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Dream Machine 2009: How To Build the Best PC For Any Budget!

The Maximum PC Staff — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:30:00 -0500

Dreams Within Reach

Why we built three kick-ass rigs priced for any budget

Sometimes, you just have to keep things real. Last year, our Dream Machine was a paean to excess, a chrome-plated $17,000 wünder-rig. While we’re still quite fond of that machine, this year we decided to take a different tack and see if we could build a more reasonably priced, but still lust-worthy Dream Machine. Well, actually, we built three of them. While the combined cost of these three machines is about half the price of last year’s rig, we packed a lot of awesome into our relatively tight budgets. The lesson is simple: Dream Machine isn’t about spending a ludicrous amount of cash on a PC, it’s about getting the best rig you can for the money you spend. I think you’ll agree that these three machines pack a ton of power and are all great values.

Without further ado, we give you this year’s crop of Dream Machines.

The Recession Special -- $690

A blue-light bargain doesn't always mean clearance performance

The number-one complaint console weenies have about PC gaming is the cost. We’re here to tell you that you can build an entry-level gaming rig that still kicks ass for less than $700. So, while we advocate saving your ducats when the economy is in the toilet, you needn’t suffer a slow PC.

Our goal with the Recession Special was to build a machine designed for one thing and one thing only—gaming. There’s no terabyte hard drive or fancy quad-core CPU in here, just a honking videocard and enough memory and CPU to support the GPU. That’s it. What we built is a machine that shreds at most games, from World of Warcraft to Team Fortress 2.

So, there you go. Take your severance, put together our $700 wonder, and subscribe to WoW. After all, where else can you get hundreds of hours of entertainment for $15 a month?

Motherboard

A good low-cost alternative to the high-flying 790FX chipset, boards such as MSI’s DKA790GX use ATI’s integrated graphics chipset. We just switched the onboard GPU off and still got access to the advanced chipset special sauce that ATI and AMD have developed for the Phenom II. And made before DDR3, it’ll run well on regular DDR2.

CPU

Scoffed at initially, AMD’s tri-core procs will still whip the snot out of any dual-core. Even better, the 45nm Phenom II overclocks like hell. We took our 2.8GHz Phenom II X3 720 to 3.6GHz without breaking a sweat.

Cooling

This is actually a stock AVC heatsink that AMD includes with its retail processor in box. For what it’s worth, we were able to get our 2.8GHz proc up to 3.7GHz with stability, so there’s something to be said for stock heatsinks.

RAM

Yeah, DDR3 is cheaper today but it still ain’t as cheap as DDR2, which you’re practically paid to use. OK, not really, but it’s wickedly affordable. We paired our 64-bit OS with 4GB of Kingston HyperX DDR2/800.

Videocard

Dayum, it feels good to be a gamer. Especially when you can get an HIS Radeon HD 4870 for such a good price. Just a couple years ago, a hunred and fiddy bucks would get you a pathetic single-slot graphics card that didn’t even need power. And now we have a $700 PC with a truly stupendous card.

PSU

One of the tricks to getting a sub-$700 machine to work with a good GPU is to find a low-cost power supply that will actually give you two six-pin graphic connectors. The Rosewill RP550V2-S-SL did that for us and it’s quiet, to boot. It helps that our graphics card is actually pretty lean on power consumption despite its dual six-pin connectors.

Optical Drive

Take Samsung’s burnalicious SH-S223 and add LightScribe capabilities and you have one the best burners available for next to nothing. Really. At $25 each, we were tempted to put three in the box just because we could.

Case

Antec’s 900 may be dated but it’s no less effective. You get awesome air flow and a sharp design that doesn’t belie the low budget of the machine. Even better, the case’s vintage status means many stores will have it marked down to a very reasonable price. When you consider that you’re getting a case that revolutionized the category, it’s yet another plus.

Hard Drive

The SSD in our Stimulus machine costs almost as much as this whole PC, so an HDD was clearly called for. Western Digital’s 500GB Caviar Black features a 32MB buffer, 7,200rpm, and dual processors for high performance at a pretty low price. Sure, we could have gained a few hundred more megabytes by going with a slower drive, but we opted for as much drive performance as we could get on a budget.

Operating System

With that OS X-ass-stomping Windows 7 just around corner, it would be pretty hard to load Windows Vista on our Dream Machines. Instead, we went with the Release Candidate version of Win 7 Ultimate in 64-bit flavor. Stuff that in your hat and eat it, Justin Long.

The Parts List

Category	Name	Price	URL
CPU	AMD Phenom II X3 720	$139	amd.com
Motherboard	MSI DKA790GX	$122	msicomputer.com
RAM	Kingston HyperX 4GB	$55	kingston.com
Videocard	HIS Radeon 4870 512MB	$153	hisdigital.com
Hard Drive	Western Digital Caviar 500 Black	$69	westerndigital.com
Optical Drive	Samsung SH-S223F	$25	samsungodd.com
PSU	Rosewill RP550V2-S-SL	$52	rosewill.com
Case	Antec 900	$77	antec.com
OS	Windows 7 Ultimate RC1	$0	microsoft.com
Total		$692

The Budget Surplus -- $1,420

Whoever said Core i7 is out of reach for the average Jane or Joe was flat-out wrong

Sticking to a budget can be hard, but it doesn’t have to be painful. Our mid-priced rig, the Budget Surplus, is remarkably similar to the computers that most Maximum PC editors run at home—$1,500-ish rigs that are adept at many tasks. Whether you’re browsing the web, playing games, ripping DVDs, or editing video, the Budget Surplus delivers.

