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System Builder Marathon Q3 2014: Mainstream Enthusiast PC
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1. Changing Focus For A Look At Processor Performance

System Builder Marathon, Q3 2014: The Articles

Here are links to each of the four articles in this quarter’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.

To enter the giveaway, please fill out this SurveyGizmo form, and be sure to read the complete rules before entering!

Day 1: The Budget Gaming PC
Day 2: Our Mainstream Enthusiast System
Day 3: The $1600 High-End Build
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected

This quarter, I decided to give my inner enthusiast a workout and focus on overclocking. A $950 hardware budget for performance-oriented parts didn't exactly leave me with the financial headroom to buy an open-loop liquid cooler though, so I had to pick my battles. Where should I allocate the majority of my funds, the CPU or GPU? In the interest of benefiting as much of the platform as possible, I went with the host processor. That also gives us the opportunity to see what a step up from Paul's Pentium G3258 can do in Intel's Core i5-4690K, benefiting from the Devil's Canyon improvements.

The last time around, my enthusiast-oriented build centered on a Core i5-4670K processor and Radeon R9 290 graphics card. That's a tried-and-true combo. And while I'm confident I could push the platform to the next level with a high-end CPU cooler and premium memory, it'd be difficult to live up to my previous effort after shifting focus to maximizing the platform.

Unfortunately, the new GeForce GTX 970 was not yet available when we ordered the parts for this build.

Enthusiast System Components
MotherboardASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer, LGA 1150, Intel Z97 Express
$125
ProcessorIntel Core i5-4690K: 3.5 GHz Base Clock Rate, 3.9 GHz Maximum Turbo Boost, 6 MB Shared L3 Cache
$240
Heat Sink
Noctua DH-14
$79
Memory8 GB G.Skill Trident (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-2400 F3-2400C10D-8GTD $87
GraphicsZotac AMP! Superclocked GeForce GTX 770 3 GB
$280
Storage Drive
Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1 TB$60
Boot Disk
Adata Premier Pro SP920 128 GB
$75
PowerIn Win GreenMe 650 W 80 PLUS Bronze PSU
$60
Price of Performance Hardware$1006
Case
Cooler Master HAF XM Computer Case$120
Optical
Asus DRW-24B1ST OEM DVD Burner
$20
OS
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit, OEM$100
Price As Tested$1246

I sprang for Zotac's factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 770, hoping it'd be able to stand up to AMD's Radeon R9 290 from the prior build. Based on your feedback, I also made room for Adata's low-cost SP290 128 GB SSD.

Opting for In Win's GreenMe 650 W PSU helped keep costs down some, though I still wound up $56 over my $950 allotment. As for other expenses, Cooler Master's HAF XM case was on sale for $100 when we ordered and is up to $120 now. The total system price, including the operating system and DVD burner, lands under $1300, which is a reasonable target for this kind of system.

2. CPU, Motherboard And Cooler

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K

The new Devil's Canyon-based Core i5-4690K essentially replaces the Core i5-4670K that we selected for the mid-range enthusiast build in our last SBM machine. To be honest, the -4690K isn't a colossal upgrade compared to its predecessor, offering a mere 100 MHz clock rate jump and better thermal interface material under the heat spreader.

Then again, when you're after a peak overclock, every little bit counts. Hopefully, Intel's enhancements allow the -4690K to differentiate itself from the first-generation Haswell-based quad-core processor it displaces. We paid $240 for that chip last quarter, and the same amount this time around.

Read Customer Reviews of Intel's Core i5-4690K


In most of our testing, we've seen the Core i5-4670K top out in the 4.3 GHz range after small voltage increases and multiplier adjustments. I'm willing to get a little more involved than that to push the Core i5-4690K further.

Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer

Read Customer Reviews of ASRock's Fatl1ty Z97 Killer


With a significant share of the budget dedicated to the CPU cooler and RAM, I also needed a motherboard that'd help complement my overclocking effort. ASRock's Fatal1ty Z97 Killer might be just what I need.

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Read Customer Reviews of Noctua's NH-D14


Noctua has an excellent reputation as a manufacturer of premium CPU coolers, and its NH-D14 exemplifies why. Sporting two 120 mm fans and capable of rivaling many closed-loop liquid cooling systems, this is a popular choice for fans of big air.

