Hardware Revolution’s $700 Gaming Build: Version 2.0
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The XFX Radeon 4890: The Video Card Featured in this Build
In the last three days, I have updated our Gaming PC Builds Designs, starting with Hardware Revolution’s $400 Gaming Build: Version 2.0 three days ago and Hardware Revolution’s $500 Gaming Build: Version 1.1 two days ago. Yesterday, I introduced the new Hardware Revolution’s $600 Gaming PC: Version 1.0.
Today, I’m updating the $700 Gaming Build. I’ll keep going at this for the next days/weeks, as I update all/add Gaming PC Builds. Needless to say, if you haven’t done so already, make sure to subscribe for free via RSS or E-mail to not miss the future posts.
If the fact that you’ll be receiving outstanding custom Gaming PC designs for free is not enough to convince you, here are 7 Reasons to Subscribe.
About the $700 Gaming Build:
What does this $700 Gaming PC offer?
- Solid performance: It will handle gaming, with modern titles, at a resolution up to 1920 x 1080 (1080p – Up to 22-25″ monitor)
- Quality and looks: An Antec Three Hundred Illusion case, offer a look that you can be proud of, and cooling that will keep your system cool and reliable, even after hours upon hours of gaming. The power supply is a solid Antec 550W and 32A on the 12V lines to handle the whole system without a problem.
- Easily upgradeable in the future, with:
- PCI-Express 2.0 slot for the video card.
- AM3 socket to support future AMD CPUs.
- DDR3 RAM.
- USB 3.0
- SATA 6Gb/s
What’s new in version (2.0) of the $700 Gaming Build compared to the previous version?
This version is much more balanced than the previous one, as it now offers a quad-core processor instead of a triple-core, has a motherboard that supports USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s and offers a case with much better cooling than before.
Computer Builds FAQs:
I often get questions such as:
- Who are you to tell me which parts to choose?
- Can you suggest me a step by step guide to build a computer?
- Why should I build a PC instead of buying one in a store?
- And many more…
You will find the answers to all of these questions and more in this article: FAQ: How to Build Your Own Computer
Also, if this is your first build, here are 10 Quick Tips for 1st Time Builders to get you started.
$700 Gaming computer hardware parts recommendations, short version:
- In Bold, you’ll find my recommendations, with a price that fits the overall budget.
- In Italic, you’ll find the best possible upgrades, that is the parts that offers the best bang for your buck.
- In simple terms, if you want a more powerful CPU or video card, pick it from the list of recommended upgrades that are in Italic.
- All upgrades are compatible with the rest of the system, as well as other upgrades, meaning that you can choose one or many upgrades without a problem.
- If upgrades just don’t cut it, visit the Gaming PCs page, where you’ll find our other gaming computer custom build designs.
Is this the right type of PC for me?
If you’re looking for a PC to play video games, you’re at the right place. If this is not what you’re looking for, check out our other Computer Systems instead.
About Gaming PCs:
Gaming Computers are all about playing video games. Every year, new video games that pushes the boundaries of visual effects are released and demand more and more power from your computer to run.
This is why our Gaming Builds Designs focus both on current performance for today’s games, as well as being ready to upgrade, to be ready to handle future games. For Gaming Builds Designs, the majority of the budget goes to the Video Card and the Processor to ensure high performance in video games, as well as a solid power supply with a case with good cooling abilities, to ensure reliability.
Upgrades will usually focus on the processor and video card for enhanced performance, as well as on the power supply and cooling, to enhance overclocking capabilities. You may choose to upgrade the hard drive for more capacity, or change the case to get one that matches your personal preferences, such as look, cooling, size, etc.
$700 Gaming Computer Hardware parts recommendations, detailed version:
Motherboard:
GIGABYTE GA-770TA-UD3: AM3 AMD 770 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX
A nice, solid motherboard, that is a full sized ATX motherboard based on AMD 770 chipset. However, this is a new edition that includes two USB 3.0 ports as well as two SATA 6GB/s ports.
Other than that, it features:
- Six USB 2.0 ports, two PS/2, two FireWire (One mini and one regular) , LAN, 8 channels HD audio and 1 x Optical, 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF outputs.
- PCI-Express 16X 2.0, two PCI-Express 1X and four PCI slots, six SATA 3.0 Gb/s ports and the usual IDE port, etc.
