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Feedback welcome, as I know this thing can be further polished.
So, you want to build a new computer, but don’t have that much money for higher performance tier parts? Well, lucky you, I’m writing this guide to help you navigate through these cheaper parts. First things first, you should ask whether you need to build a rig. Usually, prebuilt rigs from companies like Dell will get you a more “full” spec list than if you build yourself. You get a Windows license and sometimes, some software to boot.
But you really to build, now do you?
Pretty much, if you’re building a budget build, you’ll be trying to find the right mix of components on a “tight” budget. For convenience sake, let’s say that’s about $600 or less. So, you’re spreading out that much money over about 6 to 7 components. Windows and other software like Office will further squeeze your budget.
Pretty much, the scope of this guide is products that could be bought brand new in the retail channel, and have more than just limited availability.
CPU
Price Range: About $40-$140
Intel
The Intel chips are compatible with LGA 1155 motherboards.
Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge Intel Celerons, Pentiums, and i3s are what is currently available. Pentiums will not run RAM at speeds over 1333 Mhz and Celerons will not run RAM at speeds over 1066 MHz; the RAM will automatically be downclocked.
There are also Core 2 Duo offerings, but these CPUs will be ignored in this guide because new inventory is not consistent, and motherboard availability is scant.
AMD
For AMD, they have CPUs for three different sockets: FM2, FM1, and AM3+. FM2 and FM1 CPUs are APUs and AM3+ chips include the FX-series chips and the Phenom IIs and their derivatives. APUs are have a Radeon HD graphics core inside and while the FX-series doesn't even have an IGP on newer motherboards.
Trinty APUs are compatible with FM2 motherboards. Llano APUs are compatible with FM1 motherboards. The FX-, Phenom IIs and its Athlon and Sempron cousins are compatible with AM3+ boards. Phenom IIs and its derivatives are also compatible with AM3 boards and in some instances, AM2+
Trinity APUs are denoted by the "5" in their name, i.e A6-5400K, while the Vishera is denoted by the "3" in the FX x3xx part of their name. Llano APUs is denoted by the "3" in the A*-3xxx of the name and the Zambezi-based FX chips are denoted by x1xx and x2xx in their names . In addition, you have older Phenom II processors and their nerfed Athlon counterparts. There are also Sempron 1xx series processors; these things are probably suited best for a small home server of sorts.
For APUs, it is important to know the level of graphics power you are getting varies between “levels”, with the A4 being much weaker than the A10, for example. The number of shader cores can help approximate that.
As far as the top performer of these budget parts, the newly released FX-6350 is the best-performing CPU in the budget bracket.
The A4-3300 is currently the cheapest dual core, but the faster Celeron G1610 is only about a few dollars more expensive.
Motherboard
Price range: About $45-$100
For Intel, B75 or H77 boards are what will typically be purchased, as they have SATA III, USB 3.0, and are assured to support Ivy Bridge processors out of the box. H61 boards are there for the extremely budget-conscious.
For AMD, A75 boards are the best bang for the buck while A55 boards save you some money at the cost of USB 3.0 and SATA III.
For the FX-series CPUs, check the wattage and spec sheet carefully.
ECS and Foxconn are rather...poor manufacturers, so it is best to avoid boards made by these companies.
Aside from avoiding those two really poor manufacturers, it’s primarily a matter of looking at the spec sheet, warranties, and anecdotes of each company’s customer support to determine your purchase. As far as features go, USB 3.0 and SATA III are two major ones, and if your router supports it, 1Gbps Ethernet is also important. Check how many PS/2 ports are there, as some boards have only 1 or none of those ports.
RAM
Price range: About $30-$100
4 GBs is the absolute minimum, IMO. Even web browsing can saturate RAM really quickly if you're the type who opens up a ton of tabs.
RAM is essentially a commodity these days. If you are buying a Pentium or Celeron, RAM running at frequencies at over 1333 Mhz will provide no benefit as the RAM will not run faster than those speeds; the CPU does not support faster RAM.
Even i-series chips do not benefit much from when jumping from 1333 Mhz to 1600 Mhz.
APUs are starved for bandwidth, and faster RAM will benefit their graphics performance.
The FX-series chips don’t seem to benefit too much from “super fast” RAM.
