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

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System Builder Marathon, September 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). And remember, these systems are all being given away at the end of the marathon. After some delay (sorry folks), the contest is ready to be entered. Please visit the entry page, here.

Day 1: The $650 Gaming PC
Day 2: The $1,250 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $2,500 Performance PC
Day 4: Performance and Value Dissected

Introduction

One thing sorely lacking from our System Builder Marathon (SBM) articles has been AMD, and that's not because we don’t like the green team. Putting most of our focus into overall system performance caused us to overlook some of the excellent value AMD offers almost exclusively in the gaming market. Thus, we’ve added a couple of titles for our game benchmark tests where AMD really shines.

But AMD’s competitive prices don’t extend only to gaming processors and graphics, as the company also has a thriving chipset business. You certainly won’t find a northbridge with 42 PCI Express (PCIe) lanes from Intel, and otherwise similarly-equipped X58 motherboards come with an approximate $100 price premium.

$2,500 Portable Performance PC Component Prices
Motherboard
MSI 790FX-GD70 Socket AM3
Chipset: AMD 790FX/SB750
$168
Processor
AMD Phenom II X4 955
Four Cores, 3.2 GHz, 8MB Cache
$200
Graphics
3 x MSI R4890-T2D1G OC (CrossFireX)
1GB GDDR5-3996 Per Card
Radeon HD 4890 GPU at 880 MHz
$600
DRAM
8GB Crucial DDR3-1333 CAS 9
2 x P/N CT2KIT25664BA1339 Kit
$142
OS/Program Drives2 x Intel X25-M SSDSA2MH080G1 (RAID 0)
80GB per drive, MLC, 160GB total		$460
Storage Hard Drives 2 x WD Caviar Black WD1001FALS (RAID 1)
1TB, 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/s		$190
OpticalLG GGW-H20L BD-RE / HD-DVD ROM
6x BD-R, 2x BD-RE, 16x DVD±R		$180
CaseNZXT Panzerbox ATX Mid-Tower$120
PowerCorsair CMPSU-1000HX Modular 1,000W
ATX12V 2.2, EPS12V 2.91, 80-Plus Certified		$240
CPU CoolerSwiftech H20-220 2 x 120mm Liquid-Cooling Kit$140
Component CoolingAntec 0761345-75018-9 "SpotCool" LED Fan$15
SSD TraySNT SNT-SATA2221B Hot-Swappable Backplane$22
Bay AdapterVantec MRK-250FD 3.5" to 5.25" adapter$13
Total Cost
$2,490


We were even able to put the money saved on the motherboard (as well as a few other areas) into storage, adding two 80GB Intel X25-M solid-state disk (SSD) drives for super-fast load times and upgrading the optical unit from a Blu-ray reader to a BD-RE writer, all in an effort to satisfy a multitude of reader requests. Let’s take a closer look at how it all went together.

Next
Summary
  1. AMD Still Has Game
  2. CPU, Motherboard, And RAM
  3. Graphics And Power
  4. Storage
  5. Case And CPU Cooling
  6. Accessories
  7. Water Block Installation
  8. Final Assembly
  9. Overclocking
  10. Test Settings And Benchmarks
  11. Benchmark Results: Crysis And Fallout 3
  12. Benchmark Results: Far Cry 2 And H.A.W.X.
  13. Benchmark Results: World In Conflict
  14. Benchmark Results: A/V Encoding
  15. Benchmark Results: Productivity
  16. Benchmark Results: Synthetic
  17. Power, Heat, And Efficiency
  18. It’s Ready To Fight
About the author
Thomas Soderstrom

Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.