When building a $1,500 rig, it’s easy to get your priorities out of whack. We love the power of a Core i7 CPU when we’re encoding video, but we couldn’t sacrifice GPU to get it. Likewise, we wanted more performance than a single GPU could deliver, but couldn’t skimp on CPU to find the cash for SLI or CrossFire. Luckily, we found a great compromise in the form of an inexpensive Core i7 920 CPU and a dual-GPU Radeon 4870 X2.

The result is a machine that’s only about 20 percent slower than our highest-end configuration, but costs half as much. That’s a surplus we can get excited about.

Motherboard

Gigabyte’s X58-based GA-EX58-UDR3R balances features with price. You get CrossFire plus SLI capability (something most budget boards don’t include), and it’s overclocker friendly. The bad news is that instead of the typical six RAM slots, you get just four. You still get tri-channel, but if you ever intend to add additional RAM later on, you’ll take a memory-bandwidth hit.

CPU

It’s no wonder Intel’s 2.66GHz Core i7-920 stole the show when introduced. It’s incredibly low-priced and gives you more computing than you’ll probably need for the foreseeable future—and that’s at its stock clocks. There’s actually a state law that says a 920 has to be overclocked, so we obliged—all the way to 3.66GHz.

Cooling

Thermalright’s Ultra 120E-1366 isn’t fun to install but the payoff is well worth it. This tower-of-power heatsink is the most effective air cooler we’ve ever tested. Pushing our 2.66GHz Core i7-920 to 3.66GHz was child’s play for this bad mother of a cooler. And to top it off, it’s actually fairly quiet for the performance that it offers.

RAM

If you think we’re hypocrites for dissing DDR3 in our budget box but using it in our midrange machine, you’re wrong. You choose the right tool for the right job. DDR3 is the only option for Core i7 and it’s actually pretty damned affordable itself. We got 6GB of Patriot’s Viper DDR3/1600 for just $79.

Videocard

You know how good ATI’s Radeon HD 4870 X2 card is? It’s so good that this is the first time we’ve ever used a videocard from a previous-generation Dream Machine. That’s just a testament to the legs that the Diamond Radeon HD 4870 X2 has.

PSU

Corsair’s 850TX lacks the modular cables of its big brother, but it gives us a reliable 850 watts without breaking the bank. Simply put, the 850TX gives us a lot of bang for the buck. It doesn’t hurt that Corsair’s PSUs are garnering high praise from reviewers and customers for solid reliability. Did we mention that it’s just $135?

Optical Drive

Do you really need Blu-ray in your mainstream PC? That one is easy to answer: nope. Thus, we used the same $25 hella-fast DVD burner that we used in our Recession Special, for all the same reasons.

Case

It may not feature exotic materials, lights, or a built-in minibar, but the Element S is truly marvelous to build in and easy to keep neat. For example, getting a tight and tidy appearance inside the Antec 900 takes serious imagination, but thanks to the forethought that went into the Element S’s construction, a ship-shape interior requires minimal work.

Hard Drive

SSD prices have plummeted in recent months, but they’re still too rich for our blood. Instead, we tapped Seagate’s superfast 1.5TB Barracuda 7200.11 for storage duties. It’s damn-near as fast as a 10K VelociRaptor, and with 1.5TB of space, you’d be downloading for months before you could fill it.

OS

Windows 7 is like a new topical cream: It will ease the burning and itching sensation that PC users have suffered with Windows Vista and at the same time make it easy to crow about how the PC is better than the Mac once again.

The Parts List

Category	Name	Price	URL
CPU	Intel 2.66GHz Core i7-920	$280	intel.com
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R	$189	gigabyte.us
RAM	Patriot 6GB Viper DDR3/1600	$79	patriotmemory.com
Videocard	Diamond Radeon HD 4870 X2	$389	diamondmm.com
Hard Drive	Seagate 1.5TB 7200.11 Barracuda	$130	seagate.com
Optical Drive	Samsung SH-S223F	$25	samsungodd.com
Cooling	Thermalright Ultra 120E-1366	$70	thermalright.com
PSU	Corsair 850TX	$135	corsair.com
Case	Thermaltake Element S	$120	thermaltakeusa.com
OS	Windows 7 Ultimate RC1	$0	microsoft.com
Total		$1,417

The Stimulus Package -- $3,525

It costs just a fraction of last year's Dream Machine, but does everything an enthusiast PC should

Usually, we outfit our annual Dream Machine with more than just the fastest PC hardware the world has ever seen. Oh yes, usually the Dream Machine is pimped out with luxuries like a fancy paint job and rich Corinthian leather. This year, we made our challenge harder by stripping out all the excess, leaving just the lean ‘n’ mean hardware to send the message that this is a take-no-prisoners PC.

And it does that loud and clear. The Stimulus Package—named for the effect purchasing it has on the local economy and not the way the government spends your tax dollars—is an all-workflows powerhouse.