The AM3 socket, DDR3 RAM support, USB 3.0, SATA 6Gb/s ports and the PCI-Express 2.0 slot will make it last and be ready to upgrade in the future if you want to.
This board pretty much has everything that you could need, unless you want Crossfire of course. If that’s the case, check out the upgrades below:
Recommended upgrades:
- GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P: AM3 AMD 790X ATX Crossfire 8x/8x
- GIGABYTE GA-790XTA-UD4 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Crossfire 8X/8X
CPU:
AMD Athlon II X4 630 Propus 2.8GHz Quad-Core AM3 95W
The other contenders in the same price range would have been the Intel E7500 (Dual-core 2.8GHz 3MB L2 $120) or new Pentium G6950 (Dual-core 2.8GHz 3MB L2 $100). I picked the AMD Athlon II X4 630 over them for the following reasons:
- The AMD Athlon II X4 630 outperforms the much more expensive ($145) E7600 (133Mz faster than E7400) in four out of six and the G6950 in all of six benchmarks. Here are said benchmarks.
Recommended upgrades:
- AMD Phenom II X4 925 Deneb 2.8GHz Quad-Core 6MB L3 AM3 95W
- AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE Deneb 3.2GHz Quad-Core 6MB L3 AM3 125W
Video Card:
Radeon HD 4890 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 DirectX 10.1
The Radeon HD 4890 was AMD’s fastest single-GPU video card until the introduction of the new 5xxx series.
The Radeon 4890 supports DirectX 10.1 and it is perfect for gaming at 1680 x 1050 or at 1920 x 1080 (1080p), with most games. It also has a 1GB of memory buffer, to handle games such as GTA: 4.
Finally, it is HDCP Ready and will handle Blu-Ray and other 1080p content playback, with audio over HDMI as well, with most audio setup (2.1, 5.1, 7.1, etc.).
VS Nvidia video card:
The main competition from Nvidia at this price range is the Geforce GTX 275. Both cards perform on par, however, with its much higher price (It starts at $250, $55 more than the Radeon 4890), it is hard to recommend the GTX 275 these days.
Recommended upgrades:
Note that the Crossfire upgrades require a Crossfire compatible motherboard and power supply, which are not recommended by default in this system, but are available as upgrades.
- Two Radeon HD 4850 1GB DirectX 10.1
- Radeon HD 5850 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11
- The Radeon 5850 consumes WAY less power than two Radeon 4850. About 130W to be exact. Meaning that it will also be cooler and more silent.
- While the average FPS is comparable, the Radeon 5850 will usually offer higher minimum frame rates, which really makes a difference as when you’re facing a very busy scene where your video card(s) struggle, the two Radeon 4850 will offer slide show frame rates, while the Radeon 5850 will offer somewuhat acceptable frame rates.
- The Radeon 5850 offers DirectX 11 support for future games, while the Radeon 4850 are limited to DirectX 10.1.
- Finally, you can decide to add a second Radeon 5850 in the future if you want to, giving you to choice to easily upgrade, unlike with the Radeon 4850 in Crossfire
- Two Radeon HD 5770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 DirectX 11
RAM:
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 1.5V DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel
4GB of RAM is pretty much mandatory to handle the latest video games along with Windows and background background such as your anti-virus, web broswer, music/video player, etc.
Considering the price of RAM these days and the ever-expending memory use of games and programs, 4GB of high-speed DDR3 memory is a no-brainer.
I went with G.Skill for their high reliability and compatibility with the majority of motherboards. I chose these particular sticks as they only require the standard 1.5V to run at 1600MHz, resulting in lower power consumption, but more importantly, because they are user-friendly as they don’t require to increase the voltage for stock settings.
In my opinion, there is little incentive to move to faster frequency RAM, as it brings only a small performance increase (According to Tom’s Hardware ) for a much higher price. DDR3 1600MHz is the sweet spot, costing about the same as lower speed, offering good performance and overclocking headroom.
Note that the RAM will most likely not run at 1600MHz to begin with. This is normal, you need to adjust your BIOS settings to reach that speed.
Hard Drive:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 3.5″ 500GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
A standard SATA hard drive, that offers 500GB of storage, plenty enough to handle your video/music collection and all your games.
I went with Western Digital because their hard drive offers the highest reliability in my experience, being less prone to failure on average. The Blue Caviar series drives come with a 3 year warranty.
Recommended upgrades:
- Western Digital 640GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
- ($70) Get 140GB more for $14 more.
