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$1000 Budget PC Buyer's Guide - October 2009

Florence Ion — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0500

It’s been a while since we’ve posted a Parts and Price Guide on the site—okay, it’s been a long time. Now we’re back and better than ever, and so are the system specs we’re pairing you up with this month. We’re starting you off with a $1000 PC, which is a happy mid-way price point between the $700 recession special and $1500 budget surplus found in this year's Dream Machine roundup. $1000 may not seem like a steal for the truly frugal, but in a world of fluctuating economies and ever-changing technologies, getting the most “bang for your buck” is more important than getting rock bottom prices at the expense of performance. And in the time since we last posted a buyer's guide, new awesome technologies like Intel's Core i5 and ATI's Evergreen series of GPUs (which powers the Radeon 5870) have redefined our expectations of budget PC performance. With these computing advances in mind, we've carefully pieced together a sub-$1000 spec that doesn't break the bank or compromise performance.

Follow along for the secret to a hearty, healthy computer, for only a grand!

*All prices are as of October 29th and do not include rebates, sales, clearance, or whatever else makes computer parts really cheap these days.

Motherboard

Asus P7P55D LE

$129, www.asus.com

Sometimes a cost-effective motherboard is a better long-term investment than a ridiculously pricey one. In this case, the Asus P7P55D, with Quad-GPU CrossfireX and DDR3 200 support, is like banking on Google's IPO. The board supports both Core i7 and i5 processors, though it’s Socket 1156 board, which means it's only compatible with the latest Lynnfield-based CPUs. Still, you have numerous upgrade options, since Intel is committed to the Socket 1156 platform for the next few years. A more expensive Socket 1366 board only makes sense if you want the jump on Intel's future hexa-core and octa-core processors, but X58 boards are still prohibitively expensive for budget builders.

The P7P55D doesn't skimp on features, though. It sports seven PCI slots (two PCI Express x1, two PCIe 2.0 x16 and three regular PCI slot) and four memory slots that max out at 16GB of memory. Memory can only be run in dual channel configuration using the appropriate slots. The I/O ports on the rear of the motherboard include 2 PS/2, 8 USB 2.0, 6 audio ports, one eSATA, and an S/PDIF incase, y’know, you ever want to start mixing some tunes and pursuing your dream of becoming a DJ someday.

CPU

Core i5-750

$200, www.intel.com

Intel’s latest series of CPUs are sure to please budget users everywhere -- they effectively bring Nehalem to the masses. The new socket and infrastructure are nothing to be afraid of, and we certainly weren’t disappointed in our benchmarks. Our recommendation, the Core i6-750, is the cheapest in the Lynnfield family, but we were able to take the processor from 2.66GHz to a very stable 3.5GHZ without any strain (though the motherboard we paired you with may not be able to overclock as high). But even at stock speed, the 750 is far superior to any Core 2 chip and even a higher-clocked Phenom II X4. The lack of hyperthreading (a limitation of Lynnfield) doesn't affect the majority of applications, including games.

Memory

Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3/1600

$81, www.corsair.com

No surprise here. Simply drop in this pair of affordable, lightening fast sticks of memory to your motherboard. And remember that since DDR3 memory is so cheap these days, you can always grab an extra pair of 2GB DIMMs later to double your RAM. Corsair's XMS sticks are rock solid, but any name brand manufacturer (Crucial, OCZ, Patriot) will be just are reliable.

Videocard

Sapphire Radeon HD 5770

$160, www.sapphire.com

Here's where the story gets interesting. This entry-level card will get you amazing performance for under $200. Its specs are on par with the last generation's flagship HD 4870, but the new architecture is much more power efficient. Following the golden path of the Everygreen lineup, the HD 5770 is DirectX11 compatible, sports 1GB of DDR5 video memory (which clocks in at 1.2 GHz) and has a core clock speed of 850MHz running on a TeraScale 2 Unified Processing Architecture. The HD 5770 is also equipped with an HDMI port and two DVI ports, and supports a maximum resolution of 2560 x 1600. Case in point, this GPU is the right stuff for the right price.

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223

$31, www.samsung.com

Amazingly, the Samsung SH-S223 has held the throne of top DVD drive for over half a year. This is due to the fact that no burner we've tested since the SH-S223 has come close to its burn speeds. In our DVD burner challenge, this Usain Bolt of burners bested the competition in rip times by several seconds, including Samsung's previous top model (with a firmware update). The drive comes well equipped with 22x DVD+R write speed, as well as rapid speeds for writing to other DVD disc formats. Don't worry if the drive doesn't show up in a search on Samsung's website -- it's still very much in production!

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

$110, www.westerndigital.com

Hard drives are also some of the more affordable components when putting together a system, but just as essential as their more expensive case mates. The Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB is as affordable as it is functional. As a WD Black drive (as opposed to Western Digital's Green lineup), its emphasis is on performance over power conservation. And that promise is delivered -- it's one of the faster 3-platter terabyte drives we've tested, delivering truly impressive random access speeds. Sure, you can buy a two-platter terabyte drives these days, but the price premium makes that jump difficult to stomach. With modest specifications and an abundance of storage room for the average computer user, the WD Digital Caviar Black 1TB is totally worth a Benjiman and we’re confident you’ll be greatly pleased with your purchase.

Power Supply

Corsair 650TX

$100, www.corsair.com

Yeah, it’s a power supply, and its main purpose is to power up all of your components to make your system run. This one is 650 watts and is a little more than enough and it won’t run your energy bill too high since it is proven 80% efficient, meaning less waste heat emitting from the supply. The Corsair 650TX can also auto-sense you input voltage from 90Vac to 264Vac, 50/60Hz, which means you don’t have to initiate any sort of voltage selector switches. This power supply comes equipped with 2 extra long PCI-E cables for big cases, as well as 8 SATA connectors, 2 PCI-E and 8 peripheral, and a variable 120 mm fan for whisper-quiet performance. Since our HD 5770 videocard only requires one PCI-E power connection, you'll be able to run the system in Crossfire as well with this PSU.

