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System Builder Marathon, Q2 2014: Our Enthusiast PC
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1. Let's Get That Enthusiast PC Price Down A Notch

System Builder Marathon, Q2 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 Balanced High-End Build
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected

Introduction

As you may have read yesterday in Paul's introductory piece, we're doing things a little differently in the System Builder Marathon. Our approach to pricing is changing, largely based on your feedback, to improve our analysis of value. First, we're focusing specifically on the prices of components that affect performance, leaving the parts that don't impact benchmark results out of the equation. This means that the case, optical drive, and operating system have no bearing on our price/performance calculations. We call this the "Price of Performance Hardware". In this way, we're freeing ourselves to experiment with more premium enclosures and include add-ons like Blu-ray drives without the negative impact that these subjectively-selected components have on comparative value. Some of our readers are happy with a $20 DVD burner and $40 case, while others feel that a $200 Blu-ray drive and $150 enclosure are necessities. We get that.

Of course, we will continue to provide the total price of all components, now including the operating system, in a final "Price As Tested". With this information, in addition to the "Price of Performance Hardware", we hope to address everyone's concerns and paint a clearer picture with our value discourse, while acknowledging the personal nature of cases, optical drives, and even the OS.

Last quarter, my enthusiast-oriented build included a Core i7-4770K processor and GeForce GTX 780 Ti. That was a potent, high-end combination of parts, which contributed to an almost-$1500 price tag on the performance-oriented parts alone. This time around, I'm shooting for something competitive without spending as much money. Is such a feat even possible with $950 to spend on go-fast gear?

Enthusiast System Components
MotherboardASRock Z97 Pro3, LGA 1150, Intel Z97 Express
$100
ProcessorIntel Core i5-4670K: 3.4 GHz Base Clock Rate, 3.8 GHz Maximum Turbo Boost, 6 MB Shared L3 Cache
$240
Heat Sink
Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus
$30
Memory8 GB Team Group Vulcan (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 TLYD38G1600HC9DC01$66
GraphicsPowerColor TurboDuo Radeon R9 290 4 GB
$400
Hard Drive
Western Digital Blue WD10EZEX 1 TB$60
PowerCorsair CX Series CX750 750 W 80 PLUS Bronze PSU
$90
Price of Performance Hardware$986
Case
Apevia X-Hermes Red Trim Computer Case$60
Optical
LG Internal Super Multi Drive GH24NSB0$20
OS
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit, OEM$100
Price As Tested$1166

Notice that my $986 performance parts list lands $36 over the $950 target. That's mostly because PowerColor's TurboDuo Radeon R9 290 went from $380 back when we ordered it up to $480, and then back down to $430. But even this price is temporary. It includes a 250 GB Samsung 840 EVO through the end of the month, after which we're told it'll settle down at $400 for the card on its own. The end of June is a few days away, so we're using $400 as our official valuation.

I settled for Intel's venerable Core i5-4670K to save some cash compared to the Core i7-4770K from last quarter. Additionally, the SSD is gone. That was the only way for me to squeeze in under $950. Solid-state storage doesn't affect our benchmarks much, but my decision will still undoubtedly cause some controversy. Indeed, I was reminded how long it takes to boot from a mechanical disk, and I didn't like it. You may wish to sacrifice some graphics performance in your own build to accommodate an SSD. Or, snag the PowerColor card immediately for an extra $30 and get the 840 EVO as part of your bundle.

2. CPU, Motherboard, And Cooler

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K

Back when we placed our order with Newegg, Intel's Core i5-4670K was a price/performance champion for PC enthusiasts. But with the arrival of Core i5-4690K and its improved thermal interface, we'll probably give that CPU a shot next time around. Both processors share the same $240 price tag, so there's no financial penalty to pay. Availability is the only barrier to overcome; even now, the -4690K isn't in stock yet.

In any case, we know the Core i5, at any given clock rate, holds its own against the Core i7 family in lightly-threaded applications. Conversely, more parallelized workloads will favor the Hyper-Threading-equipped Core i7.

Read Customer Reviews of Intel's Core i5-4670K


We've messed with several Core i5-4670Ks, and most top out around 4.3 GHz across all four cores. I'm curious to see if this quarter's System Builder Marathon retail specimen is any different.

Motherboard: ASRock Z97 Pro3

Read Customer Reviews of ASRock's Z97 Pro3


This is one of the lowest-priced motherboards available with Intel's overclocking-friendly Z97 Express PCH. You can find it with a $100 price tag on Newegg.

ASRock's Z87 Pro3 was good to us last quarter, so we look forward to gauging whether the updated Platform Controller Hub makes any appreciable difference today.