Of course, the $79 price tag is somewhat daunting, and my pictures do not fully convey the heat sink's immense bulk. But then again, nobody said optimizing performance was cheap or easy.

3. Graphics Card, Power Supply And Case

Graphics Card: Zotac AMP! Superclocked GeForce GTX 770

The GeForce GTX 970 launched last week wasn't available (or even public information) back when we ordered the pieces for this build. So, I needed something cheaper than the Radeon R9 290 that wouldn't sacrifice gaming performance. Under $300, the best option was Nvidia's GeForce GTX 770.

I went with Zotac's factory-overclocked model due to its low price, respectable clock rates rated for 1150 base and a typical 1202 MHz GPU Boost frequency, plus 1800 MHz memory, and the hope for additional headroom.

Read Customer Reviews of Zotac's AMP! Superclocked GeForce GTX 770


Selling for $280, Zotac's card serves up impressive frame rates at its price, even though GK104 gets humbled by the GeForce GTX 970 overshadowing it today. Still, Nvidia's Kepler architecture remains quite capable, and I expect this implementation to power through our benchmark suite. At least until I start running the three-screen resolutions, that is.

Power Supply: In Win GreenMe 650 W

Read Customer Reviews of InWin's GreenMe 650 W


In Win combines solid power delivery with attractive value, enabled by manufacturing its own products. I've seen recommendations to try the GreenMe 650 W and, given the need to fit more output into my budget this quarter, I decided to try my luck with a $60 supply.

Case: Cooler Master HAF XM

Read Customer Reviews of Cooler Master's HAF XM


Cooler Master's HAF series is synonymous with airflow, making it an ideal choice for my overclocking-oriented build. I've worked previously with the excellent HAF X. But that monstrous case costs almost $200 and I needed something more budget-friendly.

With that in mind, I decided to give the smaller HAF XM a try to see what compromises are made in shrinking this lauded line-up down to the $120 range.

4. Memory, Hard Drives And Optical Storage

Memory: G.Skill Trident DDR3-2400 8 GB Memory Kit

It doesn't make much sense to chase after the highest overclock on an unlocked processor with cheap RAM. So, I splurged on G.Skill's Trident 8 GB DDR3-2400 kit. At $87, the two 4 GB modules aren't exactly extravagant, though they cost considerably more than the DDR3-1600 kit I bought last time. Sporting 10-12-12-31 timings at 1.65 V, this little upgrade should help me get the most out of my Core i5-4690K overclock.

Read Customer Reviews of G.Skill's Trident DDR3-2400 8 GB Kit


System Drive: Adata Premier Pro SP920 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD

I'm running short on cash, but you made it clear last quarter that you consider solid-state storage a necessity. Therefore, I picked Adata's SP920 for its relatively low $75 price tag combined with a respectable 128 GB of space. It serves this system well and provides quick boot-up and application launching.

Read Customer Reviews of Adata's Premier Pro SP920 128 GB SSD


Hard Drive: Western Digital Blue 1 TB Hard Drive

Armed with a small boot SSD, I needed to add capacity elsewhere for user information. Western Digital's Blue 1 TB drive is the answer when all you need is affordable space. One terabyte should be ample for movies, music, documents, and pictures once you get everything else onto the 120 GB solid-state repository. You can't beat that $60 price tag either, particularly from a 7200 RPM disk.

Read Customer Reviews of Western Digital's Blue 1 TB Hard Drive


Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner

As usual, I went with the cheapest DVD burner option on Newegg. This quarter's lucky winner is Asus' DRW-24B1ST, an OEM model with a 24x write speed and a miserly $20 price tag.

Read Customer Reviews of Asus' DRW-24B1ST DVD Burner

5. Building And Overclocking

Let me start by saying what a pleasure it is to work within the large confines of Cooler Master's HAF XM. It provides a lot of drive bays and easy access, not to mention thoughtful cable management provisions including flared side panels that easily accommodated the colossal Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler. While the pictures below might give you the impression that I'm able to put together a clean system, anyone who has seen my previous builds knows that this isn't actually the case. Simply put, this is one of the most pleasant build experiences I've had, and the HAF XM is more than a little responsible for that. I highly recommend it.

