November 2007 Budget Buyers' Guide
by Jonathan Maloney and Jarred Walton on November 8, 2007 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
AMD Budget Gaming
Leaving the entry-level sector behind, and with a budget of roughly $1000, our options increase significantly. Our aim here is to provide a configuration that allows for a nice balance of performance at stock speeds, while also giving capability and headroom for overclocking. This doesn't mean you have to spend over $1000 though, as we can trim some of our more extravagant options to keep the price to around $950 - a slightly slower CPU, a smaller hard drive, or even a smaller LCD will all help keep our budget to under $1000. For now however, this remains our pick for a budget gaming system that will carry you through the next round of DX10 titles coming our way - and all with nary a red face in sight.
Although current wisdom tells us GPU performance is more of a factor than CPU numbers, at resolutions of 1280x1024 and below - or with RTS and simulation games - the CPU can still play a role in framerates. Frequently it can be the line between a game being playable and a desire for a bigger and better video card. At resolutions of 1680x1050 and higher, games generally become less CPU-bound than before, and the focus is definitely on the GPU. For our budget gaming system, we've picked the Athlon X2 5000+. Running at 2.6GHz, this offers more than enough performance for current games and at an excellent price.
For overclockers, the Black Edition with its unlocked multiplier is certainly an interesting alternative. At $20 more than the standard X2 5000+ Windsor core, the addition of an unlocked multiplier and a 65W Brisbane core is very attractive - at least from an enthusiast perspective. Users across our forums are hitting speeds in excess of 3.3GHz (we hit 3.6GHz with water cooling), and at speeds above AMD's highest X2 offering - the X2 6400+ - this is a budget overclocker's dream. However, you need some sort of cooling for the CPU, as the Black Edition doesn't include a heatsink. You might have a spare, but if you don't and you prefer not to break the bank, we'd recommend the Scythe Ninja Plus Rev. B. That's a pretty hefty price increase purely for overclocking, so we're listing that as an alternative that would add a total of $55 to the system price.
We've paired the X2 5000+ Black Edition with the Biostar TForce TF570SLI, a perfect match for those looking to squeeze as much performance out of their money as possible. The inclusion of dual PCI Express x16 allows users to add a second video card later, budget permitting. The NF570 SLI chipset may have been on the market for some time now, but it's certainly not in the same category as the budget IGPs from AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA. Aside from name changes and added feature sets, the performance of the NF570SLI is still top-notch. Given that NVIDIA skipped the NF6 chipset for AMD systems, and that the AMD 690G and GeForce 7000 series is IGP (and therefore less overclocking-friendly to some degree), we feel this is the best low-budget option for performance and build quality. The SLI support really isn't necessary, although the 8800GT is warming us to SLI quickly in part to Cyris. It's still difficult to find any reasonable alternatives that would save money and still be worth considering so this board is a logical choice.
We're sticking with the Ballistix sticks for now (at the time of writing the $40 rebate offer was still valid for another ten days); however, options are plentiful for a budget of $50 should Crucial decide against renewing their rebate deal. Quality DDR2-800 RAM from Corsair, OCZ, G.Skill, Mushkin, and GeIL are available on any of the major online retailers. Just be sure to look for RAM with timings of 4-4-4-12 - or luck permitting, with Micron D9GMH ICs.
As the heart of any gaming system, what can we choose for the video card? Just two weeks ago, the 8600 GTS would have been a likely candidate - or perhaps the 8800 GTS 320MB for those willing to spend more money - and performance would have varied from being mildly underwhelming to being pretty good. Right now, however, and at a delightful $250 price point, NVIDIA has the brand new 8800 GT 512MB based around the G92 core - essentially a die shrink from 90nm to 65nm, with some other tweaking involved. Performance is phenomenal for this price; benchmarks show results that nip at the coat tails of the 8800 GT's bigger brothers - the $500 8800 GTX, and at resolutions lower than 1920x1200, even the $700 8800 Ultra.
The remaining components have received slight upgrades over our entry-level configuration. We bumped up to a 320GB hard drive, still from Samsung. If you'd prefer a longer warranty, look at Western Digital or Seagate (but be prepared to spend a few dollars more). We selected a Raidmax Apex case with a 400W PSU, and we managed to include a laser keyboard and mouse set and 5.1 speakers both from Logitech. Again, on the overclocking side of things, seriously consider a better PSU if you can manage it.