- Western Digital Caviar Black 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
- ($80) This is the first upgrade that offers more performance, thanks to a larger 32MB cache and the fact that this is the high-performance series from Western Digital, the Caviar Black. For $24 more, you get 250GB more, a tad more performance and a 5 years warranty instead of 3.
- W.D. Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
– ($100) Here you get a full 1TB of storage, along with the high-performance of the Caviar Black series and of course, the 5 years warranty.
Optical Drive:
LITE-ON Black 24X SATA CD/DVD Burner
This drive is able to read and burn CDs and DVDs. Silent, compatible with all major formats including DVD-RAM.
The motherboard includes two SATA cables (One will be used for the hard drive and one for this DVD Burner), so no need to worry about cables.
Also, seeing as DVD Burners are often go out of stock lately, here are a two alternatives that you can use to replace it. All are SATA based.
Case:
Antec Three Hundred Illusion – 3x 120mm 1x 140mm fans
Priced at $60, the Antec Three Hundred is a smaller version of the well known Antec Nine Hundred. This particular edition (Illusion) comes with three 120mm and one 140mm case fans, all of them on which you can adjust the speed.If you intend on overclocking, for an extra $20, this case will definitely help you lower your temperatures.
Recommended upgrades:
COOLER MASTER HAF 922 – 1x 120mm 2x 200mm fans – ($100) If you’re looking for a different look, or simply hate blue LEDs, have a look at Cooler Master HAF 922. It offers one 120mm fan as well as two massive 200m fans.
Antec Nine Hundred Two – 3x 120mm 1x 200mm fans - ($100) Following the massive sucess of the Nine Hundred, Antec brought out the Nine Hundred Two, an improved version. Offering nothing short of three 120mm fans (Two in front, one in the back) as well as a massive 200m fan on top
Power Supply:
Antec 550W Modular Active PFC
This power supply is capable of delivering up to 550W, not that should rely on this information only as I often point in posts such as Warning: 6 Surefire Ways of Blowing Up Your Computer Due to an Inadequate Power Supply, but more importantly 32A on the 12V line, the most important factor when it comes to choosing a power supply for a gaming computer.
One thing that I like about this power supply is that it’s modular, meaning that you only plug in the cables that you need, making for less of a mess in your case and a much easier cable management.
Power Consumption:
According to the eXtreme Power Supply Calculator, it is estimated that this system will consume at load (peak usage):
- 336W with the recommended Athlon II X4 630 and the Radeon 4890.
- 343W with the Phenom II X4 955 and the Radeon 5850 (Most powerful upgrades available in this build)
- 360W with the Phenom II X4 955 and Two Radeon 5770 in Crossfire.
- 366W with the Phenom II X3 955 and the Radeon 4890.
- 462W with an Phenom II X4 955 and Two Radeon 4850 in Crossfire. This is the worst case scenario.
This goes to prove how efficient these new Radeon 57xx cards are, especially compared to the older Radeon 48xx series.
The power supply will have no problem handling the default setup and most upgrades, except for the two Radeon 4850 in Crossfire, in which case you have to upgrade the power supply. If you get a single Radeon 5850 and may consider to add a second one in the future, you’re better off getting the power supply upgrade now than buying the less powerful one today and having to upgrade the power supply in the future.
If you choose to get two video cards for a Crossfire setup, you need to upgrade to a Crossfire Certified Motherboard and power supply.
Upgrades:
CORSAIR 650W CrossFire/80 PLUS Certified- This is what you want if you decide to go for dual Radeon 4850 Crossfire setup. Corsair power supplies are known for being some of the most reliable in the industry. With nothing short of 52A available on a single 12V rail, 80 PLUS certification, as well as 2 x 6+2-Pin PCI-Express power connectors, this power supply is ready to handle any upgrades in this build, as well as some overclocking.
Cooling: Stock cooling
To save on costs, I recommend using the cooler included with the CPU. While there are better coolers, the one that is included is good enough to handle the cpu under normal operation. The case includes cooling fans as well to help you keep your system cool.
However, there are two reasons why you may choose to upgrade your cooling system:
- To keep your computer components cooler, which in return extend their lifespan and allows you to overclock to higher speed.
- To keep your system silent, as the stock cooling can get noisy at times, especially during prolonged gaming sessions.
