High-End Intel-Based Gaming PC
Our final and most popular BestConfig is the High-End Intel-Based Gaming PC.
Unlike the landslide that was the High-End AMD Build, the Intel-based version was hotly-contested. Inzone beat out ojas by just four percentage points. While a pair of GeForce GTX 770s kept ojas in the game, ultimately, inzone had more PC for the same buck.
Congratulations to forum member inzone for having his recommended build picked by the Tom's Hardware community this quarter!
Inzone chose Intel’s hexa-core Core i7-3930K to power his BestConfig. Done over again today, this very well might have been a Core i7-4930K, we imagine.
The cheap yet capable Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO makes another appearance this quarter to cool Intel's enthusiast-grade chip, which doesn't come bundled with a heat sink of its own.
The Asus P9X79 motherboard is loaded with eight DIMM slots and four-way SLI/CrossFire support, leaving a ton of room for upgrades down the road.
Although they only populate one-quarter of this motherboard's slots, two 8GB DDR3-1600 Viper 3 memory modules from Patriot are more than enough for gaming today. One thing we'd caution here: by going with a dual-channel kit, you leave two of the Sandy Bridge-E architecture's channels unpopulated. Four 4GB modules might cost a bit more, but they'll also yield greater peak bandwidth.
A duo of Sapphire’s new Radeon R9 280X boards make up the graphics power of inzone’s build. Perhaps ironically, it seems like the pair of GeForce GTX 770s in this quarter's AMD-based build would outperform the Tahiti-based duo.
A 120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD acts as the boot and application drive, with a 1TB Western Digital Caviar Blue providing room for user data. Powering inzone’s build is EVGA's SuperNOVA 1000G2 1000W PSU, which boasts an 80 PLUS Gold certification.
Inzone choose quite a unique case for this quarter’s entry, the Cooler Master Elite 361. It places the power supply up front and routes the main power cable out the back. To help move air through the small chassis, inzone set aside a little of the $2000 budget for an extra 120mm Cooler Master SickleFlow case fan. Asus is once again the DVD burner of choice.
When inzone designed this build, its total came to $1991.95. The current prices of inzone’s Build can be found in the BestConfigs shopping tables.
