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• System Builder Marathon, Sept. '09: AMD System Value Compared

  System Builder Marathon, September 2009: The Articles Here are links to each of the four articles in this month’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published). And remember, these systems are all being given away at the end of the marathon. Keep an eye on this space; this is where we'll post the link to enter the contest for all three systems once the series concludes! Day 1: The $650 Gaming PCDay 2: The $1,250 Enthusiast PCDay 3: The $2,500 Performance PCDay 4: Performance and Value Dissected Introduction We answered overwhelming requests to use AMD in our latest System Builder Marathon and found the excellent gaming, good prices, and mediocre overclocking our previous component reviews had lead us to expect. Value seekers should be especially pleased with our processor selection while criticizing a few of the “unnecessary expenses” in our highest-priced build. Yet supposedly-superfluous features aren’t the most surprising differences in today’s comparison: Let’s also reconsider a few of the performance-oriented component choices. September SBM PC Component Prices$650-Limit Build$1,250-Limit Build$2,500-Limit BuildMotherboardGigabyte GA-MA790X-UD4P MSI 790FX-GD70MSI 790FX-GD70ProcessorAMD Phenom II X2 550 BE 3.1 GHz Dual-CoreAMD Phenom II X4 945 3 GHz Quad-Core AMD Phenom II X4 955 3.2 GHz Quad-CoreMemoryOCZ Gold OCZ2G10664GK 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2-1066Patriot PVS34G1333LLKN 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3-13332 x Crucial CT2KIT25664BA1339 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3-1333Graphics2 x Sapphire 100245HDMI Radeon HD 4850 512MB4 x Gigabyte GV-R485OC-1GH Radeon HD 4850 1GB3 x MSI R4890-T2D1G OC Radeon HD 4890 1GBOS/Program DrivesWD Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB, 7200 RPMWD Black WD6401AALS 640GB, 7200 RPM2 x Intel X25-M 80GB Model SSDSA2MH080G1 (RAID 0)Storage Hard Drives2 x WD Black 1TB 7200 RPM Model WD1001FALS (RAID 1)OpticalSamsung SATA DVD±RW Model SH-S223B (22x)Optiarc 24X SATA DVD±RW Model AD-7240S-0BDVD/CDLG SATA BD-RE/HD-DVD Model GGW-H20L (6x BD-R)CaseRosewill Wind RyderNZXT TempestNZXT PanzerboxPowerAntec EarthWatts EA650 650WPC Power & Cooling S75CF 750WCorsair CMPSU-1000HX 1000WCPU CoolerAMD Boxed HeatsinkXigmatek HDT-S1283Swiftech H20-220Component CoolingAntec 0761345-75018-9 "SpotCool" LED FanSSD TraySNT SNT-SATA2221B Hot-Swappable BackplaneBay AdapterVantec MRK-250FDTotal Cost $647  $1,265  $2,490 The cheapest build in today’s lineup is a lean, mean gaming machine, fitting two Radeon HD 4850 graphics cards and a high-speed dual-core processor into a sub-$650 package. At the other end of the scale, the high-end build takes an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach, adding liquid cooling and SSD drives to fill reader demands, plus redundant traditional drives to fill the storage demands of high-end buyers. The $1,265 machine attempts to trump the highest-priced build with a total of four graphics cards, sacrificing storage redundancy to fit these within its budget. But with only 512MB per graphics card, will the cheapest system be powerful enough to provide the best gaming value? Will the middle-priced system’s four mainstream-performance graphics cards really be able to overtake the triple-threat high-end cards of its expensive competitor? And for the high-end system, is there really any good reason for gamers to spend this much on drives and cooling? Let’s find out.

