System Buyers' Guide: PCs for Under $1000
by Sean Hollister on February 12, 2010 2:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Guides
AMD Mainstream PC
To be completely honest, the AMD Phenom II X3 720 Black Edition is not quite the equal of Intel's Core i3-530. In our tests, it came in slightly behind in practically every single benchmark, regardless of how many threads the applications used. But it comes very close, and if you buy into the value-packed AM3 platform using the X3 720 as your entry point, you'll have plenty of other features to go along with it.
| AMD Mainstream System | ||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
| Processor | AMD Phenom II X3 720 BE Heka (Tri-core 2.8GHz, 45nm, 3x512KB L2, 6MB L3) |
$125 |
| Cooling | CPU Retail HSF | $0 |
| Video | PowerColor Radeon HD 4850 512MB | $100 |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 (before $15 Rebate) | $105 |
| Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3-1600 F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL | $105 |
| Hard Drive | WD Caviar Blue 500GB WD5000AAKS | $54 |
| Optical Drive | Sony Optiarc Model AD-7240S-OB 24X DVDRW SATA | $28 |
| Audio | Onboard | $0 |
| Case | Cooler Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Mid Tower ATX | $55 |
| Power Supply | OCZ ModXStream Pro 500W ATX12V SLI Certified, CrossFire Ready, 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC (before $25 Rebate) | $65 |
| Base System Total | $637 | |
| Display | ASUS VH226H Black 21.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen 16:9 LCD (1920x1080) (before $20 Rebate) | $170 |
| Speakers | Cyber Acoustics CA-3090 26W 2.1 Speakers | $21 |
| Input | Microsoft B2L-00045 Comfort Curve Black USB Keyboard and Optical USB Mouse - OEM | $22 |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium OEM 1-Pack (for System Builders) | $105 |
| Complete System Bottom Line | $955 | |
| Plus Estimated Shipping (within Continental U.S.) | $997 | |
| Rebates | -$60 | |
| Bottom Line (less tax, if applicable) | $937 | |
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Besides, when you judge it on its own merits, the $125 2.8GHz Phenom II X3 720 Heka Black Edition is still a very promising processor. Like the Athlon II X3 435 Rana we recommended for our entry-level box, the 720 Heka is at the sweet spot between dual- and quad-cores in AMD's lineup, performing better than Athlon II X4s in benchmarks that favor fewer threads and better than Phenom II X2s in benchmarks that favor more. It's a powerful overclocker, capable of a stable 3.8GHz on air and up to 3.3GHz on stock voltage, and the Black Edition suffix means you'll have an unlocked multiplier to help you get there. And of course, as with any AMD tri-core, you have a chance of unlocking its hidden fourth core with ACC. If you don't see yourself doing a lot of multitasking or multithreaded work, you could easily shave $34 by going with the $91 Phenom II X2 550 BE instead; if you plan on doing 3D rendering and video editing all day, you'd can save $23 by purchasing the $102 Athlon II X4 630 Propus. But if you're not certain where your CPU might take you and you want to maximize the possibilities, the 720 Heka is the right chip at the right price.
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And to house that chip, we've got not one but two bang-for-the-buck motherboard possibilities from Gigabyte. If you're not planning to buy a discrete GPU to power video and gaming, we recommend the GA-MA790GPT-UD3H, a full-sized ATX motherboard built around the 790GX / SB750 chipset. At the excellent price of only $90 after rebate ($105 without) the MA790GPT-UD3H features an onboard Radeon HD 3300 IGP with 128MB of DDR3 sideport memory, which beats both AMD's newer 785G and the Intel Core i3-530's Intel HD Graphics in terms of raw power. It also comes with Realtek's premium ALC889A 7.1 channel HD audio chipset and loads of opportunities for expansion.
