Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 620 OC @ 3.2 GHZ

This is literally the cheapest quad core processor on the market and I decided to go with it to see how it performs. It shoots a very average performance in single core and multi-core processes but its good enough for my price range. I considered an Phenom II 550, but the risk involved with getting a successful unlocking of cores is not worth it even though it is cheaper and has greater potential (if you get a successful core unlock). Its like rolling a dice...your chance of getting a successful unlocked phenom II 550 is like 50/50.



RAM: 8 GB Patriot Viper II Sector 5 DDR3-1333 7-7-7-20

Reliable ram with good latency levels for DDR3 and for a cheap price. Patriot has been making some of the best ram on the market for over 25 years and it has no compatibility issues with any motherboard manufacturer I have seen. The only issue was the 1333 rate (considering that there is lots of DDR3-1600 on the market now).








Motherboard: MSI 790X-G45 ATX AM3 DDR3 CROSSFIRE



This board is probably the cheapest gaming crossfire motherboard money can buy and also comes with core unlock and an OC switch (which like all OC switches suck lol). It has 2 PCI, 2 PCI-E x 1 and 2 PCI-E x16 (in crossfire mode x8/x8). It has the standard 6 sata connectors and 1 IDE that most motherboards have, but does not include intergrated graphics. But hey who cares? For $79.99 its a bargain.

CPU Heatsink: Silenx iXtreme Pro Direct Touch Heatpipe


Cheapest heatsink I could find. Comes with a 52 CFM Blue LED fan that has a noise level of 18 dBA. Uses 3 direct touch copper heatpipes and can be attached just using the clips instead of screws, so you don't have to take out your motherboard to attach it.





Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts 650W


Nice affordable Powersupply. The only issue I have with it is that the cables are not sleeved so it looks pretty ugly. On the bright side though its 80+ certified, 85%+ efficiency and 3 +12V rails that can give off a total of 540 W. But hey for the price of under $60 dollars it tears up the competation and has an average score of 9.5/10 on Hardware review sites everywhere. Way to go Antec for making something that is cost friendly.






Case: Logysis Mid-ATX Case

This was actually a used case that I took and use. It obviously is not the best and if I may say is mediocre quality. You do not get all the bells and whistles of most newer cases on the market since its pretty standard in toughness and looks. But for $17 I could have done worse










Video Card 1: XFX HD 5770 1 GB DDR5

This was the first 5000 series card I bought. At the time I didn't have much money and since its performance was very close to that of a HD 4870 and priced even cheaper, I decided to go with it. But the HD 5770 was quite a surprise. It is actually the coolest (34 C idle and 70 C max) video card I have ever seen. Also XFX has a 5 year warrenty on all their cards so I am quite satisfied with what I bought.






Video Card 2: Gigabyte HD 5770 1 GB DDR5

This card performed similar to that of the XFX model except was a lot more noisy. I disliked how it looks too (its a fricken bat mobile), but it was also the cheapest model I could afford. The one issue I have with it, is when you use it as your main display card, it will make a slight light clicking noise that is barely noticeable unless your face is against the case. But since I use it as my secondary card in crossfire, it makes no noise.




Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm SATA2 8.5 ms 16 MB

I picked an extremely cheap hard drive that was under $50. But its speed is decent enough already for normal applications. It may hinder loading time when you compare it to a raptor HD or SSD but I am not looking for astronomical performance. Also any buffer over 8 MB is proven to show no to very little difference in any hard drives performance.



Final Product: