Hardware Revolution

$850 Gaming Computer: An overclocker’s dream!

Mathieu — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:00:35 +0000

What is the $850 Gaming Computer about?

The $850 Gaming PC was designed with overclocking in mind. The parts that I recommend represents that.

How?

I went with an after-market CPU cooler, a case that offers plenty of ventilation and a powerful power supply, all parts that can handle the extra strain from overclocking.

The challengers?

The quad-core Athlon II X4 620. At stock speed, it runs at 2.6GHz and reports are that it easily reaches 3.2-3.4GHz at stock voltages. Not bad at all for a $99 CPU, what do you think?

Then you have the Radeon 5850, an excellent overclocker as well, that reaches close to the frequency of the higher end Radeon 5870.

Why overclock?

The point of overclocking is that for less money, you get the performance of a more expensive system for less money. Talk about bang for the buck!

What if I never built a PC before?

Make the jump. Do not be afraid.

Seriously, building a computer has never been more simple.

There are countless resources on how to build a computer, which you can find by doing some research on Google.

Here are two guides on how to build a computer that I can recommend myself though:

This one, from DriverHeaven.net:
http://bit.ly/4bhlwb

This one, from maximumpc.com:
http://bit.ly/1TgR7X

While the whole process may look overwhelming, if you look at it one part at a time, you’ll realize how simple it really is.

If you take your time, are careful and follow guides/videos, you’ll end up with a fully functional computer, at a lower cost than a comparable Dell PC, with the best parts that your money can buy, instead of “ok” parts chosen by Dell. The best part? You’ll be proud of a job well done

Besides, if you get stuck or need any help, you can drop a comment at the end of this post and either a helpful member of this community or myself will answer you. You can also Contact me directly for some assistance. While I’m pretty busy, I’ll try my best to answer you quickly.

What if I’m outdated on what are the current best parts or simply don’t know which parts to pick?

If you don’t have the knowledge or time to choose your parts, simply stick to my recommendations below (In Bold) and you’ll be more than happy. That’s my promise.

Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?!

My name is Mathieu Bourgie, a computer expert with nearly a decade of experience in building the best computers for a given price and I share my knowledge by blogging on Hardware Revolution, where I offer various custom computer builds designs, along with useful articles such as the Best Video Card for your money, to help you figure out what are the best parts for a computer at a given price.

You can read opinions, comments and more left by my readers on the testimonials page.

What if I don’t agree with your choices?

This is the great part of building your own computer(s), you can customize it to your taste, instead of getting what the manufacturer wants you to get with a pre-built computer. If you have the knowledge and/or the time to learn, you’re free to use my recommendations as a base and then to customize any build just how you want it.

$850 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

In Bold, you’ll find my recommendations, which offers the best performance possible for a price that fits the overall budget. All parts have been verified to be compatible with each other and only parts proven to be reliable have been hand-picked by me.

What if I want more performance than this build has to offer?

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are other upgrades, but I focused on telling you which ones offered the most value for your money

In simple terms, if you want a more powerful CPU or video card, simply pick it from the list of recommended upgrades that are in Italic.

If upgrades just don’t cut it, visit the Gaming PCs page, where you’ll find descriptions and links to other gaming computer custom build designs.

Component:	Make and Model:	Price
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX ASUS M4A77TD Pro AM3 AMD 770 ATX GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 AMD 790X ATX	$80 $90 (+$10) $125 (+$45)
CPU	AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz 95W AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz No L3 95W AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz 6MB L3 95W AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz 6MB L3 95W AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE Deneb 3.2GHz 6MB L3 125W AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE Deneb 3.4GHz 6MB L3 140W	*$99* $123 (+$24) $146 (+$47) $166 (+$67) $176 (+$77) $196 (+$97)
Video Card	XFX RADEON HD 5850 1 GB SAPPHIRE Vapor-X Radeon HD 5870 1GB	$267 $410 (+$143)
RAM	A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 2 kits A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600, for 8GB (4 x 2GB)	$80 $160 (+$80)
Hard Drive	Western Digital 750 GB Caviar Black SATA II 3.0 Gb/s Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black SATA II 3.0Gb/s	$70 $95 (+$25)
Optical Drive	SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner SATA	$31
Case	Antec Nine Hundred Antec Twelve Hundred COOLER MASTER HAF 922 COOLER MASTER HAF 932	$100 $160 (+$60) $100 (=) $145 (+$45)
Power Supply	Antec EarthWatts 650W SLI/Crossfire/80 PLUS OCZ 700 Watts ModXStream Pro SLI/Crossfire/80 PLUS	$80 $80 (=)
Cooling	Sunbeam 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer CPU Cooler XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 120mm Case Fan Antec TriCool 120mm Blue LED Case Fan 3 x 120mm + 1 x 200mm case fans with Antec 900	$35 $7 $15 Free
Sound Card	8 channels sound card integrated on the motherboard	Free
Network	10/100/1000 Mbps integrated on the motherboard	Free
Total	Not including shipping, handling nor OS	$849

Is this the right type of PC for me?

If you’re looking for a PC to play video games, you’re at the right place. If this is not what you’re looking for, check out our other Computer Systems instead.

$850 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX

A nice, solid motherboard, that is a full sized ATX motherboard based on AMD 770 chipset. Features eight USB ports, two PS/2, two FireWire (One mini and one regular) , LAN, 8 channels HD audio and 1 x Optical, 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF outputs. PCI-Express 16X 2.0, four PCI-Express 1X and 2 PCI slots, six SATA ports and the usual IDE port, etc.

AM3 socket, DDR3 RAM and PCI-Express 2.0 slot, so it will last and be ready to upgrade in the future if you want.

Recommended upgrades:

ASUS M4A77TD Pro AM3 AMD 770 ATX $90 (+ $10) – Similar to the Gigabyte motherboard, also based on AMD 770 chipset, although equipped with nothing short of nine USB ports and an E-SATA port. An interesting alternative, especially if you prefer the ASUS brand.
GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 AMD 790X ATX $125 (+ $45) – A higher end motherboard, based on the AMD 790X chipset. Equipped with two PCI Express 16x 2.0 ports for Crossfire support, as well as the AMD SB750 SouthBridge for additional overclocking features. A nice upgrade that is more future-proof.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz 95W

From AMD, based on the Athlon II core, featuring 4 cores clocked at 2.6 GHz, for $99.

Now, I’ll agree with you if you tell me that there are better gaming CPUs at this price, such as the Athlon II X3 435. The reason that I took this CPU is because it’s a quad-core CPU priced at $99.

Yes, it runs at 2.6GHz, but the point here is that it easily overclocks past 3.2GHz, at which point it offers the performance of much more expensive CPUs for a lot less money.

Recommended upgrades:

AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz No L3 95W - $120 (+$21) – An extra 200MHz for $21 more. Some says that the X4 630 is made of better dies than the 630, giving it the edge for overclocking. That’s a rumor, hard to judge if it’s true or not though.
AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz 6MB L3 95W $146 (+$47) Here you get 200MHz more, but more importantly, you get the full 6MB of L3 cache, which gives you a 5-10% performance boost compared to the L3-less Athlon II CPUs at the same speed.
AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz 6MB L3 95W $166 (+$67) Now at 3.0GHz, 400MHz more and 6MB of L3 cache, for $67 more.
AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE Deneb 3.2GHz 6MB L3 125W $176 (+$77) 3.2GHz, 600 more and 6MB of L3 cache, for $77 more.
AMD Phenom II X4 965 BE Deneb 3.4GHz 6MB L3 140W $196 (+$97) This is nothing short of AMD’s best processor. A quad-core CPU running at 3.4GHz with a full 6MB of L3 cache. The drawback? A 140W TDP, making it a rather hot processor.

Video Card: XFX RADEON HD 5850 1 GB

One of the new video cards from AMD/Radeon, based on the DirectX 11-ready 5xxx series. Offering higher performance than the 4xxx series, while being produced on 40nm.

AMD worked out to keep power consumption reasonable and the results of this is that the Radeon 5850 power consumption at idle is one of the lowest of all high-end cards (About 22W less than a Radeon 4850), which is very important because the majority of the time, your video card will be idling while browsing the web, for example.

At load, the 5850 consumes about 23W less than a Radeon 4870, about 56W less than a Geforce GTX 275 and about 70W less than a Geforce GTX 285. The best part in all of that? The Radeon 5850 crushes those three cards when it comes to performance.

No, this is not a typo, the Radeon 5850, according to this deep analysis on AnandTech, outperforms the Geforce GTX 285, Nvidia current fastest single-gpu card, by an average of 10-15% while consuming about 70W less power at load and costing about $100 less! Talk about some bang for your buck!

The only downside? The Radeon 5850 is hard to find in stock for now, due to high demand (Can you blame them?) and a few kinks with the 40nm production. So here are a few links where you can find the Radeon 5850 is the main link above is out of stock:
On NewEgg:

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5850 1GB
DIAMOND Radeon HD 5850 1GB

On Amazon:

Recommended upgrade:
If the Radeon 5850 is not enough for you, go for the best video card on the market right now: The Radeon 5870. Okay, let me rephrase that: The fastest video card worth looking at. What do I mean? The Geforce GTX 295, a card equipped with 2 GPUs, will outperform the Radeon 5870 by about 5-10% in some games.

However, the Geforce GTX 295 problem is that it doesn’t scale well in all games, consumes wayyyy more power and cost about $120 more. It doesn’t support DirectX 11 for future games either.

My belief is that the Radeon 5870 is just more practical because it works with every game and does not require a more powerful (and expensive) power supply, not to mention the heat issues with dealing with the 2 GPUs on the Geforce GTX 295. Basically, it’s a drop-in upgrade for this system that does not require a new power supply. For more details on the Radeon 5870, see this article from AnandTech.

Unfortunately, the Radeon 5870 has the same availability problems as the Radeon 5850, so here are a few links where you can/might find in stock:

NewEgg:

Amazon:

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1 GB
XFX RADEON HD 5870 1 GB

RAM: A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600

4GB of RAM is pretty much mandatory to handle the latest video games along with Windows and background background such as your anti-virus, web broswer, music/video player, etc.

DDR2 vs DDR3 debate

Now that DDR3 prices are on-par with DDR2, the debate is pretty much over. DDR3 consumes less power, runs cooler and offers some performance advantages in some situations. Besides, Intel and AMD future platforms will use exclusively DDR3, so it no longer makes sense to buy DDR2 RAM for a new system.

