System Builder Marathon, March 2010: $1,500 Enthusiast PC

By Don Woligroski
published

Video Cards, Power Supply, And Case

Video Cards: 2 x Radeon HD 5850 in CrossFire

In the previous SBM, the Radeon HD 5800-series was brand new and suffered from widespread shortages. Fortunately, the availability issues are largely a thing of the past, and the entire Radeon HD 5000-series can be found plentifully in retail channels (although, ironically, the model we've used here is out of stock on Newegg as of this writing).

Of course, there has to be something for us to complain about: the price of the Radeon HD 5850 seems to be going up, not down. For a card that was supposed to cost $260 at release, you probably won't find any for under $310. What you will find at $260 is the vastly inferior Radeon HD 5830. This is why having one company locking down an entire segment is a bad idea, no matter which vendor you prefer. It's in everyone's best interest to have more than one viable option at any given price point. It's hard to blame AMD for making a solid profit when its market position allows it to, but we'd sure like to see some competition to drive prices down and provide a solid alternative.

Read Customer Reviews of PowerColor's Radeon HD 5850

Resist as we might against the rising prices, there is still nothing that comes close to the gaming value that two Radeon HD 5850 cards provide in a CrossFire configuration. One of these cards is fantastic, but two of them working together are a devastating force.

Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-750TX

Read Customer Reviews of Corsair's CMPSU-750TX

We've been big fans of Corsair's 750TX for a while now, and it's not hard to figure out why. At $110, there is little else that compares when it comes to stability and efficiency from a 750W PSU. The single 60 amp rail won't disappoint as it drives a pair of Radeon HD 5850s, and the 80 PLUS efficiency rating means it won't waste a lot of power while doing it.

Case: Cooler Master CM 690

Read Customer Reviews of Cooler Master's CM 690

The NZXT M59 we chose the last time around did a fantastic job for the price, but this time we thought we'd spend a few extra dollars for something with a little more airflow out of the box. Cooler Master's CM 690 comes with three 120mm fans from the factory and is an attractive, well-built enclosure with a lot of space. For $80, it's hard to find a solid alternative.

Don Woligroski
93 Comments Comment from the forums
  • shubham1401
    Now this is an excellent PC for overall usage...


    Reply
  • sabot00
    Love to have this PC. Great components, really wish Fermi at least drops prices.
    Reply
  • skora
    I find it funny Cleeve that you mention the effects of ATIs monopoly on the high end GPU market but nothing on the CPU front. How much better off would we all be if AMD had a competing product for the Core i5/7s.

    Out of curiosity, how big is the storage capacity needed for your benchmark suit? I know you were over budget, but how close could you have come to one of the lower capacity SSDs and their performance advantages?
    Reply
  • The labels on all the charts appear to be wrong. They're mentioning a "Current $1300 System" but I thought the current system was $1500?
    Reply
  • anamaniac
    To be honest, this just somehow seems disappointing to me.
    But then I think of how much I spent on my rig, and got less, I'm even more disappointed.

    It's crazy that prices keep raising on everything though. 6 months ago I was $9/GB for DDR2, in Canadian dollars. $12.50/GB for DDR3. It's absolutely ridiculous.
    Reply
  • Otus
    It looks like i5->i7 is not worth it for gamers. The increases when FPS
    Reply
  • Crashman
    OtusIt looks like i5->i7 is not worth it for gamers. The increases when FPS
    I've got news for you: i3->i7 is not worth it for gamers. Tom's Hardware has an interesting article in the works.
    Reply
  • p1n3apqlexpr3ss
    @Crashman
    Sounds good, this something to do with the i3 HTed vs traditional quad thing?
    Reply
  • Crashman
    p1n3apqlexpr3ss@CrashmanSounds good, this something to do with the i3 HTed vs traditional quad thing?
    I think it's a Windows 7 thread shifting and dual-threaded games thing, since both the i3 and i7 have HT.
    Reply
  • Stardude82
    SethVNThe labels on all the charts appear to be wrong. They're mentioning a "Current $1300 System" but I thought the current system was $1500?
    The whole comparison is BS. $200 is a lot of money where I come from and the stock cooling on the i5 750 is garbage. The low-end Conroes had much better cooling and they were only 65W TDP. I say stick your no-name heatsink on last quarters machine, call it a $1400 box, redo the overclocking and then publish the results as that way they will be at least somewhat relevant.
    Reply