The SB750 Southbridge provides the standard four flavors of RAID (0/1/5/10) across six SATA 3GB/s ports, four facing front; connectivity includes VGA, DVI and HDMI video-out, six USB 2.0, one 1394a, a combo PS/2, Realtek 8111C GbE, six audio ports and a separate S/PDIF optical out on the rear panel; and the board supports all current Athlon II and Phenom II processors along with 16GB of DDR3-1666 memory in four banks. The board's layout leaves something to be desired, with one of three fan headers and its three USB 2.0 headers sandwiched haphazardly amongst the PCIe slots, but it does include a pair of PCIe x16 slots (with 8 lanes for each in CrossFire), three PCIe x1 and a pair of PCI slots, in addition to an IDE header, two 1394a headers and a legacy floppy connector.
However, if you do plan to buy a discrete GPU, we'd recommend the Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P instead. For the same $90 after rebate, it loses the onboard video of the 790GX series but gains the newer Realtek 8111DL NIC for Gigabit Ethernet, one 1394b port and one coaxial S/PDIF port on the rear panel. It has a more sensible layout and a reputation for moderate overclocking that should serve you well if you decide to push that tri-core CPU to its full potential.
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As with our Mainstream Intel PC, onboard graphics make even a $100 discrete video card optional, but it's somewhat more of a talking point when that 790GX graphics still doesn't allow bitstreaming of Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD or 8-channel LPCM audio output over HDMI. Though the Radeon 4850 is our go-to budget gaming choice at $100, if you're looking for this AMD PC to pull double duty as a home theater box, you might want to consider a Radeon 5000 series card like the $100 Radeon HD 5670 instead.
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DominionSeraph - Saturday, February 13, 2010 - link
For only $6900 + a measly $400 tax (CT), you could have an 8 core 2.93GHz with a whopping 6GB RAM and a rebranded Geforce 8600 GT!Can i haz tek job nao?
chrnochime - Saturday, February 13, 2010 - link
I haven't been keeping up to date with the socket h burn issue. So, has Anand et al figured out, with or without help from the manu, determine the source of the socket burn problem?I can only speak for myself that unless this is determined conclusively, I'm stuck going with either socket 1366 or frantically scour up the last of the 775 motherboards.
stardude82 - Saturday, February 20, 2010 - link
There was never an really issue with the 1156 Boards. The problem was only with Foxconn sockets used for extreme overclocking above 4 Ghz. If you are really concerned there are lots of boards with the Lotts manufactured sockets.clarkn0va - Saturday, February 13, 2010 - link
Ignoring ACC and the possibility of unlocking one core of the Athlon II X3 435, it's not obvious why one would pay an extra 67% for the Phenom II X3 720, at least not from the information provided in the article.Looking in Bench, these two CPUs trade blows on all the benchmarks and there is no obvious winner. Add to that the possibility of turning the 435 into a quad, and the fact that it's $50 cheaper, according to this article, and I have no idea how SH can recommend the 720 at all, at least not without looking at information beyond what's presented here and in Bench. Please enlighten me if I'm missing the point though.
Great article, Sean. It's always interesting to see what other pros are recommending and why.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=112&...">http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=112&...
SeanHollister - Sunday, February 14, 2010 - link
You're right on the money, pun intended. In terms of performance per dollar at stock clocks, the Athlon is indeed a much better value for today's software, especially if you manage to unlock the fourth core.That said, there are three things that distinguish the Phenom. First, it's a better (and easier) overclocker. Second, it's the better gaming CPU in all benchmarks I've yet seen. Third and most importantly, it's got a sizable L3 cache—fast becoming an industry standard for CPUs—where the Athlon has none.
In today's software and benchmarks, the L3 cache doesn't offer much of an advantage, just as a dual-core processor wouldn't offer an advantage over a single core a number of years back, but I'm guessing that as just as multithreading takes hold, so will the L3 cache that assists it.