Considering the ever-expending memory usage of games and programs, 4GB of high-speed DDR3 memory is a no-brainer as a minimum/recommended requirement.

Recommended upgrade:

If you plan to do a lot of photo/video editing and/or simply want to be future-proof, 8GB of RAM could be a good idea. Simply get two kits of A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 for a total of 8GB (4 x 2GB). Cost of $160 (+$80).

Hard Drive: Western Digital 750 GB Caviar Black SATA II 3.0 Gb/s

A standard SATA II hard drive, that offers 750GB of storage, plenty enough to handle your video/music collection and all your games. This is the Black series from Western Digital, their best and fastest hard drives with more cache (32MB) and a 5 years warranty instead of 3.

Recommended upgrades:

Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black SATA II 3.0Gb/s $95 (+ $25) An additional 250GB, also based on the Black series.

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner SATA

This drive is able to read and burn CDs and DVDs. Silent, compatible with all major formats including DVD-RAM.

Also, seeing as DVD Burners often go out of stock, here are a few alternatives that you can use to replace the Samsung one. All are SATA based and compatible.

Case: Antec Nine Hundred

The Antec 900. Who hasn’t seen or heard of it? An immense success from Antec, the 900 is a very sturdy case made of steel, with a lot of space for long video cards and plenty of ventilation (3 x 120mm + 1 x 200mm case fans) to cool down your system.

Recommended alternatives/upgrades:

Antec Twelve Hundred $160 (+$60) Bigger, more ventilated, basically the big brother of the Antec 900. If you look the 900, but want more space and ventilation, this is the way to go.
COOLER MASTER HAF 922 $100 (=) An excellent alternative to the Antec Nine Hundred, which also offers great cooling capabilities and is the same price as the 900.
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 $145 (+$45) Just like the Antec 1200 is the Antec 900’s big brother, the Cooler Master HAF 932 is the Cooler Master HAF 922 big brother. Bigger, with a huge fan on the side, perfect for the monster gaming system of yours. Less expensive than the Antec 1200 too.

Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 650W SLI/Crossfire/80 PLUS

This time, we have a separated power supply, ready to handle this system, upgrades and overclocking. Able to deliver nothing short of 45A on the 12V lines, this power supply is ready for SLI/Crossfire setups, heavy overclocking and is also certified 80% PLUS, making it an efficient power supply that wastes less power, helping your electric bill.

Recommended upgrade:

OCZ 700 Watts ModXStream Pro Modular SLI/Crossfire/80 PLUS

For the same price, you can get an OCZ 700W ModXStream power supply, able to deliver 46A on the 12V lines. Personally, I feel that Antec power supplies quality is a notch above OCZ, hence why I recommend a slightly less powerful power supply as my main choice, but if you don’t feel the same way, or just prefer the additional power, the OCZ is a good choice as well.

Like the Antec, it is ready for SLI/Crossfire setups, heavy overclocking and is also certified 80% PLUS, making it an efficient power supply that wastes less power, helping your electric bill. It is also a modular power supply, meaning that you only plug in the power cables that you need, making less of a mess to put the extra cables away.

Cooling:
Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer
XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 120mm Case Fan

Cpu Cooler: If you have any intention of overclocking, I cannot stress enough the importance of a good cooler.The Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer offers the best value regarding performance for the price, being one the best heatsink at a great price, it’s really underrated. Best part is that at that price, they even include good thermal grease and a fan controller to adjust the speed so it stays silent as well. Included in the build price.

Case fan: My recommendation here would be the XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 120mm Case Fan which I recommend adding to the side of the case, to improve the cooling for the CPU and video card. At $7, it strikes the balance between great airflow and little noise. Included in the build price.

As an alternative:
If you want to add one of the same fans that are featured on the Antec 900, get an Antec TriCool 120mm Blue LED Case Fan instead of the Xigmatek.

Sound Card: Integrated 8 Channels Sound

Integrated with the motherboard, this sound card will handle many different sound setups, including headphones, a microphone and more. While integrated audio on a PC used to be absolutely horrible, it has gotten much better in the last few years, thus why I have no trouble recommending it.

Cost: Free – Integrated

Network: 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN

Integrated with the motherboard, this network adapter will allow you to access your local network and Internet by using a Ethernet (RJ-45) cable.

Cost: Free – Integrated

Recommended operating systems:

The operating system cost, if there’s one, is not included in the total cost. The two reason for this are that the cost represents only hardware and because you may re-use a previous license, go with an open-source OS such as Linux or use torrents. Nevertheless, here are some recommendations:

Windows 7

Despite Linux starting to support some games, Windows still is the platform of choice for the best performance at the moment. Considering that you’ll have 4GB of RAM and a 512MB Video Card, you’ll need a 64-bit version, as 32-bit is limited to 4GB of memory for the entire system, which is not enough now, nor in the future if you upgrade.

Windows 7 is by far better than Windows Vista, looks better, more functional, less annoying, consumes less resources and brings DirectX 11 to the table.

The retail version is now available for purchase, in three different versions:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $110. The basic edition, with all the looks, most of the functionality and DirectX 11.
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit $150. If you want the virtual XP mode, you’ll need at least the Professional edition. Also required if you want to backup to a network, using the built-in backup mode in Windows.
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit $190. To help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker and to work and switch between 35 languages.

Linux

A lot of people these days boots more than one OS. Linux is a wonderful choice: powerful, cool, and cheap. Take your pick of distributions and have fun! For Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, and Mandrake, try Distrowatch.com, Cheapbytes.com, LinuxQuestions.org or one of the many others.

What about Word processing, Excel and other Windows-based programs that Iyou need? Linux being an open platform, there are many free alternatives that will answer your needs. For Word/Excel and such, try OpenOffice.

Cost: Free

Conclusion

Did you like this computer build? What you would do to improve the build or this article?

I’m always open to your suggestions and ideas to improve this blog, your blog.

If anything, I invite you to comment on this computer build, share your opinions, what you think about it, etc.

Do you like this build? If you would like to be informed when I publish/update all types of Computer Systems, I invite you to subscribe for free to our updates, via the form below.

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Build a DirectX 11 ready $700 Gaming Computer You Can Be Proud Of

Mathieu — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:45:12 +0000

Antec Sonata III

Unlike the $400 and $500 Gaming Computers which are clearly budget builds, the $700 Gaming Computer is a nice notch-up, both in quality and performance.

How so?

Quality wise, you now get a more silent and stylish case. A more powerful power supply that is more efficient as well.

Performance wise? I have two words for you: Radeon 5850

What does this $700 Gaming PC offer?

Solid performance: It will handle gaming, with modern titles, at a resolution up to 1920 x 1200 (Up to 22-25″ monitor)
Future-proof: Ready to handle DirectX 11-based video games, without lagging for quite a while.
Quality and looks: An Antec Sonata III case, pictured to the right, offer a look that you can be proud of, and silence that will keep you sane. The power supply is a solid Antec 500W EarthWatts, with 80PLUS efficiency certification and 34A on the 12V lines to handle the whole system without a problem.
Easily upgradeable in the future, with:
1. PCI-Express 2.0 slot for the video card.
2. AM3 socket to support future AMD CPUs.
3. DDR3 RAM.

What if I never built a PC before?

Make the jump. Do not be afraid.

Seriously, building a computer has never been more simple. You can find countless guides on Google and many videos showing how to install a part on Youtube. While the whole process may look overwhelming, if you look at it one part at a time, you’ll realize how simple it really is.

What if I’m outdated on what are the current best parts or simply don’t know which parts to pick?

If you don’t have the knowledge or time to choose your parts, simply stick to my recommendations below (In Bold) and you’ll be more than happy. That’s my promise.

Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?!

You can read opinions, comments and more left by my readers on the testimonials page.

What if I don’t agree with your choices?

$700 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

What if I want more performance than this build has to offer?

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are other upgrades, but I focused on telling you which ones offered the most value for your money

In simple terms, if you want a more powerful CPU or video card, simply pick it from the list of recommended upgrades that are in Italic.

If upgrades just don’t cut it, visit the Gaming PCs page, where you’ll find descriptions and links to other gaming computer custom build designs.

Component:	Make and Model:	Price
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX ASUS M4A77TD Pro AM3 AMD 770 ATX GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 AMD 790X ATX	$80 $90 (+$10) $125 (+$45)
CPU	AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz 95W No L3 AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz No L3 95W AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz BE 6MB L3 95W AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz 6MB L3 95W	*$90* $123 (+$33) $120 (+$30) $150 (+$60)
Video Card	ASUS Radeon HD 5850 1GB SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5870 1GB	$280 $390 (+$110)
RAM	A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 2 kits A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600, for 8GB (4 x 2GB)	$80 $160 (+$80)
Hard Drive	*Western Digital 500GB Caviar Blue SATA II 3.0Gb/s* Western Digital 750 GB Caviar Black SATA II 3.0 Gb/s Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black SATA II 3.0Gb/s	$54 $70 (+$16) $95 (+$41)
Optical Drive	SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner SATA	$31
Case	Antec Sonata III + Antec 500W Power Supply Antec 900 + Antec 650W Power Supply	*$100* $180 (+$80)
Power Supply	Included with the case	Free
Cooling	Included AMD CPU Cooler with CPU 1 x 120mm case fan with Antec Sonata III	Free Free
Sound Card	8 channels sound card integrated on the motherboard	Free
Network	10/100/1000 Mbps integrated on the motherboard	Free
Total	Not including shipping, handling nor OS	$715

Is this the right type of PC for me?

If you’re looking for a PC to play video games, you’re at the right place. If this is not what you’re looking for, check out our other Computer Systems instead.

$700 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX

AM3 socket, DDR3 RAM and PCI-Express 2.0 slot, so it will last and be ready to upgrade in the future if you want.

Recommended upgrades:

ASUS M4A77TD Pro AM3 AMD 770 ATX $90 (+ $10) – Similar to the Gigabyte motherboard, also based on AMD 770 chipset, although equipped with nothing short of nine USB ports and an E-SATA port. An interesting alternative, especially if you prefer the ASUS brand.
GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 AMD 790X ATX $125 (+ $45) – A higher end motherboard, based on the AMD 790X chipset. Equipped with two PCI Express 16x 2.0 ports for Crossfire support, as well as the AMD SB750 SouthBridge for additional overclocking features. A nice upgrade that is more future-proof.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz 95W Triple-Core Processor

From AMD, based on the Athlon II core, featuring 3 cores clocked at 2.9 GHz, for $90.