We faced the same issue that often appears in our Budget/Midrange Guides when it came to the display selection. We could have selected a cheap 22" from Hanns-G - the HG-216DPO that retails at just $214.99 - but instead we went with a higher quality 20" Acer AL2016W, saving us $35 in the process.
We get all this in a system that retails for a little over $1,000? What more could you want? If you want to upgrade or downgrade any of the areas, there are plenty of options. The 4000+ CPU from the base system would still be sufficient for most gaming, a smaller hard drive only impacts storage capacity, and the slightly larger display isn't strictly necessary either. In terms of upgrades, you can look at our last Midrange Guide for some alternatives.
Leaving the entry-level sector behind, and with a budget of roughly $1000, our options increase significantly. Our aim here is to provide a configuration that allows for a nice balance of performance at stock speeds, while also giving capability and headroom for overclocking. This doesn't mean you have to spend over $1000 though, as we can trim some of our more extravagant options to keep the price to around $950 - a slightly slower CPU, a smaller hard drive, or even a smaller LCD will all help keep our budget to under $1000. For now however, this remains our pick for a budget gaming system that will carry you through the next round of DX10 titles coming our way - and all with nary a red face in sight.
| AMD Budget Gaming PC | |||
| Hardware | Component | Price | Rebates |
| Processor | AMD Athlon X2 5000+ (2.6GHz 89W Windsor 2 x 512KB L2) |
$110 | - |
| Motherboard | Biostar TForce TF570SLI AM2 nForce 570SLI ATX |
$88 | - |
| Memory | Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2-800 PC2-6400 | $90 | $40 |
| Video Card | PNY GeForce 8800GT 512MB PCI-e 2.0 HDCP | $260 | - |
| Hard Drive | Samsung SpinPoint T Series HD321KJ 320GB 16MB 7200RPM SATA 3.0GB/s |
$75 | - |
| Optical Drive | Samsung 20X DVDRW/DL SH-S202G | $28 | - |
| Case | APEX TU150 Black Steel ATX with 400W | $59 | - |
| Display | Acer 20" AL2016WBbd 5ms Widescreen DVI (1680 x 1050) |
$200 | - |
| Speakers | Logitech X-530 70W RMS 5.1 | $55 | - |
| Input | Logitech LX-710 Laser Black USB | $55 | - |
| Operating System | Microsoft Vista Home Premium OEM | $112 | - |
| Bottom Line | $1132 | $1092 | |
 |
For overclockers, the Black Edition with its unlocked multiplier is certainly an interesting alternative. At $20 more than the standard X2 5000+ Windsor core, the addition of an unlocked multiplier and a 65W Brisbane core is very attractive - at least from an enthusiast perspective. Users across our forums are hitting speeds in excess of 3.3GHz (we hit 3.6GHz with water cooling), and at speeds above AMD's highest X2 offering - the X2 6400+ - this is a budget overclocker's dream. However, you need some sort of cooling for the CPU, as the Black Edition doesn't include a heatsink. You might have a spare, but if you don't and you prefer not to break the bank, we'd recommend the Scythe Ninja Plus Rev. B. That's a pretty hefty price increase purely for overclocking, so we're listing that as an alternative that would add a total of $55 to the system price.
 |
We're sticking with the Ballistix sticks for now (at the time of writing the $40 rebate offer was still valid for another ten days); however, options are plentiful for a budget of $50 should Crucial decide against renewing their rebate deal. Quality DDR2-800 RAM from Corsair, OCZ, G.Skill, Mushkin, and GeIL are available on any of the major online retailers. Just be sure to look for RAM with timings of 4-4-4-12 - or luck permitting, with Micron D9GMH ICs.
 |
The remaining components have received slight upgrades over our entry-level configuration. We bumped up to a 320GB hard drive, still from Samsung. If you'd prefer a longer warranty, look at Western Digital or Seagate (but be prepared to spend a few dollars more). We selected a Raidmax Apex case with a 400W PSU, and we managed to include a laser keyboard and mouse set and 5.1 speakers both from Logitech. Again, on the overclocking side of things, seriously consider a better PSU if you can manage it.
 |
We get all this in a system that retails for a little over $1,000? What more could you want? If you want to upgrade or downgrade any of the areas, there are plenty of options. The 4000+ CPU from the base system would still be sufficient for most gaming, a smaller hard drive only impacts storage capacity, and the slightly larger display isn't strictly necessary either. In terms of upgrades, you can look at our last Midrange Guide for some alternatives.
