System Builder Marathon, Q1 2013: $800 Enthusiast PC

Features
By Don Woligroski
published

Power And Temperature

At this point, the power consumption chart we see below should have been expected. We're already well-acquainted with the Ivy Bridge architecture's efficient nature compared to anything we've seen AMD achieve with Piledriver. But it really hits home when you consider that we used a 520 W power supply in an $800 build, and barely topped 350 W of consumption with our CPU and GPU overclocked. I don't think I'd be comfortable using the same PSU on last quarter's build, which approached 500 W when we overclocked it.

The thermal results come in fairly close to each other, though Intel's CPU does heat up quickly when we apply more voltage and a higher multiplier to it. Rosewill's RCX-ZAIO-92does a great job at stock clock rates. However, it's quickly overwhelmed when the Core i5 is pushed to 4.4 GHz (it makes sense now that Thomas said, "Though it was somewhat hot and noisy on our Core i7 test system, we could recommend the Rosewill unit specifically to Core i3 overclockers with extremely tight budgets" in his review of this sink).

Considering the FX-8350's high power usage, the $1,000 build’s Xigmatek's Loki heat sink does quite well in comparison.

Don Woligroski
63 Comments Comment from the forums
  • DragonClaw
    The table outlining the components of the build. It should read 800$ and not 1000$, I think?
    Reply
  • abbadon_34
    guessed they reused the previous template, sure it'll be fixed soon and people will wonder what we're talking about
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    Although we're going to miss the snappy boot-up times and almost-instant application launches the solid-state drive enabled, we probably won't be penalized too much in the benchmark results.

    And therein lies the problem with benchmarks.
    An enthusiast PC, without a SSD boot drive?
    Reply
  • manitoublack
    That's a great value PC there. Would be hard pressed to think of a more compelling combination for the money. Well done.

    Reply
  • qTrueno
    The heat sink breaks easily but it is a good cheap solution, as long it doesn't break.
    Reply
  • ipwn3r456
    If this machine were at $1000 budget, might as well add a 128GB SSD, and replace the HD 7870 to a HD 7950.
    Reply
  • butremor
    "Overclocking

    Overclocking the Core i5-3550K is"
    Reply
  • ARICH5
    i think you couldve found a cheaper z77 solution and squieezed in a 64mb cache hdd
    Reply
  • dudewitbow
    ipwn3r456If this machine were at $1000 budget, might as well add a 128GB SSD, and replace the HD 7870 to a HD 7950.

    there would be marginal performance boost from switching from a 7870 LE(nerfed 7950, heck can call it a 7930 and it would be partially correct in a way) to an actual 7950. Though its likely the outcome for the 1k budget coming up next.
    Reply
  • abhijitkalyane
    I really wasn't expecting the AMD chip to be so close to the i5. I'm a bit surprised. The power consumption figures look bad for the FX though.
    Reply