Budget Buyer's Guide - October 2006
by Jarred Walton on October 25, 2006 8:10 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
Conclusion
Unlike our last high-end guide, we have chosen not to bother with a large list of alternatives this time. There are always choices to be made, and there are compromises in any budget computer. In many cases, this year's budget configurations are just last year's midrange offerings, with a few minor tweaks. Out of the four configurations we put together, the baseline builds had an eye more towards cutting costs whereas the upgraded configurations looked to add more performance and features. As the price nears $500, the differences between one component and another similar component often become small. Should you get brand A or brand B memory? Who makes the best motherboard? Which hard drive is better? There are definitely still differences, but we would mostly concern ourselves with the features you may or may not be getting as "best" becomes more of a marketing term in the budget sector than anything concrete. Given that the performance of most budget systems is going to be a lot like last year's midrange models, an alternative to building a new budget system is to instead look for a good price on a used midrange system from a year or two ago. You may not get the latest socket, memory, GPU, hard drive, etc., but you might also get better overall performance for less money. There are, after all, many different ways to part with $600.
As is often the case, two of the builds today stand out as being better overall choices than the others. If you are looking to cut costs and stick closer to $500, we would currently give that market to the AMD configurations. True, you don't get a dual core processor, but that will add at least $50 to the total system cost, and a lot of people simply don't use their computers in such a way that dual cores are necessary. Athlon 64 processors are still very fast, and the single core chips are a great bargain compared to what the cost last year. In fact, Athlon 64 chips are so cheap now that we see little reason to consider getting a Sempron processor. On the other end of the spectrum, if you're looking to upgrade performance slightly, the most sensible decision is to go with a budget Core 2 Duo configuration. This is especially useful if you do use a lot of applications that will benefit from multiple processor cores, as Core 2 Duo is currently the fastest dual core architecture available.
Finally, let us reiterate once again that it is virtually impossible to cover every reasonable component choice at a given price range with a single buyer's guide. That's why we have all of our individual review sections, with these guides being more a look at what sort of system we would put together at the given price points. There are plenty of possibilities that we didn't even touch in this guide. For example, you might want to go with a cheaper processor and other components in order to max out your GPU, with the aim of getting maximum gaming performance. How do you balance that so that your CPU is still fast enough to keep your GPU fed? Feel free to ask questions in the comments section, and we will do our best to respond - or you can always use email if you prefer. And if you think that prices are currently too high, there's no harm in waiting as something better is almost always right around the corner, and other than a few periodic spikes like we've seen with memory, component costs will trend downwards over time. Thanks for reading, and suggestions are always welcome!
Unlike our last high-end guide, we have chosen not to bother with a large list of alternatives this time. There are always choices to be made, and there are compromises in any budget computer. In many cases, this year's budget configurations are just last year's midrange offerings, with a few minor tweaks. Out of the four configurations we put together, the baseline builds had an eye more towards cutting costs whereas the upgraded configurations looked to add more performance and features. As the price nears $500, the differences between one component and another similar component often become small. Should you get brand A or brand B memory? Who makes the best motherboard? Which hard drive is better? There are definitely still differences, but we would mostly concern ourselves with the features you may or may not be getting as "best" becomes more of a marketing term in the budget sector than anything concrete. Given that the performance of most budget systems is going to be a lot like last year's midrange models, an alternative to building a new budget system is to instead look for a good price on a used midrange system from a year or two ago. You may not get the latest socket, memory, GPU, hard drive, etc., but you might also get better overall performance for less money. There are, after all, many different ways to part with $600.
As is often the case, two of the builds today stand out as being better overall choices than the others. If you are looking to cut costs and stick closer to $500, we would currently give that market to the AMD configurations. True, you don't get a dual core processor, but that will add at least $50 to the total system cost, and a lot of people simply don't use their computers in such a way that dual cores are necessary. Athlon 64 processors are still very fast, and the single core chips are a great bargain compared to what the cost last year. In fact, Athlon 64 chips are so cheap now that we see little reason to consider getting a Sempron processor. On the other end of the spectrum, if you're looking to upgrade performance slightly, the most sensible decision is to go with a budget Core 2 Duo configuration. This is especially useful if you do use a lot of applications that will benefit from multiple processor cores, as Core 2 Duo is currently the fastest dual core architecture available.
Finally, let us reiterate once again that it is virtually impossible to cover every reasonable component choice at a given price range with a single buyer's guide. That's why we have all of our individual review sections, with these guides being more a look at what sort of system we would put together at the given price points. There are plenty of possibilities that we didn't even touch in this guide. For example, you might want to go with a cheaper processor and other components in order to max out your GPU, with the aim of getting maximum gaming performance. How do you balance that so that your CPU is still fast enough to keep your GPU fed? Feel free to ask questions in the comments section, and we will do our best to respond - or you can always use email if you prefer. And if you think that prices are currently too high, there's no harm in waiting as something better is almost always right around the corner, and other than a few periodic spikes like we've seen with memory, component costs will trend downwards over time. Thanks for reading, and suggestions are always welcome!
