Hardware Revolution

Welcome back for the 2nd part of 5(at least!) updates series of gaming computers. After doing the Student or on a strict budget? Meet the $400 gaming computer! system yesterday, today I’ll be updating the popular A gaming computer for 500$?! You bet! with the v3.0 today.

What I’ve done for this computer is that I took a second look at yesterday’s build, as I liked it and I think that it’s an excellent platform that can be improved upon.

As I was riding my bike to the Sennheiser repair shop this morning, to get my friend’s PX100 headphones fixed, I thought about what could be improved on the $400 build with an extra $100. The first thing that I thought of was the video card.

While the 8800GT is an excellent card for recent games, it’s starting to show its age. It just won’t cut it on higher resolutions or with AA/AF turned on. My guess was that I could replace it with a Radeon HD 4850 without spending much more.

Then I thought that 2GB of RAM will limit you with some games, especially if you plan on using Vista. So I decided to upgrade that to 4GB. I figured that it shouldn’t cost too much to upgrade that either.

Finally, the one thing that bothered me about the $400 computer was its small hard drive, at 160GB. While it’s enough for most gamers, 160GB is not much for some of us and it’s a tight fit. It’s just good to have a lot of space! I took a good look at hard drives prices yesterday, so I knew that an upgrade to 320GB, which is twice the storage, was relatively cheap.

Want to know what happened at the Sennheiser repair shop? My friend’s PX100 wire was cut in two. I tried fixing it myself at home, to no avail. So I took them out of my bag, explained the situation to the technician. He took a quick look at the headphones broken wires then looked at me a mere second before turning his back to me.

He took the headphones and simply threw them in garbage. Okay…He then went in the back store and came back with a brand new pair, in retail package and puts them on the counter. Uhh yeah, I only wanted you to repair them, not buy a new pair, which retails close to $100.

He explained to me that it was early, that he couldn’t be bothered to do the reparation on such tiny wires with a very hot solder iron and that were cheap for the company anyway. He also added that he liked my attitude so it was okay. I was delighted by that and after signing a form; I was off with a pair of brand new Sennheiser PX100. No need to say that my friend was more than happy as well!

Alright, let’s get to the computer:

The computer parts:

CPU: Same as yesterday, the Intel Pentium E5200 makes a comeback today. Based on the Wolfdale core, running at 2.5GHz and with 2MB of cache, it’s a great processor for gaming, while being fairly inexpensive.

As I mentioned yesterday, the E5200 at stock runs on a 200MHz front side bus, with a 12.5X multiplier and is manufactured on a 45nm process. That means that this chip will overclock very easily, even on stock cooling!

Motherboard Here, I was looking for an inexpensive motherboard, which supported the new Wolfdale processor, dual-channel DDR2 800MHz ram, offered some overclocking headroom and was reliable.

Featured in many of my budget builds, the GIGABYTE GA-EG31M-S2 Motherboard makes a comeback in this system. It’s a great motherboard, which answers all of your needs and most importantly, it’s reliable! It’s considered the best G31 motherboard by many, including myself.

According to gigabyte, it officially supports FSB 1600 through overclocking, which mean that this motherboard won’t limit your cpu overclock, as you’re starting to overclock at FSB 800. Which mean that you can go up to 5.00GHz on your E5200 before your motherboard may limit your overclock. Quite frankly, your cpu will be the limit here.

RAM: This is a nice upgrade from yesterday’s build and from the previous $500 gaming computer, as you now get 4GB of RAM, in the form of a WINTEC 2X2GB DDR2 800 Dual Channel Kit .

This will improve your performance in games, especially if you use Vista. If you don’t and have 4GB of RAM or more, I urge you to upgrade to Vista 64 bits, as previous OS (XP and prior) and was as regular 32 bit edition of Vista will limit you, as you won’t be able to use more than 3-3.4GB of memory on your system.

Video Card A vast improvement over the $400 gaming system and a comeback from the previous edition of the $500 gaming system, the Radeon HD 4850 512M Video Card is the masterpiece of this gaming computer.

Faster and cheaper than the 9800 GTX, it’s dominating in its price range, with only the GTX 260 as a contender, but a more expensive one.

This time, the hard drive was not cut in order to reduce prices. Instead, we are going with a brand new SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 320GB 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive with 16MB of cache. With 320GB, twice the 160GB of the $400 build; you should have plenty of space for all your multimedia content along with your games.

Case: For the case, what I wanted was:

• That it came with a power supply that would be able to feed all the components
• That it would be inexpensive
• That it would have enough space for all the computer parts.

Featured in many of my budget builds, the HEC 6C28BBX585 Case is making a comeback in this build again.