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus

Read Customer Reviews of Cooler Master's Hyper 212 Plus


Cooler Master's Hyper 212 Plus is an excellent performer, and a $30 price tag makes it one of the best low-cost options for enthusiasts. Given a tight parts budget, I didn't see any other compelling competitors for less than $35, so Cooler Master's proven heat sink became an easy choice.

3. Video Card, Power Supply, And Case

Graphics Card: PowerColor TurboDuo Radeon R9 290

Right now, the Radeon R9 290 is my favorite high-end graphics card at its price point. But that didn't protect me from the price changes that happened between when board was purchased and now. While PowerColor's TurboDuo sold for $380 back in May, it jumped up to $480 and now sells for $430 on Newegg. That's a temporary price, which includes a 250 GB Samsung 840 EVO. And this System Builder Marathon machine is sorely missing an SSD. But when the sale is overs, we're told this card will fall back to $400.

There are lower-priced Radeon R9 290s, of course. Even equipped with aftermarket cooling, you don't need to spend more than $410 for a good specimen. 

Read Customer Reviews of PowerColor's TurboDuo Radeon R9 290


We hope PowerColor's card can compete with the previous build's GeForce GTX 780 Ti. The GeForce comes equipped with a fully-enabled GK110 processor, making it one of the fastest single-GPU boards you can buy for gaming. But it also costs a lot more. PowerColor should take the crown for value.

Power Supply: Corsair CX750 750 W PSU

Read Customer Reviews of Corsair's CX750


While a strong 650 W power supply would have been fine, Corsair's CX750 was on sale for $80 back in May, and I couldn't pass it up. The CX750 is now up in the $100 range, so if I had to pick again, I'd probably go for the company's CX600 to save some dough.

Case: Apevia X-Hermes

Read Customer Reviews of Apevia's X-Hermes


For $60, it's hard to find a PC enclosure that offers more than Apevia's X-Hermes. The enclosure comes with four 120 mm fans installed, in addition to a mammoth 200 mm cooler on the side window. Progressive styling and red LED accents don't hurt either, though more conservative enthusiasts may prefer something on the conservative side instead.

4. Memory, Hard Drives, And Optical Storage

Memory: Team Group Vulcan DDR3-1600 8 GB Memory Kit

With a lower budget breathing down my neck, I stepped down to 800 MHz system RAM. Team Group's dual-channel 8 GB kit is fairly affordable at $66, and its CAS 9 rating isn't bad. Based on Paul's story yesterday, it looks like I'm not the only one giving Team Group's memory products an opportunity to shine this quarter.

Read Customer Reviews of Team Group's Vulcan 8 GB Memory Kit


Hard Drive: Western Digital Blue 1 TB Hard Drive

Unwilling to sacrifice processing or graphics performance, I had to make a more significant sacrifice in the storage department. Instead of a mixed SSD/mechanical disk subsystem, this quarter's machine is limited to a 1 TB hard drive. 

The full terabyte of capacity is certainly appreciated, as is the low $60 price tag. But you really feel the difference while the PC boots or fires up a benchmark application.



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


Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 Super Multi DVD-Burner

A premium Blu-ray drive seems out of place in this budget-conscious build, so I went with a low-cost OEM DVD burner. LG's GH24NSB0 only set me back $20, and it performs a valuable role.

Read Customer Reviews of LG's GH24NSB0 DVD-Burner

5. Building And Overclocking Our Mainstream Enthusiast System

While the build went smoothly, I did encounter a handful of minor irritations. For instance, Apevia's X-Hermes surprised me with its excellent fit and finish. However, Cooler Master's large Hyper 212 Plus interfered with the case window's 200 mm fan. As a result, I had to remove that and sacrifice some of the enclosure's airflow. In addition, I was surprised to find that the ASRock Z97 Pro3 motherboard's internal USB 3.0 header is uncomfortably close to the top PCI Express slot. Normally, this probably wouldn't cause a problem. But because PowerColor adds a back plate to its card, occupying space it shouldn't, the USB 3.0 cable end presses hard against the Radeon R9 290. I unplugged the front-panel header and used the USB 2.0 interface on the bottom of the board instead.

Once everything was plugged in, the PC fired up without incident and software installation went smoothly. As you can see from the picture below, the case comes equipped with some cable management concessions, and ASRock's smaller board is dwarfed inside.

Overclocking

I can't remember how many Core i5-4670K processors I've tuned at this point, but the number is large. While I often boot successfully at 4.5 GHz, stability issues in taxing workloads almost always push me down into the 4.3 GHz range. This time is no different. A final overclock to 4.3 GHz is fed by a 1.285 V setting in the BIOS.

