System Builder Marathon, Sept. '09: $2,500 Performance PC

Test Settings And Benchmarks

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$2,500 Portable Performance PC Test Settings
Row 0 - Cell 0 Standard Speed Overclocked
Motherboard MSI 790FX-GD70 Socket AM3 Chipset: AMD 790FX/SB750  Unchanged
Processor AMD Phenom II X4 955 Four Cores, 3.2 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache 3.91 GHz at 1.4875V, 206 MHz HT Clock
Memory 2 x Crucial 4GB DDR3-1333 Kit 4 x 2GB (8GB Total), CAS 9-9-9-28 DDR3-1648 at 1.65V, CAS 8-7-7-18
Graphics 3 x MSI R4890-T2D1G OC (CrossFireX) 880 MHz GPU, GDDR5-3996 GDDR5-4600 930 MHz GPU
Hard Drives 2 x Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G1 (RAID 0) 80GB per drive, MLC, 160GB total  Unchanged
Optical LG GGW-H20L BD-RE / HD-DVD ROM 6x BD-R, 2x BD-RE, 16x DVD±R  Unchanged
Case NZXT Panzerbox ATX Mid-Tower  Unchanged
Power Corsair CMPSU-1000HX Modular 1,000 W ATX12V 2.2, EPS12V 2.91, 80 PLUS Certified  Unchanged
CPU Cooler Swiftech H20-220 2 x 120mm Liquid Kit  Unchanged
Component Cooling Antec SpotCool LED Cooling Fan  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
Fallout 3 Patch 1.0.0.17, Saved Game "Capital Wasteland" (60 sec) Test Set 1: Highest Details, No AA, No AF Test Set 2: Highest Details, 4x AA, 15x AF
Far Cry 2 DirectX 10, in-game benchmark Test Set 1: Very High Quality, No AA Test Set 2: Ultra High Quality, 4x AA
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X DirectX 10.1, in-game benchmark Test Set 1: Highest Settings, No AA Test Set 2: Highest Settings, 4x AA
World in Conflict Patch 1009, DirectX 10, timedemo Test 1: Very High Details, No AA / No AF Test 2: Very High Details 4x AA / 16x AF
Audio/Video Encoding
iTunes 8 Version: 8.1.0.52 (x64) Audio CD (Terminator II SE), 53 min Default format AAC
Lame MP3 Version: 3.98 64-bit (07-04-2008) Audio CD "Terminator II SE", 53 min wave to MP3
TMPEG 4.6 Version: 4.6.3.268 Import File: Terminator 2 SE DVD (5 Minutes) Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9
DivX 6.8.5 Encoding mode: Insane Quality Enhanced multithreading enabled using SSE4 Quarter-pixel search
XviD 1.2.1 Display encoding status = off
MainConcept Reference 1.6.1 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)
Productivity
Adobe Photoshop CS4 (64-bit) Version: 11.0 Extended, Filter 15.7 MB TIF Image Radial Blur, Shape Blur, Median, Polar Coordinates
Autodesk 3ds Max 2009 Version: 11.0, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV)
Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8.5 Version: 8.5.287, Virus database 2094, Benchmark: Scan 334 MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files
WinRAR 3.80 Version 3.80, WinZIP Commandline Version 3.0, Compression = Best, Dictionary = 4,096 KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB)
WinZip 12 Version 12.0, Compression = Best, Benchmark: THG-Workload (139 MB)
Synthetic Benchmarks and Settings
3DMark Vantage Version: 1.01
PCMark Vantage Version: 1.00, System, Memory, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646
SiSoftware Sandra 2009 SP3 Version 2009.4.15.92, 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.
  • burnley14
    Just thinking about winning this system in the giveaway gets me excited.
    Reply
  • jj463rd
    Me too this is an awesome build.
    Reply
  • DjEaZy
    ... do the video compression using ATi Streem...
    Reply
  • The Quality of video on ATI streem is shit on sticks and doesn't even support high profile.

    The last build was a bit too odd for me but this one seems like a very nice chose of parts and on a larger screen set up makes a lot of sense the loss of i7 for AMD only build was a bit sad but the addition of those great SSD kind of makes up for me along with the nice chose of case and cooling. That case looks like it is very nice to work on.
    Reply
  • dirtmountain
    The Corsair CMPSU-850HX is rated Silver, not Gold. Nice build, good results, great work.
    Reply
  • @Dirtman

    http://www.80plus.org/manu/psu/psu_detail.aspx?id=25&type=2

    Check your sources because you have it wrong

    CMPSU-850HX ATX12V 850 90.38% Gold
    Reply
  • one-shot
    Please don't call RAID 1 a backup solution.
    Reply
  • dirtmountain
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

    Newegg says differently. I did check sources.
    Reply
  • dirtmountain
    So does Jonnyguru
    http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story2&reid=153
    I guess you just can't believe everything you find on a brands site.
    Reply
  • WINTERLORD
    now that is one slick gaming machine! could'nt imagine them frames rates on a big monitor. love the insides water cooling 3 radeon 4890's with room for a 4th. great pictures by the way lots of eye candy. you can tell alot of work went into tis kmonster. great article.
    Reply