Best budget gaming PC you can build today - updated
The goal for a Budget Gaming PC is simple: to let you play the latest games at the lowest possible cost. Gamer and PC builder Chris Lampard builds an affordable gaming machine.
APC's Live Builds Gaming editor, Chris (Igniserator) Lampard, is a gamer who decided at 15 to start building his own PCs to get the best gaming performance possible on his budget. He might work in IT now, but says he's still a gamer at heart with a passion for PCs. Below is his Best Budget Gaming PC, a machine that lets you play the latest games but at $1,256 is highly affordable.
(All prices are in Australian dollars).
CORE SYSTEM [updated: July 20, 2011]
CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K - $215
This CPU is pretty much a i7 minus 2MB of L3 cache and Hyper-threading for $100 less i figured i had to shoe-horn this into the budget gaming PC since its at such a decent price level for the performance on offer this chip should achieve 4.5GHz on the air cooler quite easily which will result in massive performance. Also has built in Intel HD graphics which on a Z series chipset motherboard enables encoding by the CPU not your GPU which is much faster on these newer chips and also more efficient for your PC in regards of power use. At a budget level this provides unbelievable performance.
COOLER: CoolerMaster Hyper 212+ - $33
A great priced cooler have seen this in use on a Phenom II X6 and it was at 4GHz daily and didn't stutter so i have no doubt it will be suitable for the new gen of Intel CPU's. Only one fan however there is a 6 heat-pipe layout to ensure stable temps and better overclocks.
MOTHERBOARD: AsRock Z68 Pro3 B3 - $139
To get the features on offer for the price its hard to go past this board has everything you need that's current like USB 3, SATA 6, Lucid Virtu GFX, 2133MHz Memory support, Intel rapid storage support and also solid caps, however it will only take 1 video card at 16x PCIe the other slots are 1 x slots which does hurt card bandwidth as the minimum i would recommend running a card at is 8x PCIe. So make sure you get a good card to start with as crossfire or SLI is not an option.
GRAPHICS: VTX3D AMD Radeon HD6950 2GB - $269 
The VTX3D AMD Radeon HD6950 2GB is classed as a mid high-end card and will pump out very decent frame rates on the newest games quite easily. It's also Eyefinity-ready and outperforms the similarly priced GTX560 in most benchmarks. It gives you high end graphics at entry to mid-range level prices.
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 2 x 2GB 2000MHz - $79
One of the best RAM kits on the market today and its price makes it irresistible. I expect to get 2100MHz out of these modules with fairly tight timings fairly easily. I went with only two sticks as two always overclock better than four. But if overall speed isn’t a necessity then another pair would be fine to add in.
HARD DRIVE: OCZ Solid 3 60GB SSD - $248 ($124 each)
These SSD's just hit the market and the price is astounding for the performance on offer i instantly swapped these out for the momentous as you should get close to achieving 1GB/s bandwidth in a budget PC with a hefty 109GB usable also any other drives you have then become storage for Steam, Music, Videos etc. Super fast super cheap gotta love OCZ.
OPTICAL DRIVE: Pioneer DVR-219L DVDRW - $29
Keep those game install speeds down and also keep burning times to a minimum this drive is known for being fast and very reliable with little errors during burning, also very well known brand and well priced.
PSU: Cooler Master GX 750W - $119
This is a high amperage single rail power supply meant to handle power hungry processors and graphics cards. It's well priced and one of the few single rail units still available. While multi rail is fine single rail provides a more stable and direct current, which leads to a more stable PC.
CASE: Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced - $125
With lots of space, lots of fan placements, a massive area behind the motherboard for cable routing, a hot-swap SATA bay and switch for front fan light, this case has pretty much everything a gamer wants, all sitting there ready to go for under AUD$150. The case comes in two versions, one has a nice window to show it all off.
TOTAL SYSTEM COST - (AUD $1,256)
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