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Lunyone - Friday, November 9, 2007 - link
Are they kidding? This Apex case/PSU combo has got to go! I'd put in the NSK Antec Case/PSU combo with a 380w Antec Earthwatts ANY DAY over that piece of c##p! Who recommends that? It's like recommending a Rosewill/Broadway PSU (no offense) over a quality PSU. Did they actually boot these things up or was it just a paper launch? Hehehehe!Frumious1 - Friday, November 9, 2007 - link
Let's play a game: come up with the best system you can and keep the price under $600. Make sure you're including everything, like LCD, keyb, mouse, speakers. Guess what? It's damn near impossible to do if you're going to spend $50 on a PSU! I don't dispute that the cheap PSUs may fail, especially with overclocking, but I've seen a lot of lousy PSUs that are still ticking after four or five years. I've also seen plenty Antec PSUs fail within the first six months.If anyone knows a good way to get a quality PSU into a budget system, though, I'd love to hear it. I don't want to cut RAM, CPU, GPU, mobo, etc. any more than already done. So I'm left with spending $50 more just because cheap PSUs are going to apparently explode! Pardon me for being a sceptic. Sure, a capacitor may blow under heavy load, but the only way you're getting that sort of load is if you do some overclocking.
I'd say that the gaming systems in this article are probably going to put out about 150W max without overclocking, and they can almost certainly do that for a long time. Sort of like my old overclocked Pentium D 920 (3.6GHz) is still chugging along with a $50 case+PSU I bought about two years ago. And I know for a fact that system is putting out more than 150W, yet it keeps running without apparent difficulties.
wjl - Friday, November 9, 2007 - link
Right. The issue of power consumption isn't covered here at all.Following other tests as well, the Seasonic power supplies appear to be both cheap and efficient, tho they are at about 75% only. If you spend some 10$ more on a Silverstone PSU, you'll have about 85% efficiency, which pays back in the long run - plus helps saving the planet a bit.
Zoomer - Thursday, November 15, 2007 - link
Antec earthwatts 380w going for $30 AR at newegg. :)JonathanMaloney - Thursday, November 8, 2007 - link
First of all I just want to thank those who have taken the time to comment on my first article for Anandtech. I know there were a couple of issues that had to initially be ironed out along with some existing disputes over some of the hardware selection. Hopefully I'll be able to provide answers for these choices - please forgive me if I've left any out - I will get to them eventually!Standard or Widescreen?
This was bound to cause some conflicts - undoubtedly at 20" and up, the choice is pretty obvious for most - widescreen makes the most sense, but at 19"? My original selection was for the same monitor but in 4:3 - but after some discussion we felt it was best to go with the widescreen option. Having the option to display in both landscape and portrait modes was a valuable addition, and we felt this was a valid alternative.
X2 5000+ Black Etd
My bad on this one - originally I went for an X2 5200+ but was recommended the Black Etd with the unlocked multiplier - in my excitement(!) I overlooked the fact checking process - I did check out the AMD site along with two other reviews for it but didn't find any mention of a heatsink being required. Being thorough is the key here and I let you guys down, so I'm sorry for that.
2Gb RAM enough for Vista?
Hell yeah! I'm only running 2Gb at the moment and am playing COD4, Gears of War, Crysis SP demo all extremely well on my Opteron 165 / 2Gb DDR500 / 8800GT. Of course I would prefer to have 4Gb for 64-bit Vista but for a budget of roughly $1000, 2Gb RAM was the baseline - 4Gb was an expensive luxury. Sure, if you have the cash, go the 4Gb route with 64-bit Vista.
