So you want to play PC games, and can't spend your rent money on a rig? Don't worry, we've got your back
Gamers don't always have a ton of money to spend on a machine, so we designed the Budget Gamer to get the most bang for the buck. Make no mistake, though: This machine would still make a handsome addition as a Steam Machine or HTPC for the seasoned enthusiast.
So, what makes this machine a "budget" PC? First, we set out to create a machine with a price target of about $800. Some may note that that's still more than twice the price of an XBox One ($350). But you can't edit photos, write an essay, or upgrade the video card in an XBox One, can you? Didn't think so. In addition, this machine allows you the freedom to pick between Windows, SteamOS, and desktop Linux.
As always, we have to give up some features to fit within our budget constraints. That compromise doesn't make a build any less fun, however. Trying to piece together a rig with a budget in mind adds to the challenge. And we like challenges.
So, without further ado, here's what we put together:
Prices reflect in-cart prices at time of procurement. Prices and availability are subject to change.
The build holds back in a couple of areas and pushes forward in others. Let's take a look at what was running through our heads when we built this compact rig.
CPU
For budget builds, we often end up going with AMD CPUs or Intel's Core i3 line. The CPU we went with—the i5-4590—is a little more powerful than an i3 we'd normally enlist. It also isn't the most powerful i5 out there. The i5-4690K would offer more power and overclocking capability, but at our budget point, we had other priorities in mind.
One advantage to having a good but relatively modest i5 is that we don't have to worry too much about cooling. With overclocking out of the picture, there's no need for a super-beefy air cooler like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo, let alone closed-loop water cooler. With our preference for mini-ITX in this build, a beefy cooler simply wouldn't do anyway. The predictable 4590 lets us get away with using (gasp!) a stock heatsink and fan, which is perfectly adequate in this situation.
For the AMD fans who may wonder why we went with Intel this round, it's due to the power. We tried to go with a smaller power requirement to save money both for the build, and for the utility bill. Additionally, AMD processors do tend to put out a little more heat, and in the cramped space, air flow is a severe challenge. There's no room for an after-market cooler in our chosen case, so the i5 has to do.
GPU
For the video card, we went with EVGA's implementation of the GTX 960. This particular model, the 04G-P4-3962-KR, is a short model, which is perfect for mini-ITX builds.
The GTX 960 places this build far behind our ridiculously powerful zero point, but still fares well in 1080p gaming. For most games, at respectable settings, the GTX 960 will serve you well.
In this build, the $220 price tag for the GPU put us just over half of our target budget, when combined with the $200 CPU. That means compromise in other places, but we were still able to squeeze some performance juice from other areas.
Motherboard
Asus's Z97I-Plus was a good choice for us in this build, even if the board was a bit pricey considering we had less than $400 left in our target budget.
The BIOS on this board allows for overclocking and has the standard tweaking and configuration features you'd expect from a performance board. It also comes with a mini-PCIe slot preloaded with a 802.11ac Wi-Fi card. For those who plan on using this itty-bitty rig in the living room, the 802.11ac is a welcome feature. The antenna is kind of neat too: It has a magnetic base, so once you mount the antenna to the case or another metal surface, it won't move until you want it to.
Everything Else
One big thing some builders may notice is the lack of an SSD, and this was intentional. With this slim budget, we had already spent the majority of our funds on the CPU, GPU, and mobo. As a result, we were left with a choice between an SSD's speed or an HDD's capacity. We went with capacity. For an HDD, the WD Black is plenty speedy. There is a noticeable speed difference from stepping down from an SSD. If you've got a spare $100, we'd definitely recommend picking up a small-capacity SSD for the OS and a game or two.
The PSU comes from Newegg's house brand, Rosewill. If you've ever shopped at Costco, Rosewill is to Newegg what Kirkland Signature is to Costco. Don't let the store-brand fool you: Rosewill makes some solid components, and this PSU is 80 Plus Gold certified for power efficiency. While its not as long as EVGA's five- or 10-year warranties of the SuperNOVA line of PSUs, Rosewill's three-year warranty gives us plenty of peace of mind to go with this 500W PSU.
As far as RAM goes, we went with 8GB of Corsair's Vengeance line. It's pretty standard at 1,600MHz, but we went with this over typically inexpensive G.Skill because of the lower price for the same speed, capacity and timings.
Speaking of the case, the Cooler Master Elite 110 is a compact, no-BS case that works well, even if it is more of a challenge to build into. With out GPU, there's still room for two HDDs up top and an SSD or two on the side, if you like. If we had to choose though, we'd stick an SSD up top and forgo another HDD so that the GPU gets as much air is possible. Space is already tight in this chassis.
The tight space allows for a really small form factor, and an unassuming front only features the glow of the Cooler Master logo, which doubles as the power button. Front USB connections and a reset switch are on the side, making the case subdued enough for the entertainment center.
Benchmarks
So, how did this PC fare in our array of benchmarks? We pit it against our desktop zero-point PC, which uses a 5960X CPU, three GTX 980s, and 16GBs of RAM. And it's safe to say, the zero point left this machine in the dust.
The i5 couldn't keep up with the 5960X in multi-threaded benchmarks, nor could the GTX 960 put up a fight with the trio of GTX 980s. On the other hand, benchmarks indicate that gaming at 1080p should be well within playable range, which was the aim of the build anyway.
Outside of the graphics benches, the little quad-core did quite well in the computational tasks in ProShow Producer and Stitch. Both of these benchmarks are single-threaded, so the stock-clocked 5960X wasn't a whole lot faster in those applications. Video encoding in the X.264 benchmark really makes use of all the cores. Since the i5 has half of the cores of the zero point's i7, there's no wonder that the Budget Gamer's performance was about half in the benchmark.