Of course, pleasurable doesn't necessarily mean easy. Just because the case played nice with the beastly Noctua NH-D14, that doesn't mean the RAM wanted to. Previous experience with this particularly large cooling apparatus would have helped me appreciate how incompatible tall RAM heatsinks are. With no time to re-order parts, I performed a little warranty-voiding hacksaw engineering on one of the sticks:

Voila! A little filing to smooth the sharp edges, and we have the ability to install the customized G.Skill Trident under the cooler, like so:

It doesn't even look bad. That's not all, note the beige Noctua NH-D14 fan on the left. It turns out that it left precious little space for the graphics card, so I removed it and re-installed it on the other side of the heatsink, which was easily accommodated by the spacious HAF XM. The lesson here is, you might not want to assume that an air cooling setup is necessarily less hassle than a liquid cooler, especially when dealing with hardware as awe-inspiringly large as the NH-D14. A little prior knowledge and planning to accommodate this bad boy would have made my life easier. Lesson learned. Aside from these inconveniences, though, everything went quite smoothly and the system happily booted up on the first attempt.

Overclocking

For the system builder marathon I try to keep the overclocking methodology simple: add CPU voltage, and see where the multiplier can take us. With moderate air cooling and CPU voltage in the 1.25 to 1.3 V range, this almost always lands me a 4.3 GHz overclock with a Core i5-4670K.

This time, however, the Noctua NH-D14 and new Core i5-4690K allowed me to bump the voltage up to 1.335V without pulling the temperature above 80 degrees Celsius during a Prime95 stress test. This provided for a final stable overclock of 4.6 GHz, about 300 MHz higher than usual. By itself this doesn't account for a huge performance increase, but in conjunction with the G.Skill Trident RAM's 1200 MHz DDR3 XMP profile, the new build achieved some sizable gains compared to the system from the previous quarter's marathon.  

As for the graphics card, we didn't have high hopes for a big overclock as Zotac's AMP! GeForce GTX 770 comes from the factory with a respectable clock rate increase over the stock specs, which eats into the available headroom. Nevertheless, we did manage to achieve a 30 MHz core boost and a 150 MHz (600 MHz effective) GDDR5 increase to 1180/1232 MHz core and 7800 MT/s memory. This was achieved with MSI's Afterburner utility, increasing the voltage to the maximum +12 setting, the power limit to the maximum 106%, and setting the fan at 100% (which wasn't too loud, surprisingly).

6. How We Tested

The following tables include the stock and overclocked settings for this quarter's mainstream enthusiast system, followed by the configuration we put together earlier this year, which serves as our comparison point.

At the very bottom, you’ll find the programs and games used for benchmarking.

Q3 2014 Enthusiast PC Test Settings: $1006 of Performance Hardware
 Default Configuration
Overclocked
MotherboardASRock Fatal1ty Z97 Killer, LGA 1150, Intel Z97 ExpressUnchanged
ProcessorIntel Core i5-4690K (Haswell): 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz max. Turbo Boost), 6 MB Shared L3 Cache4.6 GHz (46 * 100 MHz), 1.335 V (Load)
Memory8 GB G.Skill Trident (2 x 4 GB) F3-2400C10D-8GTD, 1600 MT/s, CAS 11-11-11-28 1T2400 MT/s, 10-12-12-31 2T, 1.65 V
GraphicsZotac AMP! Superclocked GeForce GTX 770 2 GB, 1150/1202 MHz base/typical GPU Boost, GDDR5-7200
+30 MHz GPU, GDDR5-7800
System Drive
Adata Premier Pro SP920 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s SSDUnchanged
Storage DriveWD Blue WD10EZEX 1 TB, 7200 RPM, 64 MB Cache, SATA 6Gb/sUnchanged
OpticalAsus DRW-24B1ST OEM DVD BurnerUnchanged
CaseCooler Master HAF XM Computer CaseUnchanged
PowerIn Win GreenMe 650 W 80 PLUS Bronze PSUUnchanged
Q2 2014 Enthusiast PC Test Settings: $986 of Performance Hardware
 Default Configuration
Overclocked
MotherboardASRock Z97 Pro3 LGA 1150, Intel Z97 ExpressUnchanged
ProcessorIntel Core i5-4670K (Haswell): 3.4 GHz (3.8 GHz max. Turbo Boost), 6 MB Shared L3 Cache
4.3 GHz (43 * 100 MHz), 1.285 V (Load)
Memory8 GB Team Group Vulcan (2 x 4 GB) TLYD38G1600HC9DC01, 1333 MT/s, CAS 9-9-9-24-1T1600 MT/s, 9-9-9-24-2T, 1.5 V
GraphicsPowerColor TurboDuo Radeon R9 290 4 GB, 975 MHz max. core clock rate, GDDR5-5000 1100 MHz max. core clock rate, GDDR5-5600
HardDriveWD Blue WD10EZEX 1 TB, 7200 RPM, 64 MB Cache, SATA 6Gb/sUnchanged
OpticalLG GH24NSB0: DVD BurnerUnchanged
CaseApevia X-Hermes Computer CaseUnchanged
PowerCorsair CX750 750 W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Bronze-Certified PSUUnchanged

