System Builder Marathon, Sept. 2010: $1000 Enthusiast PC
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Page 1:The Balanced System
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Page 2:CPU, Motherboard, And Cooler
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Page 3:Video Cards, Power Supply, And Case
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Page 4:Memory, Hard Drive, And Optical Drive
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Page 5:Assembly And Overclocking
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Page 6:Test System And Benchmarks
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Page 7:Benchmark Results: Synthetics
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Page 8:Benchmark Results: Media Encoding
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Page 9:Benchmark Results: 2D And 3D Graphics
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Page 10:Benchmark Results: Productivity
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Page 11:Benchmark Results: Crysis And Call Of Duty
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Page 12:Benchmark Results: DiRT 2 And S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
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Page 13:Power And Temperature Benchmarks
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Page 14:Conclusion
CPU, Motherboard, And Cooler
The Intel Core i5-750 has been a strong contender ever since its release, and that situation is no different today. The 700-series processors are unique among Intel’s Core i5 offerings, as they feature four physical processing cores.
In comparison, the 600-series models feature only two physical CPU cores. While Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology allows the Core i5-600 CPUs to operate on four threads at a time, it doesn’t do it as efficiently as true quad-core processors like the Core i5-750 and Core i5-760.
Note that when we specified the parts for this build, the Core i5-760 was not yet available for purchase, so we are settling on the older model for our System Builder Marathon.
Motherboard: Asus P7P55D-E LX
The Asus P7P55D-E Premium was an excellent performer in our Extreme P55: Four LGA 1156 Motherboards Over $250 article, and the P7P55D-E LX is very closely related to the Premium version.
The biggest difference is the lack of dual PCI Express (PCIe) graphics card slots, but the low $125 price for the LX model more than compensates for this when building a system intended for use with a single graphics card.
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3
The Hyper TX3’s price has risen to the $30 range (compared to $20 when we began our build), and while we’re happy with its performance, we might consider other options in the same price range for future SBMs.
- The Balanced System
- CPU, Motherboard, And Cooler
- Video Cards, Power Supply, And Case
- Memory, Hard Drive, And Optical Drive
- Assembly And Overclocking
- Test System And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- Benchmark Results: Media Encoding
- Benchmark Results: 2D And 3D Graphics
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Benchmark Results: Crysis And Call Of Duty
- Benchmark Results: DiRT 2 And S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
- Power And Temperature Benchmarks
- Conclusion
and everyone is going to shoot me after this comment!!
This isn't really an i5 vs. 1055T article, there aren't even any 1055T performance numbers here. It's focused on the current $1000 PC vs the previous $1000 PC.
Having said that, performance between all the builds will be compared in the upcoming conclusion article, and the ~$200 price of both the i5-750 and 1055T more than justifies a comparison. I'm certainly interested in seeing how they stack up against one another.
Enthusiasts run a lot of stuff, heavily threaded and sometimes only using a processor. Enthusiasts play games, too, and those rarely take advantage of more than two or three cores...
I'm guessing that these cards weren't out at the time.
Intel really makes difference , that´s why it been always a little more pricey i guess...
so will have a june 850$(?) vs august 1000$ vs june 1700$(?) comparison.
Good article! I love reading these
Keep up the good work Tom's!
Why spend more than $400? You can buy a computer for that. Why even buy a computer at all, you don't need one. In fact, imagine all the money you could save without having to pay for internet access and upgrading and all.
Get rid of the cell phone too - a land line is all you need. And, why do you need more than the TV you can get that's broadcast through the air for free? Forget cable and all that nonsense.
/end sarcasm
keep it up guys.
Though you where being sarcastic for the lot of us your right, i just bought a brand new prebuild system including a phenom II x6 (1055t) 4 gigs of ram a raid 0 disk setup (2x 1tb 7200rpm 32meg WD10EADS) and and a sad radeon 5450 and though the graphics card is out of style and needs replacement already i don't think i have much to complain about considering this build cost me little under 600 euro including shipping and handling.
I use a land line combined with voip (yes i use it on my mobile to) so i really only pay for my mobile internet and my DSL. And i get my TV from a combination of Free To Air DVB-S and DVB-T wich works well and gets me over 30 channels in full HD at the cost of a setop box two dishes 3 LNB and a DiSEq switch. No cable provider will give me that much HD content specially not for free!
The conclusion could be that i am an enthusiast on a budget and i don't need 2k or even 1k rigs. That is not to say i don't like reading up on them or would not accept one if it was send my way ... just that a lot of us can do with a lot less on a less extreme budget.
Too bad I can only afford the poor-man's (or -enthusiast's) system build which I am looking forward to reading tomorrow.
It seems to me this build will win out over yesterday's $2000 machine later this week when all 3 are compared. I hope the $400 build could actually squeak in an upset.
Thanks, Tom's Hardware! Nice evening reading tonight. I'm very patiently waiting for tomorrow's article... Barely...