Graphics Card: Galaxy GeForce GTX 780 Ti
Our last enthusiast build featured two GeForce GTX 770 cards in an SLI configuration. Interestingly, the lowest-priced GeForce GTX 780 Ti on Newegg as I write this sells for the exact same $660 as last quarter's dual-card setup.
When I originally wrote down the parts for this build, Galaxy's offering was the lowest-priced option on Newegg. It's now sold out, but you get the idea: we're looking for the most affordable 780 Ti available.

Read Customer Reviews of Galaxy's GeForce GTX 780 Ti
We expect Nvidia's flagship gaming card to demonstrate more more consistent performance, though I'm accepting of the fact that last quarter's SLI arrangement will probably be quite a bit faster, particularly in Surround resolutions. Then again, the GeForce GTX 780 Ti lets us get away with a less beefy power supply.
Power Supply: Corsair TX650 650 W PSU

Read Customer Reviews of Corsair's TX650
Using a single 250 W graphics card allows us to step down to Corsair's 650TX (from the 750TX we used last quarter). At $90, this is the reliable power supply that we usually favor for the mid-range enthusiast-focused machine.
Case: NZXT Phantom 410

Read Customer Reviews of NZXT's Phantom 410
The NZXT Phanom 410 was the only case to receive Tom's Hardware's Approved recognition in Thomas' Five Gaming Cases Between $80 And $120, Reviewed.
For that reason alone, I am giving the enclosure a nod in my System Builder Marathon box. It's an especially attractive option now that the $100 price tag doesn't directly take away from the price/performance calculation run on day four of the series.
- Taking The SBM Down A Different Road
- CPU, Motherboard, And Cooler
- Video Card, Power Supply, And Case
- Memory, Hard Drives, And Optical Storage
- System Assembly And Overclocking
- Test System And Benchmarks
- Results: Synthetics
- Results: Media Transcoding
- Results: Rendering And Productivity
- Results: Adobe Creative Suite
- Results: Compression Tools
- Results: Battlefield 4 And Arma 3
- Results: Grid 2 And Far Cry 3
- Power And Temperature
- A Core i7 And Flagship GPU Impress, Naturally
(1) You could include temperatures and acoustics performance in the overall assessment, given I think that is a big part of the case buying decision, and
(2) A way to factor in the intangibles (i.e. blu ray vs dvd, choice of SSD/HDD, etc), you could include a separate vote between this quarter's and last quarter's to see what the readers would choose for the best build given all the performance factors, aesthetics, and other components that do not contribute directly to performance. The reader's vote of this quarter vs. last quarter and/or an overall value winner for this quarter could be included in the final write-up.
I would also 2nd the vote for starting 4K testing. And also, why not 1440p? It seems those two resolutions are more relevant now in 2014 at the level of this competition than 1600x900 and 4800x900 resolutions.
Hmm.... What percentage of the performance measures in this article are for gaming?
I'm thinking a selection of CPUs as a fixed starting point, and GPU decisions based on remaining budget. Maybe an i7, i5, FX-8, and an APU.
Would be really interesting to see the performance differences across workloads by allocating budget between CPU and other components.
Already done for ITX. See here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-haswell-overclocking,3608.html
I'd second the uATX. In fact, I'd really like to see Crash attempt a uATX dual-gpu setup.
Frankly, it was the cheapest available card when the systems were ordered.
Nope.
The purpose is to have a resolution that the low-budget PC can operate at for the comparison article at the end of the week.