MaximumPC 2006 06

46 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2006

onth in and month out, we sing the praises of

all-out, overclocked rigs of destruction fi t for a

prince. And you love it
 And yet one of the most

common requests we get from readers is for

system confi gs that a pauper can afford. After all,

not everyone has the fi nancial means to build or buy a PC that

costs as much as some cars.

This month we put our heads together and came up with

the ultimate budget PCˆfor gamers. We set our budget crazy-

low: 1,000. Consider this rig a @tweener machine: It’s got what

it takes to play all of today’s current titles, including Quake 4,

Doom 3, FEAR, and Battlefi eld 2, at respectable frame rates

and resolutions, but it also provides plenty of room for upgrades

when next-gen games such as Crysis arrive late this year.

Building a budget PC is never easy, because you have

to make compromises something we bristle at, obvi-

ously   . The key to satisfaction is to identify the system’s

primary purpose, and then spend as much as you can to

bolster that one area of performance. Because we wanted

a gaming PC, videocard and CPU performance were par-

amount. We went with midrange products, but because

we chose a Socket 939, PCI Express motherboard, we’ve

got plenty of upgrade options. Moving from one to two

videocards is an obvious future step, and while AMD’s

top-of-the-line Athlon FX-60 costs 1,000 right now, by

the time we’ll need to upgrade, AMD will have moved

over to Socket AM2 and FX-60s will be more affordable.

Still, there’s no need to even discuss upgrades at this

time, as this machine can handle anything today’s game devs

throw at it. Read on for details of the full confi g, the bench-

mark numbers, and the other budget-minded components

we’d pair this rig with for a full PC build-out.

BY JOSH NOREM

M

onth in and month out, we sing the praises of ously . The key to satisfaction is to identify the system’s

BY JOSH NOREM

MM

THE

$ 1 , 000

GAMING

PC

'aming 0#s are UsUally lUdicroUsly eXpensive—BUt not this one.

/Ur hand-BUilt rig rips throUgh todays games and has plenty of

room for Upgrades all for the price of a single !thlon FX-60 #05

to make compromises something we bristle at, obvi- we’d pair this rig with for a full PC build-out.