- System Builder Marathon: Overclocking
- System Builder Marathon: High-Cost System
- System Builder Marathon: Mid-Cost System
- System Builder Marathon: Low-Cost System
- The World's Best Hardware Prices
- DIY Solar-Powered PC: Solar Components
- SBM 5: Price/Performance
- SBM 4: Overclocking The Competitors
- SBM 3: High-End System
- Do-It-Yourself Solar-Powered PC: Live Test
Source: Tom's Hardware US – Keywords: system, builder, marathon
Topics: Overclocking
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Audio
Overclocking makes the biggest difference in iTunes, as the mid-priced system starts out only 22% ahead of the lower-cost configuration but leaps to a 66% advantage when tweaked. The high-priced gear starts out with an impressive 60% advantage and doubles its lead when overclocked.
Overclocking again plays a bigger role than hardware specifications in Lame performance, with the mid-priced system jumping from 44% to 98% over the lower-cost system, and the high-end configuration sliding from a 68% to a 144% lead.
Video
TMPGEnc gets smaller boosts from overclocking, with a spread between the slowest and fastest configuration of "only" 89%. The smaller difference follows our previous observation that DivX encoding speed is limited by a greater number of factors including memory speed, whereas our memory overclocks were not nearly as large as those of our processors.
CloneDVD2 increases the spread between lowest and highest transcoding speeds to 101%.
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It's an amazing comparison....!!!
However, it would be appropriate to raise the cost of the low-cost system to $1,000, to corrolate systems that cost $1,000, $2,000 and $4,000 for better distinction, then the low cost alternatve could shine as a value option, with E8500 CPU, 2x2 GB RAM and a 750 GB storage.
However, the second thing I was paying attention to was how the lower end system did in "real world" terms. Except for Crysis, it actually did pretty well on most things, and gave you games that were playable. When it comes to the other benchmarks, sure, you can "render that video in a minute's faster time"; but then again, in the real world, you would be working on something that takes many more minutes to render; long enough that you would probably work on something else in the mean time, or still go for a cup of coffee.
Or you can rip that CD faster, but, then again, now that we're in the realm of mere seconds, is saving less than a minute really of actual value? Not several thousand dollars worth of value.
I think I'm like most people and would shoot for the overclocked middle system.
I still remember the days when rendering took over night!