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    Top Comments
  • burnley14
    Just thinking about winning this system in the giveaway gets me excited.
  • 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.
    • Other Comments
  • burnley14
    Just thinking about winning this system in the giveaway gets me excited.
  • jj463rd
    Me too this is an awesome build.
  • DjEaZy
    ... do the video compression using ATi Streem...
  • Anonymous
    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.
  • dirtmountain
    The Corsair CMPSU-850HX is rated Silver, not Gold. Nice build, good results, great work.
  • Anonymous
    @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
  • one-shot
    Please don't call RAID 1 a backup solution.
  • dirtmountain
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139011

    Newegg says differently. I did check sources.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • IzzyCraft
    dirtmountainhttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817139011Newegg says differently. I did check sources.

    You going to believe newegg a site that is known to make mistakes in labeling products over the actual official site of the group that freaking does the testing and certification
    http://www.80plus.org/manu/psu/psu_detail.aspx?id=25&type=2

    http://www.80plus.org/manu/psu/psu_reports/CORSAIR_CMPSU-850HX_ECOS%201464_850W_Report.pdf

    It's gold...
  • eddieroolz
    The overclock was disappointing, but it seems to be one capable system!

    Anyone who wins this has an awesome rig on their hands!
  • IzzyCraft
    I'm sure anyone that wins any of the rigs will be quite happy and hopefully happy enough to post pictures and other things on the forums.
  • Proximon
    Your PSU calculations do not include transient loads, which happen too quickly to measure on a Kill-a-watt. 1000HX was the better choice.

    Either water cool the GPUs or use a case with better air flow. Perhaps 90C is within spec (although I'm not aware of any published official max temps for 4890s)but it doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

    What's with the limited choice for a case anyway? You seem to want to experiment? CM Storm Scout has handles, or Lian Li Lancool has great air cooling and radiator hose grommets.

    I did like the inclusion of the Swiftech kit.
  • one-shot
    Corsair says it's Silver

    http://www.corsair.com/products/hx850/default.aspx

    So...I guess it's really Gold?

    (sarcasm)
  • tipmen
    I only fear what a QuadFire 5870 would bring if a tri 4890s does this much damage. Thanks for doing AMD it may not be the best CPU but its always nice to see a change.
  • Crashman
    dirtmountainSo does Jonnyguruhttp://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.p [...] 2&reid=153I guess you just can't believe everything you find on a brands site.


    80 plus is an independant rating site, the 850HX was upgraded to Gold status so unless you're using an old unit you should be fine.

    ProximonWhat's with the limited choice for a case anyway? You seem to want to experiment? CM Storm Scout has handles, or Lian Li Lancool has great air cooling and radiator hose grommets.I did like the inclusion of the Swiftech kit.


    This editor never uses external radiators because they're too easily damaged, ugly, and make transportation difficult. The only choice not mentioned was the HAF932: There's one in the lab, it's enormous and cheaply built.

    Also, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the ventilation of the case used. It's remarkable. It's darned near perfect. The GPU's run hot for two reasons: HD 4890's are horribly inefficient and there's not much space between them.

    The other option would have been to face the PSU fan towards the cards so it could draw warm air away from them.
  • WINTERLORD
    this thing is truely alswome anyway you slice it. eye candy galore, and im sure anyone who won this thing would be more then happy. and what makes this beast realy shine is how much performance it gets not only in gaming but alswome productivity/ap[plication scores as well. all the way around it is alswome. also very interesting to see AMD parts stacking up like this in a high end gaming. very interesting.
  • masterjaw
    "Happy birthday", "Happy Halloween", "Merry Christmas", and "Happy New Year" to the lucky one who would get his hands on this one.
  • anamaniac
    Wow...
    I would take this over your last $2,500 Intel system no doubt!
    This thing is a work of art.

    Excellent work.
    Wait wait wait... why would I want a phenom when i have a i7? I don't know, but this system is that cool.

    I love the case used on it too. Tri-4890, 2x80GB SSD etc. even on a 2.5k budget is admirable.
    Making me wonder were all the money on my build went...

    Also nice to see a cheap motherboard being promoted. I paid over $300 for my mobo, and I regret it (good overclocking mobo... crappy overclocker cpu). >_<


    Keep up the good work.
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