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. After some delay (sorry folks), the contest is ready to be entered. Please visit the entry page, here.
Day 1: The $650 Gaming PC
Day 2: The $1,250 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $2,500 Performance PC
Day 4: Performance and Value Dissected
Introduction
I'm fully prepared for the legions of people who will call me crazy for the path I have chosen in this month's $1,250 System Builder Marathon (SBM) build, which addresses the legions of readers who wanted to see a series based on AMD-based platforms. A part of me would have liked to play it safe, but sometimes a hardware reviewer has to do what a hardware reviewer has to do. So, with my colleague Thomas Soderstrom wielding double my budget, I went outside the box a little bit to see if I could work a little magic from my build to keep this little competition interesting.
The heart of this beat remains fairly basic for a $1,250 AMD-based box: there's a nice Phenom II X4 945 CPU, 4GB of low-latency DDR3 memory, a premium 790FX-based motherboard, a solid power supply, and a good case. It's the choice of graphics cards--well, more specifically, the quantity of graphics cards where I left the tried-and-true formula behind:
| $1,250 Enthusiast AMD PC Parts Prices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Motherboard | MSI 790FX-GD70 | $165 |
| Processor | AMD Phenom II X4 945 | $170 |
| Memory | Patriot 4GB (2 x 2GB) PVS34G1333LLKN | $85 |
| Graphics | 4 x Gigabyte GV-R485OC-1GH Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire | $480 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar Black | $75 |
| Optical | Sony Optiarc AD-7240S-0B | $33 |
| Case | NZXT Tempest ATX Tower | $100 |
| Power | PC Power & Cooling S75CF, ATX12V 2.2, 80-Plus Certified | $120 |
| CPU Cooler | Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283 | $37 |
| Total Cost | $1,265 |
That's right folks, it's not a typo--there are four graphics cards in this $1,250 build. Read on, and I'll explain.
- System Builder Marathon: $1,250 AMD System
- Video Cards, Motherboard, And Case
- Power Supply, CPU, And Cooler
- Memory, Hard Drive, And Optical Drive
- Assembly And Overclocking
- Test System And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- Application Benchmarks: Media Encoding
- Application Benchmarks: 2D And 3D Graphics
- Application Benchmarks: Productivity
- Game Benchmarks: First-Person Shooters
- Game Benchmarks: Real-Time Strategy And Flight Simulator
- Game Benchmarks: RPG
- Power And Temperature Benchmarks
- Conclusion

One question don, when you buy an aftermarket cooler, are you using the included TIM?
Do we? How many quad-crossfire 4850 builds have you guys seen tested? Against dual 4890s or triple 4890s?
If we all accept foregone conclusions without challenging them once in a while, nobody learns anything.
This build looks bad because it's compared to an i7 machine that isn't CPU bottlenecked; the real test to see if it's all that bad is when it's pitched against the $2500 AMD machine later. Then the CPU bottlenecking won't be much of an issue, and we'll see how it fares against three 4890s.
I agree. I mean, props for quadfire, but it's not really the best choice for the best performance.
An i5 750 build probably would have turned out better numbers on the whole, I would probably call this a last hurrah (and the $2500 too, im sure that'll be a quad) for quad CF/SLi based systems being used to run a single 30" monitor.. I'm sure we'll start to see the high end gamers moving over to eyefinity and whatever equivalent nVidia comes up with.
Interesting but frankly not a huge fan of multi gpu set ups to being with let alone a quad fire set up i mean at least with nvidia you have decent scaling, but who am i to complain for that price and it seems to run high rez just fine.
But that is a *** load of load power draw, noise(not too much nice zalman heat sinks on those cards) and heat coming out of that thing.
bit surprised when i saw the load Wattage you got i thought the older 1300 rig was a i7 with 2x260's in sli which should come out to be less power draw under load even with a modded 4870 cards
Little risky build but on the bright side you could run 8 monitors lol
Conventional would have landed this price in the i5/i7 build with 2x4890's or a bit more powerful cards really depends on which cpu you settle with. Ofc ionno how long ago you order this. Would have came out a bit more rounded but not as great for higher resolutions and AA AF settings.
This build is more of a high resolution gaming specialist. Personally i've never built a system with just gaming in mind i've always been a man that favors a more rounded system where you spend at least 3/4th of what you put into your gpu into your cpu
Thomas Soderstrom's $2,500 AMD build tomorrow
bah $2,500 and no i7 not like the budget couldn't fit very expensive gpu card and cpu in there. Oh well it wont loose out too much in games even with mutli gpu set ups...best have a sound card in there it be very refreshing for tom's builds to sport one. Interesting what monstrosity he has made to share with us.
Well it was by demand to make AMD builds and this is what happens they timed it just right to be right after i5 release just to mess with us. AMD builds shouldn't hurt in games but in apps depending it can be murder or breaking even.
The cable under the motherboard feature can help remove cable-mess, but only a little.
My previous case was 100% acrylic glass. Looked awesome with lots of lights, but any change was a major pain.
1.Processor - Intel Core2 Quad Q8400 2.66GHz LGA 775 95W :$169.99
2.CPU Cooler - ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro 92mm :$31.98
3.Motherboard - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DQ6 LGA 775 Intel P45 :$189.99
4.Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB :$74.99
5.Memory - G.SKILL 4GB(2x 2GB)DDR2 1200 F2-9600CL6D-4GBRH:$89.99
6.Video Card - 2X SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4850X2 2GB 512bit GDDR3 :$479.98
7.DVD Burner - LITE-ON iHAS124-04 :$28.99
8.Power Supply - HEC ZEPHYR 750DR-AT 750W :$84.99
9.Computer Case - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower :$99.99
Total cost :$1248
One question don, when you buy an aftermarket cooler, are you using the included TIM?
At the time of this build that they chose the Radeon 5870's were not out.
One could substitute 2 Radeon 5850's in crossfire though but they are not yet on the market as I write this response to you and 2 Radeon 5850's would jack up the price to around $558 or about $80 more on their choice of components.It would however use less power and would use full 16 X 16 crossfire though.
2 Radeon 5870's would be even costlier.
A question from me would be would 2 Radeon 5850's be better (in terms of better benchmarks in gaming) than 4 of these Radeon 4850's.They will probably be available pretty shortly.
I agree with enewmen I like that case.
and that really opens up a neat oportunity to experiment with some interesting cooling solutions, its definitly doable,
it would be a good choice for some people with 50' tvs that want to game @ 1080p
i think the scaling will improve with time, its not just the drivers that ati produces its also the game developers increasingly integrating multi gpu support no? i know some games fare alot better than others on multi gpu situations.
it would be interesting to see if thier is any difference running an i7 with these 4 cards, just not sure how much the cpu was a limiting factor here. i would like to see an article on how several different processors handle 3&4 gpu combinations.
as someone actually willing to build a 4 gpu setup it would be nice seeing what infact is the cpu requirement to realize the most benefits, like is an i7 needed or it may make little difference, and at what clocks. what card in quad sli/crossfire is actually the fastest setup?
people spending big bucks are curious!
awsome articles, keep this stuff spicey!
I did a build my self 3 weeks ago before the advent of i7 860. Here's my build with Prices:
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor $279
ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler $53
ASRock X58 Extreme LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard $170
CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C8G $134
CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply $140
SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223B $30
COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case $120
2 x MSI NGTX275 Twin Frozr OC $460(with taxes from TigerDirect)
Total cost including taxes and shipping is $1470.
I think its obvious which build is better.