The Econobox
Because speed doesn't have to cost a fortune

Instead of being the cheapest possible combination of parts, the Econobox fills in as our affordable gaming and general-use system. You won't find too many fancy extras here, but we've tried to select a balanced mix of peppy, reliable components with headroom for future upgrades.

Processor
The world of budget hardware moves slowly, so we haven't yet found a processor worthy of supplanting the Pentium E5200 for the Econobox. Well, there's the Pentium E5300 and E5400, but we don't think you should stretch your budget just to go from 2.5GHz to 2.6 or 2.7GHz in this price range. The cheapest option still has a pair of speedy 45nm Wolfdale cores, and any minor performance differences should vanish once you start overclocking.

What about AMD? Athlon X2s are awfully cheap right now, but we still haven't found one that can match the Pentium's mix of good performance, low power consumption, and great overclocking potential. Should you wish to go AMD anyway, we've singled out an Athlon X2 for our alternatives on the next page.

Motherboard
For $97 (or $82 after a mail-in rebate), Asus' P5Q SE Plus brings us a P45 chipset, six Serial ATA ports, Gigabit Ethernet, and an eight-phase power design. We're admittedly missing out on the external Serial ATA, RAID, and FireWire features of our previous guide's P43-based mobo, but that board has been discontinued. Remaining P43 offerings all seem to lack RAID, and their slightly lower price tags are accompanied by less enthusiastic user reviews. We could spend $20-30 more on a fancier offering with RAID, but avoiding luxuries in order to save cash is what this system is all about.

Memory
RAM prices have gotten to a point where we really have no qualms about outfitting even a budget setup with four gigs. Stepping down to 2GB would save about 20 bucks, and unless you were to throw this system out after a few months, chances are you'd need to upgrade eventually anyway. We're going with this Kingston kit because it happens to the cheapest big-name-brand offering with a lifetime warranty on Newegg.

By the way, you'll need a 64-bit operating system to take full advantage of all this memory. 32-bit OSes do have enough address space for 4GB of RAM, but that figure is an upper limit for all memory in a system, including video RAM. In practice, that means 32-bit versions of Windows will only let you use 3 to 3.5GB of actual system memory—and they'll normally restrict each application's RAM budget to 2GB.

Workarounds do exist for 32-bit Windows, but Microsoft says they can hurt compatibility; it advises that folks run a 64-bit version of Windows instead. Since Vista x64 is more than mature enough these days, you might as well run that. Check out our OS section on the second-to-last page of the guide for more details.

Graphics
Since AMD's Radeon HD 4830 delivers better overall performance than Nvidia's GeForce 9800 GT for a little less dough, that's what we've selected—a PowerColor Radeon HD 4830, to be precise. This card should comfortably handle the latest games at intermediate resolutions like 1680x1050 with graphical detail turned up and perhaps a dash of antialiasing. In some cases, the 4830 performs very closely to the pricier Radeon HD 4850. If you'd rather pay slightly more for a GeForce with better warranty coverage, have a look at our alternatives section on the next page.

Storage
Western Digital's 640GB hard drives are all priced in the $70-80 range, and while the Caviar Black sits at the upper end of that spectrum, we think it's the best choice for a system drive. Not only does it have a 32MB cache, a full 7,200-RPM spindle speed, and the same noise level ratings as the slower SE16 model, but WD also covers it with a five-year warranty. As far as we know, no competing 640GB hard drive has specifications quite as good or warranty coverage quite as long. (Seagate no longer covers bare drives for five years.)

As for our optical storage option, Samsung's SH-S223Q fits in just fine here. A Serial ATA interface should make it reasonably future-proof, and we like the combination of positive user reviews and low pricing.

Enclosure and power
Antec's NSK 4480B case and power supply bundle remains our enclosure of choice for the Econobox. This bundle has everything the Econobox needs: a quality, high-efficiency power supply that provides a little upgrading headroom; a roomy case with good cooling; and a reasonable price tag.

You might find cheaper possibilities out there, but we don't think you'll be able to save a whole lot by going with lower-quality components. Besides, bargain-bin power supplies generally have inflated specifications. A cheap PSU can also jeopardize system stability, damage sensitive components over time, and potentially even flame out in spectacular fashion—taking system components with it in the process.