Motherboard

Asus’s P6T Deluxe V2 is the follow-up to the company’s enthusiast X58 board and supports up to 24GB of RAM at up to 2GHz and does away with the much-maligned SAS controller that was in the original board. It’s also a bit cheaper than the original and has a great reputation as a solid overclocking board.

CPU

Clearly, the most luxurious item we put in our top-tier rig is Intel’s new 3.33GHz Core i7-975 Extreme Edition. At $999, it may seem like eating caviar while using the bill collector’s notice as a plate, but it does give you more Turbo Mode control, an unlocked multiplier, and the enhanced overclockability that’s characteristic of Intel’s new D0 step of the core. We cranked ours to a cool 4GHz on air cooling alone.

Cooling

That’s no moon, it’s Thermalright’s Ultra 120E-1366 cooler with an optional second fan clipped to it. Yeah, it all but eclipses everything on our motherboard, but it’s actually a somewhat quiet and very effective cooler. Running our proc at a conservative 4GHz, we hammered the CPU overnight with Prime95 and didn’t see one hiccup.

Videocards

EVGA’s GeForce GTX 285 cards are the fastest single-GPU cards available. Period. We tapped two of them in SLI for truly kick-ass performance in all games at high resolutions.

PSU

It’s amazing that PC Power and Cooling’s Silencer 910 approaches the kilowatt range without the noise usually associated with 1K units. The unit is, of course, a single-rail design with up to 74 amps on the all-important 12-volt rail. What the specs don’t show you is the PSU’s heritage of reliability. While other brands have experienced failures in long-term use, we’ve never had a PC Power and Cooling unit give up the ghost.

Optical Drive

The vast number of people will watch Blu-ray movies yet never need to burn a Blu-ray disc. LG’s GGC-H20L gives us Blu-ray ROM support and acts as a 16x DVD and 40x CD-R burner, as well. This combo drive even reads HD-DVD discs, for those folks who need that kind of thing.

Case

Spending $200 on a case may seem extravagant until you consider how much life you’ll get out of it. When the Core i7 and GTX 295 cards have been jettisoned as scrap in five years, you’ll still be using this Cooler Masters ATCS 840. In 10 years, when you’ve had to replace your car, you’ll still be using this case.

SSD/Hard Drive

Corsair’s P256 SSD gives you the best of both worlds: With its 256GB of storage, it’s actually large enough to use as a primary drive while still being blazingly fast. With read speeds greater than 200MB/s and write speeds in the 150MB/s range, you’ll wonder how you could ever go back to an HDD as your boot partition. Of course, 256GB isn’t enough capacity for us, so we pair the SSD with a fast 1.5GB Seagate Barracuda drive.

OS

Think of Windows 7 as a hybrid OS: It has the performance feel of Windows XP and the bling of Windows Vista. When pitting our troika of Dream Machines against our zero-point PC, we were stunned by the performance differences between our Windows Vista 64-bit zero-point and the three rigs running Windows 7. Just installing Windows 7 on the zero-point gave it a significant performance boost.

The Parts List

Category	Name	Price	URL
CPU	Intel Core i7-975 Extreme Edition	$999	intel.com
Motherboard	Asus P6T Deluxe 2.0	$280	asus.com
RAM	Corsair Dominator 1600 C8	$166	corsair.com
Videocard	EVGA GeForce GTX 285	$700	evga.com
Solid State Drive	Corsair P256	$700	corsair.com
Hard Drive	Seagate 1.5TB 7200.11 Barracuda	$130	seagate.com
Optical Drive	LG GGC-H20L	$100	lge.com
Cooling	Thermalright Ultra 120E-1366	$70	thermalright.com
PSU	PC Power & Cooling Silencer 910	$185	pcpower.com
Case	Cooler Master ATCS 840	$195	coolermaster.com
OS	Windows 7 Ultimate RC1	$0	microsoft.com
Total		$3,525

Read on for the benchmarks!

The Benchmarks

Let's face it, the proof is in the performance

The Zero Point

As a point of comparison, we ran all three Dream Machines against our current zero-point test bed. The zero point is admittedly elderly, but it’s actually still faster than 90 percent of people’s PCs, with its 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q6700, SLI GeForce 8800 GTX cards, 4GB of DDR2/800, and Western Digital 150GB Raptor. It was probably about $2,000 in hardware when new and today it still couldn’t be built for less than $1,100.

The Recession Special

You shouldn’t expect miracles, but it’s truly amazing the amount of horsepower you can get for $700 today. As we said previously, the tri-core will thrash dual-cores, but even overclocked, three of a kind can’t beat four of a kind when you’re dealing with multithreaded apps. Thus, even at 3.6GHz, the tri gets a little drubbed by the quad-core 2.66GHz zero-point box. And even though they’re older, two GeForce 8800 GTX cards in SLI are faster than one newer card. Still, you have to consider that the $700 rig is about 30 percent cheaper than even the depreciated value of our zero-point system. We call that a win.

The Budget Surplus

This is truly the everyman’s machine. For a tad more than $1,400, you get one hell of a fast box. It helps that we pushed our ultra-budget 2.66GHz Core i7-920 to a conservative 3.66GHz. Should we have gone further? Yes, we could have squeaked a little bit more out of it, but we decided stability was more important than it working most of the time. And this still lets our Budget Surplus box run circles around our zero-point and our Recession Special—and frankly, it will make a lot of people wonder if it’s worth even stepping up to the Stimulus Package. The Budget Surplus’s weak point is in high-resolution DirectX 10 gaming. As good as the 4870 X2 is, it’s still a year-old card. Of course, might you not combine portions of the Stimulus Package with the Budget Surplus to make the best compromise of performance and power? Something to think about.

The Stimulus Package

The Stimulus Package was not built without controversy. Would it not make sense, for example, to just use the i7-920 CPU and pocket the cash? You could say the same of the Corsair P256 SSD, one of the GeForce GTX 295 cards, and the Cooler Master 840 case, too, for that matter. Eventually, you can whittle the machine down to the point where it won’t stimulate anything.

In the end, even in down times, some people want the ultimate performance and the Stimulus Package does that for just $3,500. That gets you the fastest rig of the pack and rock-solid stability at a conservative 4GHz. All machines here were stress-tested, but the Stimulus Package was stress-tested the most—and it came out with flying colors.

Benchmarks

	Zero Point	Recession Special	Budget Surplus	Stimulus Package
Unreal Tournament 3 (fps)	106	111	198	263
Crysis (fps)	29	22	37	65
MainConcept (fps)	2054	1755	977	880
ProShow (sec)	1229	1258	513	480
Photoshop CS3 (sec)	143	150	94	81
Premiere Pro CS3 (sec)	1026	1103	496	438

(click to enlarge)

Build Your Own Dream Machine

We show you how to assemble your own $3,500 Stimulus Package rig

We’ve come a hell of a long way since the days when you had to set 15 jumpers and cross your fingers in hopes that your newly built PC would actually run. Today, anyone short of a klutz can build an incredibly powerful PC and have it boot on the first throw of the switch.

For our build-it how-to, we used the Stimulus Package PC from our triumvirate of Dream Machines to illustrate how anyone can construct their own rig. As always, you should read through all of the steps before starting your build and research any questions about the process that arise—but you certainly shouldn’t feel daunted by the task. Even the most elite of our machines can be built in an hour or two, even if you’re going at a very leisurely pace.

To get started, gather up all the parts you’ll need (pictured above) and set up your work area in a static-free environment. Before you touch any electrically sensitive components, you should discharge built-up static electricity by touching the case or another large metal object. For tools, you can get by with a basic Phillips screwdriver and a pair of pliers, but that’s about all you need to build your very own dream PC.

So, let’s get cracking!

1. Remove the Motherboard Tray

Not all cases feature removable motherboard trays, but when they do, it can make your life far easier. We start by unfastening the four screws holding our mobo tray in place. It’s important to make sure there will be adequate clearance once your uber-big heatsink is in place. Some heatsinks are so tall that they prevent you from reinstalling the tray in the case. Fortunately, the Cooler Master ATCS 840 has a massive cavity that accommodates just about anything.

2. Mount Up

Remove your mobo from its packaging and take a quick look at where it mounts to the case. Now add a mount in the tray for each mounting point on your motherboard (image A). Make sure you tighten the mounts in the tray enough so they don’t back out when it comes time to remove the motherboard in the future.

(image A)

The I/O shield prevents your kids from jamming Cheerios into the case. You can hammer it in place with the back of a screwdriver (image B). This shield doesn’t have the cheap metal fingers that can poke into the network ports, but if yours does, bend the fingers inward and upward as far as they can go. Once the I/O shield is in, drop the board in place and screw it down. Remember, if you screwed nine mounts into your tray, you need to use nine screws to hold the board down. If you only have eight places for screws, you messed up. Remove the board and try again.

(image B)

3. Install the CPU

With the board in place, you’re now ready to drop in your new Core i7 CPU. Simply unlock the locking arm and swing it out of the way. This will let you lift the metal load plate (image A). Now gently remove the plastic plate that protects the delicate pins of the processor socket (image B). Do not ever touch these with your fingers or any object as you may bend a pin and then it would be adios, muchacho. Next, remove the plastic plate on the CPU that protects the round contact points and then carefully use two fingers to hold the processor parallel to the socket and slowly lower the proc in place (image C). Do not drop one side in and slide the CPU around in the socket—this will kill your motherboard. With the CPU in the socket, lower the load plate and lock the arm in place.

(image A)

(image B)

(image C)

4. Install the Heatsink

(image A)

First, prep the massive Thermalright Ultra-120 by inserting the correct LGA1366 bracket in the base of the heatsink. The arms of this X-shaped bracket can be adjusted to match the backing plate that will go on the underside of the mobo. Now add a large-BB-size gob of thermal paste to the CPU’s center (image A). We prefer Dow Corning’s TC-5600 paste, as it’s been known to give us about a five degree Celsius shift from the stock paste. You can be ultra careful and spread the paste evenly all over the CPU surface using a plastic bag, but we’ve been hearing from PC builders that the lazy-man’s large-BB-size gob in the middle of the proc may actually yield better results with Core i7, where flex in the socket design can produce a gap in the center, which is thus filled by the gob.

