- System Builder Marathon: Low-Cost System
- The World's Best Hardware Prices
- DIY Solar-Powered PC: Solar Components
- SBM 5: Price/Performance
- SBM 4: Overclocking The Competitors
- SBM 3: High-End System
- Do-It-Yourself Solar-Powered PC: Live Test
- SBM 2: Mid Cost System
- SBM 1: Low Cost System
- Do-It-Yourself Solar-Powered PC: Hardware
- Why is Q6700 $290 more than Q6600?
- PS question
- suggestions on a CPU...never build a computer before...
- AMD 3700 & 8800 good match?
- Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 or Athlon x2 4600
- System Builder Marathon: Overclocking Day 3
- System Builder Marathon (Overclocking) Day 1
- Will the GIGABYTE GA-MA790X-DS4 work for me?
- Posting and reposting with K9N4 Ultra
- RAM and Motherboard question
System Builder Marathon: Mid-Cost System : Introduction
Source: Tom's Hardware US – Keywords: system, builder, marathon
Syndication:
Introduction
System Builder Marathon, March 2008: The Articles
Here's a list of the System Builder Marathon (SBM) articles in this five day series.
- Day 1: The Low-Cost PC
- Day 2: The Mid-Cost PC
- Day 3: The High-Cost PC
- Day 4: All Three SBM PCs Overclocked
- Day 5: Summary - The Price/Performance Winner
Today, we double the budget of yesterday's low-cost PC to assemble a sweet midrange system. While the low-cost PC is a good all-round system, the mid-range PC should perform strongly at pretty much anything we throw at it.
While twice the budget rarely results in twice the performance, a mid-range system is desirable because it can provide tangible benefits in speed of applications and high-resolution graphics. Also, the extra money spent should give us a highly overclockable system. Our low-cost system isn't going to be anywhere near as overclockable as the mid-range system.
First, a quick overview of our chosen components, then a justification of our choices.
| Current SBM Mid-Range PC Component Cost | ||
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 | 540 |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler master HyperTX 2 | 25 |
| Motherboard | Asus P5N-T Deluxe | 250 |
| RAM | Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 PC2-6400 - 4 GB | 128 |
| Graphics | EVGA GeForce 8800GTX, 768 MB | 415 |
| Hard Drive | 1x Western Digital Raptor 150 GB
170 1x Western Digital Caviar 500 GB |
95 |
| Sound | Integrated SoundMax High-Definition Audio | 0 |
| Case | Antec Nine Hundred | 120 |
| Power | PC Power & Cooling Silencer S75Q 750W | 160 |
| DVD-RW | 2x Sony Optiarc DVD-RW | 28 |
| Total Price | $1,931 | |
(Compare Prices on Core 2 Quad Q6700)
- Next page CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 CPU
