When I set out to choose parts for a gaming PC, I assumed I would be cutting corners left and right. I was pleasantly surprised. It appears Prior’s conjecture isn’t keeping up with Moore’s law, and you can actually get more powerful computers for less money, even if we account for increasing software demands. Instead of rambling any further, let’s look at the parts we can find on this budget. The gear speaks for itself.
They might not be Cooler Master’s best case or biggest power supply, but you’re not in a position to look for up market or even midrange cases. And while bundling your case and PSU is a no-no if you’re not dealing with a reputable brand, knocking two things off your list for under $100 bucks, and getting Cooler Master’s quality to boot, definitely the route to take on our budget. So we're grabbing a Centurion 534 with a 460 watt PSU included.
The PSU may seem small, and technically, our choice of graphics card should have a 500 watt PSU. As explained in this article, 460, or even 430, watts from Antec or Cooler Master is worth at least 500 watts of no name power.
With our cash, we’re going AMD. The difference in performance per dollar between Intel and AMD CPUs isn’t the big deal. Where we save is the motherboard, which comes pretty loaded for the price. Intel would force us to cut corners on our motherboard to stay in budget. Our budget would limit us to the LGA775 socket, which is on its way out. AM2+, according to AMD product roadmaps, will be in use until 2011.
Despite all this, AMD chipsets were still unattractive because of the extremely dated SB600 south bridges. The SB750 we are getting is a great improvement that makes AMD a much better choice than it was just several months ago. The only thing this board is lacking is an eSATA port.
The Foxconn (ok it isn’t Asus, but Foxconn isn’t a slouch) can run AMD’s most power hungry chips. We could have gone with a cheaper option, but the upgrade potential on this board is better. A second true PCI-E 2.0 x16 means you can add a second graphics card with full bandwidth down the road. Admittedly, you’ll probably have to upgrade your power supply as well. Even if you won’t be going this way, the 790 and SB750 chipset have some advantages that are worth the $10-$20 you’re spending over a 780/SB700 board.
It’s too bad we couldn’t include an aftermarket cooler with our sub-750 box, because the Phenom II/790 chipset should be a good setup for overclocking. We didn’t include any combo deals or mail in rebates in our pricing though, so if you can find another forty bucks along the way, pick up an AC Freezer 7. The other knock is that the BIOS to run Phenom IIs on this motherboard was only released last December. If you don’t have an older AM2 chip from your old computer or a friend to boot up the board and flash the BIOS before adding the Phenom II, ask your retailer to confirm if the included BIOS is version 81BF1P06 or later.