
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory Kit
Over the past couple of years, several readers have shot over suggestions to try out 1.35 V DIMMs for overclocking, citing their scalability. Our own experiences often contradicted those recommendations, though. Many older modules simply couldn’t tolerate the extra voltage needed to put them over the performance curve of mid-range parts running at standard voltages. Like any other step forward in technology, however, the low-voltage stuff is significantly improved today.

Read Customer Reviews of Crucial's BLT2K4G3D1608ET3LXO 8 GB Kit
Crucial’s Ballistix Tactical LP modules are among the recent generation of low-voltage RAM that survives the 1.5-1.6 V needed to overtake similarly-priced 1.65 V champions. Furthermore, the slightly lower overclocked voltage is also a little easier on our CPU's memory controller.
Speaking of its CPU-oriented advantages, the reduced height of these low-profile modules makes extra room for oversized heat sinks, too.
SSD: Mushkin Chronos Deluxe MKNSSDCR240GB-DX
We like the performance and price-per-gigabyte of Mushkin’s 240 GB DX-series SSD, but dropping to 120 GB would have been necessary to make room for a conventional disk. After considering all of my somewhat-limited hard drive options, I gave in and kept the big SSD.

Read Customer Reviews of Mushkin's 240 GB MKNSSDCR240GB-DX
The 240 GB DX remains storage editor Andrew Ku’s top performance-value pick thanks to its SandForce controller, Toggle-mode NAND, and competitive price.
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124
Dependability and price drove our optical drive selection, with the iHAS124’s 24x burn performance considered nothing more than an added feature. We might have even picked a read-only drive to load our software, if not for the fact that read-only drives cost nearly as much.

Read Customer Reviews of Lite-On's iHAS124
At this price, the question of whether people still burn DVDs is little more than a diversion. Even though I can occasionally find 8 GB thumb drives for only a few dollars, I’m still more likely to pass around the cheaper DVD media to friends and family.
- Can $1,000 Buy A High-End PC?
- Graphics, CPU, And Motherboard
- DRAM, Storage, And Optical Drive
- Case, Power, And CPU Cooling
- Hardware Installation
- Overclocking
- Test Settings And Benchmarks
- Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Results: Battlefield 3 And F1 2012
- Results: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim And StarCraft II
- Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Productivity
- Results: File Compression
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Could We Have A Value Winner At $1,000?
Now instead of insults I can tell people "Don't be a stoogie". Thanks!
Otherwise, not much wriggle room here. Nice build!
Using the drive performance measurement to reflect program load times means loading all the programs on the SSD. And that explains why SSD capacity wasn't sacrificed to make more room in the budget for an HDD.
Looking from another perspective, these two builds, with two different builders, with $200 difference, just show(again) how much better price/performance wise are Intel CPU's and AMD GPU's.
I see your point, but I'd rather see slower game loads and better FPS , than faster game loads and lower FPS. And, the OS is accelerated in both cases anyway.
But hey, I'm on board with the 7870 Myst Edition CrossFire suggestion...I'll see if we can make it happen!
I think theres something to be said about the value at above $1000 though.. past this price range, people really start caring about having a nice case, nice cooler, etc that are more than just performance but aesthetics too.
Most likely they'd end up with a similar ugly case that no one would really want, possibly the same memory and hard disk, but the heart of the system would always be different.
Besides, people love rivalries. Sure, AMD processors blow in absolute performance, but they're cheap, and maybe the video card can save the day against the evil Intel/NVIDIA empires. It's a lot more interesting than testing two essentially identical machines, except for the hard disk.
Do it for different price ranges, and it might even be more competitive. $500, $750, and $1000 might not all have the same winner.
Pair a AMD CPU with a Nvidia GPU. So its expensive and may not perform as well.
(I will be extremely happy if this build performs well)