MaximumPC 2007 10

S

adly, the process of building a $500

rig was more a battle of shopping

know-how than computer savvy. I

had a feeling Gordon and I would be stuck

with nearly identical parts, as there’s not

much wiggle room once you deduct $40 from

the total for sales tax and plunk down cash

for a generic power supply, optical drive, and

hard drive. I correctly assumed we’d be pur-

chasing the same CPU, the much-overclock-

able E4300, but I thought we’d at least see a

bit of a shoot-out in videocards—at the $100

level there are some options.

ATI cards ended up being too expensive

for consideration in this challenge, so I went

with an Nvidia-based 7600 GS. It’s not the

best card on the market, but I was relatively

confi dent I’d be able to get decent perfor-

mance out of it. If I remember correctly, I did

see a cheaper 8500 when shopping. But for

my money, the 7600 is the better choice—

no DirectX 10 support, but let’s be honest:

The very few DX10 titles available right now

bring even 8800-model cards to their knees.

There’s no way an 8500 would ever be able

to run a DX10 game, so I’d rather bank on a

solid DX9 card.

It didn’t take long at all for me to assem-

ble my PC—a big advantage to working with-

out a case—and load the OS, but it would be

hours before my machine was truly fi nished.

After several failed attempts at booting, I real-

ized that my mobo was incompatible with

my CPU, and I had to drive back to the store

for a replacement. And while the new mobo

was able to boot just fi ne, it proved virtually

worthless at overclocking. I was only able to

push the CPU to 1.99GHz, a far cry from the

potential 2.5GHz + I was envisioning during

the initial checkout. This cheap motherboard

absolutely destroyed my plan and has fi rmly

convinced me to not skimp when it comes to

mobos—not if I want to tweak my system to

awesome levels, that is.

The videocard overclocked nicely, but

when I say nicely, it’s like the difference

between fourth and inches and fourth and

a few more inches. Sure, my rig destroyed

Gordon’s in the graphics-heavy tests. But

that freaking motherboard and its horrible

VIA chipset ended up counterbalancing any

performance gains I expected from an over-

clocked processor. This motherboard was the

gatekeeper to my grand design. Of course, in

this case, it’s more a fl aming bridge between

the rock and the proverbial hard place.

WHAT I’D DO DIFFERENTLY

Did I learn anything from the building expe-

rience? Yeah, don’t build a PC for $500.

Would I do anything differently? I’d stick with

a stock cooler and save myself a whopping

$10. As for the case, I still wouldn’t bother.

You just can’t dress a turd. Putting these

parts into a chassis implies that what’s

inside is a functional computer. A cardboard

enclosure is

perfectly fi tting

for the perfor-

mance you get

from a $500

train wreck.

enclosure is

perfectly fi tting

for the perfor-

mance you get

from a $500

train wreck.

48 MAXIMUMPC OCTOBER 2007

Dave’s Low-Cost Creation

Our associate editor tackled his tasks with some controversial choices

MAXIMUMPC

CHALLENGE

ANOTHER

It’s easy to build a machine when you’re

not confined to working within a case!