 RAM. The differences are pretty small, generally less than 3%.I really don't even consider additional voltage on memory to be "overclocking" anymore, as many modules are rated to run with extra voltage and will in fact require it to run at tighter timings. The G.Skill DDR2-667 5-5-5-15 runs at 1.8V with those settings, but with 2.1V I can run it at 4-4-4-12; the same goes for a lot of DDR2 memory.
As for the OCZ RAM, we've http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=230...">tested similar memory in the past, and we were able to get some nice results with tuning. 5-5-5-10 is the rated speed, but you can certainly do a lot better. I switched to the OCZ because I was trying to determine if it would improve the AM2 performance on the Biostar board (it didn't), and because I had about $30 in "wiggle room" due to the RAM used on the 754 setup.
Again, I would not get cheap DDR RAM for overclocking if you are after ease of endeavor. I've done that as well, and at higher overclocks the performance impact can definitely be substantial. I also wouldn't recommend anyone actually go out and buy the Sempron 754 configurations these days, as dollar for dollar you can get more out of AM2 or 775 platforms. You will never see anything faster than Athlon 64 3700+ (stock speeds) on socket 754, for example.
JarredWalton - Monday, July 10, 2006 - link
I forgot to talk about the Biostar TForce 550 motherboard. It was purchased right around the time socket AM2 launched, and given my experience with the socket 775 TForce board I figured it would make for a good budget overclocking motherboard. There are lots of AM2 motherboards available now, but in the budget price range there are very few that are likely to outperform the Biostar TForce 550 when it comes to overclocking.http://labs.anandtech.com/search.php?q=am2%20mothe...">Here's a list of the AM2 motherboards we're tracking sorted by price. I would be very surprised if any of the integrated graphics solutions overclock well, given my past experience with that type of motherboard, but I could be wrong. For better overclocking, the ASUS M2N-E should perform better (both in overclocking and stock performance).
The Biostar TForce 550 board looks great on paper, but the inability to POST at about 280 MHz HyperTransport bus speeds, as well as the lower performance relative to other AM2 motherboards left me disappointed. You could try the MSI K9N Neo-F, and it may or may not perform better. You can look at the performance achieved by the Biostar TForce 550 with the Sempron chip and compare that to the Gigabyte nForce 590 board with the same chip and you can get a reasonable approximation of the performance you are likely to get with such a configuration.
You want my honest recommendation? Wait until the end of the week and watch how Core 2 Duo performs. Then try to find a budget motherboard that will allow you to overclock the E6300 to 2.8 GHz or higher. It's going to be more expensive than any of the systems used in this article, but it will require less power and provide more performance.
PS -- most of the gamers I know that play with only Xbox or PlayStation do so because they don't know all that much about computers. It's partly a matter of taste, though, as some people will prefer the console gaming experience over a PC gaming experience. There certainly is no correct answer as to which is better, but with the escalating prices of next-generation consoles, budget PC gaming is looking a lot more flexible and attractive. These $650 PCs can also be used to do research and homework at college; try doing that with an Xbox 360, right?
mostlyprudent - Monday, July 10, 2006 - link
I am trying to figure out how the Pentium D 930 (presler) would compare performance wise with the overclocked 805. The overclocked 805 still has a lower FSB, but a higher effective clock speed than the 930. Any thoughts?JarredWalton - Monday, July 10, 2006 - link
You can generally get 4.0 GHz on stock cooling with the 930, so it's faster, runs a bit cooler (not really once overclocked), and it performs better because of the 800FSB default. It depends on the apps you're running, though - as can be seen, you need a better GPU than a 7600 GT for faster gaming performance. You would also want a better PSU for 4.0 GHz 930 overclocking - you can definitely break the 400W mark in such systems.sprockkets - Monday, July 10, 2006 - link
I like the Biostar TForce 6100 board. The power button on the motherboard itself glows blue, and has a reset button on it as well. The fan options on it are very adjustable in the BIOS. Still can use the video card, but I know people here do not prefer uATX.InWin cases are also nice too for the price. They come with 350w power supplies with 12cm fans. Not the best power supplies, but not the worst either.