Case

Antec 300

$51, www.antec.com

This mid tower case is barebones, with no special lighting effects, no side panel window and no screwless mounting for hard drives and 5.25-inch devices. Regardless of its lack of special effects, its smooth steel chasis comes primed with 120mm and 140mm fans for the motherboard area (with switches!) and a ton of 3.5-inch hard drive bays -- 6, to be exact. Sure, it's not as feature-ladden as the Antec 900 or NZXT Tempest cases, but it's also half the price of those comparable LAN staples.

Operating System

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition

$107, www.microsoft.com

You know our position on Windows 7: it kicks ass. So much so that we've recommended as a primary OS since Microsoft released the public Release Candidate. But since we can't get away with recommending the RC version anymore, the OEM version is the way to go for your new PC, since it's the cheapest way to get a full copy. If you're truly a penny pincher, you can also just buy an upgrade copy of Windows 7 and run it as a fresh install (Check out how with this guide). We're also recommending the 64-bit edition, so you can utilize all 4GB of memory.

Price Breakdown

Now that's what we call a balanced machine! Even though we spent more money on the processor than the videocard, they each took up roughly 1/5 of the overall budget. The rest of the major components fell around the $100 price point, which seems to be where you get the most bang for buck. Having to use a tenth of the budget on the operating system doesn't sound like much, but it's a considerable chunk when we're talking about a $1000 PC (and makes us wish for the RC days). Of course, there's room for maneuverability if you want to spend less on one component to bolster another part. For example, you could opt for a cheaper PSU if you want the cash for more hard drive space or memory.

Part:	Model:	Price:	(Price after rebate)	Newegg Link
Motherboard	Asus P7P55D LE	$130		Link
CPU	Intel Core i5-750	$200		Link
Memory	Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3/1600	$87		Link
Video Card	Sapphire Radeon HD 5770	$160		Link
Optical Drive	Samsung SH-S223	$31		Link
Power Supply	Corsair 650TX	$110	$100	Link
Case	Antec 300	$52		Link
Hard Drive	WD Caviar Black 1TB	$110		Link
OS	Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit	$107		Link

Total: $987 ($977 after rebates)

Agree with our choices? Have a better configuration for a sub-$1000 PC? Post your thoughts in the comments below!

$2000 Gaming PC Buyer's Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts for April 2009

Norman Chan — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:00:00 -0500

After pricing out $1000 and $1500 gaming systems, we wanted to go a bit on the high-end and see how we would configure a $2000 gaming PC. $2000 may be more than a lot of you are willing to spend on a new home-built PC, but there are plenty of people out there who spend more than $2000 on custom-designed boutique systems from OEM builders. And for those fat-walleted gamers, this article will show that you can get a whole lot more if you build it yourself (though putting the pieces together is another matter). Just as with the $1500 PC, this build leans heavily on the CPU and GPU side to optimize the rig for high-res gaming, though it'll perform more than admirably with video encoding and other productivity tasks. And as always, we write this with a disclaimer that your own personal configurations and preferences may differ from ours, which does not make them any less valid. In fact, we encourage you to use our guide as a template so you can create your own spreadsheet to swap out the parts we chose with what may suit your needs and budget. Leave your feedback in the comments section to get the conversation started!

All prices found on newegg.com, as of April 15th, and do not include mail-in rebates (unless indicated), tax, or shipping.

Videocard

(2) BFG Geforce GTX 285 Cards
$330 each, $660 total www.bfgtech.com

Of course, we started filling out our Excel sheet by choosing the most important part of any gaming PC: the videocard. In this case, we knew that with a $2000 budget, we could afford more than one videocard, and go the SLI or Crossfire route. Last year's Dream Machine, for example, was outfitted with dual ATI 4870X2's in a Crossfire configuration. The fastest single-slot card available now is Nvidia's GTX 295, but with the cheapest 295 priced at $520, we really didn't want to use half our budget on videocards. So we opted for dual GTX 285s in SLI mode.

The GTX 285 is an updated version of the already speedy GTX 280, and represents the fastest single-GPU graphics card for sale today. Two 285's absolutely stomp the GTX 295 (and dual 4870X2s, for that matter) in performance. BFG is also offering a $30 rebate on their 285s priced at $330, so our decision was simple. Of course, if you wanted to save some cash (and power), a lone GTX 295 will run most games at 1900x1200 with all settings maxed out at 30+ frames per second (yes, even Crysis).

CPU

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz
$289, www.intel.com

For a $2000 gaming PC, it's once again a no brainer to go with Intel's Core i7. Nehalem is pretty much the only choice for a top of the line processor, since AMD's Phenom II has been relegated to compete at the mid-range level. The only real decision in this category was which Core i7 SKU to use. We have no qualms going with the 2.66GHz 920 part, even if it represents the "budget" end of the Core i7 lineup. The 920 performs tremendously well compared to even the best Core 2 CPUs, and smashes Phenom in most of our benchmarks. It's also very easy to overclock, so you can stretch your investment a long way. One thing to note: the Core i7 920 has gone up in price since we last recommended it in our $1500 Gaming PC guide, from $280 to $289. Just another example of Keynesian economics at work. When demand is high, prices go up!

Motherboard

Asus P6T
$240, www.asus.com

Since our configuration uses Nvidia SLI, we needed a compatible X58 motherboard. The Asus P6t fits the bill, with both Crossfire and SLI (up to 2 PCI-E cards) support. Earlier X58 boards only supported Crossfire, but most newer (and more pricier) models -- including Intel's own motherboards -- work with the Nvidia multi-GPU standard. The P6T has 3 Dimm slots that with recognize up to 12GB of DDR3 memory, onboard RealTek surround sound audio, and your typical suite of USB, Firewire, and network ports. Asus also sells a Deluxe version of the P6T (reviewed here) for $40 more that is the same as the P6T but offers 3-way SLI support, overclocking tools, as well as better quality on-board sound. Since we don't plan on using 3-way SLI, the vanilla P6T will suit us just fine.

