November 2007 Budget Buyers' Guide

Closing Thoughts

Generally thought of as no more than the duty of the IT department - and completely devoid of any of the "bling" associated with the midrange to high-end PC market, boutique builders and extreme gaming selections from big PC makers like Dell and HP - the low-end and budget PC sectors are often neglected. However, they play a vital role in sustaining and ensuring a regular product turnover in the market. Without the income that comes from entry-level office systems and budget gaming rigs, we would be bereft of the product innovation and performance that is currently on the market right now.

Looking at the "budget" gaming systems we've configured, you might think at first glance that you are looking at a high-end machine. As we've proven though, high-end performance doesn't necessarily have to come with high-end prices. The market is at an interesting time for CPUs, chipsets, motherboards, and video cards. Intel's Penryn - Wolfdale and Yorkfield - processors are set for release, NVIDIA and AMD are readying their NF7/790 chipsets, NVIDIA has the G92 refresh of the 8800 series underway, and AMD is set to launch the successor to the somewhat disappointing R600, the RV670. While many of these product launches are interesting, most target the midrange and higher markets, and some last-generation parts are now being sold at tremendous values in order to pave the way. That's part of what makes the entry-level market so interesting right now.

Although performance is likely to be higher with the Intel system, particularly with overclocking and at lower resolutions where the processor plays more of a role, the AMD system does come with an SLI-capable motherboard. At resolutions higher than 1680x1050, a dual-GPU solution is often necessary if you plan to play games at their highest settings. Even though the Intel system comes in at a cheaper price and allows for higher overclocking headroom, for gaming we would give the nod to the AMD system - barely. As usual, for gamers the GPU continues to be the bigger concern. The option to add a second GPU down the line, when stock clearances and eBay come into play, makes the AMD platform a slightly better choice. There's also a reasonable chance (no official word yet) that Phenom parts will work in this motherboard, further opening doors for upgrades.

In order to squeeze more performance out of our CPU/RAM combinations, investing in a decent aftermarket CPU air-cooling solution is a good idea. For the budget end of the spectrum, Arctic Cooling's Freezer 7 Pro is still a decent option, while further up the scale we see offerings from Thermalright, Scythe, and Tuniq still holding the top spots in terms of performance.

Never before has it been possible to purchase not just one, but several of this year's hardware highlights in what qualifies for many as a budget gaming system. With DDR2 prices at rock bottom, it makes little sense to select parts from the traditional low-end when a kit from one of the top brands is available for $10 more. As the consumer sales for Micron memory, Crucial has been a market leader in the RAM industry for years now. Being able to include a 2GB (2x1GB) kit of Crucial Ballistix DDR2-800 is not only a welcome surprise but also an indication that we are seeing the closing scenes of the DDR2 era.

Both configurations include proven overclocking motherboards, RAM, as well as CPUs. For the price, we also get simply jaw-dropping graphics performance. PS3 too expensive? If you already need a PC - and most families do - all you need to do now is add a $250 GPU and you've got something that clearly offers more graphics horsepower! With AMD's HD 3800 series still a couple of weeks away from launch on November 19, we feel this represents the best bang-for-the-buck out there. The PC industry is on the cusp of many new product launches, but right now is still a great time to buy.