(image B)

(image C)

Now, flip the mobo tray on its side and place the cooler’s backing plate on the back of the motherboard (image B). With one hand holding the backing plate in place, flip the tray back down so it’s hanging partially off the table, allowing you to continue to hold the backing plate in place. It’s tricky, but you must now place the heatsink with the X-shaped bracket in place (image C). Take one of the spring screws and hand-tightenit, connecting the bracket to the backing plate. Once you have one screw in, you can let go of the backing plate, as the single screw will hold it mostly in place. Now install the other three screws by hand. Once they’re in, use a screwdriver to tighten the screws until each bottoms out (image D).

(image D)

(image E)

We sandwiched two fans on our Thermalright. Install each by simply sliding the fingers of the fan bracket along the same axis as the heatsink blades (image E). Make sure both fans are blowing air in the same direction. Now plug in both fans. Note: Many high-end fans use only three-pin connectors for power. These are compatible with the four-pin PWM connectors except that one pin is not used (image F).

(image F)

5. Install RAM

Core i7 features a tri-channel memory mode that requires the RAM to be installed in three individual memory channels. For this mobo, it’s the orange slots (image A). Unlike with previous Intel or AMD CPUs, you want to populate the set of slots farthest from the CPU. Fail to do this and the PC may not boot. Before you install the RAM, spread the arms of the memory slots. Now, line up the notch in the RAM with the notch in the slot. Carefully insert the RAM directly into each slot and put slight pressure on the outer ends until it locks into place (image B). If it isn’t locking into place, you may have it in backwards. Recheck the notch so that it matches and slide the RAM in again. Do this for all three pieces of RAM. When you’re done, snap closed the unused arms for the empty slots.

(image A)

(image B)

6. Install the GPU Numero Uno

Now, grab one of your graphics cards. Since they’re both the same, it doesn’t matter which one. Line it up horizontally above the first x16 PCI Express slot in the system, then carefully insert it. The card should lock into place. If it doesn’t, remove the card by pressing the card release and try reinserting it. We’ve seen people install cards and somehow have the contacts on the outside of the slot, so make sure the card is properly in place. Screw the card in place with two screws. One will suffice, but you should use two if you plan to transport the machine. We’ll install the second card a bit later.

7. Slide in the Mobo

You’re now ready to slide the motherboard tray assembly into place and screw it down. Again, you can see the advantage of using a case that features a removable tray.

8. Hook up the Umbilicals

If you’re wondering why we didn’t have you install the second GPU when the tray was outside of the case, it’s because it would have blocked your access to the USB and FireWire headers. So, with easy access to the headers, carefully plug in the USB and FireWire connectors that hook up to the front of your case (image A). Generally, they are keyed so they cannot be plugged in backwards. If your case has the old-fashioned individual connectors, you’ll need to get out the motherboard manual and follow the map to plug each tiny one in place.

(image A)

Now is also a good time to plug in the front-panel eSATA connector, as well as the three loose SATA cables for the hard drive, optical drive, and SSD. These don’t have to be plugged into the drives yet, but it is easier to plug them into the board before you install the second GPU. Finally, you should hunt through your motherboard box for the quick-connect block. This lets you plug in your power and reset switch as well as the hard drive and power LED to the block, which then connects to the motherboard’s front-panel connectors (image B). You don’t have to use the block, but it makes it easier if you have to pull out the motherboard tray—you won’t have to worry about rewiring the front-panel connectors.

(image B)

9. Double the Graphics

Most modern performance boards will have multiple PCI-E slots. For SLI, however, you’ll need to use the very top long x16 PCI-E slot and the very bottom black PCI-E slot. Install the second videocard as you did the first one and screw it in place. Now grab the SLI bridge connector that should have come with your motherboard. There are two pairs of connectors on the cards—you’ll use only one for standard SLI. You can plug into either set. Simply line the bridge up over the slots and gently but firmly push the bridge in place. Voila! You’ve got SLI going now.

10. Install Your Drives

Our fast and fat Corsair SSD unfortunately does not fit into the standard 3.5-inch drive slots, so we dropped it into an aluminum shell scavenged from the lab. If you don’t have that luxury, the typical (albeit ugly) 2.5-to-3.5-inch converter
from Frozencpu.com will set you back about $8 (http://frozencpu.com/products/8898...).

(image A)

We simply mounted the 256GB Corsair drive in the VelociRaptor tray (image A), put that into one of the case’s drive trays, and inserted it into the case. We did the same with our 1.5GB Seagate Barracuda drive, carefully spreading the tray apart and placing the drive in it. Again, insert the drive tray back into the Cooler Master case with the black locking arm open (image B). Push the tray in and lock the arm in place.

(image B)

To install the optical drive in the Cooler Master, find a spot where you want the drive to reside. Since our case will be under a desk, we opted for the uppermost slot. Now, push the button located alongside the drive bay to unlock the bay, and slide your drive in until the front of the drive is flush with the front of the case (image C). Press the button again and the drive should be locked in place. Try to push the drive out of the case from the back; it should not move. If the drive continues to slide around, push the button again to lock it in place and then check the drive for movement again. Now, take the three SATA cables you previously plugged into the motherboard and hook up the SSD, HDD, and optical drive. The actual SATA port will not matter as all three are on the same controller.