Power Supply

Corsair HX1000 Watt
$260, www.corsair.com

Our dual-GTX 285 setup is going to be very power hungry, so we had to make sure that we chose a power supply that not only could handle the energy demands, but also sported enough PCI-E power connectors to funnel power to our GPUs. A good reference is Nvidia's SLIZone website, which lists approved power supplies for different Nvidia videocard configurations. Luckily, our current go-to PSU, the Corsair HX1000, has been deemed worthy for this setup. Your power supply options greatly diminish if you're going the Tri-SLI route or try to shove two dual-GPU cards in one system. For ATI fans, AMD has set up a similar PSU certification website to list all approved power supplies. And yes, the Corsair HX1000 will work with all the newest ATI cards too.

Memory

OCZ 6GB DDR3 PC3-10666 7-7-7-20 1.6V
$91, www.ocztechnology.com

No surprises here. With RAM prices continuing to stumble, we see no reason why you shouldn't buy 6GB of memory for you next gaming PC. 6GB runs on three dimms in tri-channel mode on X58 motherboards, and OCZ's DDR3 series delivers exactly what you need for gaming at a great price. These sticks run with 7-7-7-20 memory timings, and should be stable at the stock voltage settings. You can go with other brands as well: Corsair, Crucial, and Patriot all make reliable DIMMs and are competitively priced. Of course, you'll need a 64-bit OS to make use of all this memory. We get to that on the next page.

Case

NZXT Tempest
$100, www.nzxt.com

In the issue we just shipped, editor Nathan Edwards sang the praises of Silverstone's Fortress FT01-B mid-tower case. But this new king of mid-towers retails for $220, more than twice the cost of the previous favorite NZXT Tempest. So back to the $100 NZXT it is. Once again, from our review: "We experienced no difficulties whatsoever installing a modern-day system into this no-nonsense chassis. There was plenty of room to manage cables around our huge 8800 GTX card, and the case’s eight hard drive bays come with screwless rails preinstalled—you pop them off, attach them to a drive, and slide the whole deal into place. The two 12cm front-panel fans take care of the cooling efforts." But if you have an extra $120 to spend, you can't go wrong with the Silverstone Fortress -- and look for our official review in the June issue.

Hard Drive

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB
$120, www.seagate.com

Yes, we're aware that some users of the Barracuda line have suffered drive failures due to firmware issues. We're also aware that Western Digital has a 2TB drive for sale, which we've evaluated. But the Seagate 7200.11 1.5TB is still our favorite "capacity" hard drive. None of the 7200.11s we have in the office have failed, and Seagate has fixed all the firmware bugs (which were related to the controller board) on new shipments of this model. As we state in our review, the 1.5TB is just as fast as the speediest terabyte drives, and edges out comparable models from Western Digital and Samsung. We actually considered using a Velociraptor 10,000rpm drive, but with a max capacity of 300GB, we couldn't justify the relatively high price. Keep in mind that when we reviewed the 7200.11, it MSRPed for $180. It sells now for $120. Done deal.

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223F
$25, www.samsung.com

The Samsung SH-223 is a minor upgrade from its predecessor, the SH-203, but it’s our new favorite. The burner has 22x DVD +/-R and though a majority of the specifications mirrored that of the older model, the SH-223 is seconds speedier. In fact, in our April issue's DVD rip challenge, the SH-S223 outperformed its nearest competitor by over 2 minutes when ripping a 7.18GB disc (after applying the newest firmware). And don't worry if you can't find it listed on Samsung's website -- this drive is still very much alive and in production. Since its last appearance in our $1500 gaming PC price guide, the S223F has gone up in price by $3.

Operating System

Microsoft Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM
$100, www.microsoft.com

We actually included the price of an OS in this pricing guide, since our build left us with more than $100 to spend. If you're still wary of running 64-bit Windows, man up and have some faith. 64-bit Vista may have been a mess when it first launched, the Microsoft has hotfixed and patched the vast majority of compatibility problems with its soon-to-be-suceded OS. Trust us: 64-bit Vista stable, and it'll let you use all 6 GB of memory you bought for this rig.

Price Breakdown

We knew going into our build that $2000 could get us a lot, and we were right about that. $660 spent just on GPUs may be a bit exorbitant, but you're going to get a whole lot of performance for that investment. Plus, the rebates available for several of our chosen components make the total price even more attractive. Compared to our $1500 build, we spent a higher percentage of our budget on GPU (34% compared to 27%), and the addition of the OS and CPU Cooler helped balance out the rest of the funds. The motherboard we chose was a bit pricier than the one in the $1500 PC as well, even though they're both solid X58 boards. And that's the point of a $2000 system: you can afford to splurge a little on premium parts to reach claim that extra bit of performance. Are those extra frames per second worth the $500 difference? Probably not for most people. But since this is Maximum PC, we want to give you the option anyway.

Part:	Model:	Price:	(Price after rebate)	Newegg Link
Motherboard	Asus P6T	$240		Link
CPU	Intel Core i7 920	$289		Link
CPU Cooler	Zalman CNPS 9900NT	$60		Link
Memory	OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666	$91	$81	Link
Video Card	2x BFG Geforce GTX 285	$660	$600	Link
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000W	$260	$240	Link
Case	NZXT Tempest	$100	$80	Link
Hard Drive	Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB	$130		Link
Optical Drive	Samsung SH-S223F	$25		Link
OS	Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit	$100		Link

Total: $1,955 ($1,845 after rebates)

$1500 Gaming PC Buyer's Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts for March 2009

Norman Chan — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:00:00 -0500

Time for another price and parts guide! The $1000 parts guide we posted earlier this month garnered much discussion and debate among readers, so we wanted to a better job explaining our choices in this edition. Compared to the pricey decked-out systems from OEM builders like Falcon and Digital Storm, $1500 isstill technically in the "budget" range . But for many people, that's still a lot of money to spend on a PC. We catered this build for gamers, and anchored our picks on the GPU and CPU, while judiciously choosing the other parts and brands to fit into our budget limits. The results were pleasantly surprising, and recent price cuts and rebates across the board really helped. Of course, your own configuration may vary wildly from ours depending your own needs, priorities, or brand allegiances,but we think this is an awesome configuration for something building a new gaming PC.