Alternatives:
- Cpu Cooler: If you have any intention of overclocking, I cannot stress enough the importance of a good cooler.The ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm CPU Cooler
- Thermal Compound: Use the ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 Thermal Compound
- Case cooling: You can add up at least one additional 120 mm fans in any of the case and I highly recommend that you add one on the side, to help keep your video card cool, but the best is to get two. If you’re on a tight budget and don’t mind a bit of noise at 29.3 dBA, the Rosewill 120mm Case Fan
Go for the Scythe 120mm “Slipstream” Case Fan
Sound Card: 8 channels sound card: Integrated on the motherboard
Integrated with the motherboard, this sound card will handle many different sound setups, including headphones, a microphone and more. While integrated audio on a PC used to be absolutely horrible, it has gotten much better in the last few years, thus why I have no trouble recommending it.
Network: Ethernet RJ-45 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN: Integrated on the motherboard
Integrated with the motherboard, this network adapter will allow you to access your local network and Internet.
Recommended operating systems:
The operating system cost, if there’s one, is not included in the total cost. The two reason for this are:
- The budget only considers hardware.
- You may be able re-use a previous license, go with an open-source OS such as Linux or , if you’re so inclined and are aware of what you’re doing, use torrents.
If you decide that you need a need OS, here are some recommendations:
Windows 7
Despite Linux gaining more and more support, Windows still is the platform of choice for compatibility at the moment. Considering that you’ll have 4GB of RAM or more, along with a dedicated video that also has memory (512MB or 1GB), you’ll need a 64-bit version, as 32-bit is limited to 4GB of memory for the entire system, which is not enough now, nor in the future if you decide to upgrade.
Windows 7 is by far better than Windows Vista, looks better, more functional, less annoying, consumes less resources and brings DirectX 11 to the table.
Three Available Versions:
- Windows 7 Home Premium: The basic edition, with all the looks, most of the functionality and DirectX 11.
- Windows 7 Professional: If you want the virtual XP mode, you’ll need at least the Professional edition. Also required if you want to backup to a network, using the built-in backup mode in Windows.
- Windows 7 Ultimate: To help protect data on your PC and portable storage devices against loss or theft with BitLocker and to work and switch between 35 languages.
OEM vs Retail:
The OEM version allows you to only install it once on a computer. You cannot transfer the license to another computer in the future and you do not receive support from Microsoft. It’s the same type of license you get when you get Windows on a desktop or laptop that you buy from Dell, HP and such. It’s less expensive, but gives less flexibility. Ideal if you intend on keeping your computer for many years.
The Retail version is the full version, which allows you to transfer the license to another computer in the future and you can call Microsoft if you need any form of support. Ideal if you intend on upgrading/changing your computer down the road.
Other than that, you get the same features on both, only the license differs. The price between the two differs obviously.
OEM Versions:
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM
- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OEM
- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OEM
Retail Versions:
- Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Retail
- Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Retail
- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Retail
Linux
A lot of people these days boots more than one OS. Linux is a wonderful choice: powerful, cool, and cheap. Take your pick of distributions and have fun! For Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware, and Mandrake, try Distrowatch.com, Cheapbytes.com, LinuxQuestions.org or one of the many others.
While Linux does not offer the wide compatibility of Windows with video games, gaming on Linux is still possible, through projects such as Wine, Cedega and Crossover. For more on the topic of Linux Gaming, I invite you to read this excellent article from AnandTech: Linux Gaming: Are we there yet?
What about Word processing, Excel and other Windows-based programs that you need? Linux being an open platform, there are many free alternatives that will answer your needs. For Word/Excel and such, try OpenOffice.
Cost: Free
Conclusion
What do you think of this version 2.0 of the $700 Gaming PC?
What about the new Gaming PC layout?
Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.
Building this system?
Do you need a guide on how to build a computer or do you have some questions?
Consult our: FAQ: How to Build Your Own Computer
Also, if this is your first build, here are 10 Quick Tips for 1st Time Builders to get you started.
Finally, if your newly built computer won’t start, I invite you to read Help me: Why won’t my newly assembled PC start or boot?
Don’t miss the new/updates to the Gaming PCs!
Make sure not to miss the next Gaming PC Builds that will be published in the next days/weeks by subscribe for free via RSS or E-mail. If the fact that you’ll be receiving outstanding custom Gaming PC designs for free is not enough to convince you, here are 7 Reasons to Subscribe.
