System Builder Marathon, March 2011: 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.
To enter the giveaway, please fill out this Google form, and be sure to read the complete rules before entering!
Day 1: The $2,000 Performance PC
Day 2: The $1,000 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $500 Gaming PC
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected
Day 5: Tom's Hand-Picked SuperCombo
Introduction
I find it almost ironic that folks who use the value label in talking about their most affordable finds will then go on to talk about the value of their most expensive purchases. The true meaning of value varies between all of us, so long as the product we're talking about does its job the way we want it to. Any product that doesn’t perform adequately then becomes worthless.

Putting aside those qualitative assessments, value can also be determined mathematically by comparing performance to price. The numeric “bang-for-the-buck” result is an easy tool for picking winners, but doesn’t do a good enough job explaining whether the winning product can sufficiently fill the buyer’s needs. A perfect comparison would discuss numeric expressions of performance-value, as well as the suitability of each system for specific tasks.
| System Builder Marathon Components | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $550 PC | $1000 PC | $2000 PC | |
| Motherboard | ASRock M3A770DE Socket AM3, AMD 770/SB710 | ARock P67 Extreme4 LGA 1155, Intel P67 Express | Asus P8P67 WS Revolution LGA 1155, Intel P67 Express |
| Processor | AMD Phenom II X4 925 2.8GHz Quad-Core, 6MB Cache | Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30 GHz Quad-Core, 6 MB Cache | Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40 GHz Quad-Core, HT, 8 MB Cache |
| Memory | G.Skill F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS DDR3-1333 C9, 2GB x2 (4GB) | G.Skill F3-10666CL7D-4GBRH DDR3-1333 C7, 2GB x2 (4GB) | G.Skill F3-12800CL8D-8GBXM DDR3-1600 C8, 4GB x2 (8GB) |
| Graphics | Sapphire 100315L Radeon HD 6850 1GB | Gigabyte GV-R695D5-2GD-B Radeon HD 6950 2GB | 2x XFX HD-695A-CNFC Radeon HD 6950 2GB, XFire |
| System Drive | Samsung F4 HD322GJ/U 320GB 7200 RPM, 16MB Cache | Samsung F3 HD103SJ 1.0 TB 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache | 2x A-Data S599 SSD, Striped 64 GB x2 (128 GB Combined) |
| Storage Drive | Uses System Drive | Uses System Drive | Samsung F3 HD103SJ 1.0 TB 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache |
| Optical | Lite-On iHAS 124-04 24X DVD±R, 48X CD-R | Asus DRW-24B1ST 24X DVD±R, 48X CD-R | Lite-On iHBS212 BD-RE 12X BD-R, 16X DVD±R |
| Case | Xigmatek ASGARD II | In-Win Android | Antec Three Hundred Illusion |
| Power | Antec EA380D 380W ATX12V v2.3, 80-Plus Bronze | Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V v2.2, 80 PLUS | Seasonic SS-850HT 850W ATX12V v2.31, 80 PLUS Silver |
| Heat Sink | AMD Boxed Cooler | Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus | Scythe Mugen 2 Rev. B (SCMG-2100) |
| Total Price | $527 | $977 | $1975 |
The cheapest PC in today’s comparison is already equipped with a high-performance graphics card and, as always, will receive the same level of overclocking attention as its high-priced competitors. The real question, then, is how far up the performance ladder the $550 PC can climb, and whether the superior components in the $1000 and $2000 builds will allow them to double and quadruple the less-expensive machine's performance?
- Performance Is Value
- Systems and Benchmark Configurations
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Benchmark Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Benchmark Results: Crysis
- Benchmark Results: F1 2010
- Benchmark Results: Just Cause 2
- Benchmark Results: S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power And Heat
- Performance Scaling And Efficiency
- Value Conclusion
how much is a good surround sound system?
how much is a blu-ray player?
I rest my case.
Taking a simple average you'd get that the $500 machine is typically about 30% the speed of the $2000 OC machine. An SSD does improve the day-to-day performance of a computer significantly.
1) Surround sound system = not worth it.
2) Blu-ray player = Definitely not worth it.
3) $300 monitor = not worth it.
Of course, this could be the my inner poor college student talking. I'm sure for some people it is worth it.
The $500 AMD machine underperformed in the CPU department. I think the Intel i3 2120 paired with a H61 motherboard would have been the better choice.
$1,000 rig was near perfection.