Versus Intel:

Its competition from Intel is the E6500 2.93GHz 2MB L2 ($95) and the E7400 2.8GHz 3MB L2($119).
I picked the AMD Phenom II over them for the following reasons:

The motherboard & CPU cost is lower for the same features with the AMD platform.
There is a much more interesting upgrade path with AMD with the AM3, as opposed to Intel Socket 775 which is a dead end.
The AMD Phenom II X2 545 outperforms both the E6500 and the more expensive E7400 in five gaming benchmarks out of six.
Here are the said benchmarks comparing the E6500/E7400 and the X3 345 for you:
You get more value and choices out of upgrading with AMD CPUs as you can see below.

Versus AMD:

Now, you may have noticed that they are many interesting CPUs in this price range from AMD, such as the Phenom II X2 545 3.0GHz 6MB L3 cache ($90), the Athlon II X4 620 2.6GHz no L3 cache ($100) and the Phenom II X3 710 2.6GHz 6MB L3 ($100). Why did I pick the Athlon II X3 435 over them?

I based my judgment on these game benchmarks from Tom’s Hardware. You’ll see that the X3 either comes close or outperform the other CPUs, while costing the less. How come? Because of its well balanced combination of relatively high frequency (2.9 Ghz) and number of cores (3 cores.)

If you look at the Phenom II X2 550, it’s fast (3.1GHz) but fall short due to having only 2 cores. On the opposite side, the Athlon II X4 620 has 4 cores, but only runs at 2.6GHz.

Now, if you noticed, the Phenom II X3 720 beats the Athlon II 435 in two out of three benchmarks, despite having the same number of cores (3) and a lower frequency (2.8GHz vs 2.9GHz). Why? Because the Phenom II line-up of CPUs feature 6MB of L3 cache, while Athlon II CPUs feature no L3 cache.

If you are interested in the difference in performance between the no L3 cache Athlon II and the full L3 cache Phenom II, check out the Athlon II or Phenom II: Does your CPU need L3 cache? article from Tom’s Hardware.

In the end, I recommended the Athlon II 435 because it offered performance close to the Phenom II X3 720, but cost only $90 vs $120 for the X3 720. If you want more performance, feel free to pick one of the upgrade below.

Recommended upgrades:

For comparisons between them, check out this review.

AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz BE 6MB L3 95W $120 (+ $30) – 3 cores, running at 2.8GHz and featuring 6MB of L3 cache for $120. The core counts (3), frequency (2.8GHz), full 6MB of L3 cache makes for a very well balanced all-around CPU.
AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz No L3 95W Quad-Core $123 (+ $33) – 4 cores, running at 2.8GHz, but no L3 cache. While you lose a bit of gaming performance due to lack of L3 cache vs the Phenom II X3 720, you make it for it with higher multi-threading capabilities which comes handy if you do a lot of video/3D editing/conversion.
AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz 6MB L3 95W $150 (+$60) – 4 cores, running at 2.8GHz and 6MB of L3 cache. If you want the best of both world (Gaming and multi-threading performance), this is the way to go.

Video Card: ASUS Radeon HD 5850 1GB

One of the new video cards from AMD/Radeon, based on the DirectX 11-ready 5xxx series. Offering higher performance than the 4xxx series, while being produced on 40nm.

XFX Radeon HD 5850 1GB
POWERCOLOR Radeon HD 5850 1GB

On Amazon:

However, the Geforce GTX 295 problem is that it doesn’t scale well in all games, consumes wayyyy more power and cost about $120 more. It doesn’t support DirectX 11 for future games either.

Unfortunately, the Radeon 5870 has the same availability problems as the Radeon 5850, so here are a few links where you can/might find in stock:

NewEgg:

Amazon:

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1 GB
XFX RADEON HD 5870 1 GB

RAM: A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600

4GB of RAM is pretty much mandatory to handle the latest video games along with Windows and background background such as your anti-virus, web broswer, music/video player, etc.

DDR2 vs DDR3 debate

Considering the ever-expending memory usage of games and programs, 4GB of high-speed DDR3 memory is a no-brainer as a minimum/recommended requirement.

Recommended upgrade:

If you plan to do a lot of photo/video editing and/or simply want to be future-proof, 8GB of RAM could be a good idea. Simply get two kits of A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 for a total of 8GB (4 x 2GB). Cost of $160 (+$80).

Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s

A standard SATA II hard drive, that offers 500GB of storage, plenty enough to handle your video/music collection and all your games. Backed up by Western Digital reliability and 3 years warranty.

Recommended upgrades:

Western Digital 750 GB Caviar Black SATA II 3.0 Gb/s $70 (+ $16) An extra 250GB, but more importantly, this is the Black series from Western Digital, the best and fastest hard drives with more cache (32MB) and a 5 years warranty instead of 3.
Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black SATA II 3.0Gb/s $95 (+ $41) Twice the capacity, also based on the Black series.

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner SATA

This drive is able to read and burn CDs and DVDs. Silent, compatible with all major formats including DVD-RAM.

Also, seeing as DVD Burners often go out of stock, here are a few alternatives that you can use to replace the Samsung one. All are SATA based and compatible.

Case: Antec Sonata III + Antec 500W Power Supply

I hear you: Why not recommend a case with a separated power supply?

Obviously, the price: At $100, it’s less expensive than any other setup that would include a quality case (Antec Sonata III here) and a solid 500W power supply (Antec 500W EarthWatts 80PLUS efficiency here).
The Antec Sonata III is known for being a quality case that is very silent.
The power supply included with the Sonata III offers 500W (Not that should rely on this information only as I often point in posts such as The 6 Most Important Factors when Choosing a Power Supply) but more importantly 34A on the the 12V lines, the most important factor when it comes to choosing a power supply for a gaming computer.
34A on the 12V lines offers up to 408 Watts, which is plenty enough considering that the CPUs I recommend consumes up to 95W in the worst case scenario and the video cards up to 180-200W in the worst case scenario. Meaning that this power supply is able to handle your power requirements if you use parts or upgrades that I recommend in this article, even in the worst case scenario.

The case comes with one 120mm case fan on the back.

Recommended upgrades:

Antec 900 + Antec 650W Power Supply $180 (+$80) – The Antec Nine Hundred. Probably the most popular gaming case of all and for one reason: Outstanding ventilation (adjustable and not noisy), great looks and a very sturdy construction, all of that for a great price.This model comes with a 650W Antec power supply, with a nice 45A on the 12V lines, for up to 540W.Ventilation? Hell yeah: 2 x 120mm Blue LEDs fans on the front, one 120mm blue LEDs fan on the back and a huge 200mm fan mounted on top.

Power Supply: Included with the case

All power supplies are included with the cases that I recommend and are powerful enough to handle any combinaisons of parts that I recommend here, for regular usage. I do not recommend overclocking here, considering the power supply, ventilation and stock cooling. As long as you stick to that, you don’t have to order a separate power supply.

Cooling:
Included AMD CPU Cooler with CPU
1 x 120mm case fan on Antec Sonata III

To save on costs, I recommend using the cooler included with the CPU and the one already installed on the video card. While there are better coolers, the one that are included are powerful enough to handle each part under normal operation.

The case includes a 120mm on the back.

However, there are two reasons why you may choose to upgrade your cooling system:

To keep your computer components cooler, which in return extend their lifespan and allows you to overclock to higher speed.
To keep your system silent, as the stock cooling can get noisy at times, especially during prolonged gaming sessions.

Alternatives:

Cpu Cooler: If you have any intention of overclocking, I cannot stress enough the importance of a good cooler.The Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer offers the best value regarding performance for the price, being one the best heatsink at a great price, it’s really underrated. Best part is that at that price, they even include good thermal grease and a fan controller to adjust the speed so it stays silent as well.
Video Card Cooler: My recommendation here would be the ZALMAN VF1000. It will dramatically drop your video card temperature (many report by 20 to 25C) and keep your system silent instead of having a noisy video card. It’s a wise investment to reduce noise/temperatures and further overclock.

Sound Card: Integrated 8 Channels Sound

Cost: Free – Integrated

Network: 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN

Integrated with the motherboard, this network adapter will allow you to access your local network and Internet by using a Ethernet (RJ-45) cable.

Cost: Free – Integrated

Recommended operating systems:

Windows 7

Windows 7 is by far better than Windows Vista, looks better, more functional, less annoying, consumes less resources and brings DirectX 11 to the table.

The retail version is now available for purchase, in three different versions:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $110. The basic edition, with all the looks, most of the functionality and DirectX 11.
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit $150. If you want the virtual XP mode, you’ll need at least the Professional edition. Also required if you want to backup to a network, using the built-in backup mode in Windows.
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit $190. To help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker and to work and switch between 35 languages.

Linux

Cost: Free

Conclusion

Did you like this computer build? What you would do to improve the build or this article?

I’m always open to your suggestions and ideas to improve this blog, your blog.

If anything, I invite you to comment on this computer build, share your opinions, what you think about it, etc.

Do you like this build? If you would like to be informed when I publish/update all types of Computer Systems, I invite you to subscribe for free to our updates, via the information below.

How can I receive future builds for free and automatically?

This is the first of many articles telling you which parts offer the best performance for a given budget for Gaming PCs builds. If you’re a regular reader of Hardware Revolution, know that this is the series where I’m updating current Gaming PCs builds and introducing new higher-end builds.

Either way, if you haven’t yet, choose one of the four following ways to make sure not to miss a single post!

Automatically receive updates via RSS
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Poll results: What is the minimum capacity that you would need for a SSD (Solid State Drive) ?

Mathieu — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:00:28 +0000

Picture by kawanet

On August 10th, I started a poll where I asked you the minimum capacity that you would need for a SSD (Solid State Drive).

What are SSDs?

SSDs, or Solid State Drives, are a breakthrough in storage for computers. Instead of using spinning platters and mechanical parts like in conventional hard drives, SSDs use many flash memory chips together to achieve faster data transfer and much lower latency. In short, your OS and programs load much more quickly with a SSD compared to a regular hard drive.

SSDs are a new technology and are still maturing. Until recently, their performance would degrade over time, due to the lack of firmware to optimize the SSD and the lack of Operating System to properly handle said SSD.

If you’d like to learn more about SSDs, check out this article of mine: The Best SSD for your money where I explain all of that in details.