And here are the benchmark details:

Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
Arma 3
V. 1.20 Current PC, V.1.08 Q1 PC
30-sec. Fraps "Infantry Showcase"
Test Set 1: Standard Preset, No AA, Standard AF
Test Set 2: Ultra Preset, 8x FSAA, Ultra AF
Battlefield 4Version 1.0.0.1, DirectX 11, 100-sec. Fraps "Tashgar"
Test Set 1: Medium Quality Preset, No AA, 4x AF, SSAO
Test Set 2: Ultra Quality Preset, 4x MSAA, 16x AF, HBAO
Far Cry 3V. 1.05, DirectX 11, 50-sec. Fraps "Amanaki Outpost"
Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA, Standard ATC, SSAO
Test Set 2: Ultra Quality, 4x MSAA, Enhanced ATC, HDAO AMD/ HBAO NVidia 
Grid 2Version 1.0.85.8679, Direct X 11, Built-in Benchmark
Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA
Test Set 2: Ultra Quality, 8x MSAA
Audio/Video Encoding
HandBrake CLIVersion: 0.99, Video: Video from Canon EOS 7D (1920x1080, 25 frames) 1 Minutes 22 Seconds, Audio: PCM-S16, 48,000 Hz, Two-channel, to Video: AVC1 Audio: AAC (High Profile)
iTunesVersion 11.0.4.4 x64: Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes, default AAC format 
LAME MP3Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s)
TotalCode Studio 2.5Version: 2.5.0.10677, MPEG2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, Two-channel, 16-bit, 224 Kb/s) Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV
Adobe Creative Suite
Adobe After Effects CCVersion 12.0.0.404: Create Video, 3 Streams, 210 Frames, Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously
Adobe Photoshop CCVersion 14 x64: Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates
Adobe Premiere Pro CS6Version 6.0.0.0, 6.61 GB MXF Project to H.264 to H.264 Blu-ray, Output 1920x1080, Maximum Quality
Adobe Acrobat XIVersion 11.0.0: Print PDF from 115 Page PowerPoint, 128-bit RC4 Encyption
Productivity
ABBYY FineReaderVersion 10.0.102.95: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages
Autodesk 3ds Max 2013Version 15.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080
BlenderVersion 2.68a, Cycles Engine, Syntax blender -b thg.blend -f 1, 1920x1080, 8x Anti-Aliasing, Render THG.blend frame 1
Visual StudioVersion 10.0, Compile Google Chrome, Scripted
Compression
7-ZipVersion 9.30 alpha, LZMA2, Syntax "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5"
Benchmark: THG-Workload-2012 (1.3 GB)
WinRARVersion 5.0, RAR, Syntax "winrar a -r -m3"
Benchmark: THG-Workload-2012 (1.3 GB)
WinZipVersion 18.0 Pro, Syntax "-a -ez -p -r"
Benchmark: THG-Workload-2012 (1.3 GB)
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
3DMark ProfessionalVersion: 1.2.250.0, Fire Strike Standard and Extreme
PCMark 8Version: 1.0.0 x64 Full Test
SiSoftware Sandra 2014Version: 2014.02.20.10, Processor Arithmetic, Cryptography, Memory Bandwidth Benchmarks
7. Results: Synthetics

We begin our benchmark analysis with a handful of synthetic tests designed to emphasize differences between the various subsystems that changed between last quarter's configuration and this PC. The biggest differences this time around will likely be reflected in graphics-oriented tests thanks to the disparity between the GeForce GTX 770 and Radeon R9 290. In addition, we're hoping to see the Core i5-4690K's higher overclock give it a notable advantage.

