Sign in with
Sign up | Sign in
Tom's Hardware's Haswell-Based System Builder Sweepstakes
By ,
1. Tom's Hardware's Haswell-Based Builder Sweepstakes

We're big fans of fast hardware, and we know you're big fans of winning free stuff. It just so happens that Intel is sponsoring a sweepstakes that puts 20 Core i7-4770K processors, 20 Z87-based motherboards from Asus (Maximus VI Hero) and Gigabyte (Z87X-D3H), and 20 SSD 530 180 GB drives in our hands to give away. Interested? Of course you are!

In the pages that follow, we have 15 computers from system builders based on Intel's Haswell architecture. Some are naturally gaming-oriented. Others are purpose-built workstations. There's even a rack-mounted NAS appliance running Windows Storage Server in there. Flip through the systems, check out the specs and pricing, and then click the contest link on the last page to tell us which three of these configurations are your favorites. Base your decision on performance, form factor, price, or a particularly well-planned balance of parts. Whatever's most important to you!

At the end of the contest, the top three will be given Tom's Hardware Approved awards, so make those votes count. In the process, you'll be entered to win one of 20 prize packages that includes a new CPU, motherboard, and SSD.

2. AVADirect

Our first entry comes from AVADirect, aiming for the value-oriented crowd. This configuration is based on Antec's Three Hundred chassis. Inside, you'll find a Core i7-4770 CPU at 3.4 GHz, 4 GB of DDR3-1600 memory split across two channels, and Asus' Z87-WS motherboard. The company targets light gaming with a Radeon HD 7770 graphics card with 1 GB of GDDR5 memory, and a 1 TB Barracuda hard drive is plenty large for a mainstream user's data. The whole platform runs on Windows 7 Home Premium and sells for $1245. Power comes complements of a 650 W Cooler Master unit, while optical storage is handled by Lite-On's iHAS 124 dual-layer DVD burner.

Priced $50 under Don's Q3 2013 System Builder Marathon box, which configuration do you think crams the most value under its hood?

3. CybertronPC

According to CybertronPC, its NightHawk II is a gaming-optimized box built for easy transport, making it easy to use at home or tote to a LAN party. The key to this is BitFenix's Prodigy mini-ITX enclosure, which houses Intel's Haswell-based Core i5-4670 CPU on a Gigabyte H87N-WIFI motherboard (adding 802.11n wireless networking), 16 GB of DDR3-1600 memory, and a GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2 GB card. Storage consists of a 60 GB SATA 6Gb/s-capable SSD, a 1 TB hard drive, and a DVD writer. The whole Windows 8-based configuration is driven by a 600 W power supply, and it sells for $1300. A Logitech keyboard and mouse are included.

Beyond simply combining a handsome collection of mainstream parts, CybertronPC puts a bit emphasis on customer satisfaction, which includes providing one year of parts and labor coverage, plus free lifetime technical support. I think we all know one or two gamers who could use a dedicated number to call when questions arise, right?

4. Digital Storm

You recently saw us feature Digital Storm's entry in The Making Of Digital Storm's Copper Tubing-Filled Aventum II. Not surprisingly, the company picked that same system to represent it today.

This particular sample includes a Core i7-4770K on Asus' Maximus VI Extreme motherboard. Digital Storm is using 32 GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum DHX memory, along with Corsair's 480 GB Neutron GTX SSD and 1200 W Pro Platinum series power supply. The real pièce de résistance, however, is four GeForce GTX Titan 6 GB cards in SLI, pretty much serving up the craziest gaming performance possible right now.

Complementary hardware includes Digital Storm's custom copper piping with cooling for the video cards, CPU, and chipset; a 4 TB Western Digital hard drive; and a Blu-ray player/DVD writer. Branded lighting and airflow control systems add an even grander degree of customization, as does the company's overclock between 4.5 and 4.8 GHz. What can you expect to pay? How about $12,374 for a beast of a machine.

5. Falcon Northwest

You've also seen us shine a spotlight on Falcon Northwest's Tiki (Meet The Tiki: Core i7-3770K And GeForce GTX 680 In A Mini-ITX Box?), which is pretty much at the other end of the spectrum from the Aventum II. And yet, it's still an immensely powerful machine.

The Tiki that Falcon Northwest configured for our contest is a modernized version of what we first tested in our lab. It features a Core i7-4770K CPU, overclocked, on an Asus Maximus VI Impact motherboard. Sixteen gigabytes of DDR3-1866 memory, a GeForce GTX Titan graphics card, dual 960 GB M500 SSDs in RAID 0, and a 3 TB Western Digital hard drive are all very much high-end specs.