Windows 7 and new SSD firmwares

Now, with Windows 7, which has been out for a few days and new firmwares for SSDs from Crucial, SuperTalent and OCZ now support the TRIM function, which automatically optimize the SSD with Windows 7 in order to keep the performance at its best all the time, the problem is resolved. For more details on TRIM, Windows 7 and the new firmwares, read this excellent article from AnandTech.

Now, the other problem is with capacity. SSDs being a new technology makes it expensive for a relatively low storage capacity. 30GB goes for $180, 60GB for $220, 120GB for $370 and 256GB for $675. This is why I started this poll, to see what is the minimum capacity that you need, so I could figure out which computer system designs could use a SSD.

So, two months and a half, with over 700 votes and Windows 7 along with new firmwares that are here, it’s now time to close the poll and call the results.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

We can see here that 32% of you are fine with 64GB or less (~$220), 30% of you with 128GB (~$370) and the majority of you, 39%, want 256GB (~$675) or more.

Needless to say, SSDs are not for you if you are on a budget. At $220 for a 64GB SSD, you won’t start seeing them as an upgrade option until we get in the builds that are $1000 or more. To me, it would simply make no sense to recommend a SSD before that, as you would be better off with a better video card or CPU and because most people are better off using a SSD for the speed with a regular hard drive for the storage.

Thank you to everyone for voted, knowing what you want will help me figure out when to offer SSD for computer systems and in which price range.

Who else wants a powerful $500 Gaming Computer?

Mathieu — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:30:05 +0000

Antec 300

I do. What about you?

I mean, why would you want to spend more than $500, when that is enough to build a powerful enough gaming computer to handle all pretty much all your gaming needs up to a resolution of 1680 x 1050? That’s the resolution of a 20-22″ monitor if you wonder.

LEDs, water-cooling, blu-ray drive, etc. ?

Sure, you could want some of that.

However, those would quickly add up to the cost of this system, without adding any performance what so ever.

Between you and me, what matters in a gaming PC is how well you can play video games, right?

That’s what I thought. When it comes to delivering the maximum performance out of $500, this is the build to go with.

What does this $500 Gaming PC offer?

It will handle gaming, with modern titles, at a resolution up to 1680 x 1050 (Up to 20-22″ monitor)
It will be stable, reliable and properly cooled, made to last.
It will be easily upgradeable in the future, with:
- PCI-Express 2.0 slot for the video card.
- AM3 socket to support future AMD CPUs.
- DDR3 RAM.

What if I never built a PC before?

Make the jump. Do not be afraid.

What if I’m outdated on what are the current best parts or simply don’t know which parts to pick?

If you don’t have the knowledge or time to choose your parts, simply stick to my recommendations below (In Bold) and you’ll be more than happy. That’s my promise.

Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?!

You can read opinions, comments and more left by my readers on the testimonials page.

What if I don’t agree with your choices?

$500 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

What if I want more performance than this build has to offer?

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are other upgrades, but I focused on telling you which ones offered the most value for your money

In simple terms, if you want a more powerful CPU or video card, simply pick it from the list of recommended upgrades that are in Italic.

If upgrades just don’t cut it, visit the Gaming PCs page, where you’ll find descriptions and links to other gaming computer custom build designs.

Component:	Make and Model:	Price
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX ASUS M4A77TD Pro AM3 AMD 770 ATX GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 AMD 790X ATX	$80 $90 (+ $10) $125 (+ $45)
CPU	AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz AM3 AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz AM3 AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz AM3 AMD Phenom II X2 545 Callisto 3.0GHz AM3 AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz AM3 AMD Phenom II X3 710 2.6GHz AM3 Triple-Core AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz AM3 Quad-Core	$60 $63 (+ $3) $76 (+$16) $90 (+ $30) $102 (+ $42) $100 (+ $40) $99 (+ $39)
Video Card	XFX Radeon HD 4870 512MB XFX Radeon HD 4870 1GB ASUS GeForce GTX 260 896MB Sapphire Radeon HD 5770 1GB	$125 $145 (+$20) $170 (+ $45) $160 (+ $35)
RAM	G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 2 kits G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600, for 8GB (4 x 2GB)	$81 $162 (+$81)
Hard Drive	*Western Digital 320GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s* Western Digital 500GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s Western Digital 640GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s	*$45* $54 (+$9) $68 (+$23)
Optical Drive	SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner SATA	$31
Case	*Antec 300 + Antec 430W Power Supply* COOLER MASTER Sileo 500 + 500W Power Supply Antec 900 + Antec 650W Power Supply	*$85* $100 (+$15) $170 (+$85)
Power Supply	Included with the case	Free
Cooling	Included AMD CPU Cooler with CPU 1 x 120mm + 1 x 140mm case fans on Antec 300 To buy: 2x XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 120mm Case Fan	Free Free $13
Sound Card	8 channels sound card integrated on the motherboard	Free
Network	10/100/1000 Mbps integrated on the motherboard	Free
Total	Not including shipping, handling nor OS	$520

Is this the right type of PC for me?

If you’re looking for a PC to play video games, you’re at the right place. If this is not what you’re looking for, check out our other Computer Systems instead.

$500 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX

AM3 socket, DDR3 RAM and PCI-Express 2.0 slot, so it will last and be ready to upgrade in the future if you want.

Recommended upgrades:

ASUS M4A77TD Pro AM3 AMD 770 ATX $90 (+ $10) – Similar to the Gigabyte motherboard, also based on AMD 770 chipset, although equipped with nothing short of nine USB ports and an E-SATA port. An interesting alternative, especially if you prefer the ASUS brand.
GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 AMD 790X ATX $125 (+ $45) – A higher end motherboard, based on the AMD 790X chipset. Equipped with two PCI Express 16x 2.0 ports for Crossfire support, as well as the AMD SB750 SouthBridge for additional overclocking features. A nice upgrade that is more future-proof.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz AM3

The other contenders in the same price range from Intel would have been the E5300 (2.6GHz $70) or E5400 (2.7GHz $90).
I picked the AMD Athlon II X2 240 over them for the following reasons:

The motherboard & CPU ($60) is less expensive for the same features with the AMD platform.
The AMD Athlon II X2 240 outperforms the more expensive E5300 ($70) and even the much more expensive E5400 ($90) when it comes to gaming in five benchmarks out of six.
Here are the said benchmarks comparing the E5300/E5400 and the X2 240/245 for you:
You get more value out of upgrading with AMD CPUs as you can see below.

Recommended upgrades:
With six different possible upgrades, let me help you difference them.
In order:

Athlon X2 Regor: The first two choices are dual-core processors from the Athlon II line-up. Inexpensive, but lacking L3 cache which reduces performance by 5-10% on average compared to a Phenom II X2 processor at the same frequency.
Phenom II X2 Callisto: The next two choices are dual-core processors from the Phenom II line-up. A tad more expensive, but they are the real-deal, featuring 6MB of L3 cache for enhanced performance.
Phenom II X3 Heka: The next one on the list is an interesting alternative, as it features not 2 or 4 cores, but rather 3! The 3rd core give them the edge over dual-core processors, as it handles background processors while the two first core take care of only your game. Also feature 6MB of L3 cache.
Athlon II X4 Propus: The last one on the list is based on the Athlon II line-up, so it has no L3 which reduce performance by 5-10%, but however, it’s a quad-core processor, which is definitely useful if you do a lot of video/3D editing/rendering and will be more future-proof as games become more multi-threaded.
For comparisons between them, check out this review. If you are interested in the difference between the no L3 cache Athlon II and the full L3 cache Phenom II, check out the Athlon II or Phenom II: Does your CPU need L3 cache? article from Tom’s Hardware.

AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz AM3 $63 (+ $3) – For $3 more, you get the same CPU, but with an additional 100MHz.
AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz AM3 $73 (+ $13) – For $13 more this time, same CPU again, but an additional 200MHz
AMD Phenom II X2 545 Callisto 3.0GHz AM3 $90 (+ $30) – For the same price ($90) as the sluggish Intel E5400, you get a fully featured 3.0GHz dual-core AMD processor based on the Phenom II architecture with 6MB of L3 cache.
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz AM3 $102 (+ $42) – This time, if you spend $102, you get nothing short of what I consider the best dual-core CPU for gaming. Running at 3.1GHz, based on the Phenom II core, so 6MB of L3 cache and on top of that? Its multiplier is unlocked to allow you to overclock to your heart’s desire!
AMD Phenom II X3 Heka 710 2.6GHz AM3 $100 (+ $40) – 3 cores, running at 2.6GHz and featuring 6MB of L3 cache for $100. The core counts (3), frequency (2.6GHz), full 6MB of L3 cache makes for a very well balanced all-around CPU.
AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz AM3 Quad-Core $99 (+ $39) – Let’s keep it simple: 2.6GHz Quad-Core processor. For $99. Enough said.

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 4870 512MB

Lifetime warranty from XFX. For $125, the Radeon HD 4870 will offer excellent performance all the way up to a resolution of 1680 x 1050, if not even 1920 x 1200. While some of you may point out that it features 512MB of VRAM, it’s not so much a limiting factor unless:

A- You plan to play Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 4.
B- You plan to play intensively at 1920 x 1200.

If that is the case, then I recommend spending $20 more and get the 1GB edition of the Radeon 4870.

Recommended upgrades:

ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB HDCP/Crossfire Ready $145 (+$20) – Same as before, but this is the edition equipped with 1GB of VRAM, which is better if you intend on playing GTA 4 for example, playing at 1920 x 1200 or simply want to be more future proof.
ASUS GeForce GTX 260 896MB $170 (+$45) Nvidia alternative to the Radeon 4870 1GB, offering similar performance to it, although for a higher price on average.
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB HDCP/Crossfire Ready $160 (+$35) – Brand new offering from ATI that came out on Oct 13th, offering performance on the level of the 4870 512MB, while consuming way less power at idle (15W!) and at load (108W) than any card offering this level of performance thanks to the 40nm process it’s based on.
Equipped with 1GB of VRAM to handle modern titles, 1920 x 1200 gaming and be future-proof.

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 MHz

4GB of RAM is pretty much mandatory to handle the latest video games along with Windows and background background such as your anti-virus, web broswer, music/video player, etc. Backed up by G.Skill lifetime warranty.

DDR2 vs DDR3 debate

Considering the ever-expending memory usage of games and programs, 4GB of high-speed DDR3 memory is a no-brainer as a minimum/recommended requirement.

