System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2011: $600 Gaming PC

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Test System Configuration And Benchmarks

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Current $600 PC System Test Configuration
Component Base Settings Overclock Setting
CPU Intel Core i5-2400 (Sandy Bridge), 3.1 GHz, 3.4 GHz Turbo Boost, LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, power savings enabled Unchanged
CPU Cooler Intel Boxed Heat Sink and Fan Unchanged
Motherboard MSI PH61A-P35 Intel H61, BIOS E7732IMS V1.3 (05-27-11) Unchanged
RAM 4 GB Wintec PC3-10600 Kit 2 x 2 GB, DDR3-1333, CL 9-9-9-24 1T at 1.5 V DDR3-1333, CL 7-7-7-20 1T at 1.65 V
Graphics Sapphire 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1 GB 900 MHz GPU, 1050 MHz (4200 MT/s) Memory 990 MHz GPU, 1180 MHz (4720 MT/s) GDDR5 Memory
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda ST3500413AS 500 GB, 7200 RPM, 16 MB Cache Unchanged
Sound Integrated Eight-Channel HD Audio Unchanged
Network Integrated Gigabit Networking Unchanged
Power Antec Earthwatts Green 430 W Unchanged
Optical Samsung 22x DVD Burner SATA Model SH-222AB Unchanged
Software and Drivers
Operating System Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64 Unchanged
Graphics Driver AMD Catalyst 11.11 Unchanged
Platform Driver Intel 6-series Inf v. 9.2.0.1030 Unchanged
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September $500 Gaming PC System Test Configuration
Component Base Settings Overclock Setting
CPU AMD Phenom II X4 955 BE (Deneb), 3.2 GHz, 1.40 V 2000 MT/s HyperTransport Link, 2000 MT/s CPU-NB, 6 MB L3 Cache 3.8 GHz (19 x 200 MHz), 1.3375 V 2000 MT/s HT Link, 2200 MT/s CPU-NB
CPU Cooler AMD Boxed Heat Sink and Fan, 60-100% target  RPM 70-100% target RPM
Motherboard ASRock M3A770DE AMD 770 / SB710, BIOS P1.70 (09/17/10) Unchanged
RAM 4 GB Crucial Ballistix PC3-10600 Kit 2 x 2 GB, DDR3-1333, CL 9-9-9-24 1T at 1.53 V DDR3-1333, CL 8-8-8-22 1T at 1.65 V
Graphics Sapphire 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1 GB 900 MHz GPU, 1050 MHz (4200 MT/s) Memory 960 MHz GPU, 1180 MHz (4720 MT/s) GDDR5 Memory
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500 GB, 7200 RPM, 16 MB Cache Unchanged
Sound Integrated 7.1-Channel HD Audio Unchanged
Network Integrated Gigabit Networking Unchanged
Power Antec Earthwatts Green 430 W Unchanged
Optical Samsung 22x DVD Burner SATA Model SH-222AB Unchanged
Software and Drivers
Operating System Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64 Unchanged
Graphics Driver AMD Catalyst 11.8 Unchanged
Platform Driver AMD All-in-1 Ver. 8.631_W7_logo Unchanged
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Benchmark Configuration
3D Games
Crysis Patch 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
F1 2010 V.1.01, Direct X 11, -benchmark example_benchmark.xml Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra Quality, 8x AA
Just Cause 2 Steam Version, Built-in Benchmark "Concrete Jungle" Test Set 1: Custom Medium Details, No AA, 8x AF Test Set 2: Highest Settings, 8x AA, 16x AF
Metro 2033 Steam Version, Built-In Benchmark Test Set 1: High, DX11, AAA, 4x AF, No DoF, No PhysX Test Set 2: Very High, DX11, 4x MSAA, 16x AF, DoF, No PhysX
Audio/Video Encoding
HandBrake CLI Version 0.94: "Big Buck Bunny" (720x480, 23.972 FPS) 5 Min., Audio: Dolby Digital, 48000 Hz, Six-Channel, English, to Video: AVC Audio: AC3 Audio2: AAC (High Profile)
iTunes Version 9.0.3.15 x64: Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 minutes, default AAC format
Lame MP3 Version 3.98.3: Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min, convert WAV to MP3 audio format, Command: -b 160 --nores (160 Kb/s)
MainConcept Reference Version: 2.0.0.1555: MPEG-2 to H.264, MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG-2), Audio: MPEG-2 (44.1 kHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 kb/s), Codec: H.264 Pro, Mode: PAL 50i (25 FPS), Profile: H.264 BD HDMV
Productivity
ABBYY FineReader Version 10.0.102.82: Read PDF save to Doc, Source: Political Economy (J. Broadhurst 1842) 111 Pages
Adobe Photoshop CS5 Version 12.0 x64: Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image: Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates
Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 Version 12.0 x64: Space Flyby Mentalray, 248 Frames, 1440x1080
7-Zip Version 9.2: THG-Workload (464 MB) to .7z, command line switches "a -t7z -r -m0=LZMA2 -mx=5"
WinRAR Version 4.0 Beta 4: THG-Workload (464 MB) to RAR, command line switches "winrar a -r -m3"
WinZip Version 14.0 Pro: THG-Workload (464 MB) to ZIP, command line switches "-a -ez -p -r"
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
3DMark 11 Version: 1.0.1, Entry, Performance, Extreme Suite
PCMark 7 Version: 1.0.4, System, Productivity, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks
SiSoftware Sandra 2011 Version 2011.2.17.36, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / MultiMedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark
67 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Probably the best bang for buck build compared to the $2400 and $1200 PC. I remember seeing Anandtech using the A8 series with integrated gpu for their $500/600 build. This looks much better for gaming.
    Reply
  • compton
    The 2500K is really worth the extra cash over the 2400, but only if you purchase a Z68 or P67. For gaming, you might be better off with an i3 and putting the remainder towards a faster GPU as suggested in the conclusion.

