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System Builder Marathon: Performance And Value Compared

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  • Overclocking
  • Build Your Own
  • Desktops
  • Buyer's Guides
  • Gaming
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a b K Overclocking
September 25, 2013 9:00:03 PM

Can a PC that costs twice as much offer two times the performance? We compare our $650, $1300, and $2600 machines across the Tom's Hardware benchmark suite in order to find out. There's even a new test introduced to better-reflect our storage results.

System Builder Marathon: Performance And Value Compared : Read more

More about : system builder marathon performance compared

September 25, 2013 9:14:55 PM

Value is one thing, but when it comes to gaming you have to build for a minimum acceptable framerate and graphical fidelity. Once you factor those in you see that the $1300 build is indeed the value leader. The $650 build cannot play all games at 1080p60, high settings, and decent AA.
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-3
September 25, 2013 9:27:27 PM

It always seems that to be the best value in SBM you need the cheapest case, psu and motherboard and spend as much as you can on graphics.
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11
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a c 167 K Overclocking
a c 296 4 Gaming
September 25, 2013 9:37:09 PM

Agree with the value pick and now looking to see what you guys did for $350!
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3
September 25, 2013 9:37:15 PM

So at what price point does diminishing returns really kick in, approximately? Would spending a little more on the GPU for the $650 still be a solid value add?

Basically, at what point between $650 and $1300 does the price/performance ratio seriously diminish?
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a b K Overclocking
September 25, 2013 9:42:27 PM

itzsnypah said:
It always seems that to be the best value in SBM you need the cheapest case, psu and motherboard and spend as much as you can on graphics.
That doesn't stop me from setting a minimum quality standard for the high-end build, that comes at a higher price than the minimum performance standard. And, it doesn't stop me from adding a secondary storage drive, because these are things that the owner of this system would expect to have. I go into this knowing that I'm "wasting" money on quality, features and convenience items, and it doesn't bother me at all :) 
Martell1977 said:
So at what price point does diminishing returns really kick in, approximately? Would spending a little more on the GPU for the $650 still be a solid value add?

Basically, at what point between $650 and $1300 does the price/performance ratio seriously diminish?
One of our SBM's focused on that question. It's currently somewhere around $700.

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9
a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 25, 2013 11:43:51 PM

ryude said:
Value is one thing, but when it comes to gaming you have to build for a minimum acceptable framerate and graphical fidelity. Once you factor those in you see that the $1300 build is indeed the value leader. The $650 build cannot play all games at 1080p60, high settings, and decent AA.


you didn't bother reading the benching at all apparently. The 650 build was way over 60fps in all titles on ultra settings at 1080p except for far cry (it was even over 60fps on skyrim, which really hates amd cpus). Far Cry 3 has always been a gpu melter in the category of crysis 3; so it shouldn't be surprising a 760gtx can't max fc3 on ultra at 1080p. It doesn't in any other bench anywhere either. And fc3 was clearly playable on ultra at 1080p (30-40fps). Personally if i built a $650 machine and it killed every game i threw at it at 1080p and 60fps i'd call it a day. there really isn't a reason to spend more on your hardware unless you're going to spend a fortune on better/multiple monitors with bigger resolutions...

Computer tech has come a long way, that we basically have a mainstream gaming platform at 1080p for $650 is a great thing.
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8
September 26, 2013 12:33:25 AM

ryude said:
Value is one thing, but when it comes to gaming you have to build for a minimum acceptable framerate and graphical fidelity. Once you factor those in you see that the $1300 build is indeed the value leader. The $650 build cannot play all games at 1080p60, high settings, and decent AA.


Actually what you realise is that the CPU on the $650 build is probably good enough for a GTX 780/AMD7970 or 2 GTX 760's in SLI. With that added expenditure of only $150-300 you could play anything you want to at 1080p without the PC breaking a sweat. It goes to show that, while the AMD Piledrivers are far behind intel's quad core K series, they can still represent decent value for a gaming PC. Nice article.
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6
September 26, 2013 12:46:52 AM

ingtar33, I agree with you. In the coming months your $650 is going to get you more with AMD's 7000 series price dropping. More money is great if you got it. Get your Titans if you can! Average folks are going to be sticking to the sub $850 range.
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0
September 26, 2013 2:04:02 AM

