Each year, around xmas, I publish a recommended budget PC article. This year I’m doing it slightly early, but decided to directly compare the spec and price this year with last year to see how things have developed.
1. The ultimate budget system
| Component | 2011 Product | 2011 Price | 2012 Product | 2012 Price | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | E350 1.6GHz | £0 | E450 1.65GHz | £0 | A 50MHz increase. Feeble! |
| Motherboard | Asus E35M1‑M Pro | £99 | Asus E45M1‑M Pro | £106 | Not much change in a year |
| RAM | Kingston 4GB DDR3-1333 kit | £20 | Corsair 8GB DDR3-1333 kit | £28 | Double your RAM for £8? Why not… |
| Storage | Crucial M4 64Gb | £80 | OCZ Agility 4 128Gb | £80 | Double the SSD capacity and add some speed for the same money — excellent |
| Optical drive | DVD–RW | £17 | DVD-RW | £13 | Non-BD drives continue to fall in price |
| Power supply | Corsair CX430 V2 | £35 | HuntKey Jumper 300 | £39 | A higher quality PSU for nearly the same money |
| Case | Coolermaster Élite 335 | £28 | Coolermaster Élite 334U | £34 | A slight increase for an equivalent piece of kit, but not significant |
| Total: | £279 | Total: | £300 | A 7.5% increase in price. Overall the system is significantly faster thanks to the extra RAM and SSD. The PSU is also more efficient. |
2. The budget gaming system
| Component | 2011 Product | 2011 Price | 2012 Product | 2012 Price | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core i3 2100 3.1GHz | £95 | Intel Core i3 3220 3.3GHz | £97 | Basically the same price for an extra 200MHz. Slow progress! |
| Motherboard | Asus P8Z68‑V LX | £82 | Asus P8Z77‑V LX | £79 | No real change, but thats fair enough |
| RAM | Corsair 8GB DDR3-1333 kit | £37 | Corsair 8GB DDR3-1333 kit | £28 | Memory continues to fall. 16Gb is almost attainable! |
| Storage | Crucial M4 64Gb | £80 | OCZ Vertex 4 128Gb | £90 | SSDs have shown remarkable progress — a doubling in size and a performance boost for nearly the same money! |
| Video | AMD HD6670 1Gb GDDR5 | £69 | AMD HD7750 1Gb DDR5 | £88 | A minimum of 50% faster across the board — a reasonable improvement |
| Optical drive | BD–ROM / DVD–RW | £40 | BD–ROM / DVD–RW | £50 | A 25% increase for the same kit — very poor |
| Power supply | Corsair CX430 V2 | £35 | HuntKey Jumper 300 | £39 | A higher quality PSU for nearly the same money |
| Case | Coolermaster Elite 335 | £28 | Coolermaster Élite 334U | £34 | A slight increase for an equivalent piece of kit, but not significant |
| Total: | £466 | Total: | £504 | An overall increase of 8% in price. But overall you get a lot more for your money, thanks to the SSD and GPU |
“Hi James I realise it has been a long while, but I just checked this on windows 11 (build 23H2)…”