High Performance Gaming on a Budget: Building a Value PC with Cooler Master
The Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P
-$100
Of course, the right motherboard is crucial to any successful build and a decision that requires a bit of thought to get right. You can spend a lot of money for features you will never use. On the other hand, you may regret skimping on features after you build your PC if you do not do your research beforehand. Also, there are only a handful of AMD motherboards that offer an option in the BIOS to potentially unlock the locked Phenom II cores in the 550 X2 and 720 X3 that we purchased. Of course, the unlocking is not at all guaranteed but it is a nice bonus if one gets lucky with a CPU that has locked stable cores. And it does depend on luck.
We Picked a CrossFire Motherboard
We picked Gigabyte’s GA-MA790X-UD4P and also chose the 8x + 8x Crossfire PCIe lanes it offers. We have always had a great experience with Gigabyte personally. In fact, the last Intel P35 CrossFire motherboard we upgraded from to get the PCIe 2.0 Specification and the full 16X + 16X CrossFire lanes was a superb overclocker and full-featured product. It went to our political editor for his first Intel system.
This motherboard is not the very cheapest. We needed a motherboard whose BIOS could potentially unlock Phenom II’s locked cores in X2 and X3 CPUs. We could have also saved a few bucks and eschewed CrossFire but then we would have no further upgrade path for our video card. It has become a fact of life for many ATi video card owners that it is sometimes very wise to add a second ATi card as a cheap upgrade when the price falls before their new series of GPUs are available.
We also did not pick the most expensive motherboard as that would add many dollars to get more than the 8x+8x PCIe CrossFire lanes that this motherboard provides. However, when we run a single videocard, the bandwidth is the full 16X PCIe. We noted from our testing of 16X+4X PCIe motherboards, that 4X PCIe barely restricts the performance of a fast video card in the second slot. Since 8X is twice the bandwidth of 4X PCIe, we feel it should not make any practical performance difference to this or even to the next generation of GPUs in CrossFire.
SYSTEM RAM – 4GB PC 8500: OCZ Fatal1ty
$40-$50
2x2 GB PC 8500 for $40 after MiR !
RAM, especially DDR2 is inexpensive. One of the reasons to pick OCZ PC 8500 partly is because it will make a closer “apples-to-apples” with our OCZ PC 8500-equipped Intel PC.
Make sure that the RAM you are getting goes well with your motherboard/CPU combo and do not be afraid to ask about user experience with it on our forum. Another reason to pick PC 8500 is because we are overclocking our CPU and do not not want to be as limited by RAM speeds and dividers as we would be stuck with by using even cheaper and slower RAM. Yet mostly, we picked 2 x 2 GB OCZ RAM because it was on sale – $39.99, free shipping after mail in rebate – from NewEgg. OCZ has a lifetime warranty on this PC 8500. G.Skill is also highly recommended for quality RAM.
Finally, always make sure you follow the mail-in-rebates exactly and keep copies of what you submit on time!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227364
OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2F10664GK – Retail – $39.99 after $10.00 MiR
We have been quite pleased with this value PC 8500’s performance.
CPU: Athlon II X2 550/ Phenom II 550 X2 & 720 X3
-$80-$120
When we started out, we planned to compare only two CPUs – our Q9550S against the budget Phenom II 550 X2 in much the same way as we did long ago with E8600 vs. Q9550S. But this time we were ”shopping” and NewEgg had two nice promotions of $20 off $100 each; what better way to explore than to get two AMD Phenom II CPUs to also compare with the Athlon II 250 X2 that AMD sent us?
Here is what we purchased from NewEgg.com
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680
AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Callisto 3.1GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 80W Dual-Core Processor – Retail $102.99
Model Brand AMD Series Phenom II X2 Model HDZ550WFGIBOX CPU Socket Type CPU Socket Type Socket AM3 Tech Spec Core Callisto Multi-Core Dual-Core Name Phenom II X2 550 Black Edition Operating Frequency 3.1GHz Hyper Transports 4000MHz L2 Cache 2 x 512KB L3 Cache 6MB Manufacturing Tech 45 nm 64 bit Support Yes Hyper-Transport Support Yes Virtualization Technology Support Yes Voltage 0.85V – 1.425V Thermal Design Power 80W Cooling Device Heatsink and Fan included
Phenom II 720 X3 Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz 3 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor – Retail $119.00
Model Brand AMD Series Phenom II X3 Model HDZ720WFGIBOX CPU Socket Type CPU Socket Type Socket AM3 Tech Spec Multi-Core Triple-Core Name Phenom II X3 720 Operating Frequency 2.8GHz Hyper Transports 4000MHz L1 Cache 128KB+128KB L2 Cache 3 x 512KB L3 Cache 6MB Manufacturing Tech 45 nm SOI 64 bit Support Yes Thermal Design Power 95W Cooling Device Heatsink and Fan included Manufacturer Warranty Parts 3 years limited Labor 3 years limited
The same Athlon II 250 X2 that AMD sent us for review is only $80.00 at NewEgg!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103681
AMD Athlon II X2 250 Regor 3.0GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core Processor – Retail – $80.00
Model Brand AMD Series Athlon II X2 Model ADX250OCGQBOX CPU Socket Type CPU Socket Type Socket AM3 Tech Spec Core Regor Multi-Core Dual-Core Name Athlon II X2 250 Operating Frequency 3.0GHz Hyper Transports 4000MHz L2 Cache 2 x 1MB Manufacturing Tech 45 nm 64 bit Support Yes Hyper-Transport Support Yes Virtualization Technology Support Yes Voltage 0.85V – 1.425V Thermal Design Power 65W Cooling Device Heatsink and Fan included
Q9550S is the Intel CPU that we are comparing our AMD value CPUs to. Our engineering sample of Q9550S was sent to us by Intel a few months ago and it is our fastest processor at 4.0 GHz. The regular Q9550 has been spotted at Microcenter.com for as little as $169. However, there is no online shipping and Q9550 is regularly $240; the “S” spec Q9550 commands a premium and it is primarily used by rack mount system builders looking for a lower wattage and cooler running CPU. No one knows yet if the “S” spec overclocks better or not.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115210
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