(All prices found on newegg.com, as of March 23rd, and do not include mail-in rebates, tax, or shipping)

Videocard

PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 X2
$401, www.powercolor.com

We started off this build with the video card, since we wanted something that relatively high-end, and anticipated that it would take up a considerable chunk of our $1500 budget. Initially, we considered options that would give us enough money left for a Core i7 CPU and motherboard. A single Nvidia GTX 280 was the first card we considered, since prices for it have fallen after the release of the ultra high-end GTX 295 and 285 models. The 4850 X2 was also another viable choice, since for $300 it delivers a better price/performance ratio than the top mid-range Nvidia offering. But then we remembered the 4870 X2, which held the title for fastest single-slot solution before the GTX 295 was released. Amazingly, PowerColor sells its 4870 X2 on Newegg for $401, and even clocks it higher than ATI reference boards. At this price, the pick for GPU was a no brainer.

CPU

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz
$280, www.intel.com

For a $1500 gaming PC, it would be an insult if we didn't recommend an Intel Core i7 CPU. Nehalem is pretty much the only choice for a top of the line processor, since AMD's Phenom II has been relegated to compete at the mid-range level. The only real decision in this category was which Core i7 SKU to use. We have no qualms going with the 2.66GHz 920 part, even if it represents the "budget" end of the Core i7 lineup. The 920 performs tremendously well compared to even the best Core 2 CPUs, and smashes Phenom in most of our benchmarks. It's also very easy to overclock, so you can stretch your $280 investment a long way.

Motherboard

MSI X58 Pro
$190, www.msicomputer.com

Since we're using a Core i7 CPU, we have to pair it with an X58 LGA 1366 motherboard that supports its socket. Our favorite X58 board is currently the MSI Eclipse, but its no frills companion SKU, the MSI X58 Pro, is just as capable and reliable. In fact, we haven't had issues with any of the X58 boards we've tested so far, so the only big differentiating factors are SLI support and overclocking features. And since we're running an ATI-based 4870 X2 in this build, SLI is unnecessary as an upgrade path -- Crossfire will work fine here. The Eclipse is almost double the price of the X58 Pro at $350, so we're happy with the cost savings we made here. Alternatively, the Asus P6T Deluxe ($290) is also a fine choice, and supports SLI.

Power Supply

Corsair HX1000 Watt
$240, www.corsair.com

We don't review power supplies in the magazine, but we've used enough of them in the lab to have a good feel for what's reliable and trustworthy. PC Power & Cooling is our typical first choice, but we've also recently been very satisfied using Corsair's HX1000 PSU. Modular power cables, six 8-pic PCI-E connectors, and a plethora of SATA power cables ensures that you'll have plenty of opportunity (and power) to upgrade your system with more video cards, optical drives, and hard drives.

Memory

OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 7-7-7-20 1.6V
$97, www.ocztechnology.com

With RAM prices continuing to stumble, we see no reason why you shouldn't buy 6GB of memory for you next gaming PC. 6GB runs on three dimms in tri-channel mode on X58 motherboards, and OCZ's DDR3 series delivers exactly what you need for gaming at a great price. These sticks run with 7-7-7-20 memory timings, and should be stable at the stock voltage settings. Of course, you'll need a 64-bit OS to make use of all this memory.

Case

NZXT Tempest
$100, www.nzxt.com

We're currently testing another batch of mid-tower cases in the lab, but until we find something better, the NZXT Tempest remains our top mid-tower case, as it has for months. The Tempest bests the Antec 900 in a few minor categories (though they're both essentially the same case), but undercuts the 900 in price -- especially after a recent $10 price cut. From our review: "We experienced no difficulties whatsoever installing a modern-day system into this no-nonsense chassis. There was plenty of room to manage cables around our huge 8800 GTX card, and the case’s eight hard drive bays come with screwless rails preinstalled—you pop them off, attach them to a drive, and slide the whole deal into place. The two 12cm front-panel fans take care of the cooling efforts."

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
$120, www.westerndigital.com

We chose Western Digital's Caviar Green for our $1000 Budget configuration, but have picked the 1TB Caviar Black series in this build. The Caviar Black costs about $15 more than its eco-friendly sister model, and uses a tiny bit more power to keep its platter spinning at a constant 7200RPM. This drive also utilizes dual processors to locate, move, and cache data quickly and sports double the cache as the Green model. That means that you'll get faster performance which will come in handy when loading games. We picked the OEM version drive, which saves you a few bucks, but omits the full manufacturer's warranty.

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223F
$24, www.samsung.com

The Samsung SH-223 is a minor upgrade from its predecessor, the SH-203, but it’s our new favorite. The burner has 22x DVD +/-R and though a majority of the specifications mirrored that of the older model, the SH-223 is seconds speedier. And don't worry if you can't find it listed on Samsung's website -- this drive is still very much alive and in production. Since its last appearance in our $1000 budget PC price guide, the S223F has gone up in price by $1.

Operating System*

Microsoft Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM*
$100, www.microsoft.com

If you're still wary of running 64-bit Windows, man up and have some faith. 64-bit Vista may have been a mess when it first launched, the Microsoft has hotfixed and patched the vast majority of compatibility problems with its soon-to-be-suceded OS. Trust us: 64-bit Vista stable, and it'll let you use all 4GB of memory you bought for this rig. We didn't include the operating system in our final price list, partly because we wanted to keep our cost below $1500, and partly because we know many of you have licensed copies of Windows that you can still use (or even the Windows 7 beta!). However, if you take the rebate discounts into consideration, adding the $100 price for Vista 64-bit will still keep you well under $1500!

Price Breakdown

From our pie chart below, you can see that the GPU and CPU -- arguably the two most important components in a PC -- together take up almost half the price of our build (and more than that if you include the motherboard). The videocard itself claims over a quarter of the total price, but that's a smart allocation since it has the biggest impact on gaming performance. 17% (or $240) devoted to the power supply might seem a bit high, but we think the investment is worth it for the upgrading potential. Since our total price still falls under $1500 (not including tax or shipping, nor rebates), you could also opt for a powerful CPU cooler (we like the Zalman CNPS 9900NT) if you plan on overclocking or upgrade to a premium version of our build's motherboard model.

