Introduction

There are many of us out there who can not afford a nice shiny new $1,000 computer. For those who fit in this category, read on! As any system builder will tell you, if you think smart you can still build a nice computer with a limited budget. This is very true, but always remember don't sacrifice quality for price. There are some products out there that may be cheaper now, but will cost you in the long run. This is especially true with the power supply. A bad power supply could potentially destroy every component in your system, and thus cost you lots of more money to replace everything, instead of just going with a good brand from the start. Today I will try to assemble a gaming PC, armed with only $400. Is it possible? We will find out right now!

The CPU

The CPU is often considered the "brains" of a computer. This is because all of the things your computer does all trace back to this single chip. Picking a good chip is essential in building a system. Buy one with too little power and you'll be starving out your graphics card. On the other hand if you buy one with too much power you are just wasting its potential on everything else. Sometimes it is hard to find that balance, but I feel that AMD has provided us with the perfect balance. Ever since AMD has introduced the Phenom II there has been great emphasis on a budget system, and expandability. Currently there is a wonderful upgrade path for the newer AM2+ boards, even the ability to run a Phenom II in them. The expandability of the platform is unparalleled in today's computer world. 

This is exactly why you have to look at the AMD platform, and I have chosen the brand new AMD X2 7750. It is a little lower clocked than its big brother, the X2 7850, but with a simple BIOS option this CPU can run at the same speed. This may seem a bit daunting to new users, but it is quite simple. In the BIOS there should be an option called "CPU ratio" or something similar. All you have to do is increase it to 14, and your there! This CPU also has some head room, with the ability to get to about 2.9 - 3.0 ghz on stock voltage with the stock cooler. The advantage of the new Kuma core over the older X2's is apparent in many tasks, such as gaming and video encoding. This is due to its K10 architecture, compared to the K8 of the older X2's.

With 2mb of L3 cache, you can be sure that you'll always have plenty for an intense game, or long hours of making videos. The core speed also is pretty fast for the normal user, and with its ability to overclock, you can easily increase the speed more, via its unlocked multiplier, and for only $65 (-$5 rebate in the cart) its a heck of a deal.

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The CPU Cooler

This part may seem pretty easy. You may just say, "Oh I will just use the cooler in the box." I am here to say that it is not such a good idea. While the stock cooler is fine and dandy for stock speeds, if you increase the speed of the CPU much higher the stock cooler quickly becomes overwhelmed. While many of you may not be seasoned overclockers, it is very easy to put a minimal overclock on your CPU to get just that much more out of it. Then you may ask, "Isn't this going to cost a lot more?" No it does not have to cost a lot more. There are plenty of cheap coolers out there that perform better than the stock AMD cooler.

The one thing you want to remember when picking up an aftermarket cooler, is don't be too cheap. There is a difference between being extremely cheap, and being somewhat cheap. Always stick to well known manufacturers, like Zalman or Artic. If you follow these basic guidelines you'll have yourself a pretty decent cooler for a reasonable price. Also remember, size matters. The larger fan the heat sink has the better it is. This is because a cooler with a larger fan has much more surface area, increasing the area that the cooler can dissipate heat.

This is exactly why I have went with a well known manufacturer, Artic, with the Alpine64 92mm. This may be one of the smaller coolers out there, but it will easily handle a Phenom quad core no problem, so it should have no problem cooling a dual core, and with a price of only $10.30 its almost unbeatable.

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The Motherboard

What good is that fancy new CPU without a motherboard to complement it? Not good at all to say the least. The Motherboard really brings everything together. You plug in everything from your CPU to your graphics card straight into the motherboard, which acts as a "mother" by collecting all of the other scattered components together into one large path of circuits. Since this is a budget build, the options for motherboards are slim. You are going to be wanting one that will support future CPU's for one. This means you will have to look long and hard at the different chipsets out there. I would suggest an AMD chipset, not because they are the maker of the CPU, but because recently AMD has mounted a comeback in this segment, and has been able to beat Nvidia, the previous leader of AMD chipsets.

