System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2009: $1,300 Enthusiast PC

Test System And Benchmarks

We have migrated our testing to Windows 7 64-bit. This will undoubtedly skew some results from our previous Windows Vista 64-bit tests, but Thomas Soderstrom's recent test of the new benchmark suite suggests that gaming results should be extremely close and even application benches should be comparable barring a rare exception in TMPGEnc when encoding DivX video.

Migrating to a new OS from time to time makes for a difficult transition, but it's a necessary evil of course.

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$1,300 Enthusiast PC Test Settings
Row 0 - Cell 0 Standard SpeedOverclocked
MotherboardGigabyte P55-UD4P LGA-1156 Chipset: Intel P55-ExpressUnchanged
ProcessorIntel Core i5-750 2.66 GHz Four Cores, 8.0MB L3 Cache3.612 GHz at 1.15V,  172 MHz Base Clock
Memory2 x A-Data 2.0GB DDR3-1333 Kit 2 x 2.0GB (4.0GB Total), CAS 9-9-9-24DDR3-1376, CAS 9-9-9-24
Graphics2 x Radeon HD 5850 (CrossFireX) 1.0GB GDDR5-4000 Per Card Radeon HD 5870 GPU at 725 MHzGDDR5-4500 775 MHz GPU
Hard DrivesWestern Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/sUnchanged
OpticalSamsung SH-S2232C22x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 16x DVD ROM, 48x CD ROMUnchanged
CaseNZXT M59Unchanged
PowerCorsair CMPSU-750HX 750W ATX12V, EPS12V , 80-Plus CertifiedUnchanged
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$1,250 AMD Enthusiast PC (from previous SBM) Test Settings
 Standard SpeedOverclocked
MotherboardMSI 790FX-GD70 ATX AMD 790FX, AM3 Unchanged
ProcessorAMD Phenom II X4 945 @ 3 GHz, 200 MHz Reference Clock 3.675 GHz at 1.46V 245 MHz Reference Clock
MemoryPatriot PVS34G1333LLKN 4GB DDR3-1333 2 x 2GB, CAS 7-7-7-20 DDR3-1306
Graphics4 x Gigabyte GV-R485OC-1GH Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire  1GB GDDR3-1998 Per Card, 700 MHz GPUUnchanged
Hard DriveWestern Digital Caviar Black 640GB 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/sUnchanged
OpticalSony Optiarc AD-7240S-0B SATA 24X DVD±R Unchanged
CaseNZXT Tempest ATX Tower Unchanged
PowerPC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 Quad S75CF750W, ATX12V 2.2, 80-Plus Certified Unchanged
CPU CoolerXigmatek Dark Knight S1283 Unchanged

And now for the benchmarks:

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Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
CrysisPatch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Very High Quality, No AA
Fallout 3Patch 1.7, Saved Game "Capital Wasteland" (60 sec) Test Set 1: Highest Details, No AA, No AF Test Set 2: Highest Details, 4x AA, 15x AF
Far Cry 2Patch 1.03, DirectX 10, in-game benchmark Test Set 1: Very High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra High Quality, 4x AA
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.XPatch 1.02, DirectX 10.1, in-game benchmark Test Set 1: Highest Settings, No AA Test Set 2: Highest Settings, 4x AA
World in ConflictPatch 1009, DirectX 10, timedemo Test 1: Very High Details, No AA / No AF Test 2: Very High Details 4x AA / 16x AF
Audio/Video Encoding
iTunes 8Version: 8.2.1.6 (x64) Audio CD ("Terminator II" SE), 53 min Default format AAC
Lame MP3Version: 3.98.2, wave to MP3 Audio CD "Terminator II" SE, 53 min wave to MP3
TMPGEnc 4.0 ExpressVersion: 4.7.3.292 Import File: "Terminator 2" SE DVD (5 Minutes) Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9
DivX 6.8.5Encoding mode: Insane Quality Enhanced multithreading enabled using SSE4 Quarter-pixel search
XviD 1.2.2Display encoding status = off
MainConcept Reference 1.6.1 Reference H.264 Plugin Pro 1.5.1MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2), Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 KHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Mode: PAL (25 FPS)
Productivity
Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64-bit)Version: 11.0 Extended, Filter 15.7MB TIF Image Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates
Autodesk 3ds Max 2009Version: 11.0, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV)
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8.5Version: 8.5.287, Virus database 2094, Benchmark: Scan 334MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files
WinRAR 3.90Version x64 3.90, Dictionary = 4,096KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334MB)
WinZip 12Version 12.1, WinZip Command Line Version 3.0 Compression = Best, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334MB)
Synthetic Benchmarks
3DMark VantageVersion: 1.01, GPU and CPU scores
PCMark VantageVersion: 1.00, System, Memory, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646
SiSoftware Sandra 2009 SP4aVersion 2009.9.15.130, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark
Contributor

Don Woligroski was a former senior hardware editor for Tom's Hardware. He has covered a wide range of PC hardware topics, including CPUs, GPUs, system building, and emerging technologies.