Recommended upgrade:

If you plan to do a lot of photo/video editing and/or simply want to be future-proof, 8GB of RAM could be a good idea. Simply get two kits of G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 for a total of 8GB (4 x 2GB). Cost of $162 (+$81).

Hard Drive: Western Digital 320GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s

A standard SATA II hard drive, that offers 320GB of storage, plenty enough to handle your video/music collection and all your games. Backed up by Western Digital reliability and 3 years warranty.

Recommended upgrades:

WD 500GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s – $54 (+$9) 180GB more, for $9 more.
WD 640GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s – $68 (+$23) Twice the capacity, for $28 more.

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner SATA

This drive is able to read and burn CDs and DVDs. Silent, compatible with all major formats including DVD-RAM.

Also, seeing as DVD Burners often go out of stock, here are a few alternatives that you can use to replace the Samsung one. All are SATA based and compatible.

Case: Antec 300 + Antec 430W Power Supply

I hear you: Why not recommend a case with a separated power supply?

Obviously, the price: At $85, it’s less expensive than any other setup that would include a quality case (Antec 300 here) and a solid 430W power supply (From Antec here).
The Antec 300 is known for being a solid sturdy case that offers good cooling capabilities.
The power supply included with the Antec 300 offers 430W (Not that should rely on this information only as I often point in posts such as The 6 Most Important Factors when Choosing a Power Supply) but more importantly 30A on the the 12V lines, the most important factor when it comes to choosing a power supply for a gaming computer.
30A on the 12V lines offers up to 360 Watts, which is plenty enough considering that the CPUs I recommend consumes up to 95W in the worst case scenario and the video cards up to 180-200W in the worst case scenario. Meaning that this power supply is able to handle your power requirements if you use parts or upgrades that I recommend in this article, even in the worst case scenario.

The case comes with one 120mm case fan on the back and a 140mm top-mounted case fan. Good to start with, but we will improve that as you will see as you read on.

Recommended upgrades:

COOLER MASTER Sileo 500 + 500W Power Supply $100 (+$15) – A very nice case, offering sound dampening, a 500W power supply with 30A (360W) on the 12V lines, along with two 120mm case fans, one on the front and one the back.
Antec 900 + Antec 650W Power Supply $170 (+$85) – The Antec Nine Hundred. Probably the most popular gaming case of all and for one reason: Outstanding ventilation (adjustable and not noisy), great looks and a very sturdy construction, all of that for a great price.This model comes with a 650W Antec power supply, with a nice 45A on the 12V lines, for up to 540W.Ventilation? Hell yeah: 2 x 120mm Blue LEDs fans on the front, one 120mm blue LEDs fan on the back and a huge 200mm fan mounted on top.

Power Supply: Included with the case

Cooling:
Included AMD CPU Cooler with CPU
1 x 120mm + 1 x 140mm case fans on Antec 300
To buy: 2x XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 120mm Case Fan

The case includes a 120mm on the back and a 140mm on top. I recommend getting two XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 120mm Case Fan, one for the front of the case to cool down the hard drive and one on the side to help cool the video card.

However, there are two reasons why you may choose to upgrade your cooling system:

To keep your computer components cooler, which in return extend their lifespan and allows you to overclock to higher speed.
To keep your system silent, as the stock cooling can get noisy at times, especially during prolonged gaming sessions.

Alternatives:

Cpu Cooler: If you have any intention of overclocking, I cannot stress enough the importance of a good cooler.The Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer offers the best value regarding performance for the price, being one the best heatsink at a great price, it’s really underrated. Best part is that at that price, they even include good thermal grease and a fan controller to adjust the speed so it stays silent as well.
Video Card Cooler: My recommendation here would be the ZALMAN VF1000. It will dramatically drop your video card temperature (many report by 20 to 25C) and keep your system silent instead of having a noisy video card. It’s a wise investment to reduce noise/temperatures and further overclock.

Sound Card: Integrated 8 Channels Sound

Cost: Free – Integrated

Network: 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN

Integrated with the motherboard, this network adapter will allow you to access your local network and Internet by using a Ethernet (RJ-45) cable.

Cost: Free – Integrated

Recommended operating systems:

Windows 7

Windows 7 is by far better than Windows Vista, looks better, more functional, less annoying, consumes less resources and brings DirectX 11 to the table.

The retail version is now available for purchase, in three different versions:

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit $110. The basic edition, with all the looks, most of the functionality and DirectX 11.
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit $150. If you want the virtual XP mode, you’ll need at least the Professional edition. Also required if you want to backup to a network, using the built-in backup mode in Windows.
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit $190. To help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker and to work and switch between 35 languages.

Linux

Cost: Free

Conclusion

Did you like this computer build? What you would do to improve the build or this article?

I’m always open to your suggestions and ideas to improve this blog, your blog.

If anything, I invite you to comment on this computer build, share your opinions, what you think about it, etc.

Do you like this build? If you would like to be informed when I publish/update all types of Computer Systems, I invite you to subscribe for free to our updates, via the information below.

How can I receive future builds for free and automatically?

Either way, if you haven’t yet, choose one of the four following ways to make sure not to miss a single post!

Automatically receive updates via RSS
- Do you want to know what is RSS, explained in plain English? Check out the What is RSS? page.
Automatically receive updates via E-mail
Automatically receive updates via Facebook
Automatically receive updates via Twitter

Not quite convinced on why you should subscribe to free updates, despite the free aspect? Check out the Why subscribe to free updates page for many reasons to do so

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Some news and the schedule for the next few weeks

Mathieu — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:00:16 +0000

Hey everyone,

I’m glad to tell you that I’m finally feeling better, after falling sick to a bad cold last week. That’s how colds are with me, I get sick once or twice a year, but every time it’s pretty bad.

On top of being sick, our dryer at home broke down, the engine stopped working and since it was an expensive fix, I decided to just buy a new one.

Luckely for me, we have a shop literally 2 minutes away from where I live that repairs and sells appliances. I got a fairly recent Whirpool dryer in very good condition for $125 CAD, along with a 6-month warranty on parts and labor. Did I mention that delivery was also included? I started using it earlier and it works fine. I’m happy, I feel like I got a good deal and that I have helped support a local business.

Not to mention that it uses much less power than the previous dryer, so we’ll save money everyone on the electricity bill.

Moving on…

Schedule for the next few weeks

I’m starting to get used to the part-time job that I got in mid-September, giving me a bit more time to write and take care of this blog. I also took advantage of being sick to call/e-mail people to catch up with them and get things done. Meaning that I have less to take care of and more time to relax and spend time here. Hurray!

However, I also want to be reasonable and not overwhelm myself by promising too many articles to you to a point where it’s no longer a pleasure to write for me.

My plan is still to update the gaming PCs, along with new ones in the higher price ranges later on.

There were also suggestions in the comments of a post for me to write an article or a series to help amateur system builders with building their first computer systems. I really like the idea and I’ll be thinking about that one and probably post it somewhere in the two first weeks of November.

My plan for now

As usual, all articles will be published at 6PM EST (Eastern Standard Time)

On Saturday, I’ll finally post the $500 Gaming Computer update, yes I know, it will be about darn time!

On Monday, I’ll post the poll results for “What is the minimum capacity that you would need for a SSD (Solid State Drive) ?”

On Wednesday, expect an update to the $700 Gaming PC.

On the following Saturday, the $850 Gaming PC will be updated.

So basically, I’ll be posting updates on Wednesdays and Saturdays for now, along with occasional news, updates, etc here and there during the week, allowing me to adjust as required depending on my free time and how I feel.

Sounds good to you?

Twitter updates?

As you may know, I’m on Twitter as MathieuB. I was curious to know if you’d be interested to have a Twitter column on the right side, where the poll is right now or perhaps a bit lower, where I would post mini-updates every day or so, on interesting computer hardware stories, interesting or funny articles or simply how I’m doing?

I figure that it might interest you. Let me know and if it does, I’ll do that soon

Take care all,
Mathieu

Taking a sick day off

Mathieu — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:00:22 +0000

Hey everyone,

It feels like I caught a cold yesterday, I feel drained, have no energy and my whole body hurts.

Although I really wanted to publish the updated version of the $500 Gaming PC today, it will have to wait until tomorrow or Saturday, depending on how good (or not) I feel tomorrow.

Sorry about the delay in the post, hope you can understand.

Cheers,
Mathieu

The Secret behind designing the $400 Gaming PC

Mathieu — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:00:13 +0000

Rosewill R336 Computer Case

What is the secret of building a Gaming Computer for $400?

It’s quite simple: Be realistic.

For $400, you won’t get that huge tower, with flashy neons, LEDs and water-cooling. However, you can and will get very respectable performance, plenty enough to handle gaming at a 1440 x 900 or lower resolution with good graphic quality

For every part, focus on getting the lowest cost possible, while making sure to maintain performance high enough to deliver a satisfying gaming experience.

Buy the best parts that you can get while remaining within the budget boundaries.

Put your money on the parts that affect the most the performance, such as the video card. That’s the idea that you’ll see behind my recommendations for the parts featured in this build.

Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?!

You can read opinions, comments and more left by my reader on the testimonials page.

$400 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

In Bold, you’ll find my recommendations, which offers the best performance possible for a price that fits the overall budget.

What if I want more performance than this build has to offer?

No problem. Included in Italic are the best possible upgrades. They are still priced reasonably in regard to the budget and are all compatible with the rest of the system. (You’ll find the price difference over my recommendation in parentheses). Now, don’t get me wrong, there are other upgrades, but I focused on telling you which ones offered the most value for your money

In simple terms, if you want a more powerful CPU or video card, simply pick it from the list of recommended upgrades that are in Italic.

If upgrades just don’t cut it, visit the Gaming PCs page, where you’ll find descriptions and links to other gaming computer custom build designs.

This is the great part of building your own computer(s), you can customize it to your taste, instead of getting what the manufacturer wants to give you with a pre-built computer. If you have the knowledge and/or the time to learn, you’re free to use my recommendations as a base and then to customize any build just how you want it.

If you don’t have the knowledge or time to choose your parts, simply stick to my recommendations and you’ll be more than happy. That’s my promise.

