Power And Noise Benchmarks
The power consumption benchmarks were very close, as we actually lowered CPU voltage to get our higher overclock. As well, we weren’t really able to overclock the graphics cards to a noteworthy level without running into heat issues.
The only curious result was the peak concurrent CPU and GPU peak load test, which showed our overclocked system used less power than the stock system did. We repeated these tests a number of times with the same results and paid close attention to the CPU and GPU clock speeds to make sure that everything was running at full speed. Still, we kept getting identical results.
This is a benchmark we thought was important to include, to demonstrate the trade-off we had to make for system stability. At stock graphics card fan speeds, the system would sometimes crash during 1920x1200 benchmarks, especially if AA was applied. To counter this, we increased the graphics card fan speed to 100% using the Nvidia System Tool, which gave us the stability we needed, but at a high cost to the amount of system noise. The end result was that our quiet Micro-ATX system became quite loud.
In retrospect, if we were to live with this system on a daily basis, we might choose to make a compromise: increasing the fan speed by a small amount, and even decreasing the graphics cards clock speeds by a small amount as well, perhaps to reference GeForce GTX 260 levels. As the benchmarks show, a slight increase or decrease in graphics card clock speeds has a negligible effect on graphics performance, but it can have a marked effect on stability. Slowing it down a bit while speeding up the fans a small amount would likely supply us with solid stability and have a negligible impact on performance, supplying a quieter and more tolerable long-term solution.
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It looks like you guys have a fetish for silverstone sff cases, and small motherboards. You guys probably like other small things...
Was the peak power draw measured from the wall? If so, do you know the efficiency of the PSU to determine the approximate power draw from the components at a given level of output? Overall, great article. I hope my 650Watt PSU with 3 X 19A 12V rails can handle another GTX 260 Core 216.
if you wanted to go SFF it would be nice to see one done in an LIAN-LI PC-A05NB. at least you still get the full atx boards in those.
I wonder how exactly does the selection of components go. I mean it seems that there's some attention given to the forums to be politically correct, but that's kind of it. For $1300 a Phenom 2 + micro AM3 board + 2x4890 in crossfire is a much better solution so .. why not choose the better option?
[img=http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/594/systemg.th.jpg]
That system looks quite crowded on the inside, and that Dark Knight is big for a regular sized system, I'm actually kind of impressed you managed to fit it in a Micro ATX at all. I suppose as long as it runs stable, theres really no problem. Still think the articles should be titled "Micro System Build-off" just to let people know off the bat what they're about to read.
No space at all between those 2 cards. poor cards have no choice but to overheat.
I wonder how exactly does the selection of components go. I mean it seems that there's some attention given to the forums to be politically correct, but that's kind of it. For $1300 a Phenom 2 + micro AM3 board + 2x4890 in crossfire is a much better solution so .. why not choose the better option?[img=http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/594/systemg.th.jpg]
That's not a better solution it's just an AMD ATI themed solution
Although i guess it would be stronger in the fps in games it wouldn't be nearly as rounded system i rather have i7 because i do cpu heavy tasks just my view
I mean if they just wanted max fps they could have gone LGA775 with E8500 and shove 2 4890's in there i'm sure that would produce the highest fps.
I'm tired of seeing I7 920 in every damn "recommended" PC. I'm not saying go AMD but please just try to vary them a bit it's getting stupid. Also try building your own benchmarks or at least change them once in a while.
Btw i\m getting tired of people picking up I7 and saying "because i do heavy CPU tasks" (not necessarily IzzyCraft ) and in fact all they need is a browser,OpenOffice and WoW minimized in the taskbar.
The article is well done no doubts but try using other brands also. It\s starting to sound biased.
This article would be great if you could do : what you can buy for 1300 Intel parts and what you can by for 1300 AMD parts ... and put the 2 PCs to compeat to eachother
it would be a more interesting article than just buy a pc and ... show what ?
Nice slick system this - looks like 2 x 260's is pretty good value at 1920 x 1200 for those that want to max out the settings in the most demanding games. Was wondering however if there is a good technical explanation for the power consumption results because they seem pretty strange?