Storage
Price range: about $45-$120
If you’re getting an SSD, 128 GB is probably the way to go. These don’t come too cheap. Usually, budget SSDs hover around $90-$100 with some sales dropping the price down to about $80.
Otherwise, a 500 GB or 1TB 7200 RPM drive should give acceptable performance while saving you money and giving you more space. If you’re going to go solely with an SSD, it is a necessity to have a well-tested backup plan in the case of data loss. Of course, it is also good to backup a mechanical drive as well, but mechanical drives can sometimes signal an imminent failure before it is too late, so you don’t have to be as paranoid
Video card
About $10-$180
You’ll need one if you do anything graphically intensive(gaming, and to a lesser extent, Photoshop and other programs). Otherwise, you can forego it with no worries.
Really cheap video cards are generally very weak. Anything under $50 means you’re getting a weak card. (Edit 6/15) These cards are not worth it over an APU.
Anything over a 7850 or GTX 650 Ti Boost is probably impossible to fit into a budget build.
To get some sense on how much GPU performance is there, it is important to know the nomenclature of the parts. Not only is it important to know the generation, but it is also important to know what “tiers” of performance the card is in. The latter is important because a high tier card from a recently old generation might still perform better than a lower tier card from the new generation.
For recent Radeon HD cards, the far left number indicates the generation and the 2nd number from the left indicates which performance tier it is in. For Nvidia, the far left number indicates generation and the middle number indicates tier. A addition of “Ti” indicates a higher level of performance than the non-Ti version. A “Boost” in the name indicates even higher level of performance, but these are still not more powerful than “one number up”, i.e a GTX 650 Ti Boost is weaker than a GTX 660.
PSU
Price range: About $20-$50
There are a lot of cheap PSUs out there. Many are crappy, but some provide solid performance. Hopefully, this helps sift some of the wheat from the chaff.
PSUs can be bad because they take out the rest of your components when they finally do die, or their noise/ripple control is not very good, poor voltage regulation, quick deaths, have parts explode or burn when overstressed, or they fail to pull their labelled wattage. Omissions or use of weak parts internally can lead to the aforementioned macroscopic flaws; other times, manufacturing error makes a unit a dud.
Pay attention to the warranties. Those with one year warranties are correlated with the crappy manufacturers.
The bad
Anything made by Logisys, Diablotek, Raidmax, or Coolmax is bound to be crappy. I don't think Azza or Apex are all that good either, but this is only speculation on my part.
PSUs that come with some cases are also likely to be poor performers.
So-so performers
Cooler Master’s “Elite Power” line are mediocre performers. They are better than the crap tier, but not wow units.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-power-supply-rs460psarj3
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Elite-Power-460-W-Power-Supply-Review/1005
Solid performers
Corsair CX430 (now on version 3) is often on rebate and its previous versions were well-received by reviewers. http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu430cxv2
Antec’s VP-450 is also a good unit, again received well by Gabriel Torres of Hardware Secrets.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-vp450
If you want Seasonic, the SS-300ET, SS-300ES, or SS-350ET is available. Most budget rigs won’t pull more than 200w at the components(not at the wall) and hence using these lower wattage units won’t be an issue.
Ones I'm not sure about
Thermaltake’s TR2 line could refer to many different PSU families because Thermaltake keeps on using the same name for each new family, which makes things confusing.
This particular one seems to be of an older design, since it has the switch for switching between 120V and 240V.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=
Also, are Sparkle units are ok?
Case
I actually don’t know much about cases. Cooling, noise control, USB 3.0 in the front panels, and other things are things to consider. The NZXT 210 Source Elite seems to be a decent performer.
Optical drive
Price range: About $17
There are some sub-$20 drives available. An optical drive is super cheap($15 - $18), but you may be better served getting an external one for versatility. They are essentially a commodity. There will be some lemons, but I don’t think there is much difference between brands
OS
Windows 7 Home Premium OEM edition goes for about $89-$95. Seems like Microsoft removed the documentation that said buyers couldn't install the OEM version without then selling it to a third party, so I think you can get these things with impunity. If you need 32 GBs of RAM or some more advanced features, the Windows 7 Professional OEM version is available for about $40 more than the Home Premium OEM version.
