Budget System Builder’s Guide February 2011

GPU Upgrades

Our basic builds use integrated graphics, but if you actually want to play games you'll want something more. In the budget range, there are four excellent offerings, three from AMD (formerly ATI) and one from NVIDIA. For performance data, we'll once more refer to Bench, this time using our GPU 2010 and GPU 2011 suites. The CPUs in GPU Bench are much faster than what we're recommending, but once you start increasing detail levels and resolution you'll usually become GPU limited.

The XFX HD-567X-ZNF3 Radeon HD 5670 1GB is an excellent video card that does not require an additional 6-pin PCIe power connector. It’ll set you back $95, but currently has a $30 mail in rebate. This card is capable of playing all available titles, though newer games will have to be set to lower resolutions and settings. The reigning budget gamers' choice is the Radeon HD 5770, which can play just about every title at high resolution with at least some settings set to high. The HIS H577FK1GD is $130 (plus a $30 rebate), which is an exceptional value. It also runs very cool, especially at idle.

The NVIDIA GTX 460 outperforms the Radeon HD 5770 by a bit, but unfortunately pulls substantially more juice. MSI’s N460GTX Cyclone 768D5/OC is available for $150 (minus a $20 rebate) and is a compelling product at this price point. Finally, the Radeon HD 5850 represents the top of the budget-conscious builder’s choices. The Diamond 5850PE51G will set you back $185, plus there's a $20 rebate. It's generally faster than the GTX 460, with similar power requirements.

PSU Upgrades

It should be noted that all of the above video cards are compatible with the AMD and Intel platforms, though pairing the 5770, 460GTX, or 5850 with a quad- or hex-core CPU will likely require a beefier power supply than the Earthwatts 380W. The Antec Earthwatts 500W is $50 after rebate (and sometimes less) and is our recommended step up from the Earthwatts 380W. Note that we're linking the old Earthwatts and not the newer EA-500D; you drop from 80 Plus Bronze to just plain 80 Plus, but you also save $25 and it's still a good PSU.

SSD Upgrades

SSDs offer multiple advantages over mechanical hard drives. First and most noticeably, they’re much faster. Everything from load times of both operating systems and applications, to application installations/patches, to level load times in games, to system power consumption is better with an SSD. Unfortunately, they remain expensive and have relatively small capacities. Generally, pairing an SSD with a high capacity storage mechanical disk provides the best of both worlds, though this is not always necessary.

Multiple manufacturers offer appealing SSDs; the two top controllers of late are from SandForce and Intel, though the Crucial C300, Indilinx, and even Toshiba controllers also have merit. The next year will bring us Intel’s third generation SSDs, and second generation parts from SandForce, Crucial, and Indilinx. For now, the Intel G2 drives are widely considered more reliable than non-Intel offerings—though this might simply be due to the tendency of tinkerers and tweakers to go with non-Intel SSDs!

For the budget conscious, the 40GB Intel SSD is a bit less than $100, while the Intel 80GB SSD checks in around $170. Note the 80GB version has substantially higher write speeds, but writes are not nearly as important as reads for an OS/app drive. OCZ’s Vertex 2 line includes SSDs of numerous capacities, with the 60GB model going for $105 after $15 rebate, and the 120GB drive coming in at just $177 (after $30 rebate). Corsair’s Force line also earns praise from users, and like OCZ, their SSDs are available at many capacities under $200, but are typically slightly more expensive than the OCZ drives. The good news is that even the "slow" SSDs are still substantially faster than even the fastest desktop HDDs (outside of the sequential write metric).

Other Storage Upgrades

While 500GB mechanical drives are cheap at $40 (or less), higher capacity drives are available for not much more. Samsung’s Spinpoint F3 1TB 7200RPM can sometimes be found for $60 or less, and is a forum favorite at AnandTech because of its performance. Another option is Hitachi’s 1TB 7200RPM, currently available for a mere $55. The advent of very high density platters for mechanical hard drives has allowed manufacturers to start marketing "green drives", mechanical hard drives that spin at less than the established mainstream 7200RPM but don’t suffer a crippling performance loss. These green drives run cooler and use less electricity than 7200RPM drives and make for great, cheap mass storage solutions. 1TB green drives usually hover around $60 (and can be found on sale for less), with 2TB green drives often available at $80. Whether you go with Seagate, Samsung, or Western Digital is really a matter of personal preference and price. Finally, if you're looking for Blu-ray support, you can swap out the DVDRW and get a BRD combo drive starting at $60—only $40 more than our stock DVDRW.