Unsuprisingly Intel/nvidia line continues. I went AMD/ATI so take that Tom!
About nvidia still surprised that they didn`t removed the 185.85 forceware drivers since that`s a total failure of drivers and it`s still being posted as the latest drivers even on windows update. Guess once you get the crown you get to piss on your customers as well.
I can not believe how much we get screwed on computer bits here in the UK
I priced up the parts in this system and it comes out at £1098.00 on 26th May 2009 that means it comes out at $1740 a big difference
Motherboard
DFI LANParty Jr X58-T3H6 Micro-ATX
Intel X58/ICH10R, LGA1366
$220 uk £189.99
Processor
Intel Core i7-920
Four Cores, 2.66 GHz, 8 MB Cache
$289 UK £225
Memory
G.Skill 10666CL7T 6GBPK
Triple-channel memory kit 3 x 2 GB
$90 UK £80.73
Graphics
2 x BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC in SLI
896 MB GDDR3-1998 Per Card
590 MHz GPU, 1,296 MHz Shader
$340 UK £343
Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black
640GD, 640 GB, 32 MB cache
$75 UK £51.60
Optical
Lite-On iHAS422 DVD±R
DVD Burner SATA
$28 UK £22
Case
SilverStone TJ08-B Micro-ATX Mini-Tower
$99 UK £59
Power
PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 Quad S75QB, ATX12V 2.2, 80-Plus Certified
$120 UK £88
CPU Cooler
Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283
$40 UK £38
That's not a better solution it's just an AMD ATI themed solutionAlthough i guess it would be stronger in the fps in games it wouldn't be nearly as rounded system i rather have i7 because i do cpu heavy tasks just my viewI mean if they just wanted max fps they could have gone LGA775 with E8500 and shove 2 4890's in there i'm sure that would produce the highest fps.
The system builder marathon was always, in my mind at least, a competition between value and performance and they tended to pick the latest technologies. Sure even now for $1300 or even $2500 you can go with a Q600 or a q9650 .. it would be cheaper and the performance is similar to that of a i7 but without the bragging rights. And so paying $500+ just for a motherboard that doesn't do much since it's not used to overclock in a extreme fashion, and a processor that's 10% maybe 20% faster then it's previous Quad generations isn't going to cut it for me. That's why i was expecting a different quad core of another flavour, just to spice things up. And of course to top things off some new 4890. All in all it would have been a more balanced system that caters to the wishes of the enthusiast.
With all that said i can hardly wait for tomorrows $600 system, i wonder what GPU, RAM, PSU and HDD got picked to go with the ... i7+X58 combo
I just don't understand why the $2500 PC is equiped with intel stock cooler and this one with much better xigmatek...
Also higher overclock of this system vs $2500 PC seems silly if you actually intend to compare them and calculate price/performance ratio.
While I agree that a small water system would do wonders for the cooling solution, isn't a rear mounted radiator the first ingredient for a disastrous PORTABLE system? The last thing I want if I'm lugging my case in and out of a trunk is exposed parts that can leak.
wouldn't Scythe Ninja 2 be a better cooler for this system? I think it's the same price as the one used... And judging by my own experience with it it would have made the airflow from front to back possible.
If u had cut holes in the bottom near the fan for the graphics cards wouldn't it help?
I would have cut a hole big enough to fit a fan put a net over the fan, that would seriously cut those temperatures (I think)...
This one is a bit of a nightmare. I can say that, I hope, because I contributed to the parts selection thread and feel partly responsible. The case is too cramped for the system. Who could have guessed on the cooler though?
Maybe one of the top-down Scythes would have been better.
The 650W draw was a bit of a surprise. Good thing it's a PC P&C.
The noise table - If I was casually looking at the graphs I might be inclined to think that the default GPU fan ran at a fraction of the noise of the fan at full speed but when you look at the numbers it's more like a 20% increase. A bit misleading.
Good choice of CPU cooler although I might have gone with a the Titan Fenrir instead. However as ifko_pifko points out why did the more expensive $2500 system use a stock cooler yet you had the budget in the cheaper system for 3rd party cooling, very odd.