System Builder Marathon, December 2010: $2000 PC
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- System Builder
- Performance
- New Build
- Product
Last response: in Reviews comments
Crashman
December 13, 2010 4:00:03 AM
With all of your feedback from last quarter's System Builder Marathon under our belts, this time around, we attempt to fit a no-sacrifice, luxury and performance build into our moderately-high $2000 budget. Will this new build succeed on all fronts?
System Builder Marathon, December 2010: $2000 PC : Read more
System Builder Marathon, December 2010: $2000 PC : Read more
More about : system builder marathon december 2010 2000
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amk09
December 13, 2010 4:13:13 AM
micr0be
December 13, 2010 4:18:58 AM
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Tamz_msc
December 13, 2010 4:31:51 AM
fstrthnu
December 13, 2010 4:49:01 AM
fstrthnu
December 13, 2010 4:57:52 AM
jerreece
December 13, 2010 5:01:23 AM
kkiddu
December 13, 2010 5:10:13 AM
hemburger
December 13, 2010 5:16:28 AM
kkiddu
December 13, 2010 5:17:07 AM
kkiddu
December 13, 2010 5:23:35 AM
duk3
December 13, 2010 5:44:58 AM
gti88
December 13, 2010 6:12:40 AM
barmaley
December 13, 2010 6:15:48 AM
I agree with the people above who mentioned i5 760 and GTX 570. I was thinking the same thing when I saw the config. IMO, $2000 would give you far better performance in games, especially with high resolution and quality:
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 - $125
Intel i5 760 - $205
Scythe Mugen 2 - 47
Cooler Master HAF 932 - $140
GTX 570 2x SLI $700
Samsung F3 1TB - $70
Crucial 128GB C300 - $275
CORSAIR XMS 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 - $125
Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 1000W - $170
Lite-On iHBS112 Blu-ray Drive: 12x BD-R, 16x DVD±R - $120
Total: $1977
All prices without rebates included. The $23 left over can be used to pay for the shipping where applicable. Also, an SSD can be replaced for a cheaper one to save a little money, if that's your thing.
GIGABYTE GA-P55A-UD3 LGA 1156 - $125
Intel i5 760 - $205
Scythe Mugen 2 - 47
Cooler Master HAF 932 - $140
GTX 570 2x SLI $700
Samsung F3 1TB - $70
Crucial 128GB C300 - $275
CORSAIR XMS 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600 - $125
Antec TruePower Quattro TPQ-1000 1000W - $170
Lite-On iHBS112 Blu-ray Drive: 12x BD-R, 16x DVD±R - $120
Total: $1977
All prices without rebates included. The $23 left over can be used to pay for the shipping where applicable. Also, an SSD can be replaced for a cheaper one to save a little money, if that's your thing.
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Reply to barmaley
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styrkes
December 13, 2010 6:19:50 AM
Tamz_msc
December 13, 2010 6:27:36 AM
@barmaley
Everything is fine except the motherboard and here's why:
http://www.hardware-revolution.com/p55-motherboards-cro...
Everything is fine except the motherboard and here's why:
http://www.hardware-revolution.com/p55-motherboards-cro...
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nyrychvantel
December 13, 2010 6:34:40 AM
gti88
December 13, 2010 6:44:36 AM
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barmaley
December 13, 2010 6:52:55 AM
nevertell
December 13, 2010 7:08:52 AM
gti88$2000 config with TWO gtx 580:ASUS Maximus III Formula LGA 1156 - $179Core i5-760 - $205Noctua NH-U12P - $75Kingston DDR3 4gb - $56ENERMAX REVOLUTION85+ 920W - $200SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 2Tb - $100COOLER MASTER CM690 II Advanced Black Steel - $80GTX580 x2 (SLI) - $1100Total price: $2005
Good for gaming and nothing else.
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Reply to nevertell
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SpadeM
December 13, 2010 7:10:41 AM
Probably one of the most balanced (and i mean that in a good way) build i've seen in a while. (though i do miss the exotic 4x4850 from Don a while back, and i do hope u bring that back some day)
And yes +1 for that and for Thomas, i'm looking forward to a follow-up article on that specific issue.
Tamz_mscIts good to know that choosing the wrong memory can affect performance in such a way.
And yes +1 for that and for Thomas, i'm looking forward to a follow-up article on that specific issue.
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edwinjr
December 13, 2010 7:55:11 AM
Crashman
December 13, 2010 7:58:28 AM
fstrthnuI'm pretty surprised we didn't see Geforce GTX 570s in this build, I guess they got released too late to make it here.
