Revisiting the Desktop: Part 3 - 50K

The last two posts I wrote here and here focused on achieving a balance between price and performance. This post focuses on building the best gaming rig in 50K. Now that is a LOT of money to pay for a desktop. For the AMD fanboys (mainly Kulbir Saini), we finally have a competitive AMD rig. Apart from the CPU, Motherboard and Memory all the other components are the same. First, lets have a look at the platforms.

Intel Platform
The newly launched Intel Core i5 750 CPU and the Intel DP 55WB motherboard bring the performance of the Core i7 series to mainstream prices. The processor sets you back by about a Rs.10,150 and the motherboard would cost about Rs, 6090. A minor issue with this setup is that you would need to use DDR3 memory and that is almost 70% more expensive than DDR2. A 2GB DDR stick costs Rs.1,800 as compared to a 2GB DDR3 stick that costs Rs.2,450. The cost of the platform i.e. the CPU + Mobo + RAM = Rs. 18,690. You can read the reviews of the Core i5 here. You can purchase the CPU here and the motherboard here


AMD Platform
We are on a bit of a sticky wicket here. I am going to recommend a Phenom II x4 940BE CPU. The CPU costs 10,350 and the Gigabyte MA78GM-US2H would set you back by another Rs. 4,775.Add to that another 1,800 for 2GB of DDR2 RAM. The platform costs Rs. 16,925. That's a saving of Rs. 1,765 over the Intel Platform.



Comparing the two Platforms
The 940BE is a slightly old and is outperformed by the Core i5 in almost all applications. Expect to have a performance difference of anywhere between 5~10% in most applications except for high def gaming where the GPU is the limiting factor. Add to that the improved performance of DDR3 memory with the Core i5 and the wonderful new Turbo mode that comes along with it. The question is "Is all this worth Rs.2,000 ? I personally feel the answer is NO and only an AMD fanboy would want to go for the 940BE. However if you feel that the 1.7K savings are important or you would like to spend them elsewhere, the 940BE based setup won't suck for sure !!

The other stuff is common to both builds. Let's take a look at the components selected.


1. GPU: PowerColor ATI Radeon 4890 - Rs.12,198
The Radeon 4890 is the best single GPU card that AMD has to offer in the 4xxx series. There are a whole slew of 4890's available in the market that range from 12K to 17K. This was the best bet. The benchmarks for the 4890 can be read here and here. Any higher GPU power would mean buying a Radeon 5850 for 19K for about 10% extra performance or a crossfire solution that would really bump up the price of the motherboard. Unfortunately there were no Nvidia cards that were competitive at INR prices. Sad for the green team. You can buy the card here.

2. Monitor: Samsung 2233 SW - Rs.8,871
The samsung 2233sw is one of the best monitors rupee for rupee. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio and has a diagonal of 21.5 inches. It is the cheapest full HD monitor, and performs better than any other monitor in the either the same price range or resolution range. The monitor has a clean look. Reviews of this monitor can be read here. Some people may be inclined to purchase a larger monitor. The Samsung P2350 or the BenQ G2412 are excellent 23.5 Inch options but would cost between Rs.2800 and Rs.3000 extra and was out of bounds of the 50K machine. The monitor can be purchased here.


3. Chassis: Cooler Master Elite 335 - Rs. 2,150
A Radeon 4890 and our choice of processors are likely to produce a lot of heat. The CM chassis is spacious, well ventilated and more importantly large enough to accommodate all components without creating any clutter. You do have the option of buying other cases like those from Zebronics or I-ball, but the CM chassis has excellent build quality and comes with a 3 year warranty. There are 2 front side USB ports, audio connectors and a e-sata port. The case can be purchased here.


4. SMPS: iBall Sprinter 600W - Rs.2,877
The Radeon 4890 needs 2 PCIe Power connectors and requires about 200W of power. A high end system running possibly overclocked processors and a few fans would push the system power consumption to about 400W. This would necessitate at least a 550W power supply. My experience tells me to never be a cheapskate when it comes to power supplies. The SMPS can be purchased here


5. HDD: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 7200RPM - Rs. 2,371
These days a 500 GB disk is par for the course. Despite what people say, all Hdd's are pretty much the same and come with standard warranties. This was the cheapest Hdd I could find and helped me shave off a few hundred rupees to invest in other places.


6. Optical Drive: Samsung DVDRW SATA - Rs. 1,100
Optical Drives are pretty much the same story as HDD's. Any of the major brands ought to do the job. We picked up the cheapest DVD writer from Samsung. It supports all DVD formats and doesn't raise the decibel level too high.



7. Keyboard + Mouse: Microsoft MMKB + Optical - Rs.700
The Microsoft Combo is pretty good to use with it's ergonomic design and pretty well built too, just in case you decide to take out your gaming frustrations on the controls. Logitech offers a similar combo for the same price. So you can take your pick.



8. Speakers: Creative SBS A500 5.1 Speakers - Rs. 2,800
Since the system is intended for gaming and multimedia and HD content, a 5.1 system is a must. The entry level creative system is a decent performer. Admittedly, better speakers could have been included, but we wanted to spend our money elsewhere.






Final Costs:

Intel System : Rs. 51,757
AMD System: Rs. 49,992

These Prices are from websites that sell stuff online(excluding shipping). Odds are that you will find this a bit more expensive in Hyderabad as dealers are pretty much dicks.

I really don't advocate spending any more money on a Desktop. If your needs are slightly different, i.e. you are a casual gamer and still have 50K to throw on a desktop, you could save 4K on the GPU by getting a Radeon 4870, another 1K on the SMPS by getting a zebronics 500W and use the extra 5K to upgrade to a 24" monitor and get some extra HDD space.