Intel Budget
While Intel offerings have tended to be more expensive than configurations from AMD, our Intel budget and AMD budget PCs are all but the same price. With prices all but the same you can choose your budget system based on other features that are important to you.
| Intel Budget PC | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 Wolfdale (2.93GHzx2 3MB Cache 1066 FSB) |
$145 |
| Cooling | CPU Retail HSF | $- |
| Video | On-Board | $- |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H nVidia GeForce 9400 | $120 |
| Memory | OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 4GB DDR2-1066 OCZ2F10664GK ($28 after rebate) | $43 |
| Hard Drive | WD Caviar GP WD5000AACS 500GB | $59 |
| Optical Drive | Samsung 22X DVDRW/DL SH-S202G | $25 |
| Audio | On-Board | $- |
| Case | Cooler Master Elite 330 RC-330-KKN1-GP Mid Tower | $40 |
| Power Supply | BFG Tech LS Series LS-550 550W SLI Certified, CrossFire Ready, 80 PLUS Certified ($20 Rebate) | $60 |
| Base System Total | $492 | |
| Display | ViewSonic VX2233wm Black 21.5" 5ms Widescreen 16:9 LCD (1920x1080) | $170 |
| Speakers | Logitech R-20 12 Watts RMS 2.1 Multimedia Speaker | $18 |
| Input | Microsoft CA9-00001 Black PS/2 Standard Keyboard and Optical USB/PS2 Mouse - OEM | $16 |
| Operating System | Microsoft Vista Home Premium OEM | $99 |
| Complete System Bottom Line | $795 | |
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The E7500 ups the bus to 1066 from the 800FSB of our entry-level Intel system. A dual-core 2.93GHz with 3MB of cache won't be a slouch in any department in your budget system. Yes the new i7 is faster, but it is also much more expensive. The question for a budget system is how good the performance is for the money spent. The E7500 SYSmark 2007 score is about 72% of the very top Core i7 965 Extreme. That is fantastic performance for a CPU that costs just $145. The E7500 is also a candidate for overclocking if you are inclined to move the performance a bit closer toward the 3.33GHz Core 2 Duo E8600, which reaches 88% of the i7 965 SYSmark performance.
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The Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H is one of the most reasonable nVidia 9300/9400 chipset boards and features the GF9400 chipset at a price that matches most of the GF9300 equipped boards. With the 9400 integrated graphics performance is good enough to play most games at 1280x1024 on medium quality settings. This is leaps and bounds ahead of Intel's G45 series in this department. However, the HTPC feature set impresses us most. The only thing we are lacking is the ability to bitstream Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA (both of which no chipset currently supports). This chipset offers flawless HDMI/HDCP repeater compatibility, fully functional hardware acceleration, 8-channel LPCM output, and of course, stutter-free 24p playback.
Gigabyte loaded the GA-E7AUM-DS2H with four DDR2 DIMM slots featuring 16GB memory support, Realtek ALC889A HD audio with Dolby Home Theater, Realtek 8211CL Gigabit LAN, and five SATA 3Gb/s ports with RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5 capabilities. Also included is eSATA 3Gb/s support, two IEEE 1394a ports, 12 USB 2.0 ports, one PCIe x16 slot, one PCIe x1 slot, two PCI slots, IDE connector, and video output including D-Sub, DVI-D, and HDMI ports. The BIOS is user friendly and features numerous overclock options for those wanting to get more out the E7500 processor along with decent temperature and fan speed monitoring options.
By this time, you may be wondering why we chose not to include an aftermarket CPU heatsink to go along with our CPU choices. For this budget, a $50 solution from Thermalright or Scythe was simply not an option, but with the stock AMD and Intel heatsinks incorporating heatpipe technology, we figured we'd still be good for a decent if not spectacular overclock.
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The rest of the components are the same as those found in the AMD budget system. Again, for gaming purposes you can look to an upgraded GPU like the Radeon HD 4850 or 4870. Sound cards at this budget are simply an unnecessary luxury, and the onboard offerings continue to improve with each new motherboard generation. You can be reasonably happy with the onboard sound until you figure out if you want to go further with sound.