So, you want to build a new computer, but don’t have that much money for higher performance tier parts? Well, lucky you, I’m writing this guide to help you navigate through these cheaper parts. First things first, you should ask whether you need to build a rig. Usually, prebuilt rigs from companies like Dell will get you a more “full” spec list than if you build yourself. You get a Windows license and sometimes, some software to boot.
But you really to build, now do you?
Pretty much, if you’re building a budget build, you’ll be trying to find the right mix of components on a “tight” budget. For convenience sake, let’s say that’s about $600 or less. So, you’re spreading out that much money over about 6 to 7 components. Windows and other software like Office will further squeeze your budget.
Pretty much, the scope of this guide is products that could be bought brand new in the retail channel, and have more than just limited availability.
CPU
Price Range: About $40-$140
Intel
The Intel chips are compatible with LGA 1155 motherboards.
Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge Intel Celerons, Pentiums, and i3s are what is currently available. Pentiums will not run RAM at speeds over 1333 Mhz and Celerons will not run RAM at speeds over 1066 MHz; the RAM will automatically be downclocked.
There are also Core 2 Duo offerings, but these CPUs will be ignored in this guide because new inventory is not consistent, and motherboard availability is scant.
AMD
For AMD, they have CPUs for three different sockets: FM2, FM1, and AM3+. FM2 and FM1 CPUs are APUs and AM3+ chips include the FX-series chips and the Phenom IIs and their derivatives. APUs are have a Radeon HD graphics core inside and while the FX-series doesn't even have an IGP on newer motherboards.
Trinty APUs are compatible with FM2 motherboards. Llano APUs are compatible with FM1 motherboards. The FX-, Phenom IIs and its Athlon and Sempron cousins are compatible with AM3+ boards. Phenom IIs and its derivatives are also compatible with AM3 boards and in some instances, AM2+
Trinity APUs are denoted by the "5" in their name, i.e A6-5400K, while the Vishera is denoted by the "3" in the FX x3xx part of their name. Llano APUs is denoted by the "3" in the A*-3xxx of the name and the Zambezi-based FX chips are denoted by x1xx and x2xx in their names . In addition, you have older Phenom II processors and their nerfed Athlon counterparts. There are also Sempron 1xx series processors; these things are probably suited best for a small home server of sorts.
For APUs, it is important to know the level of graphics power you are getting varies between “levels”, with the A4 being much weaker than the A10, for example. The number of shader cores can help approximate that.
As far as the top performer of these budget parts, the newly released FX-6350 is the best-performing CPU in the budget bracket.
The A4-3300 is currently the cheapest dual core, but the faster Celeron G1610 is only about a few dollars more expensive.
Motherboard
Price range: About $45-$100
For Intel, B75 or H77 boards are what will typically be purchased, as they have SATA III, USB 3.0, and are assured to support Ivy Bridge processors out of the box. H61 boards are there for the extremely budget-conscious.
For AMD, A75 boards are the best bang for the buck while A55 boards save you some money at the cost of USB 3.0 and SATA III.
For the FX-series CPUs, check the wattage and spec sheet carefully.
ECS and Foxconn are rather...poor manufacturers, so it is best to avoid boards made by these companies.
Aside from avoiding those two really poor manufacturers, it’s primarily a matter of looking at the spec sheet, warranties, and anecdotes of each company’s customer support to determine your purchase. As far as features go, USB 3.0 and SATA III are two major ones, and if your router supports it, 1Gbps Ethernet is also important. Check how many PS/2 ports are there, as some boards have only 1 or none of those ports.
RAM
Price range: About $30-$100
4 GBs is the absolute minimum, IMO. Even web browsing can saturate RAM really quickly if you're the type who opens up a ton of tabs.
RAM is essentially a commodity these days. If you are buying a Pentium or Celeron, RAM running at frequencies at over 1333 Mhz will provide no benefit as the RAM will not run faster than those speeds; the CPU does not support faster RAM.
Even i-series chips do not benefit much from when jumping from 1333 Mhz to 1600 Mhz.
APUs are starved for bandwidth, and faster RAM will benefit their graphics performance.
The FX-series chips don’t seem to benefit too much from “super fast” RAM.