When your faced with a budge, you have to cut somewhere. This is one of the areas where I felt cutting was due. This did not affect my motherboard manufacturer. I picked Foxccon, one of the top motherboard manufacturers. The chipset is where I had to make a cut. While it would have been nice to buy a top of the line 790FX, on a budget this isnt possible. Instead I have decided to go with the 740G chipset. This is AMD's budget minded board. With PCIE support, you can be sure you will be able to add a powerful graphics card. This motherboard also has good quality onboard sound, so you do not have to buy a separate sound card to enjoy your games.

Bundle this all together with DDR2 support, onboard video just in case, and a list of features, the Foxconn 740G motherboard is a great pickup for a budget system.

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The RAM

While a computer is running, many things have to be stored for quick access. The harddrive really does not have enough speed to be capable of quickly spitting its contents to the CPU, and often lags behind. This is why RAM is an essential part of the computer. RAM has the ability to quickly store information, and spit it out as soon as it is needed, much faster than the hard drive can. The more RAM you have in a system, the faster it will be. After a certain point you don't really see the difference, that is why it is important to find the perfect balance of price and size.

The one part of the computer that many times has been overlooked is the RAM. There are many brands out there that are cheap, and do not provide much quality control. If you bought one of these cheaper RAM kits, then you are stuck with RAM that will die sooner than if you would have just paid the extra money instead of cheaping out. Another area you can get tripped up in is memory speed. Don't be fooled by the low price of a 533 Mhz DDR2 kit. That is quite slow RAM. As far as price to performance ratio, I would recommend a good kit of DDR2 800 Mhz or higher for best results.

This is why I have chosen to go with the OCZ Platinum 4 GB RAM kit. This is a 1066 Mhz memory kit, which gives you a perfect balance of speed, capacity, and price. This 4 GB kit is only $48 to boot, making the kit all that more appealing.

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The Hard drive

The hard drive, can be considered the memory bank. Its whole purpose is to store information for long amounts of time. Unlike the RAM, the harddrive does not loose its information if the computer is turned off. It is permanently etched in what is called a platter. This platter holds all of the information, and some hard drives even have multiple platters, that allow them to hold even more data. The interface of the hard drive also plays an important role in the speed of data transfers. The new phenomenon, SSD (Solid State Drive) are all the rage, but with limited storage, and a high price tag these are only for enthusiasts. The only real option for a budget builder is the good old SATA II. This interface provides plenty of speed, and storage space.

Not only does SATA II provide a great combination of speed and storage, it aslo happens to be the industry standard. SATA has replaced IDE as the industry standard for the hard drive due to SATA haveing much faster transfer times than IDE. One disadvantage of SATA is you can only plug in one device per plug This is technically a plus for the format in transfer times, as IDE can only transfer from one device at a time. Meaning that if you are reading something from an IDE disk drive then it will take double the time to put it on a  IDE drive on the same cable.

This is why I have chosen the Western Digital Caviar SE16 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive. This drive has the perfect balance of speed and capacity for only $60!

Link to the Hard drive

The PSU

 The power supply is not only the supplier of power to the computer, it is the part of the computer that many times is recycled from computer to computer. In this way it serves as the backbone of your computer, and certainly we wouldn't be getting very far without one! Rails are what make up a power supply, and not the kind that trains travel on. The rails carry different voltages of power. These different voltages are required, because many components require different voltages to run. Fans take 12 volts, same with graphics cards, and hard drives take a SATA connector, which supplies 3.3, 5, and 12 volts of power. The Molex connector carries 5 and 12 volts, and so on.

When looking for a PSU, you should always first look at the brand. Don't ever buy some unknown companies PSU just because it happens to be $10 cheaper than the one offered by a well known company. That $10 you save, could cost you more than $400 later on if it decides to fry all of your components. The next thing to look at is its efficiency. The more efficient a power supply is, the more you will save in the long run from energy costs. This may seem like a small amount now, but over time it really adds up.

This is why I have decided to go with the Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 500 watt PSU. This PSU has over 70% efficiency, but unfortunately lacks the extra few percent to get the 80 Plus bronze rating. Non the less, it is a great quality PSU for just $40.

