I built a nice budget system the other week for £200. The design brief was for a low cost, low noise system where gaming was not a major concern. Each component was chosen to give the best price/performance ratio whilst maintaining an end result that would give user satisfaction. I've got to say the performance of this system has exceeded my expectations by a long way.

As gaming was not a concern I would have been perfectly happy with the onboard Intel GMA 3100 VGA but I had a GeForce 7600GS 256MB PCIe card knocking about so I threw that in. I gave it a whirl with Oblivion, Call of Duty 4, Civ 4 and I was very impressed with system performance. The 7600GS is the gaming bottleneck in this system.


Components Used:

CPU: Intel Pentium E2180 Dual Core - 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, 2.0GHz
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L - Intel G31 Express 1333 FSB
RAM: 2 x Elixir 1024MB DDR2 800 PC2-6400 - 5-5-5-15 @ 400MHz
Hard Drive: Western Digital 250GB Caviar SE16 SATA II 16MB Cache
Optical Drive: Lite-On DH-20A4P DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM
Case: Asus TA863 Midi Tower
PSU: Colors-IT 400W Gold Silent 12cm Fan
HSF: Arctic Cooling Alpine 7 Pro
Case Fan: Akasa Amber 8cm Ultra Quiet
Keyboard: Microsoft 500
Mouse: Logitech Optical Wheel USB


Reasonings/Reviews/Thoughts:

The E2180 CPU is over clocked to 3.0GHz with a 300MHz bus. The system was stable with a 24hr Prime95 stress test. I had it safely clocked to 3.4GHz but I prefer more conservative temps so I dialled it back to 3.0GHz. If I want more juice I'll swap out the Alpine 7 for a Freezer 7 Pro. I didn't bother using the Intel HSF, they're usually inefficient and noisy - why should this one be any different? It's a pretty impressive CPU, I can't really fault it - especially in the context of this system.

The Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L Motherboard was primarily chosen because it was the cheapest Intel chipset board that supports all the current Intel desktop CPU's and PC2-6400 DDRII RAM. Turns out that it's quite a decent piece of kit too. The Award BIOS overclocking facilities let you change CPU multiplier, bus speed and core voltage. The memory speed multiplier has Auto, 2.66, 3 and 4 settings. You can control various other useful stuff as well - download the manual if you need to check it out fully. This board has a lot of nice features and the performance is very solid. Again, I can't fault it for this build.

The Elixir PC2-6400 DDRII RAM (Nanya chips) is very cheap at 10 quid a stick. It's running at 300 MHz x 2.66 = 800 MHz and it's fully stable. The two 1GB sticks allow the dual channel configuration. IMO as long as you have enough of it, and it's of a decent spec for the system, the different RAM speeds & latency's have a minimal effect on system performance. I've used Elixir previously and never had a problem with their RAM. Happy.

I chose the Western Digital 250GB Caviar SE16 SATA II Hard Drive deliberately for performance; storage space was not a major concern. In my experience this particular drive, with 16MB cache, has excellent performance so I wasn't disappointed.

The Asus TA863 Case was cheap and very cheerful. The metal used for the case is slightly thinner than in premium cases, this is not a problem for me as the box will rarely be moved or used for holding things up! The thermal design and airflow is excellent. There is an intake mesh at the bottom front of the case where you can also mount 2 fans and there's exhausts at the back for 2 fans. The side panel has a CPU fan intake duct, I've seen this feature dissed but I've found it actually works surprisingly well with a HSF like the Alpine 7. It would probably need to be removed if a Freezer 7 Pro was installed. The side panel also has exhaust vents in a position where some of the hot air from the GPU fan can escape, this seems to work well too. The case doesn't look to shabby either.

The Colors-IT 400W Silent PSU is also a cheap and cheerful item. The low price tag doesn't actually reflect the quality of these PSU's, they are pretty decent units. I'm familiar with this model of PSU and haven't had any problems with them. Design wise I got this because it has a 12cm low noise fan mounted so it takes in air directly above the CPU. It does the job of aiding system cooling very well. The wattage and amperage supply of this PSU has plenty of headroom for this system. Some will raise an eyebrow at getting a cheap PSU, I've had tons of cheap PSU's in 24/7 boxes in hot rooms and never had a problem. I'm not saying I couldn't have a problem it's just that PSU error is not a major concern of mine, especially in this build.

I got the Akasa Amber 8cm Ultra Quiet Case Fan because of the low noise requirement. It's also effecient at air extraction. The Asus TA863 case came supplied with an 80mm fan (I didn't realise this, but it's a high speed, noise machine, type anyway). I installed the Asus fan as well to see what effect it had on temps. Turns out that it had zero effect besides adding a wad of noise. So the Akasa Amber and PSU fan are enough to provide optimal extraction for this system.

The Microsoft 500 Keyboard and Logitech Mouse were a fiver a piece. No complaints. The Logitech is actually my usual mouse of choice!


Conclusion:

The system has way exceeded my expectations, even at unclocked speeds. Real world performance with applications is great. Personally I've got no need for more power in a system at this point in time. It runs very cool and is quiet enough. I may pull out the GeForce as its fan is noisier than the rest of the system combined! There is nothing I would change about this rig for now. Future upgrades would be a current top end Intel CPU whenever they are at bargain basement prices and 4GB RAM if ever needed. A decent 3D card and higher watt/amp PSU if games bacame a concern. The funny thing is that people would have killed for the power of this budget system not very long ago!


Benchmarks:

I ran some SiSoft Sandra XII benchmarks on the system running at 2.0 GHz and 3.0 GHz then compared with a 3.2 GHz Prescott box I have and reference gear from Sandra's database. This budget build kinda owns the Prescott box quite hard!

Nice work! Do you mind telling me the VID of your E2180?