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TechSpot's Budget PC Buying Guide

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On August 8, 2006, 4:42 AM

After an overlong hiatus, TechSpot is proud to return the Buyers' Guide this month! There are lots of exciting goodies to talk about, some of which are already out there: the new Core 2 chips have blasted away AMD’s hold on the performance market, DX10 GPUs are just over the horizon, the Windows Vista public beta, and countless others. A lot has changed since the last update, so this will be a huge change from our last article.

In this guide, we will help you build the definitive budget PC. The price range for this is between $600 and $1000, so there isn’t a lot of wiggle room, but we promise you an excellent PC. While trying to keep as close to the low end of the budget as possible, we have included areas to upgrade certain elements for better performance (at a higher cost). So without further introduction, let’s build a computer…



Read the complete guide here.

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  1. August 16, 2006 5:29 PM
    YosefM said:
    While I agree with most of the choices, I have to heartily disagree with the choice of the ASRock Dual VSTA MB. Intel's BOXD946GZISSL (946GZ NB) and Gigabyte's GA-945P-S3 (Intel 945P NB) are just under $100 and current revisions support both 805D & T6300 CPU. Both these CPUs are good OCers, but the ASRock board isn't up to the task. True, you need to go to PCI-e & DDR2, but by adding the compatibility with legacy components, you give up too much performance. Besides, if you don't have a relative to hand your old rig down to, load it with Linux for a play box
    Reply
  2. August 23, 2006 12:27 PM
    Rage_3k_Moiz said:
    There's an error in this guide. The price for the Core 2 Duo should read as $200 not $100.
    Reply
  3. October 7, 2006 10:52 AM
    Captaincranky said:
    Newbie, first post,here,goes; As of this writing, Intel E6300 is down to $180.00. Intel's new G965 series boards have a new onboard graphics processor, plus 6 or 8 channel sound, sata{x4) and pci-e (x1) They are priced in the $120.00 range.Could we muddle through (for a while anyway) with onboard sound & graphics in the trade off for a much higher performance mother board? After all they are designed with the Core 2 Duos in mind. Also Antec sells B-Stock cases W/PS units (Smart Power 2.0), brand name at generic prices. Although I personally get hammered on the shipping.(UPS CA to PA)
    Reply

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