System Builder Marathon, June 2010: $550 Gaming PC
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Page 1:The Budget Build Returns
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Page 2:CPU And Cooler
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Page 3:Motherboard And Memory
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Page 4:Graphics Cards And Hard Drive
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Page 5:Case, Power Supply, And Optical Drive
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Page 6:Assembly
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Page 7:Overclocking
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Page 8:Test System Configuration And Benchmarks
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Page 9:Benchmark Results: Synthetics
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Page 10:3D Games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 And Crysis
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Page 11:Benchmark Results: DiRT 2 And S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat
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Page 12:Benchmark Results: Audio/Video Encoding
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Page 13:Benchmark Results: Productivity
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Page 14:Power Consumption And Temperatures
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Page 15:Performance Summary, Efficiency, And Conclusion
Assembly
The Cooler Master Hyper TX3 is easy to mount as long as you properly assemble the two-piece Socket AM3 mounting clip and remove the clip-on fan when locking down the heat sink. Notice that, unlike the Xigmatek HDT-SD964, the TX3 mounts in a front-to-rear orientation on an AM3 motherboard.
There were no fan-clearance issues with our RAM, but sticks cooled by tall heat spreaders would not fit in the first DIMM socket without orienting the fan to pull air through the back of the heat sink rather than push air through the front.
The Elite 330’s tool-less drive bay mechanisms are likely the first things you’ll notice when removing the enclosure’s side panel. Closer observation will also reveal a tool-less slot bracket. Honestly, I’m not a big fan of such mounting designs and would be one to quickly remove them and just use screws. Thankfully, Cooler Master makes this an easy option, but here we wanted to give its system a try to comment on the functionality of the design.
Removing the front bezel takes just a slight pull from the bottom and makes prepping the 5.25” bays a much easier task. There are no mounting clips supplied for the back side of the 5.25” drive bays, so it is unnecessary to remove the opposite side panel when swapping optical drives in or out. Once ready, twist and remove the mounting clips, which allows both the hard drive and DVD burner to be slid into place. The fit is very snug, which is crucial to the success of the mounting system. I was impressed by the security of these clips, although I wouldn’t rely on them when transporting the rig.
These mounting clips did not allow our DVD burner to line up completely flush with the front bezel, and for this you would need to revert back to screws. However, the amount of bezel indentation matched the 3.5” front IO ports, so overall appearance still looked in order. Lastly, the top 3.5” bay was inaccessible with our RAM installed, as the lower DIMM socket levers prevented the hard drive from lining up straight enough to slide into place.
The slot bracket looks a bit complicated, but it’s a very simple matter of flipping open the handle and inserting the graphics card into place. It was easy to mount the Radeon HD 5770, and the small card was held securely in place. Again, transportation would be a concern, and we can’t comment on whether the mechanism would be as easy with multiple expansion cards in place or secure enough to trust with a heavy, expensive graphics card.
Our modest components are almost lost in the spacious interior of the Elite 330, making assembly of this system an easy task. However, the enclosure width is a bit narrow, so keep in mind the 166 mm mounting limit for tall CPU coolers. This was far from an issue with the Hyper TX3, although any cooler of this design requires removing the CPU intake duct from the case’s side panel. Just a small complaint: longer PCIe and main power leads would have allowed for an aesthetically cleaner installation.
- The Budget Build Returns
- CPU And Cooler
- Motherboard And Memory
- Graphics Cards And Hard Drive
- Case, Power Supply, And Optical Drive
- Assembly
- Overclocking
- Test System Configuration And Benchmarks
- Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- 3D Games: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 And Crysis
- Benchmark Results: DiRT 2 And S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call Of Pripyat
- Benchmark Results: Audio/Video Encoding
- Benchmark Results: Productivity
- Power Consumption And Temperatures
- Performance Summary, Efficiency, And Conclusion
People in the States have way to much... fun :P
You could get a EA 430W for about $49 @newegg...
Just a thought - you could save money on the mobo by going with TOM's favorite brand ASRock board with the 770 Chipset...So with the money saved, getting a better PSU would have been a good idea...
Again unlocking was successful the 50-50 chance do not apply to your tests.
But no surprise this is a just enough machine.
People in the States have way to much... fun :P
No, this month its Coolermaster.
No shame, we all have bills.
Very well balanced system. Very helpful to see a working system with just 2 gigs ram and break the stereo type that 4 is required.