Part:	Model:	Price:	(Price after rebate)	Newegg Link
Motherboard	MSI X58 Pro	$190	$170	Link
CPU	Intel Core i7 920	$280		Link
Memory	OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666	$97	$77	Link
Video Card	PowerColor 4870 X2	$401	$381	Link
Power Supply	Corsair HX1000W	$240	$220	Link
Case	NZXT Tempest	$100	$80	Link
Hard Drive	WD Digital Caviar Black 1TB	$120		Link
Optical Drive	Samsung SH-S223F	$24		Link

Total: $1,452 ($1352 after rebates)

$1000 Budget PC Buyer's Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts for March 2009

Norman Chan — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 12:30:00 -0500

It's been far too long since we've run a Parts and Price Guide on the website, but we're now ready to get back into the groove of monthly component recommendations for your next PC build. This month, we're starting off with a $1000 PC. You'll be surprised at how much power and storage you can get for a grand -- even we're hesitant to call it a mere budget rig. In the following weeks, we'll also be running guides for $1500, $2000 systems, and will even try assembling and benchmarking a $500 configuration for the really budget-conscious (the troubled economy pretty much mandates it!). But for now, take a dive into our choices for a respectable system, and sound off on how you would build your PC differently!

(All prices found on newegg.com, as of March 8th, and do not include mail-in rebates)

Motherboard

Asus M3N72-D
$128, www.asus.com

We haven't had a chance to review this nForce 750a motherboard, but its support for SLI and 1066 DDR2 memory (with AM2+ CPUs) makes it ideal for the budget buyer. Dual PCI-E x16 and x2.2 slots give you plenty of breathing room for expansion, and the mobo even has integrated 8-series Nvidia graphics if you don't plan on gaming with a discrete GPU (or hate freedom). A plethora of I/O ports (12 USB supported), integrated Realtek audio, ExpressGate OS, and robust overclocking abilities makes this a smart buy at a great price.

CPU

AMD Phenom II X4 810
$169, www.amd.com

AMD's Phenom II won't win benchmark battles against Intel's top Core i7 CPUs, but these chips are competing for a different market. This 2.6GHz part will give you respectable performance (and overclocking potential) for its sub-$200 price. When you pit the Phenom II against a comparable Core 2 Quad from Intel, Amd walks away with a decisive price and performance win. One thing to note is this is a Socket AM3 chip, which will work in AM2+ motherboards like the one we recommend above.

Memory

Kingston KVR800D2K2 4GB
$41, www.kingston.com

Nothing much to say here. DDR2 memory is so cheap these days that there's no reason to get less than 4GB for your new system. To make use of all 4GB, we recommend you use a 64-bit OS like Vista Home Premium. In our experience, all the top memory brands are reliable, so you can't go wrong with Kingston, Crucial, Corsair, OCZ, or Patriot.

Videocard

EVGA GTX 260 216
$250, www.evga.com

From our EVGA GTX 260 review: "With the same stock clock speeds but 24 more shader processors than the original, the new version of the 260 GTX delivers comparable performance to the 4870 at a similar price. The speeds and feeds are about the same as the original 260’s, although EVGA clocked this card’s core at 626MHz (up from 576MHz stock) and includes 896MB of GDDR3 running on a 448-bit bus at 1053MHz (stock is 999MHz)... Performance was about what we expected; the card delivered scores that were slower than a GeForce GTX 280’s but slightly faster than the 4870’s in shader-intensive games such as Crysis." In other words, this is a fantastic mid-range part. Especially since the price has dropped to $250.

Power Supply

Corsair VX550 Watt
$104, www.corsair.com

SLI compatibility with dual-PCIE power cables (one six-pin and another eight-pin), a dedicated +12V rail, six SATA power cables, and six four-pin molex cables makes this PSU more than beefy enough to power our config. The only thing you won't be able to do is run two GTX 280 GPUs if you choose that upgrade path, because each require two PCIE power cables.

Case

NZXT Tempest
$110, www.nzxt.com

This has been our favorite mid-tower case for months, besting out the similarly configured Antec 900 (the NZXT is slightly cheaper). From our review: "We experienced no difficulties whatsoever installing a modern-day system into this no-nonsense chassis. There was plenty of room to manage cables around our huge 8800 GTX card, and the case’s eight hard drive bays come with screwless rails preinstalled—you pop them off, attach them to a drive, and slide the whole deal into place. The two 12cm front-panel fans take care of the cooling efforts."

Operating System

Microsoft Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM
$100, www.microsoft.com

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB
$104, www.westerndigital.com

Along with memory, hard drive prices have also plummetted in the past six months. We still find it amazing that you can buy a terabyte of storage for almost less than $100. The Digital Caviar Green is relatively quiet and power-efficient, and doesn't fall victim to firmware errors that some of its competitors are currently suffering from. It may not be as fast as a Velociraptor, but we think most users will be happy with its modest speeds.

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223F
$23, www.samsung.com

The Samsung SH-223 is a minor upgrade from its predecessor, the SH-203, but it’s our new favorite. The burner has 22x DVD +/-R and though a majority of the specifications mirrored that of the older model, the SH-223 is seconds speedier. And don't worry if you can't find it listed on Samsung's website -- this drive is still very much alive and in production.

Parts:	Price:
Motherboard	$128
CPU	$169
Memory	$41
Video Card	$250
Power Supply	$89
Case	$110
Operating System	$100
Hard Drive	$104
Optical Drive	$23

Total: $1,014

$800 Budget PC Buyer’s Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts For October 2008

Benson Hong — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:00:00 -0500

As some of you may recall, we featured a Budget Badass Buyer’s Guide at the beginning of the month to provide some guidance to those looking for solid performance at what we, Maximum PC, would consider to be a reasonable price. We read your responses to the build and many felt that $1500 was a bit over what the typical user would consider “budget.” So, we took it a step further and created a Budget PC below the $1500 mark. In fact, we even dropped it under $1000. At $800, we couldn’t quite figure out if it would even be possible to construct a PC that could play the latest games or even do some basic photo-manipulation in Photoshop. We stepped up to the challenge and built this Budget PC and put it to the test against our hardcore, $5000 machines to see how they match up.

Since we are still in the process of assembling the rig, benchmarks have yet to be run. For now, we give you our parts list. Check back soon for the results from our tests!