(image C)

11. Power Up

(image A)

The last part we’re going to install is the PC Power and Cooling Silencer 910. Installation has not changed; simply put the PSU in the case and screw it down in back (image A). With the PSU secured, it’s time to plug in your power cords. For this particular configuration, you’ll need to plug in the large 24-pin main power connector (image B), the supplemental eight-pin ATX12V/EPS connector, plus all six-pin GPU plugs as well as power to the HDD, SSD, and optical drive. All of the connectors are keyed to prevent reverse insertion, so long as you don’t force it. The motherboard power should lock into place. A very common cause of a failure-to-boot is neglecting to plug in the ATX12V/EPS plug. A loose main power connector can also lead to flaky boots. Your final step is to connect the case’s auxiliary fans to the proper Molexes on the PSU.

(image B)

Congratulations, you’ve just built your very first Core i7 computer! Wasn’t that easy?

Troubleshooting Checklist

So, your new system won’t start or you don’t get an image on the monitor? Here are the most common failure points we’ve run into, from easy to hard:

Check that the PSU is switched on and plugged into a hot outlet

Check and/or reseat the EPS12V/ATX12V connector and the main power connector

Check that the RAM is in the correct slots for an i7 system

Check the power-switch wiring for the front-panel connector or use the power-on switch on the motherboard

Is the monitor on?

Check the DVI/VGA cable connection to the monitor

Reset the CMOS (with the system unplugged)

Reseat the videocard (with system unplugged)

Reseat the RAM (with the system unplugged)

Reseat the CPU (with the system unplugged)

Remove and reseat the motherboard and check the mounting points

April 2008: Build Your Own No-Compromises $1500 PC!

The Maximum PC Staff — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:51:16 -0500

In the PDF archive of the April 2008 issue, you can find:

How To Build Your Own No-Compromises $1,500 PC
The 2008 Geek Quiz
Media Suite Face-off: Roxio vs. Nero
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The $500 PC Build-Off

The Maximum PC Staff — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 18:25:41 -0500

Hot on the heels of our annual Dream Machine—arguably the best hand-built rig that money can buy—two of our editors face a far more difficult undertaking: building a desktop system where money is an object and sacrifice is the name of the game.
Our intrepid staffers—Senior Editor Gordon Mah Ung and Associate Editor David Murphy—must navigate these unfamiliar waters with just $500 apiece. Let loose in a local electronics store, they’ll be given just 90 minutes to choose all the parts they need (other than tools) to build their respective budget boxes. We’re graciously allowing them to transfer a Windows XP license from a retired machine, so they can save some dough on the OS.

Assuming they survive the purchasing phase of the challenge, the editors will have a single afternoon in which to build their PCs, load the OS, and ensure their rigs’ stability. Then it’s on to the final phase: Each editor must benchmark and review his competitor’s finished product.

There are so many opportunities for mishaps and mayhem that we can barely stand the suspense. Let’s get started!

The 90-Minute Shopping Spree

Neither editor expected to use the full time allotted to them, but the vast selection of parts had both guys mentally mixing and matching possible configs, recalculating their price lists, and waiting on pokey sales clerks until the very last minutes.

Gordon's Purchases

Gordon's Rig
Part	Price
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300	$130.00
MOBO: ECS P965T-A	$59.42
RAM: 1GB Crucial DDR2/667	$39.99
VIDEOCARD: EVGA e-GeForce 8500GT	$113.99
HARD DRIVE: Maxtor 200GB 6L200MO SATA	$49.99
OPTICAL DRIVE: Hewlett-Packard DVD840ri (refurb)	$24.99
CASE: Raidmax ATX528B	$39.99
MISC: Ghirardelli chocolate bar	$2.99
SALES TAX (8.25%)	$37.82
Total	$499.18

Graphics: With just three minutes left to grab a GPU and get to the checkout line, Gordon reached for a rock-bottom GeForce card, which actually offers DirectX 10 capability! His big worry is that DX10 support is nothing more than a checkbox feature, due to the budget card’s low clock speeds.

CPU: Intel’s budget Allendale CPU core features 2MB of L2 cache and an 800MHz front-side bus (down from the Conroe’s 1,066MHz FSB). But it still rocks the Celeron D’s world.

Power Supply: Gordon immediately thought, “Let’s hope we don’t have a burnout,” when he considered running this bargain-bin system on the free 380-watt power supply that Raidmax includes with its case. But, hey, at least Gordon thought to buy a case....

Dave's Purchases

Dave's Rig
Part	Price
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300	$120.00
CPU COOLER: Cooler Master X Dream P775	$17.99
MOBO: ~~ECS RC410L/800-M~~ ECS P4M900T-M	~~$47.40~~* $65.99
RAM: Kingston DDR2 IGB (2 x 512MB) PC5300	$54.99
VIDEOCARD: EVGA GeForce 7600GS	$99.99
HARD DRIVE: Maxtor 200GB 6L200MO SATA	$49.99
OPTICAL DRIVE: HP DVD740 External 16x LightScribe (refurb)	$29.99
PSU: 400w Ultra V Series	$39.99
SALES TAX (8.25%)	$39.50
Total	$518.43
*Initially Dave was within the budget, but a major oversight had him doing a parts exchange that would cost him money . . . as well as his pride.

