System Builder Marathon, Q4 2012: $1,000 Enthusiast PC

By Don Woligroski
published

Memory, Hard Drives, And Optical Drive

Memory: Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory Kit

A lot of what we experiment with comes from your feedback, and comments in the forums suggest that the Tom's Hardware audience considers 8 GB of memory the minimum for a $1,000 build. You ask, we deliver. 

For a scant $50, Mushkin's 8 GB DDR3-1600 memory kit gives us the capacity you want, the data rate our processor can use, and low-enough timings to make us happy. Once again, this is the same RAM we used in last quarter's SBM, so we should be able to draw a fair comparison with it.

Read Customer Reviews of Mushkin's Enhanced Blackline 8 GB DDR3-1600 Kit (opens in new tab)

SSD: OCZ Agility 3 AGT-25SAT3-60G 60 GB

Read Customer Reviews of OCZ's Agility 3 60 GB SSD (opens in new tab)

Same story here. We chose OCZ's Agility 3 last time, so we're using it again this quarter.

This small boot drive is fast enough to accelerate the responsiveness of Windows and a couple of applications. We turn around and install games and benchmarks on a larger mechanical hard disk. At $65, it's a pretty cheap add-on, even though we're really starting to eye those 128 GB SSDs in the $100 range for the future.

Hard Drive: Hitachi GST Deskstar 7K1000.C 1 TB

Read Customer Reviews of Hitachis GST's Deskstar 1 TB Hard Drive (opens in new tab)

Hitachi's Deskstar offers 1 TB of storage, a 7200 RPM rotational speed, and 32 MB of data cache for $90. Although it only employs a 3 Gb/s SATA interface, you'll never see anything even close to a bottleneck from that specification. So, we're plenty satisfied with this drive as secondary storage for user data.

Optical Drive: LG GH24NS90 DVD-ROM

Read Customer Reviews of LG's GH24NS90 (opens in new tab)

Optical drive prices seem to fluctuate frequently on Newegg. While LG's GH24NS90 was the cheapest model when we placed our order, the price is now at $19. Still, that's not bad, and our choice should serve as a solid solution for disc-based storage.

Don Woligroski
126 Comments Comment from the forums
  • CaptainTom
    So a 600w PSU for one 670? Get a 500w, get kingston RAM that is $20 cheaper, a $50-$70 liquid cooler for the FX, and BOOM! More performance for the same price. I get you wanted to test a similar system, but just make that a different article...
    Reply
  • serhat359
    Could have used a 6 or 4-core FX and made more money for a better cpu cooler and case. You have already demonstrated that more than 4 cores aren't used in gaming and here you have an 8 core CPU...
    Reply
  • dkcomputer
    Thats like... The worst possible $1k build. wow
    Reply
  • boulbox
    @Serhat i agree with you but this would be a better all around build. I think he could have done better though
    Reply
  • dkcomputer
    Swap mobo for ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 and processor for a sandybridge i5-2500. No overclocking needed.
    Reply
  • wolley74
    Dat hitachi HDD, you guys do know that Seagate Barracudas are around $70 for 64MB cache 1TB storage and SATA 6 right? and arguably are far more reliable
    Reply
  • aznshinobi
    Why wouldn't you drop down a bit to the FX-8320, that's about $40 saved, that could save you enough money to get the 7970 which clock for clock is better than the GTX 670.
    Reply
  • mouse24
    serhat359Could have used a 6 or 4-core FX and made more money for a better cpu cooler and case. You have already demonstrated that more than 4 cores aren't used in gaming and here you have an 8 core CPU...
    Its not 8 core, its 4 core with dual modules per core. Shared resources. Its why you see an increase in performance between a 4300 and an 8320
    Reply
  • DjEaZy
    http://valid.canardpc.com/2604796
    Reply
  • yyk71200
    mouse24Its not 8 core, its 4 core with dual modules per core. Shared resources. Its why you see an increase in performance between a 4300 and an 8320No, its other way around. It is 4 module cpu. Each module contains two integer cores (thus 8 cores total) and one FPU. It is more like reduced 8 core than full 8 core. Neverthles, Intel still is better.
    Reply