System Buyers Guide: PCs under $800

Final Words

The problem with "entry-level" systems is that they aren't normally sexy or groundbreaking. PCs under $800 are therefore devoid of any of the glitz and excitement associated with the midrange to high-end market. Many consider low-end PCs to be just the Dell or HP special of the week - hardly worthy of consideration as a "real" PC. That perception is really a shame, because the sub-$800 market is where many computer buyers choose to buy - or they may be forced to buy in this price range with the strains of today's worldwide economic woes. Today, more than ever, you will get a lot for your money in this market segment. With entry choices like Core 2 Duo and Phenom II CPUs, 4GB of DDR2-800 or faster memory, and a starter $59 500GB 7200RPM hard drive there truly is value to be had at these price points.

Our base entry systems with decent integrated graphics are just $300-$320 for either Intel or AMD. Add a 1440x900 LCD monitor, keyboard and mouse, and the Vista OEM OS and the complete system build is still around $500, and decent integrated graphics were just $538 for either Intel or AMD. Even compared to just three months ago these entry PCs are faster and just as cheap. There has never been a time when you received better value for your $500. Indeed, the Intel/AMD wars in the CPU space and the NVIDIA/ATI wars in GPUs have created some truly excellent values. This value has been further enhanced by the AMD introduction of Phenom II and the worldwide recession. It is ironic that the best prices coincide with the scariest economic times, but that is how economics often works. If you are in the market for a PC, you will be very pleased with the values you can find.

If your budget interests extend to gaming, you can start with the AMD or Intel Budget PCs. Both feature a Viewsonic 21.5" 1920x1080 LCD, and you can add the well-regarded ATI HD 4870 512MB video card to bring your new system up to current gaming PC standards for only $155. That means you can build a 4870 gaming rig with a 1080P 1920x1080 HDMI LCD for around $940. That kind of value did not exist until recently, and that is why it is such a good time to buy and build a new PC.

Finally, you can build a powerful AMD or Intel HTPC 4GB of memory, processors and graphics fast enough to provide stutter-free and tear-free Blu-ray playback, 1TB of quiet hard drive storage, a combo 6X Blu-ray player/DVD burner, and HDMI capable onboard graphics in a quality home theater component or mini cube case with a PC Power and Cooling 500W Silencer power supply for a base system price of just over $600. Add a wireless keyboard/ mouse and Vista and you are still around $740. The end result again is tremendous value for the money spent.

As has been pointed out many times since the introduction of Phenom II, AMD and Intel performance is all but equal from low-end to upper midrange systems. That is to say a $120 AMD CPU is today pretty comparable in performance to a $120 Intel CPU. Intel still owns the very top of the CPU curve with Core i7, but those processors and systems are much more expensive in today's market. This CPU price/performance parity is part of the reason so much value is available at such relatively low prices, but it isn't the whole story. You can buy what we consider a top value GPU for around $150, and it will perform as well as or better than yesterday's $500 video card. 500GB is now an "entry" hard drive and 1TB drives offer storage at $0.105 per gigabyte, making 1TB at around $100 a reality. Memory has also reached commodity pricing levels when we can recommend 4GB of high-speed DDR2 for a cost of less than $40.

Put it all together and you can buy an excellent entry, budget, or HTPC computer for well under $800. You can even deck it out with a 1080P monitor and a good video card and still barely top $940. It is a good time to be shopping for a new PC. Value is the rule of the day as competition, a mature market, and a lackluster world economy has created great options in every computer component category - except perhaps the computer operating system, assuming you still plan on running Windows. Fortunately, you do have options available even in the operating system cost. Microsoft has kept the Vista OS "system" or OEM price for Vista Home Premium at $100, and it is even more expensive if you buy a full retail Vista. However, if you are good with computers you can install Linux for little or no cost at all. Even if you're not a computer whiz the Ubuntu flavor of Linux/Unix is still free and relatively painless to install. Drivers for new hardware remain the biggest Linux/Ubuntu issues, but even that has been improving.

When you build a new system for your mother, brother, nephew going to college, or even yourself, you no longer have to feel like the person on the other end got a crippled system with little upgrade potential. The systems in this sub-$800 guide are powerful, upgradeable, and capable of even more powerful performance with a careful selection of upgrades. Your friends and relatives will consider you a hero when you build one of these systems - so much so that it is a shame to consider them entry-level.