System Builder Marathon, Q4 2013: $1600 Enthusiast PC

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Video Cards, Power Supply, And Case

Graphics Cards: 2 x MSI Gaming N770 in SLI

Graphics performance represents the one major differentiator between today's gaming-focused build and my previous mid-range System Builder Marathon effort. I simply doubled the number of GeForce GTX 770 cards from one to two, which should yield a massive increase in performance by virtue of Nvidia's SLI technology.

Read Customer Reviews of MSI's Gaming N770

Unlike AMD's Radeon boards, which are currently very much overpriced due to the rabid attention of Litecoin miners, the prices on GeForce cards remained relatively stable this holiday season. MSI's Gaming N770 is currently discounted to $320 each, or $640 for the pair I'm testing today.

Power Supply: Corsair TX750 750 W PSU

Read Customer Reviews of Corsair's TX750

With two GeForce GTX 770s sitting side by side in this quarter's entry, I needed a beefier power supply to back them up. Typically, I'd go with Corsair's 650TX, but I was concerned it wouldn't cut it. So, I went with the company's TX750 instead, selling for $110 on Newegg.

Case: NZXT Gamma

Read Customer Reviews of NZXT's Gamma

Back in December of 2010, I used NZXT's Gamma case in my $1000 System Builder Marathon Enthusiast build. At the time, I called it one of the nicest budget rigs I had ever worked with.

I'm looking forward to judging how this enclosure stood the test of time in my latest build. Selling for $35, I certainly can't complain about the price.

61 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Crashman
    I just wanted to let you guys know before the $2400 PC pops up, that this renewed focus on gaming is a Don and Paul effort. With $2400 on the line, it's easy to improve the entire machine and try to make a clean sweep of every benchmark :)
    Reply
  • Onus
    This was a good build, if only for the single data point that was the power usage. At stock, you could get away with a good 650W PSU, but overclocked it's probably not a good idea. There weren't really any surprises anywhere else. The one pic was dark; how was cable management in that case? I used one a while back and reviewed it, and I though that was probably its weakest point.
    Reply
  • Onus
    If you would like comments and assistance on a personal build, please start your own thread in the New Builds forum. This thread is for discussions about the System Builder Marathon machines. Thanks.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    I have to say I'm really surprised for the crappy scaling of the GTX770s. Was it a CPU bound issue or maybe a PCIe bottleneck? Driver issue? Profile issue? haha

    I'm really surprised to say the least.

    Cheers!
    Reply
  • blubbey
    !!!IMPORTANT!!!!

    Before commenting about benches, read:

    "Keep this parting thought in mind: we're fully aware that the SBM test suite is showing its age, and we have new benchmark results with more modern games. You're going to see this surface in our Day 4 analysis from Thomas."

    Last page, last paragraph.

    Nice build, hilariously good performance in BF3, In the more modern games, will there be any GPU memory bottlenecks with triple monitor setups? We shall see!
    Reply
  • lp231
    It seems these sbm have no strict budget limit. Every time these sbm articles, the budget gets higher and higher. A $1,000 enthusiast pc would be more of a real world build, since that is the maximum amount, most people spend these days on their new build.
    What will the budget be for next times enthusiast pc?
    Now it is at $1,600. So next time it will be $2,500 cause getting them 2x GTX 880 in sli is consider as a budget enthusiast pc?!
    Reply
  • Steve Pound
    Who plays Skyrim on PC and not have a membership at Nexus so the most basic improvements can be made? Leading to: why has this site used the game for 2 years and not done that? Maybe FO4 will be more promising.
    Reply
  • jtenorj
    If go go with an optical drive in this price range, it should be a dvd burner. It's not that much more expensive, media prices are coming down(better cost per GB and speed than dvd in some cases) and lets you play blu tay movies without using bandwitdh to download or stream hd video. My 2 cents.
    Reply
  • jtenorj
    Edit: I meant blu ray burner. Also, I don't care for that case(personal preference).
    Reply
  • mjmjpfaff
    @Yuka
    It depends on which resolution you look at. I advise you to go back and look at the higher resolutions where the 770's in SLI can actually show a huge difference over one 770. It almost doubles in FPS over last quarter's build if you look at some 5760x1080 res. graphs.
    Reply