(Prices as listed on Newegg)

Videocard

Visiontek Radeon HD 4850
$185, www.visiontek.com

Named the Best of the Best mid-range video card, the Visiontek Radeon HD 4850 offers everything you need in a sub-$200 video card. Don't be afraid to toss the latest games at this GPU, just don't expect Crysis to amaze you with anything over 10 FPS.

Motherboard

MSI P45 Neo3
$110, www.msicomputer.com

Sporting Intel's latest P45 chipset, the P45 Neo3 is a toned down version of the popular P45 Platinum. The board only has one 16x PCI-E slot leaving the idea for SLI or Crossfire in the dust, but with our budget at $800, adding another video card to the equation is definitely out of the question.

CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz Wolfsdale
$170 (Retail), www.intel.com

A few years ago, purchasing a PC with a Pentium 4 3GHz processor for under $800 was nearly impossible. Now, we can easily slip in a Core 2 Duo at a fairly low price. The E8400 Wolfsdale core features a 6MB L2 cache and 45nm technology allowing for a larger memory bandwidth. The chip also has massive overclocking potential.

Memory

Corsair 2GB DDR2 800
$37, www.corsair.com

We've recommended 4GB in our past build-it guides for the hardcore users, but with a budget of $800, 2GB will suffice for this system. With quality memory from Corsair, the XMS series will provide great performance for the budget user.

Case, power supply, hard drive, and optical drive on the next page!

Case

Antec Three Hundred
$55, www.antec.com

Antec has always had a solid series of chassis. While the Three Hundred lacks a few features such as screwless mounting and a fairly cramped interior, it still offers plenty of cooling and a sturdy design. And for $55, we can't really complain since it's half the price of its budget case rival, the NZXT Tempst.

Power Supply

Antec EarthWatts 500W
$50, www.antec.com

We're usually a little weary on "green" hardware for our PCs, but the EarthWatts series from Antec is no joke when it comes to energy efficiency. With its 80 PLUS Certification and stable power output, not only will you be saving money building your PC, but you'll also be saving on your energy bill.

Operating System

Windows Vista 32-bit Home Basic
$100 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Ubuntu Linux
Free, www.ubuntu.com

Hard Drive

Seagate 500GB Barracuda
$70, www.seagate.com

Seagate's popular Barracuda series has still yet to disappoint. So, when we were looking for a budget hard drive, we first turned to this 500GB Barracuda. 500GB may not be enough storage for the hardcore users out there, but it is plenty to the average user.

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223F DVD Burner
$26, www.samsung.com

We've hyped up this drive for the past few build-it guides. With it's solid performance and affordable price, we feel this burner is suitable for any system or budget.

Total: $803

Pro Gaming PC Buyer’s Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts For October 2008

Benson Hong — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:00:00 -0500

For the past few weeks we have presented you with our $1500 Budget Badass and $2500 Power User PC. This week we’re bringing to the table our picks for a $2500 Pro Gaming PC. With significant price cuts since our last Pro Gaming PC build-it guide, we were able to give our gaming PC some extra juice so system lag can no longer be blamed for missing a crucial headshot. Many parts have not changed since the last update, but with new hardware technology coming soon to the computer industry, be prepared for some significant tweaks next month. But for now, here’s what we got.

Videocard

2x BFG Tech Geforce GTX280
$750, www.bfgtech.com

Since the last update back in July, the GTX 280 has stayed atop the GPU powerhouse list. As the fastest single-GPU solution out there, it would only make sense to have two of these running in SLI. Unlike our Power User PC, we're shifting our main focus to the GPU(s) and this is it.

Motherboard

EVGA eForce 790i SLI Ultra
$330, www.evga.com

There were some problems with Nvidia's 680i and 780i chipsets, but the 790i seems to have solved all of them. The board's native PCI-Express 2.0 and spacious layout will be a nice home for your SLI setup. Its price-to-performance ratio is just one reason why we gave this motherboard a kickass verdict.

CPU

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz
$165 (Retail), www.intel.com

While CPU performance is significant to a PC's ability to perform well in games, most current games (with the exception of a couple) are still not utilizing all four cores of a quad core thus leaving us with the option to choose a dual core over a quad. With the E8400, we save some extra money for an upgraded PSU and extra hard drives while keeping gaming performance at its peak.

Memory

OCZ 4GB Reaper HPC DDR3/1600
$250, www.ocztechnology.com

As we've mentioned in our previous build-it guides, 4GB seems to be the new standard nowadays for any performance user. Obviously, gaming is no exception.

Case

NZXT Tempest
$110, www.nxzt.com

We've been featuring this case for every build-it guide so far and we still stand behind it 100%. With plenty of cooling and air flow, this case will house all your components nicely.

Power Supply

OCZ EliteXStream 1000W
$195, www.ocztechnology.com

Some readers suggested in our previous Pro Gaming PC build-it guide that a 750W PC Power & Cooling PSU would not be enough juice for our SLI setup. While we feel the 750W would power the rig just fine, we decided to take the safe route and replace it with an OCZ EliteXStream 1000W as recommended by SLI Zone.

Operating System

Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium
$100 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Hard Drives

2x Western Digital Velociraptor 150GB 10000RPM
$360, www.wdc.com

We had some extra cash to play with after some recent price cuts so what else is there to do but to add some more horsepower to our rig? We took two Velociraptors and stuck them in RAID 0 for some extra performance boost.

Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB
$120, www.samsung.com

We just had to keep the beloved terabyte drive in this rig; it just wouldn't be complete without it.

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223F DVD Burner
$26, www.samsung.com

Unlike our Power User rig, we don't see the need for a $300 blu-ray burner for the pro gamer. So we saved some major bucks and brought it down to the basics -- a DVD burner.

Sound Card

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
$86, www.creative.com

Quality sound is important for every gamer. Those subtle footsteps and gunshots from miles away can mean life or death in many scenarios. With the X-FI XtremeGamer, there's no need to worry anymore about those embarrassing behind-the-back stabbings.

CPU Cooler

Zalman CNPS-9300AT SuperFlo
$40, www.zalman.com

Like the power user, gamers need their fair share of cooling, too. While the room may get a little heated from intense game play, your CPU will stay cool with this heatsink from Zalman.