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The GPU

The graphics processing unit, GPU for short, is a chip similar to a CPU. Where a CPU may have only 2 or 4 cores, a GPU has many more, sometimes even over 500. Each of these "cores" processes information to display what you see on your screen. Since games take advantage of the multiple graphics cores, a graphics card that has more will be better, unless its clocks are much lower than another card with fewer cores. An example is the HD 4870, which has 800 cores, while the GTX260 (a similar card) only has 216. The GTX260 is able to keep up with the HD 4870 because of its higher core clocks. The best way to tell how a card performs is to look in its price range. ATI and Nvidia cards of similar performance will cost around the same price.

To really enjoy a game you need a graphics card that has the power to turn all of the graphics options up. While the ideal card may be out of your price range, there are plenty of cards that offer a lot of bang for your buck. You want one that has enough bandwidth to play games in higher resolution, but also a lot of stream processors (cores) to process the game, thus giving you better performance. You also want to look at a manufacturer. There are companies out there that will give you a much better warranty than the other guys out there. The best company is XFX, which is why we are going with them on this budget build.

We have picked the XFX 9600 GSO! This card has 96 stream processors, and enough memory bandwidth, and memory to easily blaze through your games. With a price of only $76, with a $20 MIR, this card is unmatchable.

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The Disk Drive

The disk drive is often an over looked peice of hardware. I have to agree here, there is really no need to shop too carefully for one. Their only function is to instal your OS, and a few games, and then be left to rot away in your PC. If you have some extra money this may be a good place to invest in a Blu-Ray disk drive so you wont have to upgrade in the futur, but for most of us your standard DVD drive will do just fine until Blu-Ray prices fall further.

Today we have picked the Asus 22x DVD burner drive as the perfect companion to your computer. With a price tag of only $24 it is a very cheap component in the computer, but a needed one.

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The Fans

While it may seem like something un-needed, but a fan can really help a case lower its temperature. This is a great thing to buy if you happened to have bought a case with only one fan. A single exhaust in the back of the case can really make a difference, but an intake cooling off your hard drive can help keep your components running longer. A better back fan also helps improve airflow throughout the case, further cooling down those hot components.

You don't want a fan that is too loud, however you don't want one that doesn't blow hardly any air. This is why I have chosen the Xigmatek XSF-F1251. This fan moves 72 CFM of air, which is a lot, while being under 24 dBA. Chances are you wont ever hear the fan with it being that quiet.

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The Case

The computer case can either be something to just hold your computer, or a bit of an art form.  I have a friend who loves to customize his case, and it is a really cool thing to do yourself. A mod can be something as simple as cutting a new hole for a fan, or doing some great cable management. A mod can also be more serious, such as cutting a hole in the side of the case for a window, or rigging up the whole inside of the case to be UV reactant. You should also look at the materials before you make a purchase. A case made of steel may be heavier, but it will be much more sturdier than one made of aluminum.

Today we are on a budget, and with budget comes sacrifices. While it may be cool to own a case such as the Cooler Master HAF922, we have to be practical. This is why I have selected the Rosewill R222-P-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case. This case is made of steel, which means it wont bend and break like an aluminum case will. This case only has one fan, which is why the other fan was recommended. I would replace the back fan of this computer case with the picked out fan and put the included case fan as an intake for the hard drive bay.

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Conclusion

Some may say that it really cant be done. Many are not beleivers that a budget PC can be built for the same price ase a console, and be able to play games just as well. This is obviously not true. This machine in theory is much better than a console, since the current generations of consoles are based off off the ATI 1900 and Nvidia 7000 series cards. You also have to think of the added benefits of a computer. You can do many things such as encode DVD's, download updates for yoru MP3 player, or just talking to friends. The PC can do many things that a normal console just can not do. This gives it added value, even if it may sometimes cost more than a console. As many people have said, you get what you pay for. While this may not be the best computer ever, as stated before, you get what you pay for, but in the end this is a really great deal that will do what ever you ask of it.