When we break down the test's individual components, we can see the Physics suite, in blue, favors the new build's higher-clocked Core i5-4690K, while the Graphics component, in black, demonstrates a sizable lead for the Radeon R9 290. The red result represents the overall 3DMark result, which reflects an advantage for last quarter's PC.

The graphics card isn't much of a factor when it comes to PCMark, and the new build gets extra points for its high clocks and memory bandwidth.

Now that we've added an SSD back into the mix, you can see a huge difference in storage performance. This is a good approximation of the experience you'll have when booting off of these drives, too.

Intel's Core i5 processors perform neck and neck in Sandra's Arithmetic module, with the newer 4690K enjoying a slight lead thanks to its higher stock and overclocked clock rates.

The cryptography Encoding/Decoding benchmark is accelerated by AES-NI, so performance is dictated by the rate at which system memory can feed data into the CPU. The new build's faster memory allows for a substantial lead.

As the cryptography test suggested, there is a sizable gap in memory subsystem performance between these two systems. My newer build's memory defaults to 1800 MT/s, while the XMP profile increases it to 2400 MT/s. Contrast this with the 1333 MT/s default/1600 MT/s overclocked memory in the last quarter's build.

8. Results: Media Transcoding

The following audio- and video-oriented transcoding benchmarks are tied to processor performance. There are definitely differences in how they utilize CPUs with multiple cores, though. Our iTunes and LAME tests employ a single thread, giving us a good look at the per-core performance of each CPU. Meanwhile, TotalCode Studio and HandBrake leverage as many cores as they can get.

The first two benchmarks run on a single core at maximum Turbo Boost clock rate, yielding performance that reflects their respective stock and overclocked settings. You can see the clock rate difference between the Core i5 4670K and -4690K, but it's not a substantial one.

HandBrake and TotalCode Studio are highly responsive to a jump up to four cores, and then the addition of Hyper-Threading support. Regardless, there's not much of a difference between these two systems.

9. Results: Rendering And Productivity

All of the tests on this page are fully optimized to utilize multi-core (and even multi-processor) configurations.

When comparing two quad-core processoirs based on the same architecture and featuring the same amount of cache, any differences are a result of the clock-rate. The Q3 build continues to enjoy a slight lead because of this advantage, but its nothing to write home about.

10. Results: Adobe Creative Cloud

We run two scripted Photoshop benchmarks: one that is threaded and fully taxes our CPUs, and another that leverages OpenCL acceleration to offload work to our graphics cards.

The Radeon R9 290 suffers compared to the GeForce GTX 770 in the OpenCL benchmark. When we look at the CPU side of things, though, the result is much closer, but the new build maintains a slight lead.

CPU and memory performance are critical variables in the rest of these tests, which do not leverage the heterogeneous nature of OpenCL. The Acrobat benchmark is single-threaded and, like iTunes and LAME, is affected primarily by clock rate. After Effects CC is as well. Similar to Photoshop, Premiere Pro is optimized for multi-core CPUs and benefits from Hyper-Threading. We can see that the After Effects benchmark probably relies on memory speed to some degree, giving the new build a chance to shine, but the other two benchmarks demonstrate much closer results.

11. Results: Compression Tools

The chart below represents three separate benchmarks. WinZip's -EZ switch forces the app to use maximum compression. That's a processor-bound test, and its more taxing workload translates to longer completion times. The OpenCL-accelerated version leverages graphics resources to help compress files larger than 8 MB.

Our OpenCL-enabled benchmark favors the previous build's Radeon R9 290 by a small margin. When it comes to the WinZip CPU and EZ tests, these Core i5-equipped systems are neck and neck once again, but the 4690K's higher clocks do come into play.

12. Results: Battlefield 4 And Arma 3

Battlefield 4

Replacing its predecessor in our bench suite, Battlefield 4 also tends to be limited by the graphics subsystem. CPU performance plays a more prominent role at lower resolutions and lower detail levels, though. For those of you done with this game's single-player campaign, big multi-player maps tend to be quite processor-bound as well. In the real world, you'll get even more benefit from a faster CPU than these tests indicate.

The GeForce GTX 770 benefits from the faster platform and only suffers a loss to the Radeon R9 290 at triple monitor resolutions. Even so, it doesn't lose by much.

