System Builder Marathon, December 2011: The Articles
Here are links to each of the four articles in this month’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published). And remember, these systems are all being given away at the end of the marathon.
To enter the giveaway, please fill out this SurveyGizmo form, and be sure to read the complete rules before entering!
Day 1: The $2400 Performance PC
Day 2: The $1200 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $600 Gaming PC
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected
Introduction
Bigger budgets make room for better hardware. Bigger cases facilitate more cooling. Bigger motherboards allow more cards to be installed.
And yet, somewhere along the way this quarter, that concept went horribly wrong. We ended up with a $1200 PC that underperformed its $1000 predecessor, a $600 PC that went way over budget, and a $2400 full-sized PC that never lived up to the high-expectations set by the microATX build upon which its hardware choices were based.

We're perhaps most sympathetic to the $600 gaming machine's budge woes, since its builder was most vulnerable to recent price surges. Those same price surges also hit the high-capacity drives used in the larger machines, but they weren't as disruptive as an overall percentage of the budgets. Besides, it’s hard to feel sorry for an over-achiever (Ed.: Haters gonna hate?).
| Q4 2011 System Builder Marathon PC Components | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $2400 Perfomance PC | $1200 Enthusiast PC | $600 Gaming PC | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4 - 3.8 GHz, 8 MB L3 Cache | AMD FX-6100 3.3 - 3.9 GHz, 8 MB L3 Cache | Intel Core i5-2400 3.1 - 3.4 GHz, 6 MB L3 Cache |
| Motherboard | MSI Z68A-GD55 (G3) LGA 1155, Intel Z68 Express | Biostar TA990FXE Socket AM3+, AMD 990FX | MSI PH61A-P35 LGA-1155, Intel H61 Express |
| Graphics | PNY VCGGTX580XPB-LC-CPU PNY VCGGTX580XPB-LC (SLI) | 2 x Gigabyte GV-R695OC-1GD Radeon HD 6950 1 GB | Sapphire 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1 GB |
| Memory | Corsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8R DDR3-1600 C8, 4 GB x2 (8 GB) | Mushkin Redline 997013 DDR3-1600 C7, 2 GB x2 (4 GB) | Wintec 3AMD31333-4G2K-NHR DDR3-1333 C9, 2 GB x2 (4 GB) |
| System Drive | Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 128 GB, SATA 6Gb/s SSD | OCZ OCZSSD2-1VTXPL60G 60 GB, SATA 6Gb/s SSD | Seagate ST3500413AS 500 GB, 7200 RPM HDD |
| Storage Drive | WD Caviar Green WD15EARS 1.5 TB, 7200 RPM HDD | WD Caviar Black WD7501AALS 750 GB, 7200 RPM HDD | Uses System Drive |
| Optical | LG WH12LS38 BD-RE 12x BD-R, 16x DVD±R | Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD±R/W 24x DVD±R, 48x CD-R | Samsung SH-222AB DVD±R/W 22x DVD±R, 48x CD-R |
| Case | Fractal Design Arc Midi | Rosewill Challenger-U3 | Xigmatek Asgard II |
| Power | Mushkin Joule MKNPSJL1000 1000 W, 80 PLUS Gold | Corsair CMPSU-650TXV2 650 W, 80 PLUS Bronze | Antec EarthWatts EA430D 430 W, 80 PLUS Bronze |
| Heat Sink | PNY XLR8 / Asetek Integrated Liquid Cooling | Xigmatek Gaia SD1283 | Intel Boxed Cooler |
| Total Cost | $2325 | $1267 | $654 |
Concern about the fact that Paul Henningsen’s $600 PC wouldn't overclock at all was quickly squelched by its clean sweep in benchmark performance over the previous System Builder Marathon's overclocked $500 machine.
- Wait, Bigger Isn’t Always Better?
- Test Settings
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Benchmark Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Benchmark Results: Crysis
- Benchmark Results: F1 2010
- Benchmark Results: Just Cause 2
- Benchmark Results: Metro 2033
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power And Heat
- Average Performance And Efficiency
- Which One Of These Builds Is For You?
whats the matter with 650W?
gaming tdp of 6950s = max 160 * 2 = 320
bd 6100 95W officially.
320 + 160 = 480
overclocking won't need more than an extra 100W max.
nothing else uses much power. These are budget builds, they're not made for upgradeability.
EDIT: LOL, I just looked at your profile. Your system has a 1200W PSU for one 6970.
I'm laughing, yet cringing at the waste of money.
Edit: Fixed typo. Oops
Edit: Fixed typo. Oops
I'm guessing you meant "can" spank.
And spank it does.
And spank it does.
Yeah, thats what i meant.
NM, the original part of the thread I thought I read 1x 580, now I see 2x...
I need to reply once more... 2x 6950s and a extremely overclocking BD 6100 with only a 650watt ps? These fuggen builds suck
whats the matter with 650W?
gaming tdp of 6950s = max 160 * 2 = 320
bd 6100 95W officially.
320 + 160 = 480
overclocking won't need more than an extra 100W max.
nothing else uses much power. These are budget builds, they're not made for upgradeability.
EDIT: LOL, I just looked at your profile. Your system has a 1200W PSU for one 6970.
I'm laughing, yet cringing at the waste of money.
I think we need a single/multiple GPU article to find out if there's anything that can be rescued from this. Throw in a couple of different motherboards, that sort of thing. Does memory speed make a big difference? Would Windows 8 Beta help in any way?
and its properly implemented into windows, i dont expect it to be good in windows 7, but i expect their threading solution to get it crap together in windows 8.
realistically, its a 3 core system with threading, and the threading isn't properly implemented yet.
what i find funnier is how the high end and the low end are so close together that its hard to justify the extra cost.
Enough that there's only one supplier choice for me when building PC:s...
http://ht4u.net/reviews/2011/amd_fx_6100_4100_review/index29.php
The review used a single 6950 so its similar in setup
Mouseover the 6100 shows the I5 2300 121% speed. however somehow this build is 215% to a I5 2400 with a lesser video card (stock to stock @ 1600x1050 no aa)
There is something besides the cpu crippling the system because you can't go from 121% to 215% while having less gpu power.
I suppose the explanation is that when it was only one graphic card, there is not enough gpu power and thats whats causing the bottleneck, the CPU has to do less to catch up and an i5 might not be fully utilised. So when you get two GPU, the graphic power are increased and there is more demand on CPU and the 6100 just can't keep up hence the lesser performance with dual card.
It's a very, very tough time to be an AMD fanboy.
Yes it does have major problems. It has bulldozer.