System Builder Marathon, Sept. 2010: $1000 Enthusiast PC

Features
By Don Woligroski
published

Memory, Hard Drive, And Optical Drive

Memory: Crucial 4 GB (2 x 2 GB) DDR3-1333 (PC3 10600) Dual-Channel Kit

Crucial's dual-channel memory kit, which is the same RAM we used in our last $1000 SBM build, has dropped in price to $90. This is great news for folks looking for solid, overclockable budget RAM.

Read Customer Reviews of Crucial's 4 GB DDR3-1333 Memory Kit


Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black 640 GB 32 MB Cache

Read Customer Reviews of Western Digital's Caviar Black 640 GB

Using a single graphics card provides us with room in our budget for better fundamentals, and we’re putting that room to good use with a decent hard drive.

In this case, we’ve chosen the Western Digital Black 640 GB drive, a model that provides excellent performance and plenty of space for the $75 price.

Optical Drive: OEM Lite-On iHAS124 CD/DVD Burner SATA

Read Customer Reviews of Lite-On's iHAS124

With 24x DVD+R write speeds and a 2 MB cache, the Lite-On iHAS124 is a great drive for the $20 purchase price. There’s not much more to say except that the drive has done a fine job when we’ve used it in the past.

Don Woligroski
73 Comments Comment from the forums
  • sassan_88
    ha ha Intel+nvidia beats amd based system!!!just like always
    and everyone is going to shoot me after this comment!!
    Reply
  • Wonder why the i5 vs the 1055t? I mean, the 1055t is pretty close to the i7 in multithreaded apps, and enthusiasts tend to run multithreaded programs.
    Reply
  • cleeve
    E_manWonder why the i5 vs the 1055t?
    This isn't really an i5 vs. 1055T article, there aren't even any 1055T performance numbers here. It's focused on the current $1000 PC vs the previous $1000 PC.

    Having said that, performance between all the builds will be compared in the upcoming conclusion article, and the ~$200 price of both the i5-750 and 1055T more than justifies a comparison. I'm certainly interested in seeing how they stack up against one another.

    E_man I mean, the 1055t is pretty close to the i7 in multithreaded apps, and enthusiasts tend to run multithreaded programs.
    Enthusiasts run a lot of stuff, heavily threaded and sometimes only using a processor. Enthusiasts play games, too, and those rarely take advantage of more than two or three cores...
    Reply
  • iamtheking123
    I think the question you guys are missing is: do you really need to spend $1000? As it stands you could build the June $1000 PC today for about $850 or so. And I have no doubt that a system like that would have no problem gaming a few years into the future. In terms of sheer performance, this build is better, but the June build is far more bang for the buck.
    Reply
  • SpadeM
    Quick question: what's the setting for the gpu acceleration in adobe photoshop?
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    Prices have dropped these days.You can add GTX 460 768 MB SLI if you look for combos and MIRs.A great build nonetheless.Why didn't you get the Antec three hundred Illusion?It comes with the front fans pre-installed for 10 bucks more.
    Reply
  • dauthus
    I was hoping to see a pair of of gtx 460's in SLI, but I suppose that would have put the build slightly over budget. While I generally prefer single graphic solutions, the gf100 architecture makes me sad.
    Reply
  • elel
    dauthusI was hoping to see a pair of of gtx 460's in SLI, but I suppose that would have put the build slightly over budget. While I generally prefer single graphic solutions, the gf100 architecture makes me sad.I'm guessing that these cards weren't out at the time.
    Reply
  • Its really impressive on how intel i5 can perform and power up that gtx 470, makin it better choise than 2 ati at same money!

    Intel really makes difference , that´s why it been always a little more pricey i guess...
    Reply
  • willgart
    good point... what is the today price of the june 1000$ system? could you include the June 2000$ system in the comparison too?
    so will have a june 850$(?) vs august 1000$ vs june 1700$(?) comparison.
    Reply