System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2009: $2,500 Performance PC
Benchmark Results: Productivity
Adobe Photoshop runs very fast on our $2,500 SBM build and overclocking makes these results even better.
Encoding a single HD animation frame in 27 seconds is fairly typical of a machine in this price class, but the 22-second completion time when overclocked is respectable.
Here’s a fun fact: our current build completed AVG Virus Scan in less time than the former build did, even though the former build was scanning super-fast SSD drives. Notice, however, that overclocking our current build provides the lowest performance gains in single- and double-threaded applications, since our overclock settings also disabled the high single- and dual-core Intel Turbo Boost multipliers.
An update of both WinRAR and WinZip makes it impossible to accurately compare current and former results.
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noob2222 If you went with the 5970, this build would have been fine, but with using 2 5870s, I would have opted a little different, x58 isn't that much more.Reply
Cpus are almost identical in price, wich leaves only the MB.
UD4P - 170
UD3R - 188
I think in my book it would have been worth the $18.
The other thing thats a bit overpriced is the HDD as mentioned. At $300 for 2TB, thats $150/TB. 1.5TB drives cost that much, put in 3 drives and save $150 and have .5TB more space.
Aside from that, good build. -
ColMirage Wait, why is the contest limited to the USA now?Reply
Tom's.
I am disappoint.
Aside from that, the build is nice, and I can't wait to see the other ones. -
Onyx2291 Very powerful, but if I were to have it. I think I'd steer clear of overclocking myself haha.Reply -
Gigahertz20 Horrible build, $2,500 and no SSD drive? That is inexcusable, a SSD drive is one of the best parts you can add to a high end computer, the noticeable performance improvement going from a regular hard drive is like night and day.Reply
The $860 dollars spent on video cards and $600 for hard drives is a waste. This system should have went with one 2TB WD Caviar Black hard drive for storage and then a 160GB SSD hard drive as the main drive. For a video card, one Radeon 5870 is more then enough, the money saved by not buying a second 5870 should have gone to buying a good full tower case and better CPU cooler. -
rambo117 Great read, as always. Gosh, if you guys are calling last SBM performance PC "outdated", id hate to know what my rig is... =/Reply -
liquidsnake718 enzo matrixGood all round build.Reply
Yes I was thinking just that.... an SSD for the master, and a 1tb or a 2tb for backup slave drive.... then a 5970. That would have been ideal as this is considered high end..... -
tacoslave ColMirageWait, why is the contest limited to the USA now?Tom's.I am disappoint.Aside from that, the build is nice, and I can't wait to see the other ones.Reply
Yes we know you're a disappointment. Geez you're worse than kevin parrish. -
wft, you put crossfire on a P55 chipset? You do know that there are only 16 PCIX lanes to the CPU right?Reply
$300 for a 2TB drive? Are you insane? How can you possibly justify not getting 2 x 1TB Caviar Blacks for $200 total and then getting an SSD?
2 X 5870 for $860 over 5970 for $650? How much of a performance difference can you possibly expect with Crucial CAS 9-9-9-28 over CORSAIR XMS3 9-9-9-24 which costs $90 for 4GB?
No water cooling on a system that costs $2500?
This is the worst build I've ever seen at this price point.