All that said, is a bit of futureproofing and a little extra gaming performance worth $50? To be completely honest, when I first chose the Phenom chip, I was calculating its value at the Newegg price of $105, which I realized at the very last minute was the price for the bare CPU, *without a cooler,* and failed to rethink the value equation when I adjusted the price.
piasabird - Friday, February 12, 2010 - link
http://www.directron.com/clarkdalesys1.html">http://www.directron.com/clarkdalesys1.htmlPart Number:SYS-Clarkdale-System-01Regular price:$419.99On Sale: $399.99
System Components:
Processor: Intel Core i3 530 2.93GHz Clarkdale 32nm Dual Core CPU
Memory: 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3 1066 memory
Motherboard: MSI H55M-E33 Socket 1156 Micro-ATX motherboard with Intel H55 chipset
Video: Integrated
Audio: 8 Channel Audio
Storage: 320GB SATA2 Hard Drive
Optical: 24X DVD-RW Drive
Case: Thermaltake V3 Black Edition mid-tower case with TR2 450W power supply.
jigar - Friday, February 12, 2010 - link
My very first post on Anandtech. before today i hadn't even heard of Anandtech. Found it really impressive (especially the CPU benchmark comparison bit).after reading this article i have decided to build my own base unit (with the help of a pal). my old unit stopped working few days ago (hence the reason me trawling the net).
thing is, the prices quoted are in dollars. do you guys have any idea how much cheaper/expensive they are in UK? i tried shopping on amazon for parts and found out that intel core i3 530 is about £90 (is that reasonable? do you guys know where else i could shop for parts?)
also, i got confused whilst reading the article. do i need to buy two hard drives or just one? you have mentioned WD Caviar blue 500GB on the intel mainstream pc system but in the upgrade section you have said that intel X25-V solid state drive which is only 40GB (£96 on amazon) is essential for a multitasker as it also speeds up basic computing and will cut windows load times by half.
i am actually not a gamer. i just want a system where as mentioned above, the windows load up quickly and where i can use different programs at once (without slowing down the computer - e.g. internet and microsoft word etc).
the other thing you mentioned was Cooling - CPU retail HSF - i searched for it on amazon but nothing came up :(
i also already have a monitor so just need a base unit which is fast and reliable (i am totally fed up with installing windows software every few months).
my original budget was between £200 and £300 but may spend upto £400.
Any help will be really appreciated.
FlyTexas - Friday, February 12, 2010 - link
Welcome to AnandTech, one of the better tech review sites on the web.A quick heads up, most of us here have been doing this awhile and are rather techie, so forgive us when we talk over your head, it is not meant to be rude.
The Heatsink & Fan come with the Retail version of the CPU, you do not buy them separately.
You don't have to buy 2 hard drives, the suggestion for the 40GB Intel drive is just due to the speed of SSDs (Solid State Drives). These drives use flash memory rather than spinning disks, they are fast, but expensive.
As for places to buy, almost everyone here will tell you NewEgg, however they do not sell internationally. Google "newegg uk equivalent" to get some ideas.
jigar - Saturday, February 13, 2010 - link
but if i only get one hard drive with a 40Gb storage (i admit it will be faster and that is what i want) but where would i store all the files?what if i buy two hard drives? one fast solid state 40GB to boot up the computer and the other to store files (i would like the system to work for atleast few years so i probably will need a big enough hard drive) so is it possible to have two hard drives, one to boot up and one to store files?
how big is 40GB, will it be enough for me? i watched avatar and saved it on my desktop (the legend of aang series is alone 15GB). it was my favourite so i downloaded it. but i dont download/save movies so probably something like 250 or 500GB should be enough for me?
since i saved those avatar files, my computer went really slow. it would take minutes (literaly) to take any single action.
can you make a separate list for me please? (using uk part names) there is this website www.pcspecialist.co.uk (may be you can guide me through their prices and parts).
Ratman6161 - Friday, February 12, 2010 - link
Take for example your Intel entry level build at $690.00.Check out this from HP: http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/compute...">http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp...ktops/Ev...
Or I'll save you the time of following the link by saying its an i3 based system with 4gb DDR3 RAM and onboard video and audio. So that should be better performance than the E5300 and its $549.00
About two months ago I bought my inlaws a similar system but with the 5300 and 3 GB DDR2 on my company's employee purchase program for $349.00.
Build it yourself makes sense for mid-range to high end -- if that is you are the kind of person who wants to get exactly the specs you were looking for. But on the low end, there is just no way that you can build a system for the prices the big OEMs are charging. The other big advantage is that if I built the system for them, then I would also become their technical support where this way they can call HP. Then again, the system has been working so well, they haven't had to call HP either.