Arma 3

Arma3 is known to become exponentially demanding on the graphics hardware as resolution is raised past 1080p. This is a scenario where the Radeon R9 290 shows a great advantage, but the GeForce GTX 770 fares very well on a single monitor.

13. Results: Grid 2 And Far Cry 3

Grid 2

Like most of Codemasters' racing titles, Grid 2 is platform-limited at all but the highest resolutions and detail levels. In fact, it's so sensitive to memory bandwidth that the new build suffers a significant loss at default settings when the High-quality preset is used. Stepping up to the Ultra setting with 8x MSAA enabled transfers the limitation to the graphics subsystem. The GeForce GTX 770 doesn't lose any ground to the Radeon R9 290 until the ultra preset is invoked along with 8x MSAA.

Far Cry 3

More than any other game in our benchmark suite, Far Cry 3 leans heavily on graphics cards and is far less dependent on the host processor and memory. You can see how platform bound this title is at the medium detail setting, allowing the GeForce GTX 770 to capitalize on the faster system RAM.

14. Power And Temperature

Both of the platforms tested for this article employ an 84 W host processor, but the Radeon R9 290 in the previous quarter has a 250 W TDP, while the GeForce GTX 770 should max out in the 195 W range.

On the whole there's not a lot of difference to talk about here, although the extra voltage fed to the Core i5-4690K definitely brings up its power draw when overclocked. 

Now lets consider the thermal load. Noctua's cooler achieves a low 22 degree delta under load at stock settings. When overclocked, the CPU actually exceeds the temperature we saw in the previous quarters marathon, but keep in mind that the new build's Core i5-4690K has been fed significantly more voltage and is running at a higher clock.

As for the GeForce GTX 770, it appears strange that the temperature went down when being overclocked, but this is a result of increasing the fan speed.

15. Q3 2014 Mainstream Enthusiast PC Under $1300 Verdict

In this third quarter of 2014 we put a strong focus on overclocking. The cost of premium cooling forced us to compromise in the graphics department, though, with a cheaper graphics card. Of course, if the GeForce GTX 970 was for sale when we chose parts for this build we could have had our cake and eaten it, too.

Alas, that is not the case. Let's focus on application performance, then, and see if the higher-clocked Core i5-4690K has won us significant ground over the Core i5-4670K in our Q2 enthusiast build:

It's clear that the Core i5-4690K/Noctua NH-D14 cooler/G.Skill 2400 MT/s RAM had an affect on performance, but it's not as dramatic as we'd hoped. If you're looking for multi-threaded workstation performance you'd probably be better off investing in a Core i7 processor and a $30 aftermarket cooler. Of course, overclocking is like climbing a mountain: people do it because it is there. For an enthusiast who considers the persuit of higher clock rates its own reward, there are worse ways to spend your money. Indeed, my experience with this particular install was interesting and fun, despite (perhaps even because of) the physical modifications I had to make to the RAM.

Out of curiosity, how did the GeForce GTX 770 fare against the Radeon R9 290 in the previous build?

At 1920x1080, the GeForce GTX 770 has nothing to apologize for. It really held it's own against the newer Radeon R9 290, even beating it in some titles. Of course, when the resolution is raised to triple-monitor 4800x900, the Radeon's shader and bandwidth advantages kick in and it takes a lead overall, but it's not as high as we expected. The better platform really helped it stay in the game.

When price vs. performance is compared, the new build doesn't look as attractive as the Q3 enthusiast system. There are a couple reasons for this, but primarily it's due to the fact that overclocking equipment such as high-end cooling and memory comes at a price premium, forcing us to downgrade our graphics card. In addition, we added an SSD because it's almost a necessity: once you've booted to one, you can't go back.

While our overclocking experiment was a success in the sense that it got us farther than $30 CPU coolers and value RAM have taken us in the past, this result only validates our usual formula for a solid midrange system: invest in a Core i5, pair it with a cheap and effective cooler, add 8 GB of reasonably priced RAM, and spend the rest on the best graphics card you can afford.

I look forward to seeing how this PC compares with the budget and high-end PCs put together by Paul Henningsen and Thomas Soderstom. We'll find out how this enthusiast build compares from a value perspective in our day 4 value comparison this Friday.