Actually, even the Radeon 6850 and 6870 was released too late for this one...it was ordered in October. We've got to do something about the time table!hemburgerWhy not replace the two ssd's with a single intel 120gb... same price and now on 35nm
Two against one, these Sandforce based drives are far faster in "RAID 0" even if the R in RAID is misusedkkidduI think this one can be trimmed to a very good $1500 build as well. Change the CPU to i5 760, remove one of the cards, one of the SSDs, and you'll need lower capacity PSU for that, let's slash $30-$50 there, you get a very good PC for $1500.
Drive performance will be part of the benchmark going forward and represents "Program Launch Time". All of the programs wouldn't have fit on half the capacity.Tamz_msc@barmaleyEverything is fine except the motherboard and here's why:http://www.hardware-revolution.com [...] e-problem/
One of Tom's Hardware's articles even mentions why the P55-UD3R is a superior gaming platform compared to the P55A-UD3R. Kill two birds with one stone on the X58!gti88$2000 config with TWO gtx 580:ASUS Maximus III Formula LGA 1156 - $179Core i5-760 - $205Noctua NH-U12P - $75Kingston DDR3 4gb - $56ENERMAX REVOLUTION85+ 920W - $200SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 2Tb - $100COOLER MASTER CM690 II Advanced Black Steel - $80GTX580 x2 (SLI) - $1100Total price: $2005
That looks like a great gaming configuration, sans ODD but then again I guess you could get all your games through STEAM...how would you load Windows?edwinjrWhy there is no 3D Mark 11 benchmark?The basic is free, isn't it
Sorry that this "new" article is five weeks old... -
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jestersage
December 13, 2010 9:15:35 AM
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hmp_goose
December 13, 2010 9:36:37 AM
Crashman
December 13, 2010 9:57:29 AM
hmp_gooseHaven't we been "warned" about RAIDing SSDs?
Warned how? The best explanation I've heard was that "since RAID doesn't support TRIM (true), the cells wear out faster (false?)". Nobody has explained to me how preemptively erasing the cells (TRIM) adds longevity compared to over erasing on-the-fly (No TRIM). The same erase takes place either way, and I've never seen any evidence that wear-leveling algorithms, which are internal on the drive, are negated by RAID.The only "warning" that makes sense to me is that the drives will slow down after all the cells have been used, making writes somewhat slower...but still faster than we'd see on a single drive (with TRIM).
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spellbinder2050
December 13, 2010 10:09:16 AM
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sudeshc
December 13, 2010 10:11:02 AM
Crashman
December 13, 2010 11:33:46 AM
TheCapuletAgreed. MW2 is an awful game built on a ancient engine hobbled along to keep making activision $$$. Replacing it with ANYTHING current gen would be better.And honestly... I never realized memory could make that much of a difference. And here I was thinking I knew everything in the known world.
It was rather stunning, but had the expected memory shown up with the order...the system would have performed better from the outset, no questions would have been asked about memory bottlenecks, and we wouldn't have discovered the issue. -
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JamesSneed
December 13, 2010 11:57:32 AM
The memory issue is an odd one. Could you slap some higher performing memory in there and rerun one of the tests that seem like they were most impacted? Just curious if it really is the memeory that has that profound of an impact or if its multiple issues that are additive like GPU scaling on this platform + memory performance.
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Luay
December 13, 2010 12:08:51 PM
And to what display will you hook up your 2 GTX 580s to? Add another grand for a 1440 or 1600 display or three 1080 displays. Otherwise GTX 570 will output whatever the GTX 580 is outputting on a 1080 display, even though the 580 is processing more FPS.
Really, isn't it time Tom's should target a certain price point and a certain monitor resolution for your building marathons instead of price alone?
Crosair AX series PSUs and GTX 570 just came out and they are better options, but an Asus Sabertooth X58 review is overdue. These parts have no equal in their categories, for now.
Really, isn't it time Tom's should target a certain price point and a certain monitor resolution for your building marathons instead of price alone?
Crosair AX series PSUs and GTX 570 just came out and they are better options, but an Asus Sabertooth X58 review is overdue. These parts have no equal in their categories, for now.
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Crashman
December 13, 2010 12:27:24 PM
JamesSneedThe memory issue is an odd one. Could you slap some higher performing memory in there and rerun one of the tests that seem like they were most impacted? Just curious if it really is the memeory that has that profound of an impact or if its multiple issues that are additive like GPU scaling on this platform + memory performance.