You're reading that completely out of context.
Both have more cache, the Pentium dramatically so. The Athlon II x2 would almost certainly over clock better, since stock speed is much higher, and most sites show them generally able to get to 3.8 GHz at roughly 1.4v or lower with a stock heat sink. On top of this, they use less power. So, more cache, 250 MHz more with stock heat sink (maybe more with a better one), and more cache against an extra core. Probably for games it would be better, but not always.
The Pentium E6500 is probably better still. Getting it to around 4 GHz wouldn't be too hard, especially with an upgraded heat sink, and is generally faster clock per clock compared to an Athlon II x2. Power use is significantly lower too.
Neither are clearly better though. I would rather have a faster two core than a slower three core, but the latter certainly have advantages too.
By the way I love it how Tom's makes it sound that you can unlock cores in almost every AMD CPU. I tried with 3, 2 wouldn't unlock and the 3rd didn't make it even 20 minutes through Prime95.
most likely
an example:
my curent pc i run a amd athy 64 X2 500+ blacked OC'ed to 3 ghz
and i have 3 gigs of ddr 2 pc 800 ram in it
I've gone trhough 3 video card upgrades since i built this rig
my first video card was a Gf 9600 GT i saw avaerage frames in Fallout 3 around 40-45 fps , my lowest frames (in are moments) were around 18 fps that's at a resolution of 1280x1024 with 4x aa and 8 samples on AF (i know low resolution but eh what the heck older monitor i ahd at the time i got newer monitor now)
then i got a GF 9800 GT , becasue my bro inlaw couldn't use it at the time , its averaged around 48-53 fps with lowerst frames beign at 19-20 on teh same settings as listed above
lastly i bought a readeon 5770 since it was amuch newer card I'll try to get win 7 soon , on the same old monitor and same settings i see frames avaerage around 55-70 however the rare moemtns of lows stil occur from time to time with the lowerst frames being 22 fps , now i know i ahve seen this card do better here at toms , on a new cpu and i highly douvbt anotehr video card upgrade with out a processor upgrade woudl give me any boost at this point. given that i can say it'ssafe bet that yeah a 5870 would be bottle necked by the cpu in this rig.
P.S. my old montior got repalced reccently i now finally have a newer widescreen monitor it's 20 inches with a max resolution of 1600x900 and better yet my radeon 5770 pushes this resolution just as smoothly as it pushed my odler montior's max res ... however it shoudlb e noted that this monitor has amax refresh rate of 60 hz whiel teh older one could do 120 so now in FO 3 (and other games ) my technicall higehst frame rate is 60 (unless i turn off v-sync which really only induces tearing)
and you don't actually see a higher frame rate since teh monitor only refreshed at 60
Well I dint literally mean the ASRock is THE FAVORITE brand of TOMs, but with boards from ASRock based on the X58 chipset being one of their recommended, why not have tried their AMD chipset mobo too?
Wait... Some stability issues (even at stock clocks) with this one, so the unlock was not a success. Overclocked data is for 3-cores at 3.556 GHz.
We are 2/3 if you just count SBM's. This one joins a few other unsuccessful PII and Athlon II unlocks I've encountered so 50/50 is closer to my own findings.
Our repeated advice: Spend a few bucks more on an X4 if you desire a quad.
It's a $500 Computer, but you don't need to go back to the Dark Ages and use terms as "integrated sound" or "New pci-e slot".
Plus a display too, if you need one. For us, that's $1400 alone and skews the value results a bit right?
The SBM series has never included peripherals or software. Hardware and pricing are clearly spelled out. We have complete faith our readers can add these other costs if need be.
Oh contraire regarding the unlocking. This one successfully ran many 1+ hour stents through Prime 95, but was not fully stable nor considered successful. You are completely ignoring our repeated advice of not relying on unlocking when making a processor decision.
I was also a fan of dual cores back then but most games and applications able to utilize a third core now.
I only find the 2gig memory quite uncomfortable since I'm using a 2gig 64bit system right now which maxes the ram occasionally so I have enabled virtual memory which sucks.
The budget could have been $600 or could use the stock heatsink to get the system to 4GB RAM.
Does it really hurt either? It's a standard component table used month after month for every SBM I've been part of. All SBM price tables included the same at one point but the other authers have since chosen to remove those rows when integrated. I still prefer they stay, but no it is not necesary. If those are the biggest complaints, I'm satified.