The days are getting warm, you’ve ponied up to pay The Man, and now you’re waiting for your check. While saving it would be the responsible thing to do, your failure of an economy is crying for stimulus! Why not do the patriotic thing and dump 600 bones on a new box. Your pals will stop laughing at your dumpy computer and you’ll be doing your part to stave off the econopocalypse!

The $600 PC is a long-term project for Icrontic, and we choose these parts with great care. We promise that the rig you build from our suggestions will be plenty good to satisfy all but the most demanding gamers. Not only that, we’re confident in saying that this is our best rig ever. Ready to be enticed? Put your credit card on the table, open Newegg, and let’s kick this pig.

Motherboard – Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P

Why it’s good: Holy Moses! While a Gigabyte board would have been an unthinkable suggestion just three years ago, the company has pulled itself up from the ghetto of garbage budget hardware to produce motherboards that hold their own. The MA790X-UD4P is a solid board with extensive overclocking options and respectable build quality. What else could you want?

How you can do better: This board has a lot to offer an overclocker, but it isn’t all that and a bag of donuts. If you’re sticking with the Phenom II, the DFI LP DK 790FXB-M3H5 is a hot item. Core 2? DFI LP DK P45-T3R/S. Core i7? They’re all good. Go read some benchmarks.

Welcome to Icrontic's $600 PC, Phenom II!

Processor – Phenom II X3 710

Why it’s good: Intel has had an iron grip on the $600 PC’s socket for almost a year, but AMD finally got its crap together and spun a quality part for the value-conscious. The Phenom II X3 is based on AMD’s Heka core and is made from the same bits that call the snappy Phenom II X4 home. Long story short: It has a third core, puts the hurt on the Core 2 Duo, and won’t break the bank.

How you can do better: More cores and more clockspeed is the name of this game! The Phenom II X4, Core 2 Quad 9000-series and even low-end Core i7 models will fit neatly within a $1000 budget. Pick your poison and go.

Memory – G.SKILL PC2-8500 (4GB)

Why it’s good: Four gigabytes. 1066. Lifetime warranty. Discuss.

How you can do better: More speed, more gigabytes! Check your mobo’s specs and rock the kit that suits you best.

Video – Powercolor Radeon HD 4850

Why it’s good: Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know why the Radeon HD 4000-series is quality kit. If you have been living under a rock: It’s cold, it’s fast, it’s inexpensive, and it’s the market’s latest kit. Smells like a victory to us.

How you can do better: From here, you’re on the road to a better video card. Today’s GPUs are more inexpensive than ever and have cultivated a gluttony of fast and cheap video cards. Luminaries like GeForce GTX 285, Radeon 4890, and Radeon HD 4850 X2 put more at our fingertips with more in our wallets than ever before.

Power Supply – OCZ OCZ600XSX

Why it’s good: OCZ makes great products. A 600w unit is overkill for this rig. It’s cheaper than the 450w unit it replaced. Hell yes!

How you can do better: This depends on your fancy and aspirations. If you’re a fan of modular cables, there are greener pastures to be had on this front. If you’re looking for an overclocked quad with titanic disk space and an array of video cards that could re-render Jar-Jar out of Star Wars, you might want a bigger power supply. Corsair’s VX line of power supplies entertains a respectable pricepoint without sucking a whole bunch.

Hard Drive – Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3808

Why it’s good: Seagate is a respected brand and the Barracuda is a respected product line. This hard drive won’t win any races to the finish line, but it won’t stub its toe before the checkered flag, either. In fact, we chose the drive for its cost to size ratio and its long-standing reliability. Sometimes it pays to respect ol’ faithful.

How you can do better: We know that 160GB isn’t much, but we had to cut corners somewhere. If you asked us, we prefer something slightly larger like, oh, 1500GB. Price scales with capacity, so be prepared shell out the dough for a bigger drive. Particularly speed-addicted individuals will enjoy Western Digital’s Raptor 10K series, but ownership commands a price that will hit your wallet like the fist of an angry god. You know, relatively speaking.

Optical – LG 22x DVD±R/RW

Why it’s good: LG is a good company that makes good burners. They’re all the same these days anyhow.

How you can do better: Blu-Ray? Ack. Thbbpt!

Case – Antec 300

Why it’s good: Once upon a time, there was a swank case known as the Antec 900. Receiving rave reviews all over the internet for her knockout combination of beauty and prowess, she was the toast of the town. But she was too expensive for our low-town box … So we hooked it up with her little sister. Zing! The Antec 300 packs all the punch of the big sibling at half the price. I shouldn’t even have to explain how sweet the 300 is.

How you can do better: Bigger? Bigger’s better, right? The Antec 900 can spice up your nights. Don’t ask us about other cases.

Aftermath

The total for this little beauty clocks in at a svelte $597.88. If you fudge the cost of shipping like all good enthusiasts do, we’ve left you enough money to go nuts with about four liters of Mountain Dew.

Interested in taking a peek at the evolution of our $600 PC? You can have a little look-see right over here.