Linux for entry-level system
A good point here - and it should have been mentioned in the article for those looking to save another $100 - and at a price of around $500 those entry-level PCs would have looked fantastic value. Only thing here was that we were accommodating for the wider audience, and one that undoubtedly be Windows based. Don't forget most entry-level systems are configured for the everyday office or home - a domain where Linux has yet to penetrate on a large scale. (Again, Linux vs Windows can be argued till the cows come home)
Samsung hard drives
A valid concern here, as Samsung are generally not a big player in the HDD market - not yet at least. If they continue moving as they are in the cell phone / RAM / SSD markets, they might just contend with the likes of WD, Seagate and Hitachi. Samsung produce some very reliable hard drives, and provide some of the lowest measured acoustics of any HDD, while also having a very low power draw. It was for these reasons I went for the Spinpoint series over the more traditional offerings from WD or Seagate.
I'm sure I'm missing something here but I'll get to it once I read over the comments again. Thanks!
strikeback03 - Tuesday, November 13, 2007 - link
Do the widescreens here rotate to portrait orientation? I love being able to rotate my 24" vertical to work on portrait oriented images, but I have noticed that a lot of the bedget 24" displays that have come out since I bought mine (February) do not rotate.Also, the guide mentioned Intel and AMD stock coolers using heatpipes. I have an E6600 and 2 Q6600 stock coolers sitting in their boxes here, as far as I can tell they are a copper core pressed into an extruded aluminum fin section with a fan clipped on top. Do higher-end processors come with better heatsinks?
Finally, as far as Linux goes, my experience getting Ubuntu running on a few systems has been mixed. My desktop here at work (Q6600, MSI P35 Platinum, SATA optical and HDD, nVidia 7300GT, 2GB Corsair RAM) runs Ubuntu flawlessly, this system could be the poster child for everything working out of the box. My home system (E6600, Foxconn P965, SATA optical and 2 HDD, nVidia 7600GT, 2GB Corsair RAM) has been a major PITA. 6.10 ran well mostly, though there were occasional USB and sound issues and it did not like my Bluetooth keyboard. 7.04 would not run without some kernel options set, and would still freeze occasionally. 7.10 was completely unstable until I got rid of powernowd and added a few other kernel options. Then there are random issues like my MX1000 may or may not get all the buttons working each time I boot. So I would say the OS is certainly usable for common tasks (though gaming can be an issue), but the user should know they might need to tweak some things and should probably have another computer with internet access available when installing if nothing else in order to check forums and such for help in getting everything running.
stmok - Saturday, November 10, 2007 - link
I don't think it would hurt to mention Linux as an alternative if the person chooses to save $112.Hmmm, accommodate a wider audience?
What does that entail? All they do is surf the web, email, maybe download a movie, music, and play an occasional Flash game or use some other Flash-based content. (Youtube works fine in Linux).
All that is easily achieved with Linux.
The issue arises when that much needed app needs Windows. Like Office 2007. (You can run Office 2003 with Wine).
customcoms - Friday, November 9, 2007 - link
Glad to see even an anandtech editor is still gaming on a trusty Opteron 165. These processors are GREAT, especially since I only paid $150 for mine and its been at 2.7ghz ons tock air, UNDERVOLTED to 1.3v, since day one! Now its just time to ship my 8800GTS 320mb back to eVGA and get an 8800GT.One thing mentioned, but not in depth, is the overclocking ability of the cpu's. You mentioned it, but failed to point out that at 3.2ghz (which is reasonable for both AMD and Intel cpu's on air), the Intel cpu will beat amd's by up to 20% (which most everyone reading these comments knows). Also, the Intel cpu is more likely to reach that clock speed, and there isn't a plethora of knowledge on AMD AM2 overclocking since pretty much every hardcore overclocker is riding the Core 2 train right now. Which means for someone new to overclocking, the Intel platform is probably going to have better support at this point (as far as tweaking the motherboards etc.). Either system is still plenty fast, and it won't matter much unless you are benchmarking, but the Intel system gets the nod right now.
piasabird - Thursday, November 8, 2007 - link
I dont see many people using a Samsung Hard Drive in their builds on the website forums.Are they any good at all?
Missing Ghost - Friday, November 9, 2007 - link
Yes they are good. At same capacity/RPM, pretty much any manufacturer gives you something relatively similar.