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Budget System Building Guide Summer 2006

Others/Miscelleneous by rutar @ 2006-08-23

Looking to upgrade your PC? Now would be a good time, with fast hardware available at affordable prices we take an in-depth look at how you can speed up your machine without breaking the piggy bank.

Enclosure, Powersupply and Casefans

Case/Enclosure:

ATX has been the standard for quite a while now, so chances are that you can re-use your current case if you have one. If you do want to splash out on a new box here are a few pointers:

Integrated PSUs: Interesting for those on a budget, but they might lack power for the overclocker or make too much noise to for the ?Silent Buyer?.

Casefans: For the Budget buyer, checking how many fans are supplied is important. Overclockers want space for at least 2x 120mm fans for good airflow and Silent Buyers want 120mm fans to help keep the noise down.

Lifetime: Since BTX was created to battle the heat generated by the Pentium Prescott (which have gone the way of the DooDoo) is no longer needed with Core 2, any ATX case bought today will last you a for years to come. With that information in mind, it is worth to pay a bit more for a decent case and the looks have to be chosen more carefully as you could end up being very un-trendy in 2 years with one of the ?bling bling? cases that are flooding the budget segment right now.

Quality: Costs have to get cut somewhere and this is usually the spot because it?s not possible to see when ordering online. If you like the cut metal parts being sanded down and rounded off properly, you might want to spend some more time researching and checking reviews as a few photos from that online shop don?t tell you everything.

Weight and size: Depending where the case will be and if it will get carried around a lot, it is worth looking at the differences between the cases. A medium tower should provide more than enough space for most buyers and getting a larger case can be impractical.

Madshrimps (c)

Lian-Li classic design offers good value for money

Recommendations:

For cases with integrated power supply (PSU), Antec, Coolermaster and Thermaltake provide good units and 50-100$ should be the budget for this type of case to get a decent PSU.

For the 75-100 $ range without PSU, Lian-Li provides very good cases with 2x 120mm fans (author owns one). It sounds expensive but here is why they are great value:

the quality is on a high level, clean cuts, no rough edges

made from aluminum, not plastic

no door, therefore no hassle when putting in a DVD

looks great, timeless design

low weight, easy to carry around

Power supplies (PSUs) :

If not already included in the case, the power supply is a very important component for stability and lifetime of the PC and a bad PSU can kill the entire PC if it dies. Taking the old PSU for the new PC requires a careful check whether it has all connectors, fulfils the required standards and has sufficient wattage.

The Budget Buyer has to watch the efficiency of the PSU as it affects his power bills. Cheap units can be expensive over 2 years because of their low efficiency.

The Overclocker should include enough headroom in the wattage to be able to max out his components.

For the Silent Buyer, the noise level is important but passive PSUs are no longer a must have due to silent fan units.

Modular PSUs: Those are power supplies which have cables that can be taken off; they improve airflow and keep the case tidy. A clear winner in this category cannot be found as many big brands provide modular PSUs that do not seem to have any flaws in reviews so feel free to ask in a hardware forum about a particular model you are looking at. For the wattage the values for the Seasonic below can be used.

Non-modular PSUs: The Seasonic S12 line is available at a lot of places, comes in a large range of wattages, has survived one of the largest stability tests (Tomshardware stress test), is quiet and has a very high efficiency. It is not one of the cheapest units, but I consider it to be the best value for all 3 types of users.

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Seasonic power supply line-up: efficient and reliable

For a low-end system without overclocking, the 330W model should be enough. A fast GPU (X1800XT, X1900XT) or an overclocked CPU with a midrange video card needs the 430W one. For overclocking a high-end system, the 500W version should be sufficient as well for a 7950 dual GPU card. If an overclocker thinks he will get one of the really power-hungry DX10 cards, the 600W S12 should be his choice.

There are plenty of alternatives to the Seasonic product line; online reviews from trustworthy sources can help you find out which ones are worth the cost.

For the overclockers this PSU guide will come in handy.

Silent Buyers will appreciate this listing which focuses on noise generation and efficiency.

Casefans and extras:

A fan controller can help the Silent Buyer to slow down loud fans.

Anti-vibration kits: Some cases have it integrated already and some fans come with it. For others there are rubber mounts that replace the screws or grommets that come between the case and fan.

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Soft fan mounts prevent fan vibration noise

This 120mm fan roundup should help when you want to buy new fans (smaller fans shouldn?t be bought new imho).

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