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pirspilane - Saturday, May 9, 2009 - link
I got the M3N78 motherboard, and the instructions recommend a max of 3 Gb of RAM using Vista 32-bit.Are you using Vista 64-bit?
If you're using 32-bit Vista, does the system utilize the additional Gb of RAM?
Or maybe dual-channel memory doubles the amount of memory Vista can address?
Does anybody know?
rokstomp - Tuesday, March 31, 2009 - link
I am looking at doing my first ever build and was extremely pleased to stumble across this guide. Since I'm new at this I've only got a fair amount of research and no practice, so I apologize if this is a dumb question.I noticed that the AMD Phenom II X3 710 requires an AM3 socket, but the ASUS M3N78-EM is AM2/AM2+. Is there a compatibility issue?
I just wanted to double-check everything before buying. Like I said, I'm a build n00b.
swamytk - Monday, June 15, 2009 - link
I too had doubt on this. Then understood that AM3 processors are compatible with AM2+ sockets, but not vice-versa.Then AMD clarified this with the following link.
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/CPU-6-s...">http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pa...lus-phen...
yanman - Thursday, March 26, 2009 - link
We do! Please spare a thought for your many non-US readers. Us Aussies along with our Euro brethren on DVB-T standard still rely on card or USB TV-tuners.eyeguy - Saturday, March 21, 2009 - link
anyone have ideas for a windows home server box? Something low power but not as future limited by memory and slots.Shadowmaster625 - Friday, March 20, 2009 - link
I can go on ebay and buy any old athlon X2 computer with 2 gigs of RAM and then go to newegg and buy a monitor and an ocz vertex 30GB, and have a computer that is faster than all of those computers for under $500. In fact I just bought an old P4 2.8 system for $50 and I bet its faster than all those computers once the SSD is installed.strikeback03 - Monday, March 23, 2009 - link
Faster at what? Boot/application launch possibly, though I wouldn't bet too strongly on it. Obviously at anything that actually uses the CPU 3 Phenom cores at 2.8GHz or 2 Penryn cores at 2.93GHz are going to be faster than 1 P4 core at 2.8GHz.Proteusza - Tuesday, March 17, 2009 - link
Everyone and their uncle has a build that they think is way better, its been 2 months and the prices have changed OH NOES redo the entire article.If you think really your dream machine is so great, then go build it. AT guides are just that - guides. Use them, dont use them, its up to you. I look at them as more of a "what can I get for my money" type article than "buy these exact parts" article.
v12v12 - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - link
I agree most of these posts are the nerds-nit-pick special! I'm sorry but if you're whining about $15 here and $20, get a clue and get a REAL JOB or start saving/studying for certs/school and make some real money.This shoe-string budget crap, for a so-called "gamer" box is plain stupidity. If you're hurting over $600-800 MAX limit, sounds like you have your financial PRIORITIES out of whack! Nobody is "gaming" for long with a $600 box. It's a fool's investment and will have you stuck with a sub-par performing machine, rapidly. Oh and don't even think about resale, you're stuck with the low-end junk.
While mirroring the car market: UPSCALE cars/PC builds lose a small percentage of value as soon as you buy them, BUT they hold top value over the coming months Vs this low-mid-level junk that immediately loses an chance of resale value. Have you seen how many stupid people are on Ebay that overbid even for those relic 8800s?!
Who's going to buy your used, non-warranted (many manu's do require proof of purchase these days) 2nd rate card for ~$30 less than RETAIL? Pawning that off to ebay noobs is your only hope to recoupe your losses. Be smart people.
If you're maxing out around $600 = STOP and rethink your finances... $800? Might as well save and get an Icore. Geesh, oh and don't forget about TAXES + initial cost of hardware lol. Not to mention if something goes wrong and you have to RMA = how you gonna afford S/H if you can barely afford a paltry $600-800?
Flame time...
v12v12 - Wednesday, March 18, 2009 - link
Damn this stupid comment board, always 2x posting. No editing...?