Just how efficient is this configuration? It's driven by a 450 W SilverStone power supply. Falcon protects the Tiki with a three-year warranty and includes 802.11ac wireless networking, a slot-loading Blu-ray writer, Windows 8, and a USB rescue drive, then prices this specific build at $4539. Truly, it's amazing how much performance can be crammed into a compact chassis sitting on a black granite base.

6. Highly Reliable Systems

Most of the machines submitted for our contest are decidedly aimed at enthusiasts. But if you've been involved with technology for long enough, then you've no doubt known the sinking feeling of losing data that cannot be replaced. Highly Reliable Systems chose to design an appliance on the shoulders of Intel's Haswell-based Xeon E3-1245 v3 to prevent those accidents.

The BNAS 501 serves as a roll-your-own backup and disaster recovery platform. A base configuration includes one 120 GB SSD boot drive, 32 GB of RAM, and Windows Storage Server 2012 for $2500. It employs a microATX motherboard with Intel's H87 PCH, one gigabit Ethernet port, and two eSATA ports for external connectivity.

You can fit up to two SSDs in the 2U chassis' front-accessible trays, though. A trio of swappable 3.5" drive bays take up to 4 TB of storage each, and can be configured for automatic mirroring. Add storage, 10 GbE networking, and redundant power supplies to best suit your specific application, and pick the software you want to run (ShadowProtect, True Image, Backup Exec, etc.) without sinking tons of cash into proprietary solutions.

7. Maingear

AMD's Radeon R9 290X isn't even available yet, but Maingear will happily sell you a Shift with three of them in CrossFire when the time comes. Believe us, we'd love to get our hands on this hot little number. Also inside you'll find Intel's Core i7-4770K on Asus' Maximus VI Formula motherboard, cooled by Maingear's EPIC 300 open-loop liquid cooler with 180 and 120 mm radiators, 32 GB of Corsair's 2133 MT/s Dominator Platinum memory, a 1 TB Samsung EVO SSD, and a 4 TB Seagate hard drive. It's all driven by a 1200 W Corsair Platinum Professional power supply and Windows 7 Professional. Maingear includes a Blu-ray burner, a Cyborg V5 keyboard, and Logitech G500 mouse. 

The windowed chassis with LED lighting, keyboard, and mouse are all finished in Maingear's Rosso Scuderia featuring Glasurit Paints, tying together nicely. This specific configuration goes for right around $6400, which is clearly high-end. Of course, we're looking forward to running three R9 290X cards together in CrossFire for a better idea of how this Haswell-powered setup will perform.

8. Micro Express

Micro Express is a bit more conservative with its Microflex 47T, aiming at a practical $1700 price point (with no monitor). The company has been around since 1986, building systems for its customers. This particular setup employs Cooler Master's Storm Enforcer chassis, though you can also get it with In Win's C583 or Cooler Master's HAF XM.

Inside, there's a Core i7 4770K on Asus' Z87-Pro motherboard, 16 GB of DDR3-1600, and a GeForce GTX 780 graphics card driven by a 700 W power supply. The Microflex's storage subsystem includes a 24x DVD burner, a Samsung 250 GB SSD, and a 1 TB Western Digital disk drive. Micro Express bundles Windows 7 Home Premium.

That's not a bad combination of components, in our minds. Price-wise, the Microflex falls somewhere between Don's Q3 2013 System Builder Marathon box and Thomas' Q3 2013 System Builder Marathon machine.

9. NCIX

One of the things we learned starting with Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture was that there is big demand for small systems packing plenty of performance. MicroATX and mini-ITX enclosures got more popular, and a greater selection of truly enthusiast-oriented motherboards sprung up to support the ecosystem. NCIX's 506-IA is a good example of how all of those pieces come together.

The system centers on BitFenix's Phenom M chassis, which contains an Asus Gryphon Z87 motherboard, an Intel Core i5-4670K processor, and Corsair's H60 closed-loop liquid cooler. Eight gigabytes of Kingston HyperX memory and an EVGA GeForce GTX 760 2 GB card also plug into the board. NCIX adds a Seasonic 750 W power supply and bundles Windows 8 with its machine. Storage includes a 120 GB Kingston SSDNow V300 and 3 TB Western Digital hard drive; by default, no optical drive is included. A mouse and keyboard are optional, too.