Storage
Price range: about $45-$120
If you’re getting an SSD, 128 GB is probably the way to go. These don’t come too cheap. Usually, budget SSDs hover around $90-$100 with some sales dropping the price down to about $80.
Otherwise, a 500 GB or 1TB 7200 RPM drive should give acceptable performance while saving you money and giving you more space. If you’re going to go solely with an SSD, it is a necessity to have a well-tested backup plan in the case of data loss. Of course, it is also good to backup a mechanical drive as well, but mechanical drives can sometimes signal an imminent failure before it is too late, so you don’t have to be as paranoid
Video card
About $10-$180
You’ll need one if you do anything graphically intensive(gaming, and to a lesser extent, Photoshop and other programs). Otherwise, you can forego it with no worries.
Really cheap video cards are generally very weak. Anything under $50 means you’re getting a weak card. (Edit 6/15) These cards are not worth it over an APU.
Anything over a 7850 or GTX 650 Ti Boost is probably impossible to fit into a budget build.
To get some sense on how much GPU performance is there, it is important to know the nomenclature of the parts. Not only is it important to know the generation, but it is also important to know what “tiers” of performance the card is in. The latter is important because a high tier card from a recently old generation might still perform better than a lower tier card from the new generation.
For recent Radeon HD cards, the far left number indicates the generation and the 2nd number from the left indicates which performance tier it is in. For Nvidia, the far left number indicates generation and the middle number indicates tier. A addition of “Ti” indicates a higher level of performance than the non-Ti version. A “Boost” in the name indicates even higher level of performance, but these are still not more powerful than “one number up”, i.e a GTX 650 Ti Boost is weaker than a GTX 660.
PSU
Price range: About $20-$50
There are a lot of cheap PSUs out there. Many are crappy, but some provide solid performance. Hopefully, this helps sift some of the wheat from the chaff.
PSUs can be bad because they take out the rest of your components when they finally do die, or their noise/ripple control is not very good, poor voltage regulation, quick deaths, have parts explode or burn when overstressed, or they fail to pull their labelled wattage. Omissions or use of weak parts internally can lead to the aforementioned macroscopic flaws; other times, manufacturing error makes a unit a dud.
Pay attention to the warranties. Those with one year warranties are correlated with the crappy manufacturers.
The bad
Anything made by Logisys, Diablotek, Raidmax, or Coolmax is bound to be crappy. I don't think Azza or Apex are all that good either, but this is only speculation on my part.
PSUs that come with some cases are also likely to be poor performers.
So-so performers
Cooler Master’s “Elite Power” line are mediocre performers. They are better than the crap tier, but not wow units.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-power-supply-rs460psarj3
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Elite-Power-460-W-Power-Supply-Review/1005
Solid performers
Corsair CX430 (now on version 3) is often on rebate and its previous versions were well-received by reviewers. http://pcpartpicker.com/part/corsair-power-supply-cmpsu430cxv2
Antec’s VP-450 is also a good unit, again received well by Gabriel Torres of Hardware Secrets.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-vp450
If you want Seasonic, the SS-300ET, SS-300ES, or SS-350ET is available. Most budget rigs won’t pull more than 200w at the components(not at the wall) and hence using these lower wattage units won’t be an issue.
Ones I'm not sure about
Thermaltake’s TR2 line could refer to many different PSU families because Thermaltake keeps on using the same name for each new family, which makes things confusing.
This particular one seems to be of an older design, since it has the switch for switching between 120V and 240V.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=
Also, are Sparkle units are ok?
Case
I actually don’t know much about cases. Cooling, noise control, USB 3.0 in the front panels, and other things are things to consider. The NZXT 210 Source Elite seems to be a decent performer.
Optical drive
Price range: About $17
There are some sub-$20 drives available. An optical drive is super cheap($15 - $18), but you may be better served getting an external one for versatility. They are essentially a commodity. There will be some lemons, but I don’t think there is much difference between brands
OS
Windows 7 Home Premium OEM edition goes for about $89-$95. Seems like Microsoft removed the documentation that said buyers couldn't install the OEM version without then selling it to a third party, so I think you can get these things with impunity. If you need 32 GBs of RAM or some more advanced features, the Windows 7 Professional OEM version is available for about $40 more than the Home Premium OEM version.
Last edited:
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