The tests were used but the numbers weren't reported: It's about a 4% loss in 3 of the games with the 3780 Uncore clock, and 8% loss in one of the games with Uncore at 2x DRAM. -
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youssef 2010
December 13, 2010 12:59:45 PM
dark_lord69
December 13, 2010 1:09:42 PM
sonnyisthinkn
December 13, 2010 1:24:33 PM
kureme
December 13, 2010 1:24:45 PM
tom thumb
December 13, 2010 1:48:03 PM
Anonymous
December 13, 2010 1:51:51 PM
tommysch
December 13, 2010 1:58:07 PM
pcman911
December 13, 2010 2:00:34 PM
I too would like to see the difference in the AMD 6850/6870 crossfired. I am no means an AMD fanboy but several sites have been raging about how good a pair of 6850's in CF have been a tremendous value lately. The 6870s also would put some power savings back giving a higher efficiency rating. The 6870s would give the Eyefinity mentioned near the end. Maybe the $1500 build will be based on the i5-760 to see the CPU difference.
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NuclearShadow
December 13, 2010 2:19:08 PM
coldmast
December 13, 2010 2:46:50 PM
cadder
December 13, 2010 2:48:32 PM
You mention changing the CPU fan for a lower speed model, and you mention memory bottlenecks in games. I would suggest that you spend the extra money to buy a replacement fan and replacement ram and rerun a few of your tests with the replacement components. I realize that a reader on a fixed budget might not be able to return components and buy new ones, but some enthusiasts would do this, even if they had to sell the almost new components at a slight loss. Even though it doesn't fit completely into the spirit of your build within a certain budget, it would be of value to your readers to see how the optimized components might work better.
Secondly, you are starting to use SSD's in the storage system. You should provide some tests to indicate to the readers how an SSD system performs. I've read your SSD test articles and while interesting, it is hard for me to understand how the various test results would impact real world performance. Maybe you need a few new tests- how long it takes a machine to boot, how long it takes to install a program, how long it takes a program to load, etc., things that the average user could relate to.
Secondly, you are starting to use SSD's in the storage system. You should provide some tests to indicate to the readers how an SSD system performs. I've read your SSD test articles and while interesting, it is hard for me to understand how the various test results would impact real world performance. Maybe you need a few new tests- how long it takes a machine to boot, how long it takes to install a program, how long it takes a program to load, etc., things that the average user could relate to.
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Reply to cadder
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James296
December 13, 2010 2:58:40 PM
If you bought that RAM from Newegg based on their photograph of it, I'd hope you'd be able to get them to send you the "real" stuff...
This system is nice, even though I know it would be wasted on me. My apps and games are sufficiently undemanding that I prefer to focus on low power and low noise. The case is fantastic, but I suspect if I win it I'd prefer to see if Tom's and the winner of one of the other two are willing to switch. If not, I'd only use one GPU, a much quieter CPU fan, and probably use the X-560 I already got for my next build for the PSU.
This system is nice, even though I know it would be wasted on me. My apps and games are sufficiently undemanding that I prefer to focus on low power and low noise. The case is fantastic, but I suspect if I win it I'd prefer to see if Tom's and the winner of one of the other two are willing to switch. If not, I'd only use one GPU, a much quieter CPU fan, and probably use the X-560 I already got for my next build for the PSU.
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theoutbound
December 13, 2010 2:59:14 PM
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Silmarunya
December 13, 2010 3:10:53 PM
Crashman
December 13, 2010 3:23:05 PM
cadderYou mention changing the CPU fan for a lower speed model, and you mention memory bottlenecks in games. I would suggest that you spend the extra money to buy a replacement fan and replacement ram and rerun a few of your tests with the replacement components. I realize that a reader on a fixed budget might not be able to return components and buy new ones, but some enthusiasts would do this, even if they had to sell the almost new components at a slight loss. Even though it doesn't fit completely into the spirit of your build within a certain budget, it would be of value to your readers to see how the optimized components might work better.Secondly, you are starting to use SSD's in the storage system. You should provide some tests to indicate to the readers how an SSD system performs. I've read your SSD test articles and while interesting, it is hard for me to understand how the various test results would impact real world performance. Maybe you need a few new tests- how long it takes a machine to boot, how long it takes to install a program, how long it takes a program to load, etc., things that the average user could relate to.
Extended file system performance was not recorded for the previous system, so nothing was there to compare this to. The new data will be available in the Day 4 system comparison. -
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Crashman
December 13, 2010 3:25:41 PM
coldmastI'm so confused, the June 2010 computer is performing better with lower processor clocks? What is going on (on stock speeds), did someone leave the frame sync on or something?Same MotherboardSame Graphics (spec-wise)Different RAM
Read the part at the end of the COD:MW2 test page, and keep these numbers in mind: 4% and 8%. -
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