We dig the compact design, balanced combination of parts, and room for expansion (you can add a second card in SLI if you want). Priced at $1400, NCIX's 506-IA actually compares really well to the $1300 mini-ITX box Don built for Q2 2013's System Builder Marathon.

10. Origin PC

Origin PC calls its flagship desktop the Genesis, packs it with high-end hardware, and ships it with aggressive tuning for maximum performance. As with many of the high-end configurations in this contest, the company starts with Intel's Core i7-4770K and drops it onto an Asus Rampage Maximus VI Extreme motherboard (one of the few Z87-based platforms able to support four-way SLI). It's only fitting, then, that Origin PC plugs four GeForce GTX Titan cards into the board as well. Those graphics cards, along with the Haswell-based CPU, are water-cooled by a custom Cryogenic kit consisting of Origin PC's favorite blocks, fittings, and radiators.

Supporting and complementing that monster of a processing and graphics configuration are 16 GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR-1866, a 1 TB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, a 4 TB, 5400 RPM hard drive, and a Blu-ray burner. Origin packs the whole collection of components into Corsair's 900D chassis (which won our Smart Buy award in Corsair Obsidian 900D Review: Making Room For High-End Gear), adds remote-controlled system lighting, and paints the enclosure in a beautiful shade of White Glacier.

The Genesis comes with Windows 8 and is protected by a three-year parts replacement and shipping warranty (you could also say it's protected by the wooden crate it arrives in), plus lifetime tech support. For all of that, expect to pay a cool $10,000.

11. Puget Systems

When we talk to system builders about what the latest desktop technologies are allowing them to do, fitting more performance into small, quieter, and more power-friendly packages is perhaps the top response. Puget Systems is another company we've featured for its efforts in enabling powerful processing in configurations that are easy to live with. Most recently, we published In Pictures: Puget Systems' 16-Core Genesis II Quiet Edition, covering the company's dual-Xeon setup.

For today's contest, it submitted the Serenity, said to be quieter than a night in the desert. How much performance does it enable within those acoustic constraints? Well, our build includes a Core i7-4770K on Asus' Sabertooth Z87 motherboard, 16 GB of Kingston DDR3-1600 memory, a GeForce GTX 770 graphics card, Samsung's 1 TB 840 EVO SSD, and a Western Digital 2 TB hard drive. All of those components, plus an Antec CP-1000 power supply, extra cooling, and noise-dampening material, go into an Antec P183 V3 chassis.

Puget Systems bundles Windows 7 Professional with its Serenity. The system enjoys lifetime labor and tech support, and a one-year parts warranty. The configuration we spec'ed out runs $3457.

12. Safe Harbor

Safe Harbor Computers' Tsunami blends desktop- and workstation-oriented parts in a configuration aimed at professionals. Not surprisingly, the configuration it sent us leans on Intel's Core i7-4770K. The LGA 1150-based processor drops into Asus' Z87 Deluxe/Dual motherboard, chosen for its twin Thunderbolt ports that come in handy for editing video on external storage. That board also comes with an 802.11ac wireless controller, which is nice.

In spite of those desktop-like parts, Safe Harbor ups this $4300 configuration's business-class chops with a PNY Quadro K5000 graphics card, a PNY Prevail Elite 240 GB boot SSD (guaranteed for 10,000 P/E cycles), and two 2 TB Caviar Black drives, which are striped in another nod to video pros.

The Tsunami makes heavy use of Thermaltake components, sporting the Water 2.0 closed-loop cooler, 80 PLUS Gold-rated TPG-1050M power supply, and Urban S31 chassis. Optical storage is addressed by a 24x DVD burner, and Safe Harbor bundles Windows 7 Professional (favored over Windows 8 in the workstation space).

13. Steiger Dynamics

The entry from Steiger Dynamics was particularly exciting for its enthusiast-class allure. The company specializes in HTPCs, so imagine our surprise when it came back to us offering a Core i7-4770K, de-lidded, and operating at 4.7 GHz. In an HTPC. Nuts, right? At first, it conceded that protecting such heavily-modified processors with a warranty wouldn't be possible, but then came back to say it was changing that policy and pulling de-lidded CPUs under the umbrella of its full coverage.