Great SBM guys. Would have preferred to see the $650 machine get this,
GIGABYTE GV-R795WF3-3GD Radeon HD 7950 3GB for $224 ($199 after rebate)
and spent the additional money on a ,
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
which gives plenty of headroom to take a fx-6300 to an easy 4.5 ghz OC with low temps. Just built my first 2 FX-6300s this way with absolutely no problem.
With an extra Gig of graphics memory, comparable gpu oc ability and framerates and a solid OC on the cpu I think this system would be an easy walk away winner.
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0
September 26, 2013 2:21:55 AM

OK, OK, OK. Could someone please explain why there are benchmarks in this at all? Does anyone ever expect the $650 PC to come near the $1300 and $2550 ones withs superior hardware? It's a complete waste of time to make those graphs, because a 5-year-old can probably tell you what the results will be: the more expensive stuff gets you better performance.
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-8
a b K Overclocking
September 26, 2013 4:04:40 AM

bemused_fred said:
OK, OK, OK. Could someone please explain why there are benchmarks in this at all? Does anyone ever expect the $650 PC to come near the $1300 and $2550 ones withs superior hardware? It's a complete waste of time to make those graphs, because a 5-year-old can probably tell you what the results will be: the more expensive stuff gets you better performance.
1.) You need gaming benchmarks to PROVE that the slowest system can play these games at high setting.
2.) You need application benchmarks to SHOW performance proportionality.

You need those things. We don't. We could just discuss the results without showing them, but that discussion wouldn't make sense to you. And, you might be the first one to ask what we're hiding by not showing the charts.

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7
September 26, 2013 4:34:45 AM

This article raises an interesting point about workstations. I would like to see a Workstation System Builders Marathon, looking at budget, midrange and high end workstation systems.
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3
September 26, 2013 4:41:18 AM

Guys... another great build off. It does prove that you DONT need to have the most expensives parts on the market to put together a very capable gaming rig. When you look at your trying to set a specific goal of 1080p at 60fps you can really get creative on what parts you can use to accomplish the task. It may be great to say I have an i7 processor with tri- sli 760 cards but fo the $$$ you invested in it unless your trying to reach some off the cart resolution it showed that its not worth the money compared to a single card or even a dual ski setup. would have loved to see a better cooler or sealed water cooler on the fx-6300 and how much more performance you could have tweaked out of it (knowing that it wouldn't catch up to the i5 and definitely not the i7)
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2
a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 5:18:50 AM

Paying a premium for performance is nothing new. Take automobiles, for example:

2013 Ford Taurus SHO
MSRP: $28,900
0-60 time: 5.1
Relative Price: 100%
Relative Perf: 100%
"Value": 100%

2013 Ford Shelby GT500
MSRP: $59,200
0-60 time: 3.6
Relative Price: 205%
Relative Perf: 142%
"Value": 69%

2014 Porsche 911 Turbo S
MSRP: $97,350
0-60 time: 2.9
Relative Price: 337%
Relative Perf: 176%
"Value": 52%

I suppose that means that true "value" is more than just what the numbers say. Price/performance is one thing. "Value" is something much more complex in the mind of the buyer.
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1
September 26, 2013 5:31:36 AM

This article pretty much sums up the state of gaming right now and computer sales in general. For one monitor gaming by the numbers, there really isn't a reason to spend more then a grand or 1500 on a machine. The 650 machine did most just fine.

I have a feeling this is mostly due to the consoles pretty much dictating visual progress in most cases. As a result there isn't a need to increase performance of machines much, so Intel improves efficiency for other markets.

As a result, people don't really get new machines as often cause there isn't much of a need. Hell I'm sitting on a Core i5 750 and only just recently started considering a new machine. I'll build a new one next year... When my machine crosses the 5 year old mark...

And Tech companies sit and wonder why pc sales have slowed down? :\
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2
September 26, 2013 5:55:01 AM

Crashman said:
bemused_fred said:
OK, OK, OK. Could someone please explain why there are benchmarks in this at all? Does anyone ever expect the $650 PC to come near the $1300 and $2550 ones withs superior hardware? It's a complete waste of time to make those graphs, because a 5-year-old can probably tell you what the results will be: the more expensive stuff gets you better performance.
1.) You need gaming benchmarks to PROVE that the slowest system can play these games at high setting.
2.) You need application benchmarks to SHOW performance proportionality.

