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System Builder Marathon, March 2011: $1000 Enthusiast PC

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  • System Builder
  • Core
  • Sandy Bridge
  • Intel i5
  • Product
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March 23, 2011 6:00:03 AM

We give Sandy Bridge yet another shot in our second System Builder Marathon configuration of the month, leaning on Intel's Core i5-2500K. How well does it fare against the Lynnfield-based Core i5-700-series processor it’s replacing?

System Builder Marathon, March 2011: $1000 Enthusiast PC : Read more

More about : system builder marathon march 2011 1000 enthusiast

March 23, 2011 6:09:58 AM

That is one funky looking case. Great $1k system!
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March 23, 2011 6:11:03 AM

That case is a behemoth.
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March 23, 2011 6:14:17 AM

After seeing that case i was afraid for Princess Leia.
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March 23, 2011 6:31:36 AM

dirtmountainAfter seeing that case i was afraid for Princess Leia.


LOL
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March 23, 2011 6:33:42 AM

Crazy looking case, but nice system overall!
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March 23, 2011 7:00:49 AM

for 1k usd seems to be a cheap system.. hmm nice review, is good to see that new processors are really efficient even when overclocked ..to bad about the 22cm cooler of the side panel of that funny case. My Armor+ has exactly the same issue with a V6gt cooler and I decided to go back to my hyper212+ :D .
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March 23, 2011 7:02:30 AM

you forgot to add the cost of your beloved Windows
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March 23, 2011 7:07:46 AM

cangeliniLOL
Huh?
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March 23, 2011 7:21:52 AM

Crashman said:
Huh?

Good to see the Tom's team is on the same page XD
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March 23, 2011 7:28:56 AM

that has to be the ugliest case I've ever seen in my life. At the end of the day the case is 100% taste, to 'recommend' a case is futile.
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March 23, 2011 7:44:52 AM

Just for testing purposes, could that 220mm fan have been mounted on the outside of the case, to see if its worth buying a slimmer fan with that extra $24 in the budget?
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March 23, 2011 8:58:04 AM

Strange results in games. 460 1gb SLI is equal to gtx580 in Crysis, but in this article two 460gtx show the same performance as 6950...
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March 23, 2011 8:59:57 AM

Amazing value. This machine can do rip trough anything @ 1920x1200. I like how you're keeping your eyes open on mobos yet to appear;
Asrok P67 Extreme4, MSI P67 GD45, Intel Boxdp67bg, Asus P67Pro, Gigabyte P67UD4: Cheapest SLI/CF x8 w/3slot-for-each-card-boards out there. Only one can be the best. My bet is on Intel.

6950 all the way and nothing less, not even to fit in a SSD.

For $10 more, I would pick the Inwin Dragon Slayer for bigger size, 4 fans, meshed covers (Princess Leia's daddy).

Another $10 for the Corsair TX650 Version 2.0, but that was just released 3 weeks ago.
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March 23, 2011 9:18:19 AM

i think i said this in the last build....modular PSU please, especially since you had a bit of money you had left over. OCZ do some good ones.
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March 23, 2011 9:47:57 AM

I saw the case, and it made me instantly awaken. Not quite sure how to explain it - though it does come down to personal taste anyway.

As for some of the gaming benchmarks, it's really a mixed bag. Sandy Bridge/6950 rules at 1080p & lower but anything higher seems to be in the domain of the dual Nvidia cards. Though the Core i3 was a really extreme compromise.

Now waiting for the AMD build to show up!
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March 23, 2011 10:20:18 AM

UGGGGGHHHHH-ly casr
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March 23, 2011 10:20:39 AM

eddieroolzI saw the case, and it made me instantly awaken. Not quite sure how to explain it - though it does come down to personal taste anyway.As for some of the gaming benchmarks, it's really a mixed bag. Sandy Bridge/6950 rules at 1080p & lower but anything higher seems to be in the domain of the dual Nvidia cards. Though the Core i3 was a really extreme compromise. Now waiting for the AMD build to show up!


That has to do with the way certain games are programmed and made to prefer certain architecture over another. it's not exactly the fault of the video cards.
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March 23, 2011 10:26:56 AM

I have to learn to spell 'case'... lol

Seagate drive? No way... pure junk.
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March 23, 2011 11:11:23 AM

JohnMD1022I have to learn to spell 'case'... lolSeagate drive? No way... pure junk.

