The times when annual computer upgrades were common practice have long passed. Nowadays most PC games tend to be conservative in the graphics department, which has resulted in years old PCs still handling anything recent quite easily in maximum detail. But the hardware market hasn’t stagnated to the same extent and some of you may be looking to replace your old barrels with something new and shiny that isn’t too expensive.
And that’s where this quarterly Budget Gaming PC article comes in. Within I assemble a reasonably priced gaming PC that can handle anything recent with relative ease. So if you’re not quite up-to-date with the latest advancements in hardware or simply want to assemble a capable gaming PC at low cost, then this is where you want to be.
Keep the following in mind while inspecting this quarter’s budget gaming PC:
- Hardware prices have been climbing slightly these past few months, so the system is a little bit more expensive than it was in the 2nd quarter despite largely unchanged hardware.
- The monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset, speakers & operating system are not included.
- Some parts of your current computer could be salvaged for the new system. The hard disk drive(s), DVD drive, computer case and power supply are often easily transplanted into new PCs.
- I presume that you can do home assembly so it’s not included in the price. If you can’t, then most computer shops offer pre-assembly for a minimal fee.
- Buying everything from a single (web) shop tends to reduce shipping costs and makes it a lot easier to find out which number to call if something should go wrong.
- See this article for an assortment of tips on hardware selection and home assembly.
Crysis: Warhead still counts as one of the most demanding PC games to date
Q3 2010 Budget Gaming System
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3 75,- EUR Processor AMD Phenom II X4 955 145,- EUR Video Card Club3D Radeon HD5850 250,- EUR Memory (RAM)
Kingston ValueRAM DDR3-1333 4GB 97,- EUR Hard Disk Drive Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 53,- EUR DVD-Writer LG GH24NS50 22,- EUR Power Supply OCZ Fatal1ty 550Watt 62,- EUR Computer Case
Antec Three Hundred 49,- EUR Total 753,- EUR
Motherboard – Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3
A decent socket AM3 motherboard with 6 SATA connectors for hard disks and DVD drives. It only has a single PCI x16 2.0 slot for a video card so there’s no room for future Crossfire or SLI setups, but that’s hardly the point for a budget system. This is decent and quite inexpensive.
Processor – AMD Phenom II X4 955
This is a high performance quad core processor that should suffice for all your gaming needs. It’s an older model, but the newer Core i5 and i7 processors are not only much more expensive, but have only minimal impact on the framerate of modern games like Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Crysis: Warhead or Mafia 2. It’s a good idea to save some money here for a powerful video card that can really make a difference.
Video Card – Club3D Radeon HD5850 1GB
Now this is what we saved money for with the lower end processor. The Radeon HD5850 is a mainstream video card that can run all the latest games in high detail and it supports DirectX 11. It should suffice for any games released in the foreseeable future.
It’s possible to save a little money here and go for the Geforce GTX 460, which underperforms by about 5-20% and comes in at 50 euro less.
Memory – Kingston ValueRAM DDR3-1333 4GB
Memory (RAM) is a frequently overrated component of modern gaming PCs. It’s important to have at least 4GB, but aside from that the actual speeds matter very little. There is no discernible performance difference, in gaming and most other applications, between budget modules and the most expensive DDR3 memory modules. So I’ve gone with one of the cheapest modules from a reputable company.
Hard Disk Drive – Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB
The Western Digital Caviar Black continues to stand as one of the fastest 7200rpm hard disks on the market and comes in at ridiculously low prices. I have a 1TB version as the system disk of my current gaming PC and it’s stable and fast. The only real questions here are whether you actually need a new hard disk (you probably won’t if you’re upgrading) and whether you might want some additional space over this 500GB.
DVD-Writer – LG GH24NS50
A cheap DVD-writer with lightscribe functionality.
Power Supply – OCZ Fatal1ty 550Watt
This is a very high performance power supply with sufficient juice to run this gaming system comfortably.
Keep in mind that if you’re looking to add on a lot of external devices or hard disk drives, then a 600 Watt power supply (e.g.: OCZ ModXStream 600 Watt) might be in order.
Computer Case – Antec Three Hundred
The Antec Three Hundred computer case is cheap, has good airflow and leaves plenty of room for additional drives. Few budget cases are quite this good, but this is hardly the most important component of your gaming PC. Any case will do really, provided that it has sufficient space for an ATX format motherboard and HD5850 video card.
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