Component:	Make and Model:	Price
Motherboard	ASRock N68-S Geforce 7025 Micro ATX ASRock K10N78M Geforce 8100 Micro ATX ECS IC780M-A AMD 770 ATX ASRock A780GXE/128M AMD 780G ATX ASUS M4A78-EM AMD 780G Micro ATX	$45 $55 (+$10) $60 (+$15) $75 (+$30) $85 (+$40)
CPU	AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz AM3 AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz AM3 AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz AM3 AMD Phenom II X2 545 Callisto 3.0GHz AM3 AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz AM3 AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz AM3 Quad-Core	$63 $66 (+$3) $76 (+$13) $90 (+$27) $102 (+$39) $99 (+$36)
Video Card	Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT 512MB HDCP/SLI Ready ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB HDCP/Crossfire Ready ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB HDCP/Crossfire Ready Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 512MB HDCP/SLI Ready ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB HDCP/Crossfire Ready ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB HDCP/Crossfire Ready ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB HDCP/Crossfire Ready	$90 $99 (+$9) $110 (+$20) $135 (+$45) $125 (+$35) $145 (+$55) $160 (+$70)
RAM	CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 Dual Channel G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066 Dual Channel	$65 $80 (+$15)
Hard Drive	WD 160GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s WD 320GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s WD 500GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s WD 640GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s	$40 $45 (+$5) $57 (+$17) $68 (+$28)
Optical Drive	LG IDE 22X DVD±R DVD Burner	$30
Case	Rosewill R336 + 500W Power Supply Antec 300 + Antec 430W Power Supply COOLER MASTER Sileo 500 + 500W Power Supply Antec 900 + Antec 650W Power Supply	$55 $85 (+$30) $100 (+$45) $170 (+$115)
Power Supply	Included with the case	Free
Cooling	Included AMD CPU Cooler with CPU 1 x 120mm + 1 x 140mm case fans on Antec 300	Free
Sound Card	6 channels sound card integrated on the motherboard	Free
Network	10/100/1000 Mbps integrated on the motherboard	Free
Total	Not including shipping, handling nor OS	$383

Is this the right type of PC for me?

If you’re looking for a PC to play video games, you’re at the right place. If this is not what you’re looking for, check out our other Computer Systems instead.

$400 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard recommendation: ASRock N68-S

A basic, yet reliable motherboard at a great price that supports everything in this system. Come with four USB ports, two PS/2, serial , LAN, audio and VGA outputs on the back. PCI-Express 16X, one PCI-Express 1X and 2 PCI slots, four SATA ports and the usual IDE port, etc.

Now, I’ve heard some of you complain that this motherboard is, bluntly put: “Crap”. While I agree with you when you say that this motherboard does not offer the greatest features nor the greatest overclocking potential, here’s one fact: It does the job just fine and at $45, it does it at the lowest cost for a motherboard that offers decent quality and that I’m comfortable recommending.

Yes, you could gain a bit of performance by choosing a better motherboard, but the amount of additional money that you will have to spend won’t be worth the little performance boost as opposed to investing additional money on the video card or CPU.

My take is to stick with the recommended motherboard, unless you want/need additional features.

Recommended upgrades:

ASRock K10N78M Geforce 8100 Micro ATX – With a more recent chipset, the Geforce 8100, this motherboard features two additional USB ports, a DVI output, A PCI-Express 2.0 16x slot and a higher FSB (HyperTransport) speed support. For only $10 more than my main recommendation, you get a lot.
ECS IC780M-A AMD 770 ATX – This is a full size ATX motherboard, with support for up to 4 sticks of RAM, 2 PCI-Express 1X and 3 PCI slots, featuring an AMD 770 chipset. $60 for a nice full-size motherboard with an AMD chipset is a steal!
ASRock A780GXE/128M AMD 780G ATX – 6 USB ports, FireWire, E-SATA, Crossfire (16X, 8X) support, 6 SATA ports, on an AMD 780G chipset, for $75. What else can you ask for really?
ASUS M4A78-EM AMD 780G Micro ATX – From the beloved ASUS brand, here we have a Micro ATX motherboard with 4 slots for RAM, HDMI output supported by the ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphic processor (IGP) and much more for $85.

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz AM3

The other contenders in the same price range would have been the Intel E5300 (2.6GHz $70) or E5400 (2.7GHz $90).
I picked the AMD Athlon II X2 240 over them for the following reasons:

The motherboard & CPU ($60) is less expensive with the AMD platform.
The AMD Athlon II X2 240 outperforms the more expensive E5300 ($70) and even the much more expensive E5400 ($90) when it comes to gaming in five benchmarks out of six.
Here are the said benchmarks comparing the E5300/E5400 and the X2 240/245 for you:
You get more value out of upgrading with AMD CPUs as you can see below.

Recommended upgrades:

AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz AM3 ($63) – For $3 more, you get the same CPU, but with an additional 100MHz.
AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz AM3 ($73) – For $13 more this time, same CPU again, but an additional 200MHz
AMD Phenom II X2 545 Callisto 3.0GHz AM3 ($90) – For the same price ($90) as the sluggish Intel E5400, you get a fully featured 3.0GHz dual-core AMD processor based on the Phenom II architecture with 6MB of L3 cache.
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz AM3 ($102) – This time, if you spend $102, you get nothing short of what I consider the best dual-core CPU for gaming. Running at 3.1GHz, based on the Phenom II core and on top of that? Its multiplier is unlocked to allow you to overclock to your heart’s desire!
AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz AM3 Quad-Core ($99) – Let’s keep it simple: 2.6GHz Quad-Core processor. For $99. Enough said.

Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT 512MB HDCP/SLI Ready

For $90, you’ll not find a card that offers as much performance. This particular edition of the 9800GT draws less power than the regular 9800GT/GTX and does not require a 6-pin power connector.

Recommended upgrades:

ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB HDCP/Crossfire Ready ($99) – The Radeon HD 4850 is faster than the 8800GT/9800GTX/GTS 250 and Radeon 4830/4770. Overclocked, it gets close to the Radeon 4870 and Geforce GTX 260.
ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB HDCP/Crossfire Ready ($110) – Slightly slower than the 4850, but it consumes way less power being based on the 40nm process technology.
Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 512MB HDCP/SLI Ready ($135) – Based on the 9800 GTX+, but being shorter and consuming, it’s hard to recommend over the 4770 or the 4850 considering the price difference, but if you want nothing but Nvidia, this is an affordable upgrade.
ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB HDCP/Crossfire Ready ($125) – A nice step up over the previous cards, it’s also the one with the highest power consumption.
ATI Radeon HD 4870 1GB HDCP/Crossfire Ready ($145) – Same as before, but this is the edition equipped with 1GB of VRAM.
ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB HDCP/Crossfire Ready ($160) – Brand new offering from ATI that came out on Oct 13th, offering performance on the level of the 4870 1gb, while consuming way less power at idle (15W!) and at load (108W) than any card offering this level of performance thanks to the 40nm process it’s based on.

RAM: CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 Dual Channel

4GB of RAM is pretty much mandatory to handle the latest video games along with Windows and background background such as your anti-virus, web broswer, music/video player, etc.

Considering the price of RAM these days and the ever-expending memory use of games and programs, 4GB of high-speed DDR2 memory is a no-brainer.

Recommended upgrade:

Instead of using DDR2 800 sticks, how about going for two sticks of the faster DDR 1066? The price difference is usually less than $20 and extra bandwidth is useful for everything, not just games. I recommend to you this kit: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 1066

Hard Drive: Western Digital 160GB SATA 3.0Gb/s

A standard SATA hard drive, that offers 160GB of storage, plenty enough to handle your video/music collection and all your games.

Recommended upgrades:

WD 320GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s – ($45) For only $5 more, you get twice the storage capacity!
WD 500GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s – ($57) Three times the capacity, for $17 more.
WD 640GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s – ($68) Four times the capacity, for $28 more.

Optical Drive: LG IDE 22X DVD±R DVD Burner

This drive is able to read and burn CDs and DVDs. Silent, compatible with all major formats including DVD-RAM. Yes, it’s IDE, so you don’t need to order an extra SATA cable, as you have SATA Cable (Hard Drive) and one IDE cable included (DVD Burner).

Don’t worry, there’s no way a DVD Burner will be bottlenecked by the IDE connection. Sure, the larger IDE cable is not ideal for airflow, but IDE DVD Burners and not needing to order an extra cable reduce costs.

Also, seeing as DVD Burners are often go out of stock lately, here are a few alternatives that you can use to replace the LG. All are IDE based.

Case: Rosewill R336 + 500W Power Supply

Oh yeah, I know, I will some of you mad by recommending this case and power supply combo. Hear out my arguments on why I chose this case before flaming me down though:

Obviously, the price: $55 is $30 less than the closer case and power setup that I would recommend.
No, the case is not exactly the most solid one or the best looking. But it’s not ultra-cheap like the cases in the same price range, it’s a step up from that and it will last you years if you’re careful as you should be with a computer
Most power supplies included with cases in that price range barely have 20A if not even less, giving you only up to 240W for your CPU and video card, not enough for me to be comfortable recommending them.The power supply included with the Rosewill R336 offers 500W (Not that should rely on this information only as I often point in posts such as The 6 Most Important Factors when Choosing a Power Supply) but more importantly 31A (15A + 16A, use the wattage to double-check) on the the 12V lines, the most important factor when it comes to choosing a power supply for a gaming computer.
31A on the 12V lines offers up to 372 Watts, which is much better considering that the CPUs I recommend consumes up to 95W in the worst case scenario and the video cards up to 180W in the worst case scenario. Meaning that this power supply is able to handle your power requirements if you use parts or upgrades that I recommend in this article, even in the worst case scenario.

The case comes with one 92mm case fan on the back and a side duct. Nothing spectacular, but it’s good enough to keep your system cool enough.

Recommended upgrades:

Antec 300 + Antec 430W Power Supply ($85) – Higher quality case, better ventilation (120mm on the back, 140mm on top) and a well known brand. The power supply, a 430W model, offers 30A (360W) on the 12V lines.
COOLER MASTER Sileo 500 + 500W Power Supply ($100) – A very nice case, offering sound dampening, a 500W power supply with 30A (360W) on the 12V lines, along with two 120mm case fans, one on the front and one the back.
Antec 900 + Antec 650W Power Supply ($170) – The Antec Nine Hundred. Probably the most popular gaming case of all and for one reason: Outstanding ventilation (adjustable and not noisy), great looks and a very sturdy construction, all of that for a great price.This model comes with a 650W Antec power supply, with a nice 45A on the 12V lines, for up to 540W.Ventilation? Hell yeah: 2 x 120mm Blue LEDs fans on the front, one 120mm blue LEDs fan on the back and a huge 200mm fan mounted on top.