Total: $2,532

Power User PC Buyer’s Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts For October 2008

Benson Hong — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 12:30:08 -0500

Last week we updated our Budget Badass to reflect the current price drops and made some improvements in hardware. This week we are shifting our focus to the power user. Shifting our focus also means shifting our cost up, but a higher budget means better hardware and faster performance. We've made a couple of adjustments to the video card and CPU as well as adding a second hard drive while taking your suggestions into consideration. While the final cost of this build exceeds a little past the $2500 mark, we believe the extra performance gain is well worth it. Keep in mind this is a Power User's PC, where our main focus is on utilizing the power of the processor through multitasking and multimedia programs. Read on to see our new setup for this Power User beast.

Videocard

Gigabyte Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
$530, www.gigabyte.com.tw

Many felt the Radeon 4870 was a little weak for a power user rig, so we took your suggestions and doubled the GPU power to a Radeon 4870 X2. Running this card in our 2008 Dream Machine showed very impressive results and with the extra money we saved on the CPU (read below), we allocated some extra cash to boost GPU performance.

Motherboard

MSI P45 Platinum LGA 775
$170, www.msicomputer.com

Intel's new P45 chipset gave us many reasons to love this board. Not only is it fast and full of new features, it also flaunts an exotic chipset heatsink design which makes it that much more cool!

CPU

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3GHz
$550 (Retail), www.intel.com

You may be wondering why we downgraded from a Core 2 Extreme to Core 2 Quad. The truth is it's not much of a downgrade. Both chips are running at the same speed and cache with performance staying the same. The only difference is an unlocked multiplier which the Core 2 Quad lacks but when you are saving $400 that is something we can look past.

Memory

Patriot Viper 4GB DDR2/1066
$109, www.patriotmem.com

Not much explaining needed here. Memory is cheap and the more the better. With 64-bit Vista, 4GB is the minimum you'll need to become the power user you strive to become.

Case

NZXT Tempest
$110, www.nxzt.com

The chassis in which your hardware resides is a crucial part of a power PC user. Cooling and airflow is essential to performance and the NZXT Tempest provides it. Dubbed the Best of the Best midtower case by us, we feel this case will provide the power user with more than they need at a reasonable price.

Power Supply

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Watt
$160, www.pcpower.com

PC Power is still at the top of our list as the best PSU. When they say 750 watts on the label, they mean 750 watts and we like that.

Operating System

Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium
$100 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Hard Drives

Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB 10000RPM
$280, www.wdc.com

Every performance enthusiast needs a Velociraptor. It's practically written in the unwritten handbook for power users. It's fast fast fast. It's no wonder why we used two of these in our Dream Machine.

Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB
$135, www.samsung.com

And just in case 300GB of storage isn't enough for you, which isn't much in today's technological world, we tossed in a 1TB Samsung drive that should be able to store everything you need and then some.

Optical Drive

LG GBW-H20L Blu-Ray Burner
$245, www.lge.com

As blu-ray starts to become the mainstream source of media, blu-ray drives are in hot demand and as a power user, you want to be up-to-date on the latest hardware. So we forked out some extra cash and slapped this bad boy on for the ride. Burn, watch, and enjoy blu-ray quality video with this blu-ray burner.

Sound Card

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
$86, www.creative.com

We know sound is important and that is why we said "Screw You!" to onboard sound. The X-Fi XtremeGamer from Creative will be enough to get your juices flowing.

CPU Cooler

Zalman CNPS-9300AT SuperFlo
$50, www.zalman.com

We don't settle for stock coolers when it comes to performance. No we don't. So we scrapped the retail cooler and hooked up a Zalman to the CPU to keep it nice and cool, not to mention quiet.

Total: $2,555

Budget Badass Buyer’s Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts For October 2008

Benson Hong — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Since our last Budget Badass update back in July, the hardware industry has made some dramatic turns as far as new technology goes. With the release of the energy-efficient Penryn core from Intel, we took a side step away from the Kentsfield core and took a swing at the Q9300. While the Q9300 sports a slightly smaller cache than the Q6600, we found the Penryn to perform better in our tests. With the extra leeway we had in the budget from the previous configuration, we also swapped out the Radeon 4870 for a beefier GTX 280 while keeping the final price tag under $1500. Now this, my friends, is what we would like to call a Budget Badass!

Videocard

BFG GeForce GTX 280 1GB
$389, www.bfgtech.com

With the drop in video card prices, we couldn't help but to move up the graphic card chain to the next best thing. The GTX 280 is faster across all benchmarks against the Radeon 4870 and features all the video-processing capabilities available on the 9000 series cards.

Motherboard

MSI P35 Neo2-FR
$120, www.msicomputer.com

One of our best budget motherboards to date. Offering stellar performance with a price tag hovering around the $100 zone, this motherboard will meet all your budget standards and more.

CPU

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5GHz Penryn
$259 (Retail), www.intel.com

Despite the chip's smaller cache size, the 5-percent clock-speed advantage and its faster benchmark results were enough to put this chip ahead of the Q6600.

Memory

Patriot 4GB DDR2 800
$80, www.patriotmem.com

Memory seems to be getting cheaper and cheaper these days, giving one more reasons to go for the full 4GB. Since Vista is known for it's memory thievery, it wouldn't hurt to stock up on the extra GB.

Case

NZXT Tempest
$110, www.nxzt.com

This budget case offers a very spacious interior, screwless hard drive bays, and plenty of cooling for the budget user. There's a reason why this chasis received a kickass verdict.

Power Supply

PC Power & Cooling Silencer 610Watt
$110, www.pcpower.com

PC Power has been known for it's no-BS wattage output, and since we are Maximum PC, we concur with no-BS.

Operating System

Windows XP Professional
$140 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Alternatively, you can buy the cheaper OEM version of Windows Vista Premium or save a hundred bucks with Ubuntu Linux.

Windows Vista Premium
$110 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Ubuntu Linux
Free, www.ubuntu.com

Hard Drive

Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB
$135, www.samsung.com

It's our Best of the Best hard drive, and since we can't cram a pricey Velociraptor into our tight budget, we feel this 1TB of storage goodness is the next best thing.