$2,000 rig suffered from CPU bottlenecks at resolutions lower than 2560x1600 so it should be paired with at least $600 worth of display(s).
Your second to last paragraph needlessly bashes the $500 system. So a cheap build is bad for a user that only wants performance? Well, duh.
Your $500 build was titled as a gaming PC and now that only counts for 30% of average performance. Mixing all of the stats into one performance bar is useless to everyone. Keep the gamer/av/production separate as that is more useful.
I was thinking of taking the $2K model and
-- doubling up the RAM from 8 to 16
-- cutting from 2 SSD to 1
-- downgrading the graphics card, to I don't know what
-- deleting the CPU cooler.. I will not be over-clocking
-- leaving the rest as is
I propose downgrading the 2K PC vice upgrading the 1K because I feel ASUS/INTEL/Ubuntu64 combo is better for virtualization than AROCK/INTEL.
Maybe the 1K PC can do it also.
the $2000 machine[missing single quote for possessive]s twin SSDs
Second:
I LOL'd at this. No disrespect but why in the h3ll would you replace the original PC dx10 Crysis with the dumbed down console port dx9 Crysis 2?
Anyways I would be proud to own any of these systems.
I hate to say it(as an AMD stock holder) but the performance gap is so large on AMD procs vs. Intel procs it wont be long before it will be hard to justify using AMD in even the budget builds.
Sooooo many people hating on AMD when they really should be appreciating that they are still(just barely) managing to keep up with intel.
Obviously Intel is several generations ahead of AMD, and performance and prices show. That being said, AMD released the Phenom II x4 chips back in JANUARY OF 2009(THATS ALMOST 2008 PEOPLE!!!) and they are STILL chugging along, at a VERY affordable price. You guys can't possibly expect chips from early 09 to compete with chips in 2011 can you? People need to appreciate the fact that because of AMD you can build a pretty god damn solid gaming computer with $500 worth of parts.
Anyways, bulldozer is coming out this summer, and IM FUCKING PUMPED, because its going to AWESOME. Can't wait for the $200 bulldozer quad-cores that can keep up with(and beat?) $300 i7's.
Im not hating, but I am living in reality. Im pumped about bulldozer as well, just wish it didnt take so fracking long to get here.
I need an infusion in my stock prices damnit!!!!!!
And when Phenom II x4 was released it was still slower than Intels already year old Core 2 Quads....they are just behind....that is why the newest AMD stuff is still slower than the original i7 stuff that is now over 2 years old
Crysis 2 in a benchmark suite would be fine.....as long as you still have the original in there as well. I still use Crysis Benches when making GPU decisions as it is one of the few games I play that is still in benchmark suites
I had surround sound ($200), blu-ray ($180) in my PC, and 2 24" monitors ($450 each) in college.....they are all easily worth it if you can afford them after paying the bills (bills still come first of course)
Luckily AMD is still going strong in the gpu department, and soon netbooks will be shipped with fusion chips.
It's a great time to be a skinflint gamer; my current box was $400 for a new CPU, GPU, motherboard, and RAM and I'm delighted with it. I tend to wait for games to drop in price before buying so this rig plays everything I've tried at 1920x1200 on full settings. It cost about as much as a new 360 with a full set of controllers.
I'd love to see a retrospective analysis over the last few years of system builds, compare the value in buying a cheap system and upgrading twice as often versus spending twice as much and waiting longer.
I posted this in the $1000 build article, and was suggested to post it here so it could get disseminated to the rest the team. I was wondering if next time (I've been told it's too late for this time around) if in addition to the heat & Temps section, if we could get a noise comparison? Especially with the dual 6850s requiring a manual fan adjustment to cool them, how much of a hit did you have to take on the ears? My gaming rig and productivity machines are in the same room as my wife's silent netbook, and I know how fans can skyrocket in the noise dept from 60% to 100%. Anyways, great article and thanks for the continued excellence
Still, this isn't a be-all, end-all analysis, just like any other build article. It adds more data to the "index;" I think we can all see how we might change any of these to make them better for a specific purpose.
In any case, I've entered, and wouldn't mind winning any of these:
$550 PC: Would go to my father, although possibly with a lesser GPU, as he doesn't play demanding games.
$1000 PC: Built in an Enermax Hoplite, this would become my new primary PC. I'd add a SSD to it and possibly use a Seasonic X-560 for efficiency.
$2000 PC: I'd pull one GPU and add a 500+GB HDD, build this in the Hoplite, and it would become my primary; likely also with the X-560.