Power Supply: Included with the case

Cooling: Stock cooling

However, there are two reasons why you may choose to upgrade your cooling system:

To keep your computer components cooler, which in return extend their lifespan and allows you to overclock to higher speed.
To keep your system silent, as the stock cooling can get noisy at times, especially during prolonged gaming sessions.

Alternatives:

Cpu Cooler: If you have any intention of overclocking, I cannot stress enough the importance of a good cooler.The Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer offers the best value regarding performance for the price, being one the best heatsink at a great price, it’s really underrated. Best part is that at that price, they even include good thermal grease and a fan controller to adjust the speed so it stays silent as well.
Video Card Cooler: My recommendation here would be the ZALMAN VF1000. It will dramatically drop your video card temperature (many report by 20 to 25C) and keep your system silent instead of having a noisy video card. It’s a wise investment to reduce noise/temperatures and further overclock.
Case cooling: You can add up to three additional 120 mm fans in the Antec 300, two in the front and one on the side. At least adding one on the side will help keep your video card cool, but the best is to get three. If you’re on a tight budget and don’t mind a bit of noise at 29.3 dBA, the Rosewill 120mm Case Fan is a good choice.
Go for the Scythe SY1225SL12M 120mm “Slipstream” Case Fan if you’re looking for a higher-quality, more silent fan. This particular model is relatively silent at only 24dBA.

Sound Card: Integrated 6 Channels Sound

Cost: Free – Integrated

Network: 10/100 Mbps LAN

Integrated with the motherboard, this network adapter will allow you to access your local network and Internet.

Cost: Free – Integrated

Recommended operating systems:

Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with coupon for free upgrade to Windows 7

This edition comes a coupon for a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it will be released on October 22nd. I only recommend getting Vista if you can’t wait ten days for Windows 7.

Cost: $110

Windows 7

Windows 7 is by far better than Windows Vista, looks better, more functional, less annoying, consumes less resources and brings DirectX 11.

The retail version is coming out on October 22nd: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Until then, it’s available for pre-order: Pre-order Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Note that the beta version is no longer available.

Linux

Cost: Free

Conclusion

Did you like this computer build? What you would do to improve the build or this article?

I’m always open to your suggestions and ideas to improve this blog, your blog.

If anything, I invite you to comment on this computer build, share your opinions, what you think about it, etc.

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parentheses

Regained focus

Mathieu — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 22:13:48 +0000

Hardware Revolution current Homepage

As you may or may not know, I’ve launched Hardware Revolution back in April 2008, a year and a half now.

To say that it has been a wonderful experience would clearly be an understatement. I have gained a lot of valuable experience through managing this blog and I would go as far as saying that I have learned quite a bit about myself as well.

One really important lesson that I learned?

I stretched myself too thin

In the past few months, I have tried a few new things on the blog, such as sharing with you some of the best articles that I found on the web, reviewing books and more.

Now, I’m not saying that this was necessarily a bad idea. After all, I believe that we learn from everything that we try in life and that if you don’t give it a try, you’ll never know how it will end up.

Then, almost four weeks ago, I got a part-time job (in a call center) and got much more busy all of a sudden. I now had to split my time between work, this blog, my girlfriend, friends, cleaning/cooking/etc and taking care of myself obviously.

Needless to say, I now have less time to put on this blog and I will get no where if I try to do too many things at once. I will simply crash, burn and stress out. When I look at the overall picture, I have come to realize that I should have kept it simple by focusing at what I do best and what I like most.

This is what I will do now: Keep it simple and focused on what I and you want the most.

How will I do that? Through a few steps:

1- A Simplified HomePage

If you take a look at the current HomePage, you will notice that there are less pages and topics. Why? As I said before: To keep it simple. Too many pages and topics is confusing for you, the reader and keeps me unfocused.

You’ll notice that I added a “Best” Page on the top bar, which three sub-pages, CPU, SSD and Video Card.

These are links to the latest edition of the “Best ___ for your money” type of guides, for the CPUs, SSDs and Video Cards respectively. I put them on the top navigation bar so you can easily find them without having to go through the archives.

I’m currently using CrazyEgg tracking software to see how you interact with the homepage and I’ll most likely modify it again in the close future to make it as simple and efficient as I can make it.

2- Focusing on what matters

For now, I’ll be focusing on updating the Gaming PCs, starting tomorrow. Along with that, I’ll keep writing more How-to articles, with of course the monthly updates to the “Best ___ for your money” type of guides.

I’m considering whether to keep the polls or not. I think that I will, but keep publishing at a rate of one per every month or two instead of the every two weeks as I used to before.

3- What you want

The latest point but not the least for sure, is what you want. After all, as much as I write for the pleasure of writing and sharing my knowledge, what is the point of no one is reading my articles?

That’s why I invite you to tell me here, by commenting, what you enjoy reading on Hardware Revolution, what do you think of the simplified HomePage and what you want to see in the future on Hardware Revolution.

That said, to my Canadian readers, happy thanksgiving and to everyone else, have a great week!

Best video card for your money: October 2009

Mathieu — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:00:17 +0000

Radeon 5870

October update:

AMD/ATI launched their Radeon 5850 and 5870 video cards and took back the single gpu performance crown from Nvidia.

The Radeon 5850 starts at $259.99 both at NewEgg and at Amazon.

On average, it performs on par or is slightly faster than the Geforce GTX 285 (which costs at least $70 more) , while consuming 80W less according to Hot Hardware. Talk about a good bang for the buck!

As for the Radeon 5870, it clearly outperforms the Geforce GTX 285 by a wide margin and it actually is very close to the dual-GPU Geforce GTX 295 according to AnandTech and if I may remind you, it costs above $500.

Priced at $379.99 on NewEgg and Amazon, the Radeon 5870 offers great value for gamers. If you’re looking for the best performance, get two of them in a Crossfire configuration and they will trash that Geforce GTX 295.

Nvidia answer:

Of course, Nvidia is not sitting there watching AMD. They are working hard on their new GT300 architecture, Fermi which features 3 billion transistors and it’s expected for Q1 2010. Yes, in the first three months of 2010. Earlier this year, we heard of Q4 2009, that is in time for the holidays. Why is Nvidia late?

According to NVIDIA’s VP of Product Marketing, Ujesh Desai: “Because designing GPUs this big is “fucking hard”".

That said, with 3 billions transistors and being late, you can hope that Nvidia will make up for it by offering a superior product. The question is: At what price? Needless to say, it won’t be cheap with 3 billions of transistors.

Price drops:

Needless to say, with the introduction of the Radeon 5850 and 5870, we are starting to see and will see many price drops on several products from ATI/AMD and Nvidia. Nvidia will most likely drop the price of the Geforce GTX 285 closer to the 5850 level. As for the Geforce GTX 295, that’s a hard guess, as it’s far from cheap to produce due to its 2 chip design and it’s still a bit faster than the Radeon 5870, although not enough to justify an extra $120+.

I’m guessing that it will drop to $450, but even then, it’s hard to justify when you can more performance out of two Radeon 5850 in Crossfire for $520, while using way less power and producing way less heat.

The best video card for your money?

By that, I mean the cards that offer the best performance at a given price. Why would you want that, you ask?

Because you want the best bang for the buck, because you want the best possible card for your hard-earned money and because you want the highest FPS possible!

If you have the time, reading detailed video card reviews and specs are a lot of fun. However, most of us don’t have the time to do the research and just want the answers. In other words, what you want to know is what is the best video card within your budget.

So if you don’t have the time to do the research, or just don’t care to do it, don’t worry. I’ll come to your help with this guide of the best video card for your money.

Keep in mind:

I’ll use this opportunity to remind you that this article is only a guideline for the prices I’ve seen on October 1st. You’re letting yourself down if you’re not looking for deals when you decide to purchase.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you read this list:

This list is for gamers who want the best bang for the buck. If you don’t play videos games, the cards in this list are way overkill.
This list is based on the best U.S. prices from NewEgg and/or Amazon. Prices and availability change everyday. I can’t keep up with accurate pricing everyday, but I can suggest to you great cards that you won’t regret buying at the price ranges that I list.
All prices are based on new card prices, no used or open box cards are listed; they might be a good deal, but they come with trade offs, such as limited return policy, limited warranty, etc.
ATI’s Stream Processors and Nvidia’s Stream Processors are quite different, so do not rely on that spec to compare cards from both company. Instead, this spec should be used to compare cards within the same company.
Each video card will perform more or less well depending on the game played, as each game have different requirements. Also, some games run better on Nvidia or on ATI/AMD hardware.You may be able to crank up the graphics settings on some games or have to lower it a notch on others, compared to what I say below.
The resolution that I mention below should only be used as a guideline to give you an idea of the capability of the chosen video card on recent games. As a rule of thumb, the older the game, the higher you can set your settings and the other way around with newer games.

Best video card for ~$50: Radeon HD 4650 512MB

I used to recommend to avoid video cards at this price point due to the lethargic power that they would offer, but the Radeon 4650 is the first card that I will recommend for $50. This card will make for a very good card for playing at 1024 x 768 or 1280 x 1024.

At this price range, you will find the Geforce 9500GT from Nvidia, which can’t keep up according to these benchmarks from MadShrimp.

Be careful to buy a version equipped with GDDR3 and not the slower GDDR2 that would impair performance.

Cost:
$49.99 at NewEgg for a XFX Radeon HD 4650 512MB

If you dislike NewEgg, there’s a PowerColor Radeon 4850 512MB available for $49.99 at Amazon.

Best video card for ~$100: Radeon HD 4850 512MB

In this price range, things get blurry as you have nothing short of four different choice that are within $20 or so of each other:

The Radeon 4830 starts at $84.38
The Geforce 9800GT starts at $89.99
The Radeon 4770 starts at $105.43
The Radeon 4850 starts at $94.99

If you go solely by performance, the Radeon 4850 is the fastest, followed by the 4770 and ending with the Radeon 4830 and Geforce 9800gt that are tied for 3rd. However, they are all close to each other in price and performance, making it very hard to choose.

My recommendations or How do I pick one out of these four?

By choosing what is most important to you:

If it’s performance, go with the Radeon 4850. I tend to recommend the XFX Radeon HD 4850 512MB due to its double lifetime warranty and its dual-slot cooler which exhausts heat outside of the case.
If it’s low power consumption, the Radeon 4770, which is produced on 40nm technology is the way to go. I also recommend a XFX-branded Radeon HD 4770 512MB, for the same reasons as above.
If it has to be a Nvidia card, go with the Geforce 9800GT. The PNY GeForce 9800 GT EE 512MB gets my praise for being shorter and consuming up to 30% less power than regular 9800GT, which means that it fits in smaller cases and does not require an additional power connector.
If it’s has to be as inexpensive as possible, the MSI Radeon HD 4830 512MB it is then.

