MaximumPC 2007 02

Building a budget PC is similar to modern politics—it’s nothing but compromise. You can’t drop in a

quad-core CPU and two GPUs to satisfy the power hungry without pissing off the penny-pinchers in the

caucus. It’s a game of horse-trading—megabytes and megahertz for dollars and cents—to achieve the

ultimate PC while keeping the fi scal conservatives happy.

Still, party politics plays a factor, and Maximum PC’ s Pure PC Power Party features a plank that

dictates that performance matters, even in these leaner times.

To keep the hardcore party members in the tent, we decided that our lean machine absolutely had

to—just had to—have DirectX 10 capability. That means a third of our budget went to the GPU—a trend

sure to anger advocates of a “fair and balanced” platform.

Indeed, building a DX10 box for $1,500 is an amazing feat of budgeting prowess. Never built a machine

before? Don’t sweat it! Turn the page to see how you can confi gure and build your machine to take advan-

tage of the next generation of games. Just follow our easy how-to guide and you’ll be sitting pretty when

Crysis and Supreme Commander ship.

BY GORDON MAH UNG

BUILD THE

WORLD’S BEST

FEBRUARY 2007 MAXIMUMPC 

SCREW THAT MICROSOFT VISTA–CAPABLE BADGE. WE SHOW YOU

HOW TO BUILD A BUDGET BOX THAT GOES ABOVE AND BEYOND

REDMOND’S REQUIREMENTS WITHOUT BREAKING THE BANK