Left to its own devices, ASRock's board set my Team Group memory kit at 666 MHz, 9-9-9-24-1T timings. That's where I benchmarked it for the stock run through our test suite. Then, I invoked the XMP memory profile and ran the kit at 800 MHz with 9-9-9-24-2T timings for our tweaked results.

ASRock's Z97 Pro3 facilitates overclocking options and performance similar to boards that are significantly more expensive. The following CPU-Z screenshot illustrates our modified configuration:

I used AMD's Catalyst Control Center interface to overclock PowerColor's card. The TurboDuo board comes factory-tuned with a 975 MHz maximum clock rate. However, a power limit increase to the peak 50% settings allowed me to crank the core up 13% more. FurMark reported a corresponding 1100 MHz frequency under load.

The memory wouldn't cooperate at 1500 MHz, so I dropped it back to 1400 MHz. That's still significantly higher than the stock 1250 MHz setting.

6. How We Tested Our Mainstream Enthusiast System

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.

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 ATX Mid-Tower Computer CaseUnchanged
PowerCorsair CX750 750 W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Bronze-Certified PSUUnchanged
Q1 2014 Enthusiast PC Test Settings: $1459 of Performance Hardware
 Default Configuration
Overclocked
MotherboardASRock Z87 Pro3 LGA 1150, Intel Z87 Express
Unchanged
ProcessorIntel Core i7-4770K (Haswell): 3.5 GHz (3.9 GHz max. Turbo Boost), 8 MB Shared L3 Cache4.4 GHz (44 * 100 MHz), 1.2 V (Load)
Memory8 GB Corsair Vengeance LP (2 x 4 GB) CML8GX3M2A1866C9B, 1333 MT/s, CAS 9-9-9-24-1T1866 MT/s, 9-10-9-27 2T, 1.5 V
GraphicsGalaxy GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3 GB, 875/928 MHz base/typical GPU Boost, GDDR5-7000
+150 MHz GPU, GDDR5-7400
System Drive
Samsung 840 EVO MZ-7TE120BW 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s SSDUnchanged
Storage DriveWD Black 500 GB, 7200 RPM, 64 MB Cache, SATA 6Gb/sUnchanged
OpticalLG Black WH14NS40, 4 MB Cache SATA BDXL Blu-ray BurnerUnchanged
CaseNZXT Phantom 410 Computer CaseUnchanged
PowerCorsair 650TX 650 W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Bronze Modular 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. Notably, the Core i7-4770K should perform better in well-threaded metrics.

It remains to be seen how the GeForce GTX 780 Ti and Radeon R9 290 fare against each other, though I'd expect the GK110-based board to be faster in most measurements.

When we break down the test's individual components, we can see the Physics suite, in blue, heavily favors the Core i7, while the Graphics component, in black, puts the GeForce in first place. Those two scores play into the overall 3DMark result, in red, which naturally reflects an advantage for last quarter's PC.

My previous machine also enjoys a clear advantage in PCMark 8's Home and Creative benchmark tests, while the Work suite appears to be limited by some other variable.

This quarter's build suffers greatly for its mechanical disk drive. You're not going to see storage play a huge role in the rest of our benchmark results. However, the above chart illustrates that you're going to wait a lot longer for Windows to boot and your favorite applications to load.

Intel's Core i5-4670K can't keep up with the Core i7-4770K in Sandra's Arithmetic module, which obviously takes advantage of as many logical processors as possible. Both Haswell-based CPUs support similar ISAs.

When it comes to the Cryptography test, however, other factors come into play. The 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. Sandra's Hashing test depends more on ISA support and clock rate.

And here are the numbers largely responsible for that Cryptography score. My newer build's memory defaults to 1333 MT/s, while the XMP profile increases it to 1600 MT/s. Last quarter, I also used a 1333 MT/s default, while XMP helped me overclock to 1866 MT/s. Haswell isn't a particularly bandwidth-starved architecture though, so we're not expecting these exaggerated results to manifest as pointedly in the real-world tests.

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. There's little difference between the Core i5 and Core i7 in either instance.

In contrast, HandBrake and TotalCode Studio are highly responsive to a jump up to four cores, and then the addition of Hyper-Threading support. As a result, the Core i5 is at a disadvantage to last quarter's multiplier-unlocked Core i7.

9. Results: Rendering And Productivity

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

As usual, Blender distinguishes itself as a best-case scenario for the Core i7's Hyper-Threading technology. The rest of these applications also register a benefit from a processor that can schedule more than four threads, achieving various degrees of utilization from Intel's Haswell architecture.

