What’s Your Idea Of Value?
System Builder Marathon, February 2009: The Articles
Here are links to each of the four articles in this month’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published).
- Day 1: The $625 Gaming PC
- Day 2: The $1,250 Mid-Range PC
- Day 3: The $5,000 Enthusiast PC
- Day 4: Performance and Value Dissected
Introduction
The best performance per dollar is usually found in low-cost components that are, unfortunately, often too weak to perform high-end tasks. That is to say, if the most-expensive system has the minimum required performance, the others, even if vastly cheaper but only slightly slower, fail. We certainly didn’t see many failures in our $625 or $1,250 builds, but is the $5,000 system ever really needed? That’s something each buyer must decide based on his or her personal expectations.
The $625 system certainly looks cheap and the $5,000 system certainly looks pricey, but appearances can’t begin to distinguish the vast differences of internal components. Our $1,250 system, for example, looks cheap because our builder picked the best-ventilated low-cost case in an effort to allocate a greater portion of his budget to advanced internal parts.
| System Builder Marathon Components | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Component | $625 PC | $1,250 PC | $5,000 PC |
| CPU | Intel Pentium E5200 | Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 | Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 |
| CPU Cooler | Xigmatek HDT-S963 | Xigmatek HDT-S1283 ACK-I7751 Retention Bracket | Cooler Master Aquagate Max Swiftech MCR320-QP Radiator 3x Scythe S-FLEX SFF21F Fan Swiftech Apogee GTZ W/B |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L | Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR | Asus Rampage II Extreme |
| RAM | G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-4GBHK 4 GB | G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-4GBHK 4 GB | Mushkin 998679 DDR3-1600 6.0 GB |
| Graphics | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512 MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 | 2x MSI GeForce GTX 295 |
| System Hard Drives | Samsung HD501LJ 500 GB | WD Caviar Black 640 GB | 2x Intel X25-M 80GB SATA SSD SYBA Mobile Rack for 2.5" SATA |
| Added Storage | Row 7 - Cell 1 | Row 7 - Cell 2 | Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5 TB |
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio | Integrated HD Audio | Asus SupremeFX X-Fi |
| Networking | Integrated Gigabit Networking | Integrated Gigabit Networking | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
| Chassis | Rosewill R222-P-BK | Rosewill RZLS142A-P YE | Cooler Master Cosmos-S RC-1100 |
| Power | PC Power&Cooling PPC-S500 | Corsair TX650W | Cooler Master RS-850-EMBA |
| Optical | Lite-On 20X DVD±R iHAS120-04 | Lite-On 20X DVD±R iHAS120-04 | LG Blu-ray Burner GGW-H20LK |
| Total Price | $624 | $1,154 | $4,563 |
Because today’s article is a value comparison, we’ll carefully consider the successes and failings of each model before comparing performance per dollar.
