Budget system - November 2006
Budget system
Looking for the best all-round performance for a low price? Check out our budget configuration.
Configuration
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AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ | Processors |
| When Intel introduced the Pentium D 805 they were the first manufacturer to offer budget dual core processer, which naturally made the 805 an ideal choice for a budget system. AMD has now released a processor for the same segment, the Athlon 64 X2 3600+, that offers a better perfomance at only a slightly higher price. This month we chose the X2 3600+ for our budget system, it operates at 2.0 GHz and has 2x 512 kB L2 cache. | ||
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AMD Boxed Cooler | CPU coolers |
| The boxed cooler that comes with the X2 3600+ is sufficient for our system, it keeps the CPU at a good temperature and is reasonably quiet. | ||
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1 GB (2x 512 MB) DDR2-667 | Memory modules |
| Even in a budget PC 1 GB of memory is not a luxury, especialy with Windows Vista on the way. We use 1 GB DDR2-667 for our system. | ||
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MSI K9N Platinum | Mainboards |
| MSI's K9N Platinum is a motherboard based on nVidia's nForce 570 chipset. We found this board to be fast, stable and with the new nVidia chipset it has suppport for up to 6 SATA-300 drives. We use the non-SLI version as in a budget system you will probably not use two graphics cards and it comes quite a bit cheaper than the SLI version. | ||
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ATI Radeon X1600 Pro 256 MB PCI-E | 3D chips |
| As a graphics cards we chose a card based on the ATI Radeon X1650 Pro chip. The card has enough power for all the latest games, and it offers the possibility to use FSAA with HDR Rendering. Because of ATI's AVIVO technology the card is also suitable to play video's in outstanding quality. The cards performance level is between nVidia's 7600 GS and GT cards, and so is it's price. If you purchase a version with 256MB of graphics memory your system will be ready for Windows Vista. | ||
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Multifunctional cardreader | Cardreader |
| An internal card reader is a cheap and very convenient addition to your computer; with the popularity of digital cameras it is very convenient when you can insert your memory cards directly into your PC. There is no point in including a 3.5" disk drive in a mid-range system nowadays. | ||
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Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 160 GB | Hard disks (internal) |
| For the budget system we choose a Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 hard disk with 160 GB capacity. Our tests prove that this drive combines great performance with a very reasonable price. | ||
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Click here for the detailpage of this product. |
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Samsung SH-S182D | Optical drives |
| The Samsung SH-S182 is one the first DVD writers that can write DVD discs at a maximum speed of 18x. According to our tests the avarage writing speed of this drive surpasses 13x. Only a few types of DVD+R and DVD-R discs can be written on this high speed, but the Samsung drive still proved to burn all other DVD+R and DVD-R discs we have tested at 16x. When we average all our benchmarks, the Samsung SH-S182 turns out to be the fastest DVD writer currently available. With an average quality score of 58.6 points in our tests, the drives performs better than most other DVD writers. To make your choice even easier, the price tag of the SH-S182 is very low, which means that the Samsung drive has an unbeatable price/performance ratio. | ||
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Click here for the detailpage of this product. |
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Creative Inspire P380 2.1 channel | Speaker sets |
| The Creative Inspire P380 is dirt cheap, but still offers very fair sound quality. Ideal for a budget PC. | ||
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Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110 | Keyboard and Mouse |
| The Logitech Cordless Desktop EX110 is an affordable combination of a great wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse. The quality is as you can expect from Logitech. | ||
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Samsung 940BF 19 inch | Monitors |
| Over the last months the price difference between 17 and 19 inch TFT's has virtually dissapeared, and the offering of 17 inch panels is getting less and less. That is why we choose a 19 inch model for the budget system, and the Samsung 940 BF is an excellent choice with its 2 ms response time. | ||
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Procase Zirco | Cases |
| The Procase Zirco casing combines a nice design with great ease of use, enough room for all your hardware and a very reasonable price tag. For the budget system we recommend the case together with a 350 W power supply. | ||
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Click here for the detailpage of this product. |
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3D chips
All-in-ones
Barebones
Case fans
Cases
CPU coolers
Game controllers
Graphics cards
Hard disks (external)
Hard disks (internal)
Keyboards
Mainboards
Memory cards
Memory modules
Mice
Monitors
Mouse pads
NAS devices
Notebooks
Optical drives
Power supplies
Powerline adapters
Printers
Processors
Routers
Servers
Sound cards
Speaker sets
Storage controllers
Systems
USB flash drives
Video card coolers
Webcams
