System Buyers Guide: PCs for Under $1000

Intel Budget

While Intel offerings have tended to be more expensive than configurations from AMD, our Intel and AMD budget PCs are all but the same price with just a $2 difference. With prices all but the same you can choose your budget system based on other features that are important to you.

The E7300 ups the bus to 1066 from the 800FSB of our entry-level Intel system. A dual-core 2.66GHz with 3MB of cache won't be a slouch in any department in your budget system. Yes, the new i7 is faster, but it is also much more expensive - especially once you factor in the cost of the motherboard and DDR3 memory on top of the CPU! The question for a budget system is how good the performance is for the money spent. The E7300 SYSmark 2007 score is about 72% of the very top Core i7 965 Extreme (all other components being the same). That is fantastic performance for a CPU that costs just $120. The E7300 is also a candidate for overclocking if you are inclined to move the performance a bit closer toward the 3.33GHz Core 2 Duo E8600, which reaches 88% of the i7 965 Extreme in SYSMark.

The Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R is a favorite budget board among the AnandTech staff, mostly because nothing about the board makes you think it is a budget board. It is an excellent match to the overclocking potential of the E7300 CPU. Gigabyte features the P45 and ICH10R chipsets. Gigabyte also includes the Realtek ALC 889a HD audio codec, Gigabit LAN, 16GB memory support, six 3Gb/s ports capable of RAID 0/1/10/5, two additional 3Gb/s SATA ports, IEEE 1394A, 12 USB ports, and Gigabyte's Ultra Durable 3 technology.

The BIOS caters to the overclocker and this board just performs great. Our E8600 easily reached 540FSB if that is important to you and did it in a very stable manner. Gigabyte also tosses in their EasyTune 6 application along with their DualBIOS technology. All in all, this is one of the better "budget performance" boards we have used in a long time.

By this time, you may be wondering why we chose not to include an aftermarket CPU heatsink to go along with our CPU choices. For this budget, a $50 solution from Thermalright or Scythe is not an option without cutting some other area, but with the stock AMD and Intel heatsinks incorporating heatpipe technology, we figured we'd still be good for a decent if not spectacular overclock.

The Power Supply choice for the Intel Budget system is the same final price of $35 after rebate as the AMD Budget system. However, we have changed the PS choice to the Corsair CMPSU-400CX 400W power supply. The OCZ ModXStream 400W used on the AMD has a 4-pin CPU power connector, while the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R motherboard for this Intel system has an 8-pin socket. Normally, using a 4-pin connector in the 8-pin socket is not a problem, but some have reported issues with a 4-pin CPU power connector on the 8-pin connector of the Gigabyte board. To play it safe we have recommended the Corsair 400W power supply for this Intel Budget system.

The rest of the components are the same as those found in the AMD budget system. Sound cards at this price range are simply an unnecessary luxury, and the onboard offerings continue to improve with each new motherboard generation. You can be reasonably happy with the onboard sound until you figure out if you want to go further with sound and exactly where you might want to go.