System Builder Marathon, March 2012: System Value Compared

Three Well-Built Machines Face Off

System Builder Marathon, March 2012: The Articles

Here are links to each of the five articles in this quarter’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published). And remember, these systems are all being given away at the end of the marathon, including the Bonus Customer Choice PC, which we picked out using the highest-rated components in Newegg's feedback system.

To enter the giveaway, please fill out this SurveyGizmo form, and be sure to read the complete rules before entering!

Day 1: The $650 Gaming PC
Day 2: The $1250 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $2600 Performance PC
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected
Day 5: Bonus Newegg Customer Choice PC

Introduction

Without the benefit of an unlimited budget, improving performance in one area typically means making a sacrifice somewhere else. Recent changes to our benchmark suite slightly deemphasize the importance of beefy graphics at the high-end, since CPU bottlenecks hamper some of its games. On the other hand, Paul, the guy building our entry-level machine, usually can’t afford a fast enough graphics card to see those CPU bottlenecks. Those concepts drive this quarter's cheapest and most expensive systems in opposite directions. I dropped SLI from my $2600 machine, while Paul gave up a capable Core i5 processor from his $650 contender.

More controversial were the choices made by Don, who picked parts for our $1250 PC. He went with the same high-end graphics card as me in an attempt to match the expensive machine in at least the gaming segment of our metrics. Knowing that his affordable quad-core CPU couldn't stand up to my Sandy Bridge-E-based Core i7-3930K in the content creation apps, Don made his stand where he knew he stood a chance. Frequency (rather than core count) determines where most games run into a bottleneck, so Don pinned his hopes on topping-out Turbo Boost technology, since his Core i5-2400 is one of those "partially-unlocked" models.

So, we end up with two purpose-built gaming machines taking on a fully-loaded $2600 heavyweight in the productivity and content creation suites. That's definitely not going to be a fair fight. But you could also look at this match-up as one feature-oriented (overpriced) behemoth taking on two budget-oriented game systems in a battle for the best value. That may be equally unfair. We’ll do our best to present both sides of the performance/value debate, though.

Notice that the title for each build refers to its budget limit, not its actual cost. Two days ago, we saw Don call his configuration the $1250 build, though he did have another $50 available to him. Amounts left unspent simply contribute to each PC’s price-per-performance calculations.