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - link
Yup - corrected.autoboy - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - link
I just want to mention that the Antec NSK2400 is a good, cheaper alternative to the Silverstone lc-17 and seaconic combo you introduced in your HTPC section. The budget boards you mentioned are all mATX (non upgraded) so they would fit in the NSK2400. It comes with a high quality, quiet 380W power supply and 2 120mm fans. It makes a good budget HTPC. The Silverston lc-17 is a great case but belongs in the Midrange buyers guide.All you need for a budget HTPC is a good quiet case/psu (nsk2400), a single core AMD cpu (Sempron 2600+ if you are really cheap, otherwise a A64 3000+ or 3200+), and a 6150 motherboard. (plus ram, DVD and harddrive of course)
For the upgraded configuration you can add a X2 3800+ so you can transcode, and a 7600GS for a little game action and a few more check marks on the purevideo features list. If you don't like to game on your TV, a 7300GS has the same purevideo features as the 7600GS but costs a little less.
Lets keep the midrange guide seperate from the budget crowd.
JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - link
Comment added - definitely a good choice, and I'm not sure why that never showed up in my searches at Newegg and other places. I know I was trying to keep the price closer to $100 for an HTPC case, but I kept getting nMEDIA as the only really inexpensive options.HGC - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - link
I always enjoy these guides and get good ideas from them.One change that's worked for me is to spring for a better case and powersupply even in a budget system, so that they will be usable for the next upgrade in 2-3 years. For example, I bought an Antec case for $60-70 a few years ago and did not want to change it when I recently upgraded. I don't think too many build-it-yourselfers would be happy with a generic case and cheap power supply year after year, even if they held up.
Suggestion: add silent PC to the the rotation.
Thanks guys. I look forward to the next guide.
rdh - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - link
"Putting together a true budget Intel-based system is difficult right now. Sure, it's possible, but as much as we like Core 2 Duo it simply can't fit into a budget price range. As there are no cheaper single-core Core 2 processors available yet, we wind up back in a familiar place"Wrong. Fry's has been selling boxed C2D 6300 and an ECS MB for $179 since the end of September. I know because I have one. Moved over my disks, AGP graphics, and DDR SDRAM and the system runs quite nicely. Basically, they throw in a MB for free. So if you already have a good AGP adapter (the board does have onboard video) with DDR SDRAM (the ECS MB also takes DDR2), your budget upgrade is $180. You can complete your move to a new MB, PCIe and DDR2 at your leisure.
vailr - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - link
I agree on the idea of re-using existing DDR memory and AGP video card. The Fry's combo ECS board & E6300 deal is pretty good. Or, an ASRock 775Dual-VSTA board & E6300 CPU might be a little better quality. Unfortunately, there aren't any "good overclocking" boards for the E6300 CPU, that also allow re-using DDR memory and AGP video cards.JarredWalton - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - link
As I've said in other posts, upgrading is a completely different subject from buying a complete system. If you want to get the Fry's combo, it's not bad, but then you're stuck without a PCIe X16 slot for the future. As I don't expect ATI or NVIDIA to bother with AGP cards anymore, it's a fine board for a base Core 2 Duo platform but it won't overclock much (if at all). You'd almost be better off buying the combo just to get the CPU for $15 less.Also, we don't bother quoting prices from short-term bargains, as they come and go while the guides stick around for a few months. If you can find a much better deal than the prices we quote, go for it, but if it's a 1-day-only affair it won't make it into the buyer's guide. That's what the comments section is for, of course. :)
For those that are interested, here's the http://www.netaffilia.com/ad/electronics/frys/i/20...">Fry's ECS C2D combo information. When it expires, Fry's may or may not renew the offer or come out with something similar. Cheers!
MiroTheHero - Thursday, October 26, 2006 - link
Fry's has the deal for $169. I bought the combo and put it together a week ago /it was 179 then/ using my old parts - AGP card, memory, etc. Works perfect, stable at clock speed , no any problem. It has SATA , RAID, USB 2.0 , Ethernet. The mobo has pretty good layout too.bzo - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - link
I unfortunately bought this board a few months ago and have regretted it. Overclocking support is almost non-existant because there is no option to change the HTT multiplier. You'll be lucky to overclock 5%. Memory voltage only goes to 1.9V, so most DDR2-800 memory will not work. In addition, with the current BIOS, the board is very picky about memory regardless of the speed.The best MATX AM2 board right now seems to be the Abit NF-M2. Has all the features of the M2NPV-VM plus has all the BIOS tweaks of a full ATX board.
autoboy - Wednesday, October 25, 2006 - link
I second that. I have heard nothing but problems with this line of boards from asus. Poor overclocking and very poor memory support. I don't personally have this board but I have the 939 version and it sits in my closet. It never worked right with any of my memory from any of my 5 computuers, the usb never worked right, and overclocking was non existant due to the memory voltage limit. There are better options.