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223F DVD Burner
$26, www.samsung.com

We were sad to see the SH-S203N model discontinued after such a good showing, but we were quickly condoled with the SH-S223F and its remarkably fast speeds.

Sound Card

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
$91, www.creative.com

It's not quite at the level of the Xtremegamer Fatal1ty Pro, but for almost half the cost, this one will tickle your ears just fine.

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$1000 Budget PC Buyer's Guide - October 2009

Motherboard

Asus P7P55D LE

$129, www.asus.com

CPU

Core i5-750

$200, www.intel.com

Memory

Corsair XMS3 4GB DDR3/1600

$81, www.corsair.com

Videocard

Sapphire Radeon HD 5770

$160, www.sapphire.com

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223

$31, www.samsung.com

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

$110, www.westerndigital.com

Power Supply

Corsair 650TX

$100, www.corsair.com

Case

Antec 300

$51, www.antec.com

Operating System

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition

$107, www.microsoft.com

Price Breakdown

Total: $987 ($977 after rebates)

$2000 Gaming PC Buyer's Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts for April 2009

Videocard

(2) BFG Geforce GTX 285 Cards$330 each, $660 total www.bfgtech.com

CPU

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz$289, www.intel.com

Motherboard

Asus P6T$240, www.asus.com

Power Supply

Corsair HX1000 Watt$260, www.corsair.com

Memory

OCZ 6GB DDR3 PC3-10666 7-7-7-20 1.6V$91, www.ocztechnology.com

Case

NZXT Tempest$100, www.nzxt.com

Hard Drive

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB$120, www.seagate.com

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223F$25, www.samsung.com

Operating System

Microsoft Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM$100, www.microsoft.com

Price Breakdown

Total: $1,955 ($1,845 after rebates)

$1500 Gaming PC Buyer's Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts for March 2009

Videocard

PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 X2$401, www.powercolor.com

CPU

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz$280, www.intel.com

Motherboard

MSI X58 Pro$190, www.msicomputer.com

Power Supply

Corsair HX1000 Watt$240, www.corsair.com

Memory

OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 7-7-7-20 1.6V$97, www.ocztechnology.com

Case

NZXT Tempest$100, www.nzxt.com

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB$120, www.westerndigital.com

Optical Drive

Samsung SH-S223F$24, www.samsung.com

Operating System*

Microsoft Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM* $100, www.microsoft.com

Price Breakdown

Total: $1,452 ($1352 after rebates)

$1000 Budget PC Buyer's Guide -- Updated Prices and Parts for March 2009

Motherboard

Asus M3N72-D$128, www.asus.com

CPU

AMD Phenom II X4 810$169, www.amd.com

Memory

Kingston KVR800D2K2 4GB $41, www.kingston.com

(2) BFG Geforce GTX 285 Cards
$330 each, $660 total www.bfgtech.com

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz
$289, www.intel.com

Asus P6T
$240, www.asus.com

Corsair HX1000 Watt
$260, www.corsair.com

OCZ 6GB DDR3 PC3-10666 7-7-7-20 1.6V
$91, www.ocztechnology.com

NZXT Tempest
$100, www.nzxt.com

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5TB
$120, www.seagate.com

Samsung SH-S223F
$25, www.samsung.com

Microsoft Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM
$100, www.microsoft.com

PowerColor Radeon HD 4870 X2
$401, www.powercolor.com

Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz
$280, www.intel.com

MSI X58 Pro
$190, www.msicomputer.com

Corsair HX1000 Watt
$240, www.corsair.com

OCZ DDR3 PC3-10666 7-7-7-20 1.6V
$97, www.ocztechnology.com

NZXT Tempest
$100, www.nzxt.com

Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB
$120, www.westerndigital.com

Samsung SH-S223F
$24, www.samsung.com

Microsoft Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM*
$100, www.microsoft.com

Asus M3N72-D
$128, www.asus.com

AMD Phenom II X4 810
$169, www.amd.com

Kingston KVR800D2K2 4GB
$41, www.kingston.com

EVGA GTX 260 216
$250, www.evga.com

Corsair VX550 Watt
$104, www.corsair.com

NZXT Tempest
$110, www.nzxt.com

Microsoft Vista Home Premium 64-bit OEM
$100, www.microsoft.com

Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB
$104, www.westerndigital.com

Samsung SH-S223F
$23, www.samsung.com

Visiontek Radeon HD 4850
$185, www.visiontek.com

MSI P45 Neo3
$110, www.msicomputer.com

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz Wolfsdale
$170 (Retail), www.intel.com

Corsair 2GB DDR2 800
$37, www.corsair.com

Antec Three Hundred
$55, www.antec.com

Antec EarthWatts 500W
$50, www.antec.com

Windows Vista 32-bit Home Basic
$100 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

Ubuntu Linux
Free, www.ubuntu.com

Seagate 500GB Barracuda
$70, www.seagate.com

Samsung SH-S223F DVD Burner
$26, www.samsung.com

2x BFG Tech Geforce GTX280
$750, www.bfgtech.com

EVGA eForce 790i SLI Ultra
$330, www.evga.com

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz
$165 (Retail), www.intel.com

OCZ 4GB Reaper HPC DDR3/1600
$250, www.ocztechnology.com

NZXT Tempest
$110, www.nxzt.com

OCZ EliteXStream 1000W
$195, www.ocztechnology.com

Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium
$100 (OEM), www.microsoft.com

2x Western Digital Velociraptor 150GB 10000RPM
$360, www.wdc.com

Samsung F1 HD103UJ 1TB
$120, www.samsung.com

Samsung SH-S223F DVD Burner
$26, www.samsung.com

Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
$86, www.creative.com

Zalman CNPS-9300AT SuperFlo
$40, www.zalman.com

Gigabyte Radeon HD 4870 X2 2GB
$530, www.gigabyte.com.tw

MSI P45 Platinum LGA 775
$170, www.msicomputer.com

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650 3GHz
$550 (Retail), www.intel.com

Patriot Viper 4GB DDR2/1066
$109, www.patriotmem.com