Mainstream: $1,432.5
You
don’t have to spend a fortune to get a stunning rig.
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Pro3: $124.5
You don’t have to spend a fortune to pick
up Intel’s latest Z68 chipset. This ASRock may only have a single graphics
slot, but it offers serious performance.
CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K: $255
Intel’s Sandy Bridge may have been launched
more than a year ago now, but the Core i5 still wows us in every round-up.
Stunning value, great performance. Brilliant.
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB: $67.5
This pair of 4GB sticks will give you all
the performance you could ever want at a price that’s easy to swallow. It’ll
only take up two slots in the board allowing for future upgrades too.
Graphics card: XFX Radeon HD 6950 2GB:
$306
The Radeon HD 6950 is a serious slice of
gaming graphics prowess at a game-changing price. This is currently the card
that all others are judged against.
Storage: OCZ Agility 360GB: $121.5
Prices continue to tumble at this end of
SDD market, and less than a ton will get you a 60GB drive to play with. Grab a
1TB HDD for $60 while you’re buying kit.
Power supply: OCZ ModXStream Pro: $60
If you want to build a performance machine,
you’re going to need a powerful PSU. This 500W baby will power this rig with
extra to spare. It’s quiet, too.