    For the price, the 2500K + a P67 or Z68 is unbeatable and certainly worth breaking the budget over. But for SBM, I can see why going the 2400 plus H61 route makes sense.

    Personally, I would have preferred to see a cheaper motherboard and CPU config with an SSD (instead of the mechanical storage). It wouldn't have scored as well, but I can't get by without an SSD as easily as I could a slower processor.

    I wanted the $500 build to get bumped up to $600, but that was to add a SSD so that each SBM machine could have some solid state action.
    Reply
  • slicedtoad
    i might be missing something but on the just cause 2 chart:
    Enabling 8xAA at the highest detail levels pushes our graphics hardware, and this quarter's machine is unable to beat the former rig running at 3.8 GHz, even at our lowest resolution.
    The chart seems to indicate that the current machine did beat the former... though perhaps not by alot.
    Reply
  • nice all around build
    Reply
  • joytech22
    I was waiting for this to come out. :)
    Reply
  • slicedtoad
    Stepping down to a more affordable Sandy Bridge-based Pentium or Core i3-2100 would facilitate a GeForce GTX 560 Ti or Radeon HD 6950 at the same budget level.
    So would a 6950 + i3 give better performance in games @ 1080x1920 than this build?
    Reply
  • hmp_goose
    Would a duel-core Celeron hurt gaming that much?
    Reply
  • lancelot123
    I must be lucky that I can get 2500K for $180 around here. Cheaper than the 2400 they have in this.
    Reply
  • mortsmi7
    I wonder how this compares to the $1200 fail rig?
    Reply
  • doron
    in order to win, the December PC needs to make up for mark-ups on the hard drive and video card, as well as the additional cost of a more feature-rich motherboard.

    Definitely a kick-ass machine, but imo this line is simply wrong and misleading.
    If you factor out today's and September's cpu and motherboard, the difference between the rest of the parts is a mere 8$. Furthermore, with only 2 dimms and no overclocking capability whatsoever I really can't see how you can call this MSI board a more "feature-rich" than September's ASRock.

    The way I see it, today's and September's machines are in two different price segments, and at this low budget, pouring an extra ~90$ can actually give you a lot. For example, given today's system, if we take out the cpu, motherboard and gpu, we will be able to fit inside a Phenom II x4 960T (125$), some 60$-70$ motheboard, an hd6950 1gb gpu, and probably still have room for a 20$ HSF. Talk about value.

    I'm not trying to defend amd here or anything, It's just that a lot of times people come to me asking for advice on what computer to get, and I can fairly confidently say that when someone wants a 4 core sandy bridge at this budget, I'll say to him that I won't help and tell him to go find a deal somewhere because in my eyes, getting a cpu that's 1/3 of your budget only to be able to get an extra minute or two in every benchmark or getting high fps in low resolutions, is too much of a compromise in every other component.
    Reply