A single Radeon R9 290X certainly won’t beat a pair of GeForce GTX 780s in 3DMark, so the performance deficit of both $1600 machines doesn’t bother me.
Weaker overclocking applied to this quarter's Radeon R9 290X allows the previous machine to pass it in this specific test, in spite of the previous machine’s terrible host processor clock rate.
The new build’s drive is significantly cheaper than Q2’s, pleasing me with only a slight drop in PCMark’s storage score. Other test scores are up, thanks to a faster CPU.
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Summary
- Can We Build An Even Higher-End $1600 PC?
- CPU, Graphics And Memory
- Motherboard, Case And Cooling
- Power Supply And Storage
- Hardware Installation
- Overclocking
- How We Tested
- Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Results: Battlefield 4
- Results: Grid 2
- Results: Arma 3
- Results: Far Cry 3
- Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Results: Adobe Creative Cloud
- Results: Productivity
- Results: File Compression
- Power, Heat And Efficiency
- Is There Such Thing As A Perfect $1600 PC?
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These quarterly builds usually only show miniscule improvements unless something disruptive happens to the market like a tick or tock. These articles could as well be bi-annual. Good though that the price point that you're at shifts from time to time.
290x -> SLI 770 = +$100
Same budget, theoretically a 10-15% performance boost, and new topic of discussion as part of the article.
These SBM builds have taken very few risks in the last few quarters...
290x -> SLI 770 = +$100
Same budget, theoretically a 10-15% performance boost, and new topic of discussion as part of the article.
These SBM builds have taken very few risks in the last few quarters...
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($143.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($76.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($115.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 780 3GB DirectCU II Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 780 3GB DirectCU II Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1461.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-25 18:14 EDT-0400
What about this? Might be cheating, given the price drops from the GTX 900 series release. Also add $10 from a promo on the PSU.
With that said, I do find these SBM articles most interesting of all.
For the record, I'm not building it for myself, but somebody who wants a flashy case. I would pick the muted design of a fractal personally, but potato potah-toe
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($34.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97 EXTREME4 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($143.79 @ Newegg)
Memory: Team Vulcan 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($76.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($115.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 780 3GB DirectCU II Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 780 3GB DirectCU II Video Card (2-Way SLI) ($329.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional 850W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1461.70
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-09-25 18:14 EDT-0400
What about this? Might be cheating, given the price drops from the GTX 900 series release. Also add $10 from a promo on the PSU.
I went with the big cooler this time so I wouldn't have to hear about it if the CPU sucked, like it did last time. I could have met my goals on the cooler you chose, since the CPU I got this time was a great sample.
Hopefully I win this one. I need a new folding machine.
On a personal note :
I wouldn't buy an R9 290x if it was $200 BNIB.
I've seen first hand the problems that are seemingly inherent with that item.
Between the defect ratio and the variable performance , I would rather own a GTX 780, or heck even a pair of R9-280's for the same price than that lemon of a GpU.
Well, logically, those cards weren't available in large enough numbers to use on these machines.