You need those things. We don't. We could just discuss the results without showing them, but that discussion wouldn't make sense to you. And, you might be the first one to ask what we're hiding by not showing the charts.



Gee, if only there had been extensive benchmarks on all three systems for the last three days. Nah, that's crazy talk.

Also, I really don't need benchmarks to know about performance proportionality. I've been into computer hardware for more than 15 minutes, so it's not exactly news to me that the entire market is subject to diminishing returns. I can't even remember the last time when a $400 CPU or GPU offered more than double the performance of a $200 one.
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-8
September 26, 2013 6:28:57 AM

Nice SBM. Next few quarters could get even more interesting. Keep it up! :) 


p.s. Please have newer games next year! 2013 titles should be a min requirement.
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2
September 26, 2013 6:39:43 AM

Good article, as always. I have never quite understood why the $650 machine is expected/compared as such high resolutions. Ultra resolutions come from monitors costing quite a bit of money, but I guess you could cheap out on a machine for a fantastic monitor...
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2
September 26, 2013 7:36:39 AM

I'd be curious to know the expected lifespan/use of these systems over time. The budget build works well for now, certainly, but there are always more demanding game the following year and I'm not sure budget future-proofs for more than two years if gaming is set as a priority (at higher resolutions).
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1
a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 7:44:06 AM

Kind of lame we didn't see the full productivity suite used in this article which would have even further exclaimed the 6300's value vs the i5 in higher threaded workloads where it's not uncommon for the 6300 to out perform the i5. The results are already there you just have to cross reference them from the 2 different articles as opposed to having it all in this article for a final review.
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a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 7:48:31 AM

Nevermind, it's all there my bad. Nice article.
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1
September 26, 2013 8:59:43 AM

Quote:
I'd be curious to know the expected lifespan/use of these systems over time. The budget build works well for now, certainly, but there are always more demanding game the following year and I'm not sure budget future-proofs for more than two years if gaming is set as a priority (at higher resolutions).

^^^ THIS
it would be difficult to test, but it would be a great added benchmark
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a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 9:10:26 AM

Quote:
I'd be curious to know the expected lifespan/use of these systems over time. The budget build works well for now, certainly, but there are always more demanding game the following year and I'm not sure budget future-proofs for more than two years if gaming is set as a priority (at higher resolutions).


basically, very little difference.

all three systems will be highly obsolete in 4-6 years.
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a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 10:55:11 AM

It seems to me ultimately unreasonable to judge three very different systems on the same value scale. At some point, fitness for purpose has to enter into the consideration.
So far, this has been overall the least satisfying SBM cycle I can remember, although I am extremely optimistic that the $350 bonus build may salvage the whole cycle. Others have featured an occasional questionable part, or even a whole build that didn't make much sense, but usually there were some lessons to them; I'm still trying to get the lessons out of this one.
The $650 build is very similar to what I might do on that budget, if building AMD. I would want a more robust motherboard, and an aftermarket cooler, but otherwise it's pretty solid, and has upgrade potential (e.g. a SSD). Whoever wins this one needs to back off the overclock for the sake of the motherboard, but it should otherwise be decent. If I win it, that's what I would do, then probably give it to my nephew (if my sister agrees) or to a friend.
The $1300 machine is very much like what I'd build for myself. I would shift a few things though, like getting a more mainstream mobo and sticking with an air cooler (reducing the OC if necessary), and putting the money into a larger SSD and an additional drive for a RAID1 data pair. If I win this one, it might replace my "Phoenix" rig, but swapping the larger SSD and RAID1 pair from that one. One thing the high-end mobo does provide for this one is a little more future-resistance. I'd expect it to remain upgradable with faster graphics cards for years to come.
I can't think of anyone I've ever known for whom the $2550 machine is anything like what I'd suggest. I'm not sure what I'd do if I won it; maybe I'd part it out, or pull one of the graphics cards to get the power down into a more comfortable range and then sell it.
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September 26, 2013 11:23:19 AM

Im sorry but roughly 12% increase from 1 gpu to 3 is hardly something to write home about.
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a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 12:24:55 PM

The tri-SLI reminds me of a SBM build a few years ago in which four HD4850s were used in Crossfire. It wasn't an approach that anyone had ever tried before, but it was very interesting. This tri-SLI unfortunately was not quite so interesting. Perhaps a lesson here is that tri-SLI is just not a useful approach.
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a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 12:33:35 PM

how do we win these rigs. as a poor baptist missionary i'm always looking to get lucky and win new computer tech... I love my machine because it came to me through the kindness of a number of others. that said i still love this hobby too much to not want to get my hands on something new and awesome.
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a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 12:49:11 PM

