Budget System Builder’s Guide February 2011
by Zach Throckmorton on February 14, 2011 12:00 AM ESTGPU 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.
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Gigantopithecus - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Hi Vincent - Zach here, thanks for your feedback. I wanted to give readers an idea of how wide the SSD field has become by mentioning the main players. I think that's an important consideration given how much SSD prices fluctuate (one of Newegg's shell shocker deals today is a $120 (after rebate) 128gb SSD). While many of Intel's competitor's (like OCZ) often offer better price/capacity SSDs, I recommended Intel's G2 40gb in the upgraded build for reasons including the one you highlight. The guide even explicitly states the Intel SSDs are perceived as more reliable/issue-free. Of course, objective, thorough studies on the reliability of any PC component are essentially non-existent, unfortunately.benrico - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
I thought these were coming out much sooner.... what gives?Gigantopithecus - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
By "The next year will bring us Intel’s third generation SSDs, and second generation parts from SandForce, Crucial, and Indilinx," I meant that these drives will all be coming out over the course of the next year. (Not that they will arrive next year, in 2012.)kevith - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Zach, nice roundup, nice, straightforward language, good job. It's nice to have someone else to sum up all the articles, so that I don't need to open them in four tabs in three browser-windows when planning a build.Only thing, maybe it's me, but you write, that: "... smaller SSD's doesn't have high write-speeds, but write-speed are not nearly as important [as read-speeds] for an OS/app-drive...", something like that.
I thought that was just opposite: That you should go for a drive with fast write-speed for the OS-drive...? I understood, that when the OS is writing to the disk in the background, the system can freeze until the writing is done? Or was that only on early SSD's, and doesn't count anymore? Would love it if I'm wrong...:-)
I'm sure you'll be asked to write more.
Gigantopithecus - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Hi kevith - Thank you for your feedback. I could have been more clear in the article. The only metric where SSDs don't handily best mechanical HDDs is sequential writes. In fact, fast HDDs like WD's VelociRaptors have higher sequential write performance than many SSDs. However, once the initial OS and app installation is done, your OS will rarely hit the SSD with sustained writes. Random reads and writes (which are MUCH faster on SSDs than HDDS) are far, far more common for a boot drive than sequential writes. Anand's article from almost two years ago sums this up well, see http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/24 and http://www.anandtech.com/show/2738/25 - while the SSDs in that article are mostly outdated at this point, the take-home message stands.kevith - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Great, thanks for the clarification and hint to the article, good for background knowledge.lestr - Monday, February 14, 2011 - link
Good work on the GUIDE. That's what it is, a GUIDE, right? FIRST word is BUDGET.
I find it interesting and somewhat disconcerting that so much time was spent by so many arguing over and trying to second guess you and Jerrod on the use of the Antec 380 with respect to an SLI or CF configuration. I am curious as to how those people intend to install 2x PCIex16 cards on uATX boards with only one slot. That one has me really bumfuzzled and bewildered... is there an adapter for it? I'll buy 3! And they can't MENTALLY add or subtract $100 for an OS... Kinda like reading a review on the Egg where the author complains that an OEM processor doesn't come with a fan... Their only point appears to be trying to impress you and other readers of their intelligence? Big dog on the porch syndrome.. Oh well.
My only question involves the SSD. I don't claim to be an expert, but it seems that a Crucial SSD C300 64GB would be a better choice all around as it's ~$130 and is also SATA 3 which would future proof at least the AMD and the Intel if it is backward compatible to 3gb/s and would be useful on the new 1155 fiasco.
I only wish people would realize this is only a guide and to accept the parts they like and change the parts they don't by doing more research instead of commenting on irrelevant issues. The one HUGE FACT is that next gen - what ever part - is going to require LESS power than what we have today. I can see needing 500W or more on a full ATX with multiple x16's but then, would such a build be listed under BUDGET? Some people always have to pick things apart and complain, don't they?
Thanks for your time, energy and effort on our behalf.
.
rwei - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
Great article - having just upgraded an old P4 2.4C Northwood (may it rest in peace) for my parents, I'm glad to see many of my choices were in line with your well-made part suggestions.I'm just a little curious as to why you didn't mention core unlocking, which is potentially a significant boon for a budget builder.
The system I got my parents uses a $50 MSI motherboard (the 880GM) with a Phenom II X2 555 ($85 - both USD prices converted from what I saw in Hong Kong). With little effort, I have the new system running with 3 cores (the 4th is unstable) at 3.8 GHz with just a slight increase in voltage. At that level, it can start to play with the big boys like the 955BE, but the cpu/mobo combo cost me less than the 955 CPU alone.
stmok - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
"I'm just a little curious as to why you didn't mention core unlocking, which is potentially a significant boon for a budget builder."=> Because core unlocking isn't 100% guaranteed. Its luck of the draw...The goal is a guide for budget buyers. Most computer users on the planet aren't overclockers, tweakers, or enthusiasts. Guides like this will help them the most.
I have to agree though, Zach Throckmorton did do a good guide here. Its sensible and realistic for the current situation.
HangFire - Tuesday, February 15, 2011 - link
Most computer users are not system builders, either. At least mentioning core unlocking, if not recommending it, would be worthwhile.