System Builder Marathon: Performance & Value

Test Configuration And Benchmarks

The three benchmarked configurations were set up as follows:

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Base And Overclocked Performance Settings
Component $625 PC $1,250 PC $5,000 PC
CPU Intel Pentium E5200 2.50 GHz, FSB-800 Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83 GHz, FSB-1333 Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 3.20 GHz, 24x 133.3 MHz
CPU Overclocked 3.9 GHz (11.5x 339 MHz) FSB-1356, 1.456 V Core 3.61 GHz (8.5 x 425 MHz) FSB-1700, 1.350 V Core 4.20 GHz, 28x 150 MHz 1.43125 V Core
RAM G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-4GBHK DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12, 1.80 V G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-4GBHK DDR2-800, 4-4-4-12, 1.80 V Mushkin 998679 Triple-Channel DDR3-1600, 7-8-7-20, 1.65 V
RAM Overclocked DDR2-814, 4-4-4-12, 1.90 V DDR2-850, 5-6-6-16, 1.90 V DDR3-1800, 8-9-8-20, 1.65 V
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR Asus Rampage II Extreme
Graphics Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512 MB 750 MHz GPU, GDDR5-3600 Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 750 MHz GPU, GDDR5-3600 2x MSI GeForce GTX 295 576 MHz GPU, GDDR3-1898
Graphics Overclocked 805 MHz GPU, GDDR5-3700 780 MHz GPU, GDDR5-4400 690 MHz GPU, GDDR3-2160
Power PC Power and Cooling PPC-S500 Corsair TX650W Cooler Master RS-850-EMBA
Hard Drives Samsung HD501LJ 500 GB WD Caviar Black 640 GB 2x Intel X25-M 80 GB SATA SSD ICH10R RAID Controller Level 0
Sound Integrated HD Audio Integrated HD Audio Asus SupremeFX X-Fi
Networking Integrated Gigabit Networking Integrated Gigabit Networking Integrated Gigabit Networking
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Benchmarks and Settings
3D Games
Crysis Version: 1.2.1, Video Quality: Very High Details, Demo: CPU-Benchmark + Tom’s Hardware Tool
Supreme Commander Forged Alliance Version: 1.5.3599, Video Quality: Highest Settings, Demo: WallaceTX_006_006, Benchmark: Fraps 2.9.4 - Build 7037
Unreal Tournament 3 Version: 1.2, Sound and DirectX10, Texture Details: 5, Level Details: 5, Demo: vCTF-Reflection_bot, Time: 12/60
World in Conflict Version: 1.0.0.9, Video Quality: Very High details, Demo: Game-Benchmark
Audio Encoding
iTunes Version: 7.7.0.43, Audio CD "Terminator II" SE, 53 min, Default format AAC
Lame MP3 Version: 3.98 Beta 3 (05-22-2007), Audio CD ""Terminator II" SE, 53 min, wave to MP3, 160 Kb/s
Video Encoding
TMPEG 4.5 Version: 4.5.1.254, Import File: "Terminator II" SE DVD (5 Minutes), Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9
DivX 6.8.3 Encoding mode: Insane Quality, Enhanced Multi-threading, Enabled using SSE4, Quarter-pixel search
XviD 1.1.3 Display encoding status=off
Mainconcept Reference 1.5.1 Reference H.264 Plugin Pro 1.5.1 MPEG2 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), Profile: Tom’s Hardware Settings for Qct-Core
Applications
Autodesk 3D Studio Max 9 Version: 9.0, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV)
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8 Version: 8.0.134, Virus base: 270.4.5/1533, Benchmark: Scan 334 MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files
Winrar 3.80 Version 3.70 BETA 8, WinZIP Commandline Version 2.3, Compression=Best, Dictionary=4,096 KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB)
Winzip 11 Version 11.2, Compression=Best, Benchmark: THG-Workload (139 MB)
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
3DMark Vantage Version: 1.02, GPU and CPU scores
PCMark Vantage Version: 1.00, System, Memory, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646
SiSoftware Sandra XII SP2 Version 2008.5.14.24, CPU Test=CPU Arithmetic/MultiMedia, Memory Test=Bandwidth Benchmark
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
  • timelist
    Next time when you do this, can you please do a 1250 AMD pc? and see how it compares and all that good stuff?
    Reply
  • gkay09
    Well can u please do a comparision of various builds considering its alternatives both from the Green and the Blue company ...so that we can guess at what price point, which will be better....that will be more informative...
    Reply
  • katmai
    i would really be interested to see amd into this also, because so far it has been all intel, but as far as i know the phenom II's are not quite bad, in fact i noticed lots of praises for their performance, so a 1250 $ AMD pc , and compare it to the 1250 intel would be awesome.
    Reply
  • sleepychink125
    they should just do whatever gives the best performance/price... people only care about how far their money will get them, not this AMD fanboy crap. If TH feels that a AMD chip will get them farther than an intel chip of the same price, then they should by all means go for it... if not, please stop complaining.
    Reply
  • sleepychink125
    btw, its not just these 2 above comments that bug me...its people like them spamming the boards EVERY SINGLE MONTH about AMD builds.
    Reply
  • gkay09
    sleepychink125btw, its not just these 2 above comments that bug me...its people like them spamming the boards EVERY SINGLE MONTH about AMD builds.Well tats such a dumb way of saying give me anything but don bother me wit many optons :P ...but people would really like to know more abt comparision rather than just sticking wit the options posted here...
    Reply
  • gkay09
    sleepychink125they should just do whatever gives the best performance/price... people only care about how far their money will get them, not this AMD fanboy crap. If TH feels that a AMD chip will get them farther than an intel chip of the same price, then they should by all means go for it... if not, please stop complaining.Well how would they knw if the options chose by them are the best unless they compare it wit the other options available...rather than jus posting the components they chose...mayb a more explained reason in comparision rather than jus a single component review would be gud...
    Reply
  • sleepychink125
    im sorry if i offended u... i just wanted to see some constructive conversation that i can learn from or join in, not just amd guys complaining.
    Reply
  • gkay09
    sleepychink125im sorry if i offended u... i just wanted to see some constructive conversation that i can learn from or join in, not just amd guys complaining.Lolz its nt jus that we are amd guys(I use a Core2 :P) Its jus that we want to see more competition come into play rather than jus stick to the Blue company...Its jus tat we want this competition to be alive so we gt better components...
    Reply
  • gkay09
    The Green company has come a far way...(from the Phenom I failure that is) there are many CPUs like the 7750, the new Phenoms, which can provide some competition (mayb nt beat the other)...

    The reason behind people posting request to see an AMD m/c is tat we cant buy all the components that are coming in the market and then sticking to the better ones...for which the THG come into play...they have the resources and manpower to do this and give the general public the pros and cons of the h/w out there...thus helping us...
    Reply