If you are in the USA (excluding Rhode Island), you can fill out a quick little form (linked at the beginning of each SBM article). Please don't harangue Tom's about International or Rhode Island participation; they can't extend the contest to these areas due to tax and other regulations imposed by elected and/or appointed parasites.
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2
a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 12:52:25 PM

Onus said:
If you are in the USA (excluding Rhode Island), you can fill out a quick little form (linked at the beginning of each SBM article). Please don't harangue Tom's about International or Rhode Island participation; they can't extend the contest to these areas due to tax and other regulations imposed by elected and/or appointed parasites.


thanks much =D
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1
September 26, 2013 1:05:19 PM

For the next SMB I would love to see a no holds barred approach when it comes to buying the hardware. By that, I mean allowing your writers to buy used or refurbished parts. This is something us readers do all the time. I think it would be a fun read, to see how the writers were able to haggle there way to a cheap case on Craigslist or received a BD-RW from Ebay that turned out to be CD-RW etc. This approach would probably favor the low budget system but it could allow for some very interesting builds. My 2 cents.
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1
a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 1:19:04 PM

I'm not sure that would work for the SBM, which I believe is sponsored by Newegg. As a separate challenge series, however (possibly involving different writers), it might work out quite well. Give each writer an identical budget ($750-$1000 max) and turn them loose.
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1
a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 1:19:05 PM

jee_are said:
For the next SMB I would love to see a no holds barred approach when it comes to buying the hardware. By that, I mean allowing your writers to buy used or refurbished parts. This is something us readers do all the time. I think it would be a fun read, to see how the writers were able to haggle there way to a cheap case on Craigslist or received a BD-RW from Ebay that turned out to be CD-RW etc. This approach would probably favor the low budget system but it could allow for some very interesting builds. My 2 cents.


i'd LOVE an article like that.

Onus said:
I think that might work better as a different kind of contest. Give each writer an identical budget ($750-$1000 max) and turn them loose.


much less... i built my rig with just a little less then $400 and about 3 months of hunting. and i'm pimped out thanks to a little hustle, a little luck and the generosity of strangers. phII 965be/8gb ddr3 1600/h100/HD 7770/5.1 suround sound bluray speaker/reciever system/23" 2ms responce time 1080p asus monitor/ logitech gaming mouse/dell mechanical keyboard... the list goes on and on... it's a nicely pimped out ride. still looking for a bargain on an ssd or motherboard. i like my motherboard just lookin' for something new and flashy... caps don't last forever; and the RAID setup on my boot drive isn't close to fast enough.
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a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 3:56:40 PM

Onus said:
It seems to me ultimately unreasonable to judge three very different systems on the same value scale. At some point, fitness for purpose has to enter into the consideration.

I get the same feeling. Yes, you can mathematically break down performance and value, but at some point the numbers become subjective in what portions are weighted more than others. In the mean-time, overall build quality and feel are very hard to judge and quantify, such as case design and style, value of mboard connectivity, and upgrade paths.

It's a nasty cycle, you set forth the rules of a competition and invariably someone can figure out how best to game the system. It's not necessarily done, or even a bad thing, because well-defined rules means you know exactly what you're going up against. However those rules certainly don't apply to everyone, maybe not even the majority of users.
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a b 4 Gaming
September 26, 2013 6:45:55 PM

Onus said:
I can't think of anyone I've ever known for whom the $2550 machine is anything like what I'd suggest. I'm not sure what I'd do if I won it; maybe I'd part it out, or pull one of the graphics cards to get the power down into a more comfortable range and then sell it.


I actually would love to have the $2550 build, but not as a build. It's the perfect example of the sum of the parts being much greater than the whole.

If I win it, I will have an upgrade heyday.

1. Sell the SBE on ebay for $435-475, and buy components for a 6300 build together with one of the 760s and the Noctua cooler for my oldest son. I made the $1,000 mistake of buying an HP touchsmart for him a few years back, and he's itching for a gaming PC now. The HP is throwaway.

2. Use the 2nd & 3rd 760's, the SSD, and PSU to upgrade my home-office gaming PC - will be a very nice upgrade indeed from a single 7850 and 1TB HDD.

