Graphics Cards: PNY Liquid Cooled GTX 580s in SLI
We were terribly disappointed by the GPU overclocking capabilities of our previous $2000 build, but should have expected what we found, given then we used cards from a company famous for binning its top cards to sell as more expensive models.
Those cards were purchased for their exceptional warranty, rather than their overclocking headroom. This time, however, we put performance first.

Read Customer Reviews of PNY's Liquid-Cooled GeForce GTX 580s
With proven overclocking capability, PNY’s liquid cooled GeForce GTX 580s came to mind when we were putting together a system specifically designed to highlight overclocked value. Its XLR8 VCGGTX580XPB-LC includes a single-thickness radiator and single fan (Antec H2O 620 equivalent) with a custom GPU-mounted pump, while its VCGGTX580XPB-LC-CPU uses the double-thick two-fan radiator and CPU-mounted water pump found in Antec’s H2O 920. Yes, that's a graphics card that can cool the CPU!
Case: Fractal Design Arc Midi
Pleasing results from our recent MicroATX Gaming Build round-up compelled us to take a closer look at one of the contender's bigger brother, Fractal Design’s Arc Midi.
Read Customer Reviews of Fractal Design's Arc Midi
Designed to hold a double-120 mm-fan radiator on top, our pair of single-fan radiators fit using alternative placement.
Power: Mushkin Joule 1000 W Gold
We wanted something a little bigger and more-efficient than our previously-chosen SeaSonic 850W Silver unit and found an excellent price in Mushkin’s MKNPSJL1000.

Read Customer Reviews of Mushkin's Joule 1000 W
Though Mushkin’s original Joule power supply earned a somewhat-mixed reputation, support for the later Gold version is nearly unanimous among its reviewers. Distrust for its predecessor might have driven down the price of the improved product, but we have enough faith in the newer 80 PLUS Gold-rated part to treat its low cost as a value bonus.
- A Bigger Budget For A Better PC
- Motherboard, CPU, And RAM
- Graphics, Case, And Power
- SSD, Hard Drive, And Optical Drive
- The Build
- Overclocking
- Test Settings
- Benchmark Results: 3DMark And PCMark
- Benchmark Results: SiSoftware Sandra
- Benchmark Results: Crysis And F1 2010
- Benchmark Results: Just Cause 2 And Metro 2033
- Benchmark Results: Audio And Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power, Heat, And Efficiency
- Are Liquid-Cooled Graphics Cards Worth The Extra Expense?


Also, as much as I understand the frustration with sacrifices, IMHO that's where the best lessons are.
Fun to read, yes, but just not practical. Hmmm, I guess that means the downvoting is about to begin...
Also, as much as I understand the frustration with sacrifices, IMHO that's where the best lessons are.
Fun to read, yes, but just not practical. Hmmm, I guess that means the downvoting is about to begin...
So, I wait until tomorrow to enter?
No, you're good today. It should start with today's story. I'll see if I can get that changed.
Its also half the price.
Toms needs more current benchmarks, some of these games were talking are ages old. And need i say we need a RTS game in this mixture. I am a bit disappointed that the 3930k wasn't in this build along with a nice X79 board. Not that a 2600k processor isn't fast enough but you never know. I would rather pick up my six core but thats just me, and most likely it could be a waste. But like i said you never know, i remember SupCom came out and that required some CPU multi core power. Not sure how many cores were needed but a Quad was definitely better then a Dual core.
Considering the price of the 2 gtx580s, 3 hd6950s might offer better value - as long as the game allows multi-gpus.
You can compare the two by using another article by Thomas Soderstrom that also utilizes the i7-2600k but is looking at SLI/Crossfire scaling.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crossfire-sli-3-way-scaling,2865.html
In the 3 games that the two systems both had shared benchmarks, the 3x 6950 was the clear winner.
Toms, can we get some reviews on how the computers from each bracket compare year over year as a general summary to end the year out? I would love to see what $2000 gets you in 2010 vs 2011, and even 2009. My bet is that there would be some decent changes over the last 2 years as everything has droped in price with the exception of those peskey hard drives.