CPU: Dave chose the Core 2 Duo E4300 because of its reputation as an insane overclocker. He planned to take the proc to 3GHz and possibly beyond. That’s a far cry from its stock speed of 1.8GHz, and the reason he splurged on an aftermarket cooler. “I’m going to try and crank this baby,” says young Murphy.

Motherboard: Dual core, Core 2 Duo, what’s the diff? That’s what Dave thought when he picked up an ECS RC410L/800-M motherboard on his first trip to the store. That mobo supports an Intel dual-core chipset compatible with the Pentium D, not the Core 2 Duo he bought. “I’d like to blame the speed of purchasing and the English language for this screwup,” he says; “Dual core means two cores, regardless of the CPU generation.” His motherboard begged to differ.

Case: What, no case? In a frantic effort to save money and impress Maximum PC readers with his mad scissor skills, Dave chose to do without a standard computer case. Since the rules require the PCs to be both functional and moveable, his mad scheme is to fashion an enclosure out of the very cardboard boxes that contain his purchases. Utter brilliance? Pointless stupidity? A complete waste of packing tape? We’ll soon find out.

Next: Gordon's Budget Box!

Gordon's Budget Box

How Gordon built his box of modest means, with enough cash left over for candy.

My original strategy going into the challenge was to forgo graphics performance for greater CPU power. But when I dug up an ad from a competing store that had a GeForce 8600 GT for $130 ($70 less than Fry’s), I started to seriously consider the possibility of a more balanced box. My strategy was contingent on the store price-matching, but it still wasn’t a lead-pipe cinch. I’d have to cut corners elsewhere.
I briefly considered cutting the RAM from 1GB to 512MB but feared the hit I’d take in our Photoshop CS2 test. And since I was already opting for single-channel RAM over dual channel to save $10 and using DDR2/667, I realized I couldn’t risk it.

As the clock ticked on, I found myself repeatedly rethinking and recomputing my configuration. Then another wrinkle arose: If I went with the 8600 GT, I’d need a PSU with a six-pin PCI-E power plug, something my $40 case/PSU combo certainly didn’t offer. Thus, I’d need an additional $3.99 converter. Plus, I wondered, would the PSU have the chops to run the 8600 GT?

All such questions became moot. With a mere 10 minutes left on the clock, I realized there wasn’t enough time to price match (which could easily take 20 minutes of haggling), so I ditched plan A and went with an all-around moderate system using a GeForce 8500 GT. Good for applications, good for gaming—at least if you’re playing two-year-old games at low resolutions.

Building the system was a snap; it posted on the first boot and I had the OS installed inside of 20 minutes. The ECS P965T-A motherboard, however, lived up to its poor reputation. The NIC was flaky, and worst of all, I couldn’t reliably overclock. I was confident the E4300 could run at 2.4GHz or 3GHz, but the mobo wouldn’t cooperate. Since the NIC was defective, our rules allowed me to exchange the board for another one that would potentially overclock, but another $60 mobo wouldn’t salve my overclocking woes; I remembered why I love premium $250 motherboards so much: They just work. To be fair to ECS, the board I bought was a return (which saved me $10). On the other hand, half the boards on the shelf were returned.

Despite the problems, this is a decent system for a newb. It has a dual-layer 16x DVD burner, supports quad-core processors, and is DirectX 10 ready. Not bad for $500. And since it’s in a case, it won’t get accidentally recycled by your mom.

What I’d Do Differently

First, I would have shaved more money from my graphics card purchase to buy a better mobo. That would have let me overclock the E4300 to 3GHz and would have given me the edge in our CPU-intensive applications tests. This would be a calculated risk, since I’d certainly lose the gaming benchmarks, but they wouldn’t be spectacular in a $500 box anyway. The ultimate solution, but one that’s difficult to come by, would have been to locate Intel’s new Pentium Dual Core procs. Basically, declawed Core 2 chips, those puppies should overclock as well as an E4300 for the price of a Celeron D.

Next: Dave's Low-Cost Creation!

Dave's Low-Cost Creation

Our associate editor tackled his tasks with some controversial choices.

Sadly, the process of building a $500 rig was more a battle of shopping know-how than computer savvy. I had a feeling Gordon and I would be stuck with nearly identical parts, as there’s not much wiggle room once you deduct $40 from the total for sales tax and plunk down cash for a generic power supply, optical drive, and hard drive. I correctly assumed we’d be purchasing the same CPU, the much-overclockable E4300, but I thought we’d at least see a bit of a shoot-out in videocards—at the $100 level there are some options.

ATI cards ended up being too expensive for consideration in this challenge, so I went with an Nvidia-based 7600 GS. It’s not the best card on the market, but I was relatively confident I’d be able to get decent performance out of it. If I remember correctly, I did see a cheaper 8500 when shopping. But for my money, the 7600 is the better choice—no DirectX 10 support, but let’s be honest: The very few DX10 titles available right now bring even 8800-model cards to their knees. There’s no way an 8500 would ever be able to run a DX10 game, so I’d rather bank on a solid DX9 card.