Finally, you’ll need an optical drive if you want to install your games from CDs and DVDs and I’m sure that you don’t mind spending a few more dollars to have the possibility to burn such CDs and DVDs right? Especially if you’re a fan of BitTorrent software

Of course, you rather have one with SATA connections, as PATA is getting outdated and might not be present on future motherboards when you choose to upgrade. By choosing SATA connections, you’ll keep your airflow optimal, with thin cables and you’ll be future proof, so you can keep your DVD burner in the future.

Reliable, fast and inexpensive, the SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner is my choice here.

Optional Components:

Starting this week, I am listing other components that you may need or want for this computer system. Rest assured, these are optional and are not required if you already have your own similar parts or don’t need them.

Operation System: Every computer needs an OS and Linux is not an option for a gaming PC, at least not for now. Seeing as you’ll be using 4 Gb of RAM, I urge you to go with Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit here, to make sure that you can fully use your 4GB of RAM.

Monitor: As we are using a more powerful video card in this build, I’m suggesting a 22″ monitor, with a 1680×1050 resolution and a 5ms reaction time. Anything bigger will have a resolution too high for the 4850 to handle properly. Here’s my suggestion: Acer Black 22″ 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor HDCP

After-market CPU Cooler: If you decide to overclock your cpu, I highly recommend that you get an after-market heatsink/fan combo, along with some high-quality thermal paste. Why? They will help you reach much higher speeds than if you stick to the stock Intel cooler, which will do a correct job at cooling a stock cpu but isn’t designed to handle the extra heat output from overclocking and raising voltage.

The ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm CPU Cooler is my recommendation here, as it’s in the same league as the Tuniq Tower, but won’t break your motherboard due to excessive weight and it comes with a 120mm, which is nearly silent on the low settings and is powerful on the high setting.

Don’t forget high quality thermal, which will fill the miniscule gap between your cpu and your heatsink, to ensure maximum thermal transfer and lower cpu temperatures. Put all the odds on your side if you want a great overclock! Here’s my suggestion: The ARCTIC COOLING MX-2 , which is known as one of, if not the best thermal paste widely available on the market. Superior to Arctic Silver 5, while being not conductive!

Keyboard: While playing long gaming sessions, which can last several hours, comfort makes all the difference. A cheap keyboard will not cut it, as you’ll feel pain and won’t be comfortable and that will reduce your ability to dominate your enemies.

Wired for instant reaction time, ergonomic for a long utilization comfort, the Logitech Wave Keyboard is my suggestion here.

Mouse: The one device that can make a gaming session a pleasure or a disaster, as a gamer you can’t afford to skip on a good mouse. Wired for optimal reaction time, optical for quick and precise movements and with an excellent design for comfort of use, the Logitech MX518 Wired Optical Mouse is a mouse renown by gamers worldwide. Many of my gamers friends use it and love it.

Speakers and headset: Quality sound will make all the difference when you play games, especially as you can hear where your enemy is coming from, which will help you react faster. Some of us use speakers all the time, but when silence is required, you’ll have to rely on a good headset. Here are a few suggestions:

For simple and inexpensive speakers, that I can easily recommend, as I bought a pair for a friend of mine and found them so good for the price that I bought myself a pair as well, go for the Logitech X-140 2.0 Speaker

If you’re looking for something that had more punch, along with a dedicated subwoofer, I suggest these: Logitech Z-4 2.1 Speaker

Finally, the headset, for when silence is required. Sennheiser is a brand that I stick with, for sound quality, high fidelity mic and reasonable price. The PC35 are in my opinion your best choice for you.

Let me resume this computer for you, with every part and its price:

Components	Part model	$USD Price
CPU	Intel Pentium E5200	$84.49
Motherboard	GIGABYTE GA-EG31M-S2 Motherboard	$52.99
RAM	WINTEC 2X2GB DDR2 800 Dual Channel Kit	$55.99
Video Card	Radeon HD 4850 512MB Video Card	$169.99
Hard Drive	SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 320GB 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive	$54.99
Optical Drive	SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner	$22.99
Case	HEC 6C28BBX585 Case	$54.99
Total price	Entire Computer System	$496.43

Conclusion: What’s your opinion on this computer system? I think that it will be a great gaming computer for those of you who are on a budget and still want to play video games with some eye candy! I think that I did a fine job, but do you think you could do better? I challenge you to do so. If you think that you could improve this computer, while keeping the price under $500, let me know how you would do it in the comment section. After all, there’s a reason why this is called a custom computer.

Did you like this computer build? Would you like to see more computer systems? Head over to the Computer Systems page right now!

Do you have any requests for me, to build a computer just for you? Contact me
and it will be my entire pleasure to assist you!

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