If you use a lot of higher-end professional apps, many of which are sped up substantially by parallelism, the premium on Intel's flagship CPU family might be money well-spent. Having said that, overclocking the Core i5 does help make up ground, evidenced by Visual Studio, especially.

10. Results: Adobe Creative Suite

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 loses to the stock GeForce GTX 780 Ti, but catches up once I overclock it. As far as the CPU-centric metric goes, the workload naturally finishes faster on the Core i7-4770K, which works on eight threads concurrently, features more shared L3 cache, and operates at higher clock rates.

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.

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 GeForce GTX 780 Ti, but by a small margin. When it comes to the WinZip CPU and EZ tests, the Core i7-4770K in last quarter's build demonstrates a commanding lead.

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.

At the Medium preset, our previous effort's GeForce GTX 780 Ti establishes an advantage over the newer machine and its Radeon R9 290. That delta wanes as resolution increases. The story repeats itself when the Ultra detail preset is used.

Arma 3

Per Paul Henningsen's story yesterday:

"Based on reader feedback, I dug deeper into Arma 3 on both gaming-oriented machines and found the 'Infantry' showcase isn't hard enough on these inexpensive CPUs. Other parts of the game, especially larger Altis maps, can absolutely hammer the CPU.

My newest PC survives through 1920x1080 at standard defaults, but struggles at times to deliver smooth performance across three panels. And it’s not the resolution hammering frame rates, but rather the increased processing load that comes from this wider aspect ratio."

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 780 Ti shines, but even a Radeon R9 290 averages more than 50 FPS on a three-monitor, 5760x1080 setup after a bit of overclocking.

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. At Ultra quality detail settings, the GeForce makes its strongest case against the Radeon.

14. Power And Temperature

Both of the platforms tested for this article employ an 84 W host processor and graphics cards with 250 W board power ratings. I would have been surprised if there was a more significant difference in their consumption under load.

There isn't, though. For the most part, both machines look pretty similar. More intriguing is that last quarter's combination of parts registered higher idle power use. 

Our thermal readings are comparable, too. At least as far as the host processors are concerned, this isn't a surprise since I had Cooler Master Hyper 212 heat sinks sitting on them both.

The GPU temperatures (black is idle; green is load) also appear somewhat similar. Perhaps the biggest deviation is that the GeForce in last quarter's machine idled measurably cooler. In fact, the tuned version reflects the best-looking temperature. Remember, though, that we had to manually increase the GeForce card's fan speed to overclock.

15. A Core i5-4670K And Radeon R9 290 Offer Big Value

For the second quarter of 2014, I stepped down from a Core i7 and GeForce GTX 780 Ti to a Core i5 and Radeon R9 290. As a result, I used about $500 less in performance parts this time around.

Was the loss in performance compensated for by an increase in value? We need to run our numbers through a handful of calculations before we can tell you. I'll start with a look at the application performance, since this configuration isn't explicitly a gaming-oriented build.

Compared to a stock Core i7-4770K, the Core i5-4670K isn't too far off. Overclocked, the i5 almost achieves parity, in fact. Only the file compression tools we benchmark with really favor Intel's Hyper-Threaded Core i7.

Of course, the Core i7-4770K walks away again once it's overclocked as well. But when there's such a big cost disparity, we have to expect a corresponding performance delta.

How do those numbers compare to our gaming results? Let's look:

At 1920x1080, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti is incredibly strong. As we shift over to the triple-monitor resolution, Nvidia's GK110 is still faster, but seemingly less so. When overclocking is applied to the Radeon R9 290, it comes close to catching the GeForce-equipped system in stock form. Again, that's not bad for a build with less expensive hardware.

Comparing price and performance gives us a value determination that makes this quarter's mid-range machine look good. Are we surprised that cutting so much from our budget, yet retaining the overclockable Core i5 and Radeon R9 290, helps enable favorable speed for a little over $1000 worth of critical platform parts? Of course not. We've been recommending this Intel CPU and AMD graphics card for months (except for that bit where prices on Hawaii-based boards were out of control). 

The outcome would have been even more impressive if the Radeon wasn't still bouncing all over the place. We ordered it under $400. PowerColor's card then jumped up closer to $500. At least, for this very moment, it's back down to $430 on Newegg and includes a 250 GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD that instantly overcomes my configuration's biggest weakness. Talk about a roller coaster ride of emotions. Really though, the Core i5 and Radeon R9 290 represent the best bang for your buck when it comes to enthusiast-class hardware right now.

In a couple of days, Thomas is going to compare the value of my configuration to Paul's specifically budget-oriented setup and his own high-end PC. If the price on PowerColor's card holds, I think I have a pretty good chance at scoring an all-around win.