None of the LEET Core's other specifications look like they'd work in a quiet home theater environment, and yet that's exactly where this system is designed to do its business. Steiger Dynamics employs an Asus Maximus VI Extreme motherboard, 16 GB of Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1866, two Kingston HyperX 120 GB SSDs in RAID 0, four Western Digital Red 4 TB hard drives, two EVGA GeForce GTX 780s in SLI, a Seasonic 1000 W power supply, and custom water-cooling equipment from Swiftech. An acrylic glass lid and interior lighting assures that friends who don't believe what's inside of your HTPC can see for themselves.

As configured, the LEET Core sells for $6483. You can pare back on those specs and get in the door for $2400, though.

14. Velocity Micro

According to Velocity Micro, its Edge Z55 is a tournament gaming box, blending performance-oriented hardware with expert cable management for optimal cooling. The build that's competing today consists of Intel's Core i7-4770K on an Asus Z87 Deluxe motherboard, 32 GB of DDR3-1600 memory and an EVGA GeForce GTX 780 3 GB. We'd call that a well-balanced combination of parts. Velocity Micro adds a 500 GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD and 3 TB, 7200 RPM hard drive in a tiered storage subsystem, with a 12x Blu-ray burner for good measure.

A combination of closed-loop liquid cooling, tasteful lighting, a clean wiring job, and a bundled copy of Windows 7 Ultimate sounds a lot like what many enthusiasts would go for anyway if they didn't have the time to build. A $3674 price tag puts the Edge Z55 well in excess of Thomas' Q3 2013 System Builder Marathon setup, and we're sure our audience can spot each machine's strengths.

15. Xidax

It may be hard to believe, but within the ultra high-end gaming space, there's a spectrum of practicality that ranges from "alright, I can see why you picked those parts" to "that's just insane". Xidax walks the line with a combination of components we'd love to see in our own system, but would still need to save up for.

The company's X-6 starts with a Core i7-4770K overclocked between 4 and 4.4 GHz on Asus' Z87 Sabertooth motherboard. It adds 32 GB of Corsair Dominator Platinum memory at DDR3-2133 data rates, two GeForce GTX Titans in SLI (also overclocked), and a Sound Blaster ZxR PCIe add-in card. Corsair is responsible for several of this machine's critical components: Xidax leans on an AX1200i power supply, two 480 GB Neutron GTX SSDs in RAID 0, and a H100i closed-loop liquid cooler. Add a 4 TB Western Digital Black hard drive and 14x Blu-ray burner to the specs list for our $6261 configuration.

Those parts are packed into an enclosure that Xidax calls the X-6 Case, though enthusiasts will recognize it as SilverStone's high-end TJ04. Green LED lighting adds a bit of flair. More attention-getting to us, however, is Xidax's lifetime parts and labor warranty, along with its lifetime U.S.-based tech support. We're not sure it's possible to beat a support plan like that, unless builders start making house calls!

16. Xotic PC

There are a handful of reasons we imagine enthusiasts would want to put the build process in someone else's hands, and one of them is extreme customization. Xotic PC's $6659 Scourge v2 embraces this with a custom "Nvidia green" metallic paint job, carbon fiber modification, neon green interior lighting, Battlefield 4 laser etching, and green water-cooling tubing, all applied to a standard Corsair Obsidian 900D case.

Inside, you'll find Intel's Core i7-4770K overclocked to a modest 3.9 GHz on Asus' Sabretooth Z87 motherboard. Thirty-two gigabytes of DDR3-2400 from Corsair are complemented by a pair of EVGA GeForce GTX Titan cards, a 480 GB Crucial M500 SSD, and a 2 TB Western Digital hard drive. There's a Blu-ray burner in there, too. EVGA's 1500 W SuperNOVA power supply ensures plenty of headroom for an additional couple of GK110-based cards if you want, though it's a bit overkill for this specific load-out. 

In addition to its stellar aesthetic, a lot of expense goes into the Scourge v2's dual-loop water-cooled setup, which consists of an XSPC reservoir, a 240 mm radiator, a 360 mm radiator, and blocks for the CPU, chipset, and GPUs. As with so many of the gaming systems we've seen lately, Xotic PC taps Windows 7 Ultimate for this machine.

17. It's Time To Vote!

Originally, our plan was to include 10 system configurations submitted by builders across the U.S., but we received so many different takes on what various companies were doing with Haswell-based processors (and so many gaming boxes that gave us hardware-lust) that we expanded the field to 15 contenders. You've seen the specs, the pricing, and the pictures. Now it's time to choose your three favorites. Click here to go to our contest page. Read the rules and select the three builds that you'd like to see receive Tom's Hardware Approved recognition.