Nothing wrong with a seagate drive...as an external HDD. Never used one as an internal though.
The case itself looks real good, and hopefully efficient at cooling. Although I must say, it looks like a 'gaming' case that was first built around early 2000. I personally like it though, it looks quite unique.
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Anonymous
March 23, 2011 11:34:58 AM

To get my i5 760 above 4.1 GHz on a GIGABYTE USB3 I had to disable thermal monitoring, so that it wouldn't clock down when it reached somewhere in the 60s C under full load. I tried to balance this increased risk by making sure to have the CPU fan failure alarm on. Maybe manufacturers are very conservative with what they consider acceptable thermals and that is why the overclock is being hampered a bit in this case, because I know the Lynnfield architecture could handle much higher temps. The same type of thing may be taking effect here with this ASRock board. I'm definitely not certain about this though, you guys probably tested that, but I thought I'd throw the idea out there.
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March 23, 2011 11:40:41 AM

luis1 said:
Just pulled the trigger on this system.. trumps your 1K system..
For 820.00 shipped..

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Special-B/w/62031

Obviously a 6950 can't beat a 5770 in graphic performance, alongside a phenom II 840 against a new i5 model...
Doesn't trump the 1000$ system at all, nice try though.

EDIT: Not to mention the better mobo on the build by TomsHardware, a better power supply, and a somewhat more efficient case.
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March 23, 2011 11:48:40 AM

you say the case is unique but I say it's U-G-L-Y. I would've put it into a Cooler Master HAF 912+/Advanced or a HAF 922
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March 23, 2011 11:50:15 AM

I would really have been interested in seeing how that 220mm fan benefited the system, pretty disappointing that a CPU cooler wasn't chosen that could fit.
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March 23, 2011 12:04:10 PM

Great build, Don. I'm a fan of WD myself, but I'm glad you tried Samsung, just to experiment and see which was preferable. The 6950 trick, very creative of you to include that here as well. Love this system, well done.

One thing, and not to nitpick... but it's "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.," not "S.T.A.L.E.R." ;) 
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March 23, 2011 1:01:20 PM

Question:

I'm planning on building a new system in the next month or so and can't decide on a graphics card.

I've looked at all the past system builds here and on almost all of them include what I would consider to be a very nice graphics card. I'm not a gamer but I plan to do some HD video work. Do I need a 6950 or would a 5770 work? Do I even need that...should I just go with a 5570? I'm thinking an i7-2600K, SSD boot drive, 8GB Ram and so on.

Any good links to help me choose a GC?
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March 23, 2011 1:19:00 PM

bngnomeQuestion:I'm planning on building a new system in the next month or so and can't decide on a graphics card. I've looked at all the past system builds here and on almost all of them include what I would consider to be a very nice graphics card. I'm not a gamer but I plan to do some HD video work. Do I need a 6950 or would a 5770 work? Do I even need that...should I just go with a 5570? I'm thinking an i7-2600K, SSD boot drive, 8GB Ram and so on.Any good links to help me choose a GC?


Try opening a forum topic. My 5770 and Hexa-core CPU don't give me any issues at all with video work, but I do play games.
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March 23, 2011 1:32:44 PM

luis1Just pulled the trigger on this system.. trumps your 1K system..For 820.00 shipped..http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Special-B/w/62031



Do you work for ibuypower or something? That system isn't even close. The i5-2500K blows that AMD Phenom out of the water and comparing a 6950 to a 5770 is a joke. They aren't even in the same class. Plus your "Liquid cooling" is suspect at best. I'd take the 212+ anyday.
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March 23, 2011 1:40:20 PM

ava__you forgot to add the cost of your beloved Windows


This is just for the hardware. I smell a Mac user... Aren't you going to knock them for the games and software suites they tested?
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March 23, 2011 1:43:26 PM

ava__you forgot to add the cost of your beloved Windows


Assuming you're not reusing your previous Installation. Even still, just another $100, whoop-de-do, that's $25 a year assuming you run this rig for four years.
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March 23, 2011 2:02:51 PM

This machine hits a good performance level, but when is Intel going to fix the darned chips?
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March 23, 2011 2:19:15 PM

The case is fugly, but the rest of it is great; I'd love to win it so I won't nitpick the rest of the parts. I'd build it in a different case and use the InWin for another build for my nephew, who is in to Star Wars.