However, the best deal right now as I write this is on Amazon, where you can find this Radeon HD 4850 for $79.51!

Any of these cards will allow you to play at a resolution of 1440 x 900 or at 1680×1050 with great visual settings.

Best video card for ~$125: None

Radeon 4870 512MB used to occupy this price range, but they are hard to find this month and besides, 512MB of VRAM is quickly becoming a bottleneck so I advice you to spend $25 more and go with the 1GB version for a card that will handle higher resolutions, AA/AF and last you longer.

Same goes if you want a Nvidia card. While you will find the Geforce 9800GTX/GTS 250 in this price range, you are way better off spending a bit more.

Best video card under ~$150: Radeon HD 4870 1GB

The Radeon 4870 1GB in my opinion offers the best value on the graphic cards market right now. It can handle pretty much any game at 1680 x 1050 while it’s 1GB memory buffer will help it handle most games at 1920 x 1200 without running out of memory.

This is the best value card for a Crossfire setup as well, as 512MB cards in Crossfire are more likely to run out of memory at higher resolutions and with the visual detail levels that you expect from Crossfire.

It’s very important to pick cards with a cooler that exhausts heat outside of your case, especially for Crossfire, so your case doesn’t get warmer, which would put additional stress on your components, will limit overclocking and can create overheating.

Performance wise, the Geforce GTX 260 Core 216 is Nvidia’s answer to the Radeon 4870 1GB.

Problem is, you’ll need to spend on average $20 for the same performance. However, some games will run better on Nvidia cards. If that’s the case of the games that you play or intend to play, the Geforce GTX 260 might be a better choice for you.

My recommendations:

I tend to recommend spending $10-20 more but getting cards with better warranties and cooler. If you go with the Radeon 4870, get the Sapphire Radeon Vapor-X HD 4870 1GB which offers a unique and very efficient/quiet cooling system.

If you choose a Geforce GTX 260, EVGA is the way to go with the EVGA GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB. Why EVGA? Because of their lifetime warranty and their step-up program, which allows you to trade in your card and upgrade to a more powerful card at a reduced price.

If you decide to go with the Geforce GTX 260, be careful to pick the Core 216 version, not the older version sporting only 192 shader processors.

1680×1050 is the sweet spot here.

Best video card for ~$200: None

If you’re ready to spend $200, there is absolutely no reason to not save an additional $60 and instead get a new Radeon 5850 which sports Direct X11 support for the upcoming Windows 7 and which will also be available for Windows Vista via an upgrade.

While you could go for two Radeon 4850 in Crossfire, a Geforce GTX 275 or a Radeon 4890, none of them will offer the performance nor will be able to serve for as long as the Radeon 5850 will.

Best video card for ~$260: Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB

AMD brings performance unheard of at this price point, as the Radeon HD 5850 outperforms Nvidia’s Geforce GTX 285 in most benchmarks and do this while being $70+ cheaper. Good to know: It also supports Direct X 11, like the Radeon 5870.

If you have some free time, check out AnandTech’s review of the 5850 for benchmarks, power consumption, pictures and more.

Cost:
$259.99 for a XFX Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB

Perfect for gaming at 1920 x 1200 (or 1080 for 1080p).

Best video card for ~$380: Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB

Nothing short of the fastest single-GPU card on the planet, bringing performance close to the dual-GPU and much more expensive Geforce GTX 295 at a much more reasonable price and much lower power consumption, not to mention not having to worry about SLI scaling/compatibility.

If you didn’t have the chance to read about the Radeon 5870 yet, here’s an excellent review of the Radeon 5870 on AnandTech.

This will run any game at 1920 x 1200 (or 1080 for 1080p) and most games at 2560 x 1600

Cost: $379.99 for a XFX Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB

Best video card for ~$520: Two Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB in Crossfire

If you’re looking for more power, Nvidia offers the most powerful single-card solution with the more expensive EVGA CO-OP Edition GeForce GTX 295 1792MB at $500, although performance wise, it is comparable to the two Radeon 4890 in Crossfire while only requiring a single PCI-Express slot.

Nvidia have been offering the Geforce GTX 295, a card featuring two GPU on it, with SLI around $500 and this has been the ultimate card for a long time. Now, ATI brings down the hammer by smashing the GTX 295 performance by offering the Radeon 5850 1GB for $260, allowing you to get two of them in Crossfire for $520. Needless to say, the Geforce GTX 295 doesn’t stand a chance against two Radeon 5850 in Crossfire.

This will run any game at 1920 x 1200 (or 1080 for 1080p) and the majority of games at 2560 x 1600.

Cost: $520 for two XFX Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) 1GB in Crossfire

Best video card for $760:Two Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB in Crossfire

How do you get the most performance today? Simple: Combine two Radeon 5870, the fastest single GPU video card, in a Crossfire setup.

Simply enough, this is pretty much the fastest reasonable setup available on the market today.
While perhaps three Geforce GTX 285 in Three-Way SLI or two Geforce GTX 295 in Quad-SLI could possibly be faster in some games, the huge power consumption, along with games that do not necessarily scale well with Three-Way/Quad SLI, not to mention the much higher cost ($1000+) prevents me from recommending those solutions.

Cost: $760 for Two XFX Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB in Crossfire
Pretty much any current game will run at up to 2560 x 1600 without a problem. This is a great solution if you don’t want to upgrade for a long time.

Conclusion:

AMD/ATI took the single-gpu performance crown from Nvidia with the Radeon 5870, which performs close to the Geforce GTX 295, while being much less expensive. Besides, for the price of a Geforce GTX 295, you can get two Radeon 5850 in a Crossfire setup, which will definately outperforms the Geforce GTX 295 in the vast majority of cases.

The next thing to see is how will Nvidia react to those new cards from ATI? Most likely by dropping their prices, especially on the Geforce GTX 285 which should be at the 5850 price level soon in my opinion. All I can tell you now though is that is a great time if you want a new powerful upgrade, with the Radeon 5850 and 5870 offering a great bang for the buck!

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19 of the best CPU articles

Mathieu — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:00:12 +0000

Picture by Fr3d.org

This is the fifth and final part out of five articles for this week, to help you understand and buy the right CPU.

Here’s a list of the articles in this series:

12 CPU specifications explained in plain English
How to differentiate CPU models from AMD
How to differentiate CPU models from Intel
The Best CPU for your money: September 2009
19 of the best CPU articles

19 of the best CPU articles:

For the last part of this series, I decided to give some link love and share with you some of the best CPU articles that I read on the Internet lately. I hope that you’ll like them as much as I did.

How can I receive future articles, series and not miss a single post?

You have four free and easy ways of receiving them:

Automatically receive updates via RSS
- Do you want to know what is RSS, explained in plain English? Check out the What is RSS? page.
Automatically receive updates via E-mail
Automatically receive updates via Facebook
Automatically receive updates via Twitter

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Hardware Revolution

$850 Gaming Computer: An overclocker’s dream!

What if I never built a PC before?

What if I’m outdated on what are the current best parts or simply don’t know which parts to pick?

Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?!

What if I don’t agree with your choices?

$850 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

What if I want more performance than this build has to offer?

Is this the right type of PC for me?

$850 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 620 Propus 2.6GHz 95W

Video Card: XFX RADEON HD 5850 1 GB

RAM: A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600

DDR2 vs DDR3 debate

Hard Drive: Western Digital 750 GB Caviar Black SATA II 3.0 Gb/s

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner SATA

Case: Antec Nine Hundred

Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 650W SLI/Crossfire/80 PLUS

Cooling: Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 120mm Case Fan

Sound Card: Integrated 8 Channels Sound

Network: 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN

Recommended operating systems:

Windows 7

Linux

Conclusion

Build a DirectX 11 ready $700 Gaming Computer You Can Be Proud Of

What if I never built a PC before?

What if I’m outdated on what are the current best parts or simply don’t know which parts to pick?

Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?!

What if I don’t agree with your choices?

$700 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

What if I want more performance than this build has to offer?

Is this the right type of PC for me?

$700 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX

CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 435 2.9GHz 95W Triple-Core Processor

Versus Intel:

Versus AMD:

Video Card: ASUS Radeon HD 5850 1GB

RAM: A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600

DDR2 vs DDR3 debate

Hard Drive: Western Digital 500GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner SATA

Case: Antec Sonata III + Antec 500W Power Supply

Power Supply: Included with the case

Cooling: Included AMD CPU Cooler with CPU 1 x 120mm case fan on Antec Sonata III

Sound Card: Integrated 8 Channels Sound

Network: 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN

Recommended operating systems:

Windows 7

Linux

Conclusion

How can I receive future builds for free and automatically?

Poll results: What is the minimum capacity that you would need for a SSD (Solid State Drive) ?

What are SSDs?

Windows 7 and new SSD firmwares

Who else wants a powerful $500 Gaming Computer?

LEDs, water-cooling, blu-ray drive, etc. ?

What does this $500 Gaming PC offer?

What if I never built a PC before?

What if I’m outdated on what are the current best parts or simply don’t know which parts to pick?

Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?!

What if I don’t agree with your choices?

$500 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:

What if I want more performance than this build has to offer?

Is this the right type of PC for me?

$500 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX

CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 240 Regor 2.8GHz AM3

Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 4870 512MB

RAM: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600 MHz

DDR2 vs DDR3 debate

Hard Drive: Western Digital 320GB SATA II 3.0Gb/s

Optical Drive: SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner SATA

Case: Antec 300 + Antec 430W Power Supply

Power Supply: Included with the case

Cooling: Included AMD CPU Cooler with CPU 1 x 120mm + 1 x 140mm case fans on Antec 300 To buy: 2x XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 120mm Case Fan

Sound Card: Integrated 8 Channels Sound

Network: 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN

Cooling:
Sunbeam CR-CCTF 120 mm Core-Contact Freezer
XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 120mm Case Fan

Cooling:
Included AMD CPU Cooler with CPU
1 x 120mm case fan on Antec Sonata III

Cooling:
Included AMD CPU Cooler with CPU
1 x 120mm + 1 x 140mm case fans on Antec 300
To buy: 2x XIGMATEK XSF-F1251 120mm Case Fan