• System Builder Marathon, Sept. '09: $2,500 Performance PC

  System Builder Marathon, September 2009: The Articles Here are links to each of the four articles in this month’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published). And remember, these systems are all being given away at the end of the marathon. Keep an eye on this space; this is where we'll post the link to enter the contest for all three systems once the series concludes! Day 1: The $650 Gaming PCDay 2: The $1,250 Enthusiast PCDay 3: The $2,500 Performance PCDay 4: Performance and Value Dissected Introduction One thing sorely lacking from our System Builder Marathon (SBM) articles has been AMD, and that's not because we don’t like the green team. Putting most of our focus into overall system performance caused us to overlook some of the excellent value AMD offers almost exclusively in the gaming market. Thus, we’ve added a couple of titles for our game benchmark tests where AMD really shines. But AMD’s competitive prices don’t extend only to gaming processors and graphics, as the company also has a thriving chipset business. You certainly won’t find a northbridge with 42 PCI Express (PCIe) lanes from Intel, and otherwise similarly-equipped X58 motherboards come with an approximate $100 price premium. $2,500 Portable Performance PC Component PricesMotherboardMSI 790FX-GD70 Socket AM3Chipset: AMD 790FX/SB750$168ProcessorAMD Phenom II X4 955Four Cores, 3.2 GHz, 8MB Cache$200Graphics3 x MSI R4890-T2D1G OC (CrossFireX)1GB GDDR5-3996 Per CardRadeon HD 4890 GPU at 880 MHz$600DRAM8GB Crucial DDR3-1333 CAS 92 x P/N CT2KIT25664BA1339 Kit$142OS/Program Drives2 x Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G1 (RAID 0) 80GB per drive, MLC, 160GB total$460Storage Hard Drives 2 x WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS (RAID 1) 1TB, 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/s$190OpticalLG GGW-H20L BD-RE / HD-DVD ROM 6x BD-R, 2x BD-RE, 16x DVD±R$180CaseNZXT Panzerbox ATX Mid-Tower$120PowerCorsair CMPSU-1000HX Modular 1,000W ATX12V 2.2, EPS12V 2.91, 80-Plus Certified$240CPU CoolerSwiftech H20-220 2 x 120mm Liquid-Cooling Kit$140Component CoolingAntec 0761345-75018-9 "SpotCool" LED Fan$15SSD TraySNT SNT-SATA2221B Hot-Swappable Backplane$22Bay AdapterVantec MRK-250FD 3.5" to 5.25" adapter$13Total Cost$2,490 We were even able to put the money saved on the motherboard (as well as a few other areas) into storage, adding two 80GB Intel X25-M solid-state disk (SSD) drives for super-fast load times and upgrading the optical unit from a Blu-ray reader to a BD-RE writer, all in an effort to satisfy a multitude of reader requests. Let’s take a closer look at how it all went together.

• System Builder Marathon: The $5,000 Extreme PC

  System Builder Marathon, February 2009: The Articles Here are links to each of the four articles in this month’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published). Day 1: The $625 Gaming PC Day 2: The $1,250 Mid-Range PC Day 3: The $5,000 Enthusiast PC Day 4: Performance and Value Dissected Introduction The only people who can truly understand the logic behind spending a month’s pay on a computer are those who have actually used such a system. Everyone else seems to think such behavior is silly. Up-and-coming enthusiasts aspire to acquire this level of performance and capability in a gaming machine without spending as much, while ordinary performance fanatics pretend not to care. Then again, stereotypes concerning “overcompensation” were invented out of envy and are projected by those who are afraid to admit that they too would love to own such a machine. Last month we scaled back our highest-end system to $2,500, opening the configuration to a far larger market that typifies the budget of high-end do-it-yourselfers. But while the $2,500 market is dear to us and certainly worth revisiting, a number of readers wanted to see what kind of dream system we could build if given twice the budget. Rather than choose the entire configuration ourselves, we used your recommendations as guidelines to narrow our choice of parts. $5,000 Extreme Performance System ComponentsComponentModelPrice (USD)CPUIntel Core i7 Extreme 965$1,010 CPU CoolerCooler Master Aquagate Max$230 Radiator UpgradeSwiftech MCR320-QP Quiet Power$50 Fan Upgrade3x Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F 120 mm 1,600 RPM$47 Water Block UpgradeSwiftech Apogee GTZ with LGA-1366 Bracket$75 MotherboardAsus Rampage II Extreme$400 RAMMushkin 998679 DDR3-1600 6.0 GB Kit$205 Graphics2x MSI N295GTX-M2D1792 GeForce GTX 295 $1,000 System Hard Drives2x Intel X25-M 80GB SATA Solid State Disk$800 2.5" Hard Drive AdapterSYBA Mobile Rack for 2.5" SATA (2 drives)$36 Storage Hard DriveSeagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5 TB SATA 3.0 Gb/s$130 SoundAsus SupremeFX X-Fi Audio Riser Card0NetworkIntegrated Gigabit Networking0CaseCooler Master Cosmos-S RC-1100$200 PowerCooler Master Real Power Pro RS-850-EMBA$180 OpticalLG Blu-ray Burner/HD DVD-ROM GGW-H20LK$200 Total Price$4,563 Several readers requested a switch to solid-state disk (SSD) drives, so we included them. Other suggestions, such as a hardware RAID controller card, were swiftly dismissed after the drives we chose consumed the budget. The budget eased when prices dropped after our order was placed, but that’s par for the course in the component market. We even bought a sound card, only to have it priced out of our configuration before we started testing, with later price drops occurring only after the tests were complete. We have a few more surprises to discuss, so feel free to follow along as we detail the assembly, tuning, and testing of today’s super-high-end system.