System Builder Marathon, December 2012: 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 $500 Gaming PC
Day 2: The $1,000 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $2,000 Performance PC
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected
Introduction
After last quarter's build (System Builder Marathon, August 2012: $500 Gaming PC), our intention was to move away from a pure $500 gaming rig and instead shift focus to a more well-rounded machine based on a quad-core AMD processor.
And then we caught wind of AMD's Radeon HD 7850 with 1 GB of GDDR5 for the same price as Nvidia's GeForce GTX 560, which we used last time around.
Procuring that much 3D performance for our budget gaming box became priority number one, even if it meant limiting the amount of money we could spend on our system's CPU.
Normally, when we think of AMD's Trinity architecture, we're reminded of capable on-die graphics and not super-fast x86 performance. But when the company introduced its current-gen APUs recently, we noticed an odd addition that looked like it could have been an alternative to Intel's dual-core Pentium.
We pinned our hopes on the Athlon X4 750K, armed with two Piledriver modules totaling four cores. A base clock rate of 3.4 GHz would ramp up to 4 GHz under the influence of Turbo Core, though we'd use its unlocked multiplier to go as fast as possible. Because the chip's graphics engine was disabled, according to AMD's specs, we wouldn't need to worry about unused logic wasting power. And as a result of the new Socket FM2 interface, we'd supposedly have an upgrade path moving forward.
But when the new X4 750K didn't show up for sale after launch, we reached out to AMD, which unfortunately seemed bewildered by the lack of availability, too. We had a couple of weeks to spare waiting for Microsoft's Windows 8 launch, but our deadline to order parts came and went without the Socket FM2-based Athlon showing up. As of this writing, the X4 750K is still nowhere to be found.
Starting at $130, the new Piledriver-based FX chips were out of this build's price range, and better-suited to one of the two higher-end configurations we'll be presenting. We would have had to drop to a Radeon HD 7770, 4 GB of memory, and still come up with another $15 of cost savings just to get the entry-level FX-4300.
Unfortunately, Bulldozer-based FXes hadn't come down in price either. The FX-4100 was still $110, and the faster FX-4170 was $120. Our best alternative remained the quad-core Phenom II X4 995 Black Edition for $95. But we chose not to revisit this old favorite, figuring that adding a Radeon HD 7850 would have taxed our budget. After all, we already covered similar CPUs in multiplier-locked and enthusiast-friendly Black Edition trims.
| $500 Gaming PC System Components | ||
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Pentium G850 (Sandy Bridge): 2.9 GHz Base Clock Rate, No Turbo Boost, 3 MB Shared L3 Cache | $70 |
| Heat Sink | Intel Boxed Heat Sink and Fan | 0 |
| Motherboard | ASRock H77 Pro4/MVP: LGA 1155, Intel H77 Express | $70 |
| RAM | G.Skill Value Series 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1333 F3-10600CL9D-8GBNT | $34 |
| Graphics | PowerColor AX7850 1GBD5-DH: Radeon HD 7850 1 GB | $170 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital WD3200AAKX: 320 GB, 7200 RPM SATA 6Gb/s Hard Drive | $65 |
| Case | Rosewill Blackbone ATX Mid-Tower | $40 |
| Power Supply | Antec VP-450 450 W | $36 |
| Optical Drive | LG 24x DVD Burner SATA Model GH24NS90-OEM | $16 |
| Total Price | $501 | |
Given the challenges on AMD's side, we just couldn’t ignore the price drops on Intel's proven dual-core line-up. With the Pentium G850 at our disposal for just $70, we could build a more potent gaming rig than last quarter and still have money left over for other components, allowing us to buy a more feature-complete motherboard and, finally, 8 GB of memory.
The only compromise we had to make was the same $65 storage budget as last time around. And this quarter, we were only able to secure 320 GB of capacity. We didn’t want to break the budget for storage we didn’t need, but we were disappointed to pay so much per gigabyte when larger drives were selling for only a few dollars more.
- Squeezing More Bang From The Same Buck
- CPU And Cooler
- Motherboard And Memory
- Graphics Card And Hard Drive
- Case, Power Supply, And Optical Drive
- Assembling Our Budget-Oriented Box
- Limited Overclocking Strikes Again
- Test System Configuration And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- Benchmark Results: Battlefield 3
- Benchmark Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
- Benchmark Results: F1 2012
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power Consumption And Temperatures
- Is This Our Best $500 Gamer Ever?

Exactly. Couldn't've said it better.
Linux for a gaming desktop I dont think so.
What about the Phenom II 965? It's only $75 at TigerDirect.
I think they'd be better off with a B75 motherboard, 4GB RAM and an i3-3220.
Exactly. Couldn't've said it better.
It's too expensive.
This was a hardware test. You're OS complaints are irrelevant and there's no practical difference between Home and Pro versions when it comes to simple performance tests. such as these.
Several Linux distros works pretty well with most modern popular games, just FYI. Also, getting Windows for free legally is easy if you care to do it. Dreamspark has many free versions available to college students and most people know at least one, even if by proxy. Even in the unlikelihood of not knowing any, there's still the eval copies that MS gives away for free on their own website.
I disagree. The current drivers for Windows 8 are pretty much on-par with the Windows 7 drivers. Heck, they're better than AMD's pre-Catalyst 12.6 drivers.
Meh, I would've preferred seeing at least an A8-5600K with a cheaper motherboard and memory kit or keep the same memory kit and get a cheaper case. It could have fit, IDK why Tom's didn't do it. Maybe there weren't good prices on other components at the time
Windows home still costs $100 which is still some how not part of the budget.