3. Add the 3TB drive to my living room HTPC - can always use the extra storage there.

4. Use the Lian-Li case for.... well, it might make a good planter out back. Or maybe I can just recycle the aluminum.... I love Lian-Li's - I have a PC-Q25 for my Xeon E-3 home server, which is just phenomenal , but that one picked out for this build pretty much has zero utility in my book.

So, bring on the sweepstakes!

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1
September 27, 2013 12:20:55 AM

icerider said:
Great SBM guys. Would have preferred to see the $650 machine get this,
GIGABYTE GV-R795WF3-3GD Radeon HD 7950 3GB for $224 ($199 after rebate)
and spent the additional money on a ,
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus
which gives plenty of headroom to take a fx-6300 to an easy 4.5 ghz OC with low temps. Just built my first 2 FX-6300s this way with absolutely no problem.
With an extra Gig of graphics memory, comparable gpu oc ability and framerates and a solid OC on the cpu I think this system would be an easy walk away winner.


What mobo, memory, case, and psu did you use for your build(s)?

As my first build, I may copy it exactly :) 

The value of that cpu and gpu are almost impossible to pass up.
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0
September 27, 2013 8:05:55 AM

Awesome and helpful article.
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0
September 27, 2013 2:17:27 PM

Tom

You should review a system with AMD FX 9590 + 7990 CROSSFIRE + 990FX which costs under 1600 dollars combined now for all Three!

Similar to the 2500 system but cheaper! THREE GTX 760s and the 3930k + LGA 2011 costs around 1600 as well.

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0
a b K Overclocking
a b 4 Gaming
September 28, 2013 2:54:29 AM

polyzp said:
Tom
You should review a system with AMD FX 9590 + 7990 CROSSFIRE + 990FX which costs under 1600 dollars combined now for all Three!
Similar to the 2500 system but cheaper! THREE GTX 760s and the 3930k + LGA 2011 costs around 1600 as well.

i second this combo with a ROFL. lack of full frame pacing support aside, this pc will make a great space heater.
may be make an Red Hot (pun intended) all-amd marathon with $650 with fx6300, $1200-1500 with fx8320/8350/9370, $2000-2500 with fx9370/9590. for the budget build - radeon 7950, mid-range - 7970 cfx, high end - 7990 cfx or r9 280 cfx (if allowed).
for cooling, cm hyper 212 evo, corsair h80, corsair h110/100i or swiftech h220 respectively.
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2
a b 4 Gaming
September 30, 2013 6:04:13 AM

I'd really like to see you guys blow it out with a true high-end build with a custom loop, perhaps just once a year. Your competitors had this type of build featured in their headliner for today: http://anandtech.com/show/7363/the-neophytes-custom-liq...

The air-cooled version of this build would run in the $3,000-3,500 range. Perhaps for this build, you'd be able to get some sponsors to cough up the components.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($339.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U14S 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($70.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1.SNIPER 5 EATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($369.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Trident X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($339.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Plextor M5P Xtreme Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($228.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($144.91 @ Amazon)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($637.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3GB Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($637.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Desktop Case ($139.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair 1200W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($276.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($58.99 @ NCIX US)
Total: $3186.79
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-09-30 09:02 EDT-0400)

I understand this series is to see how much performance each builder can get within a certain budget. Perhaps a once-a-year blow-it-all out build as a bonus build - would be fun, especially fun to win!
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October 9, 2013 10:36:44 PM

My 2011 build with Sandy I7 2600k(4 ghz) , GTX 680, 16 gigs of ram and 64 bit windows 7 is still running everything I throw at it on a single 1080p display, Anything more except maybe video card upgrade would be overkill . Haswell is looking kinda rough for an upgrade when Ivy does it running cooler and wee bit faster than (Sandy) without too much hassle when overclocking. Me, Personally think a two card solution to be max when dealing with gaming graphics performance. Heck even the I5 3570k and gtx 760 perfect for most gaming situations I encounter.(1080p,single display) Very diminished returns. I'll wait for the 800 series or later to enjoy (three) monitor setup with two cards if I ever go that route.
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October 18, 2013 4:26:52 AM

I'd love to see a workstation based SBM too - using an integrated GPU and benchmarks for photoshop, database, visual studio, eclipse, office, etc, etc.
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!