And, luis1, you got owned. Sorry, but that's just how it is.
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March 23, 2011 2:48:27 PM

^^yeah right that is a ripoff for an amd quad and a 5770, any of these builds will mop that pathetic build up are you kidding me?
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March 23, 2011 3:03:45 PM

Newegg raised the price on the Cooler Mater Hyper 212 plus to $35, plus they have over $7 for shipping. Not a budget buster, but it sure feels like they are taking advantage of a popular product. Maybe we should stop recommending it so often. Anyone know of another effective option at the $42 price range?
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March 23, 2011 3:07:46 PM

eloricNewegg raised the price on the Cooler Mater Hyper 212 plus to $35, plus they have over $7 for shipping. Not a budget buster, but it sure feels like they are taking advantage of a popular product. Maybe we should stop recommending it so often. Anyone know of another effective option at the $42 price range?

scythe mugen 2
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March 23, 2011 3:14:20 PM

Appalling mess of a case there, not that there's anything that much better on the market, I guess.
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March 23, 2011 3:28:36 PM

I have a 6950 and would offer an alternate way to unlock your card with a bit less trouble. If you just flash it to a 6970 BIOS you can then use MSI Afterburner to underclock the timings. In this way you dont need to mess with any config files, I just set the mem at 1300mhz and click the "apply overclock on startup" button It works great! And My 3D Mark 11 score goes up 400 points and I have the lowly Phenom 965 not a sandybridge :(  lol
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March 23, 2011 3:33:36 PM

luis1 said:
Just pulled the trigger on this system.. trumps your 1K system..
For 820.00 shipped..

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Special-B/w/62031

I dont know if you were being funny...Sorry if you were...But the unlocked 6950 in this build would take a dump on the 5770 in the build you just linked lol plus a better processor lol and you only saved $150 LMAO
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March 23, 2011 3:36:45 PM

whats the big deal?? you could have used 500 GB and added more RAM say 8GB and a cheaper case.. and you could also have tried GTX560ti so that you can really make something out of it.. btw this was the EXACT pc spec. i was thinking of buying.. but then with the little above differences.. btw whats the difference between a P67 and H67?? i see that P67 wont support optimization by virtu.. so i prefer H67.. any big deal here?? or am i missing anything?? please advice..
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March 23, 2011 3:37:20 PM

btw "submit my comment" not working in IE9 any issues with it there??
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March 23, 2011 3:39:36 PM

That's some case.

Awesome build, Toms !
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March 23, 2011 3:46:34 PM

illuminatuz said:
whats the big deal?? you could have used 500 GB and added more RAM say 8GB and a cheaper case.. and you could also have tried GTX560ti so that you can really make something out of it.. btw this was the EXACT pc spec. i was thinking of buying.. but then with the little above differences.. btw whats the difference between a P67 and H67?? i see that P67 wont support optimization by virtu.. so i prefer H67.. any big deal here?? or am i missing anything?? please advice..

you do know a stock 6950 would beat a 560ti and the unlocked one would smash it. Also for the future it seems with tests that toms did her that if you were to add a second card these would also scale better. Nothing wrong with Nvidia they make great cards but if your trying to get the most out of $1000 why get a card that will perform under what they chose? Side note If i go to the Frys store in my area there are more returned 6950s than new LOL I have one and I love it im guessing that those are from ppl doing what I did..... I purchased a card flashed it and it wasn't stable so I returned it and got another one and it was stable as can be. So now frys is left with all these open box cards. Great deal if you dont want to unlock them they are at $265 and frys says they will support the full XFX warantee on the open box item. I dont know if the realize it a lifetime warantee lol?
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March 23, 2011 4:05:36 PM

luis1Just pulled the trigger on this system.. trumps your 1K system..For 820.00 shipped..http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Special-B/w/62031
That's some wishful thinking.
Once he stops and thinks about it he'll wish he had waited a few days to grab this build.
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March 23, 2011 4:15:40 PM

luis1 said:
Just pulled the trigger on this system.. trumps your 1K system..
For 820.00 shipped..

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Special-B/w/62031
If you bother to run the same benchmarks, the results will knock that silly grin off your face :p 
burnley14 said:
I would really have been interested in seeing how that 220mm fan benefited the system, pretty disappointing that a CPU cooler wasn't chosen that could fit.
Actually, it's the fan that doesn't fit the cooler, not the cooler that doesn't fit the fan. The case was simply designed wrong. I'm pretty sure that removing the side fan was part of the original plan, since Don knew about the potential problem before he ordered it.
eloric said:
Newegg raised the price on the Cooler Mater Hyper 212 plus to $35, plus they have over $7 for shipping. Not a budget buster, but it sure feels like they are taking advantage of a popular product. Maybe we should stop recommending it so often. Anyone know of another effective option at the $42 price range?
This has happened before: Right after Tom's Hardware gave the cooler an award for it's $30 value, the price went up to $40. That put it against the better-performing Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B
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March 23, 2011 5:23:28 PM

"We suspect the gaming difference would be even wider if these systems were using identical graphics cards."

WHAT? This makes no sense. If they were using identical graphics cards, they would have been much CLOSER in gaming performance. Most of the difference you see in the gaming benchmarks is GPU performance. Put identical GPUs in these machines and you'd end up with almost identical gaming performance except at low resolutions and very CPU dependent games.
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