It didn’t take long at all for me to assemble my PC—a big advantage to working without a case—and load the OS, but it would be hours before my machine was truly finished. After several failed attempts at booting, I realized that my mobo was incompatible with my CPU, and I had to drive back to the store for a replacement. And while the new mobo was able to boot just fine, it proved virtually worthless at overclocking. I was only able to push the CPU to 1.99GHz, a far cry from the potential 2.5GHz + I was envisioning during the initial checkout. This cheap motherboard absolutely destroyed my plan and has firmly convinced me to not skimp when it comes to mobos—not if I want to tweak my system to awesome levels, that is.

The videocard overclocked nicely, but when I say nicely, it’s like the difference between fourth and inches and fourth and a few more inches. Sure, my rig destroyed Gordon’s in the graphics-heavy tests. But that freaking motherboard and its horrible VIA chipset ended up counterbalancing any performance gains I expected from an overclocked processor. This motherboard was the gatekeeper to my grand design. Of course, in this case, it’s more a flaming bridge between the rock and the proverbial hard place.

What I’d Do Differently

Did I learn anything from the building experience? Yeah, don’t build a PC for $500. Would I do anything differently? I’d stick with a stock cooler and save myself a whopping $10. As for the case, I still wouldn’t bother. You just can’t dress a turd. Putting these parts into a chassis implies that what’s inside is a functional computer. A cardboard enclosure is perfectly fitting for the performance you get from a $500 train wreck.

Next: Dave and Gordon review each other's rigs! Plus: Benchmarking the Beasts!

Gordon's Rig

Dave weighs in on the merits of his competitor's machine

If only Maximum PC put a lot of stock in aesthetics, Gordon’s machine might earn a more favorable review. But, alas, we’re all about performance when it comes to PCs. And Gordon’s rig functions just a tad better than a graphing calculator on the ol’ benchmarks.

Strangely, Gordon opted not to overclock his machine in the slightest, which comes as a wonder considering the unholy combination of his slowest parts, a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo and a horrific 8500 Nvidia card. How bad does it get? If you want to turn FEAR into a turn-based 12fps first-person shooter, then by all means, follow Gordon’s lead. Quake doesn’t fare much better, offering a paltry 19fps.

The real deal-breakers for Gordon’s “rig” are the workhorse CPU benchmarks—our Premiere and Nero tests. In the time it took to run both benchmarks, I could have cooked and eaten two frozen pizzas, consecutively. I could have watched a single episode of 24. I even could have taken a nap. I suppose the machine earns points for finishing the tests within the span of an eight-hour workday; I had my doubts, but that’s hardly a consolation for this horrifically slow machine.

I’ll be the first to say that a crap machine is a crap machine. But Gordon could have at least made a passing attempt to pull as much performance as possible out of his little computer that couldn’t. He didn’t, instead opting to throw this poor PC to the wolves. I suppose we’ll never know how fast Gordon’s beyond-lean machine could have been.

Dave's Rig

Tell us what you really think of this PC, Gordon

Think of the most incredible, luxurious, badass system that you have ever seen. Now think of the polar opposite and then jog another 200 yards past that and you get the Dave Murphy $500 Hobo Special. Straight out of Bum Junction and perfectly suited for hopping a hot-shot Santa Fe train, the only thing this cardboard wonder lacks is the manual bundled up on the end of Dave’s bindle.

First, there’s no power or reset switch. Hell, there’s no frigging front panel. To power up this abomination, you have to panhandle a dime so you can short the power switch jumpers and boot the ugly bastard. But be careful you don’t jiggle the GeForce 7600 GS or you may blow up the whole contraption. In fact, don’t touch it at all, lest the cardboard box burst into flames.

While the Hobo Special has the same HD, amount of RAM, and CPU as my $500 beauty, it lacks upgrade options. Where are the empty RAM slots to go beyond 1GB of memory? Where are the DirectX 10 graphics? What about CrossFire or SLI support? And a VIA chipset versus my Intel P965?! Pee on you, mister.

Its benchmarks are nothing to brag about either. We wouldn’t boast about these scores to that crazy old guy who keeps talking about how awesome the Amiga was. It’s best to just skulk away and live in a Unabomber-style shed for the next 12 years. What’s incredible, however, is the fact that a $500 hobo playpen is nearly as fast as our once state-of-the-art Athlon 64 FX-60 box. How the mighty have fallen.

Despite what Murphy might say, the only area in which his “rig” bests my PC is gaming. Of course, even his “winning” scores don’t really represent playable frame rates here. And when DX10 catches on, that piddly frame-rate advantage drops to zero, rookie.

BENCHMARKS
	Zero-Point Scores	Gordon's Budget Box	Dave's Low-cost Creation
SYSmark2004 SE	275	N/A	N/A
Premiere Pro 2.0	3,000 sec	3,000 sec	3,024 sec
Photoshop CS2	295 sec	319.3 sec	324 sec
Recode H.264	2,648 sec	3,173 sec	3,212 sec
FEAR 1.07	80 fps	12 fps	19 fps
Quake 4	110.5	19 fps	23 fps
Best budget scores are bolded. Our current desktop test bed is a Windows XP SP2 machine, using a dual-core 2.6GHz Athlon 64 FX-60, 2GB of Corsair DDR400 RAM on an Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard, two GeForce 7900 GTX videocards in SLI mode, a Western Digital 4000KD hard drive, a Sound Blaster X-Fi soundcard, and a PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 850 PSU.