Matt Callaghan builds a budget gaming PC.
Matt Callaghan, 17, built this PC working to a $1,000 budget (including monitor). He says this machine runs Crysis at full resolution (1,920 x 1,080) with all settings on high at a very playable frame rate. He has overclocked both the CPU and graphics to get what he says is “extreme performance for very little money.” The total setup cost is actually $1,327 with the addition of Windows 7 Home Premium, but, he says, “This is still a great price for a gaming computer which is capable of Crysis.”
Core System
CPU: Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 - $93Intel says the E5200 is a Pentium Dual Core but it shares the same architecture as the Core2 Duo. I overclocked the E5200 from 2.5GHz up to 3.8GHz, a massive 52% overclock which gives me a performance similar to that of an E8400, which costs $235.
COOLER: Cooler Master Hyper-212 - $59This thing is absolutely
massive. It barely fits into my case and covers a quarter of the motherboard, but is needed as it keeps the CPU cool under extreme overclocking. It is also super quiet which is one of the main reasons I bought it.
MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P5Q PRO - $156I love ASUS motherboards as I have built computers for friends and have found them really robust. The BIOS of this one makes overclocking dead easy. It has a P43 chipset so it has one PCI-e x16 slot for graphics. The motherboard also has six SATA ports so it can support many drives.
MEMORY: Kingston DDR800 4GB kit - $62I was on a budget and this RAM is very cheap. I thought I would be better off getting 4GB of reasonably fast RAM than 2GB of super fast RAM. I run a 64-bit operating system so I can take full advantage of the RAM.
GRAPHICS: Sapphire Radeon HD4850 - $169The graphics card was the most difficult component to pick because I wanted something reasonably cheap which could also chew through games at a good pace. The Sapphire Radeon HD4850 is the cheapest of the 4850s and had a double slot cooler which allows for some overclocking. I run this card overclocked while gaming and then underclock it when not playing to keep the power usage and noise down.
HARD DRIVE: Western Digital 320GB - $69I wanted a decent-sized hard drive to store music and movies but still had room for a second operating system. This drive suited my needs as it’s dirt cheap and of reasonable size. I have two partitions, one for my main OS and the other for a Linux-based media front end.
OPTICAL DRIVE: LG DVD writer - $55I wanted a quiet DVD drive. Unfortunately this is quite loud when spinning up but it serves its purpose.
CASE: Case Com 3370 - $80This case looks great and includes a 500W PSU which makes it insanely good value. I wanted something that will last a while and look good at the same time. The case has an eSATA and 2 USB ports on the front which makes it perfect for my use.
Core System cost - $743
EXTRAS
MONITOR: Samsung 2233sw 21.5in - $239APC reviewed this monitor a while back and gave it a low score just because it was difficult to put together, but I put it together by myself in 10 minutes. The monitor looks beautiful and performs astoundingly, plus the resolution is great (1,920 x 1,080) for the price.
KEYBOARD: Logitech keyboard - $17The generic Logitech keyboard I bought long ago works fine for my needs.
MOUSE: Gigabyte Dual Lens Laser Gaming Mouse - $29This was the best $29 I spent. The shape is comfortable, it has great accuracy for games and best of all it was cheap.
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium- $299This OS is great, it is 64-bit so can address all of the RAM and it looks great.
MEDIA OS: Mythbuntu linux - $0I use this as a media front end as I have a mythbuntu media server which can record up to three HD channels at once (its much much better than Windows Media Centre software).