System Builder Marathon Q2 2015: $1600 Performance PC

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This month’s high-end build looks lighter than its predecessor, yet includes a six-core Haswell-E CPU. Will the shift away from graphics kill its gaming cred?

Comparison Systems

Last quarter’s $1750 PC had two GTX 970’s and a four core CPU, while today’s $1600 machine has 50% fewer graphics cards and 50% more CPU cores. We don’t expect it to win overall in performance, but the value challenge should be interesting. The fairer question is whether today’s machine can take out last-year’s GTX 980 enhanced $1600 PC.

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Header Cell - Column 0 Q2 $1600 Performance PCQ1 $1750 Performance PCQ4 2014 $1600 PC
Processor (Overclock)Intel Core i7-5820K: 3.30 GHz - 3.60 GHz, Six Physical Cores O/C to 4.0-4.3GHz, 1.22VIntel Core i7-4790K: 4.00 GHz - 4.40 GHz, Four Physical Cores O/C to 4.60-4.80 GHz, +20mVIntel Core i7-4790K: 4.00 GHz - 4.40 GHz, Four Physical CoresO/C to 4.60 GHz, 1.26V
Graphics (Overclock)PNY GTX 970: <1178 MHz GPU,  GDDR5-7012 O/C to <1328 MHz, GDDR5-74122x PNY GTX 970: <1178 MHz GPU,  GDDR5-7012 O/C to <1328 MHz, GDDR5-7312PNY GTX 980: <1216 MHz GPU,  GDDR5-7012 O/C to <1456 MHz, GDDR5-7972
Memory (Overclock)16GB G.Skill DDR4-2666 CAS 15-15-15-35, O/C to DDR4-3200 CL 16-18-18-36, 1.30V16GB G.Skill DDR3-1866 CAS 10-11-10-28, O/C to DDR3-2133 CL 11-12-11-24, 1.60V8 GB G.Skill DDR3-2133 CAS 9-11-10-28, O/C to DDR3-2400 CL 10-12-12-28, 1.60V
Motherboard (Overclock)MSI X99 SLI Plus: LGA 2011-v3, Intel X99Stock 100 MHz BCLKGigabyte Z97X-Gaming 5: LGA 1150, Intel Z97 ExpressStock 100 MHz BCLKBiostar Hi-Fi Z97WE: LGA 1150, Intel Z97 ExpressStock 100 MHz BCLK
CaseZALMAN Z11 NeoCorsair Graphite 230TThermaltake Chaser A31
CPU CoolerCooler Master Hyper 612 Ver.2Corsair H100i Closed-LoopPhanteks PH-TC14PE 140mm
Hard DriveSamsung 850 Evo 250GB SATA 6Gb/s SSDCrucial MX100 256GB SATA 6Gb/s SSDPlextor M6S PX-256M6S 256GB SATA 6Gb/s SSD
PowerSeaSonic SSR-650RM: 650W, 80 PLUS GoldRosewill CAPSTONE-750: 750W, 80 PLUS GoldRosewill CAPSTONE-750-M: 750W, 80 PLUS Gold
Software
OSMicrosoft Windows 8 Pro x64Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64
GraphicsNvidia GeForce 352.86Nvidia GeForce 347.25Nvidia GeForce 344.75
ChipsetIntel INF 9.4.2.1019Intel INF 9.4.0.1026Intel INF 9.4.0.1026
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
40 Comments Comment from the forums
  • synphul
    Looks like a solid build but the thing sticking out like such a sore thumb is that overpriced under performing cooler. May as well have paired that build with a $30 corsair cx builder psu.

    For the same price as that cpu cooler the build could have easily supported the thermalright true spirit 140 power which is a much better cooler. Offering similar if not identical performance to the noctua nh-d14. $5 over the price of that hyper 612 so it wouldn't have blown the budget. If $5 blows a budget set for $1600 people need to rethink their priorities.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=true+spirit+140+power&N=-1&isNodeId=1
    Reply
  • ingtar33
    yeah, i'm with synphul. You should have tried to hunt down a Thermalright Macho HR-02 rev.b; it's about the same pricerange and a much better performer then that junk coolermaster. still great article.
    Reply
  • vimes123
    In my opinion this is not really a gaming PC build (EDIT: I guess it is not supposed to be either, it would be nice to define what "Performance PC" means, though).
    You would never settle for a 970 in a $1500 build. One could easily cut $200 from the cpu (i5-4590), $50 from the mainboard and $50 from the imo pointlessly expensive Samsung 850 for a regular 250gb ssd.
    Put these additional $300 into the graphic card and you are in Radeon R9 fury or Geforce 980ti territory.
    What use is any build if the purpose is not clear?
    Reply
  • Aspiring techie
    The arrows are in the way AGAIN!
    Reply
  • MasterMace
    a $1600 build with only a GTX 970 in it? Of course its credibility is shot.
    Reply
  • rolli59
    I guess people are missing the point that this is the $1600 performance/productivity build not the $1600 gaming build to be featured in ARTICLE 3!
    Reply
  • clonazepam
    16142462 said:
    I guess people are missing the point that this is the $1600 performance/productivity build not the $1600 gaming build to be featured in ARTICLE 3!

    Interesting approach this time around. Eager to see the rest!
    Reply
  • jonxor
    Article asks: "This month’s high-end build looks lighter than its predecessor, yet includes a six-core Haswell-E CPU. Will the shift away from graphics kill its gaming cred?" Yes. Yes it did. It cost nearly the same as the SLI machine, and was comparably terrible in gaming, and in exchange you got about a 5% increase in a few media/rendering apps. For the price, you almost could have built an equally fast rendering PC without a dedicated GPU, and a gaming PC with a nice graphics card. Toms articles over the past few years proved that once you get to a certain point, 99% of games don't get any benefit from faster CPU's, (look at the "best CPU for the money" articles). What was going on with this build? it seemed to have wandered from the original mission of a gaming PC, and into a 1600$ office PC that can unzip files slightly faster? This is bizarre and confusing.

    Not to say I wouldn't want this PC if it were cheaper, but why spend so much to make it middle-of-the-road in everything?
    Reply
  • tsnor
    Umm, maybe they got tired of the comments claiming a i7-5720K w/DDR4 and 6 cpus would crush the devil's canyon cpu, video heavy builds they usually spec.

    I like the build variety. It's good to see data showing why a gaming system would never be built this way.
    Reply
  • synphul
    Exactly, it's not exclusively a gaming build. The majority of the build makes sense, the case is more or less personal preference and open to interpretation provided it still does the job and provides effective cooling. This particular case will support coolers over 200mm tall which makes it a perfect candidate for the taller and more effective true spirit 140 power without breaking the budget. For a gaming build I'd definitely work a 980 in there at this budget but the extra cores are beneficial to general performance and heavier workloads aside from gaming. The 970 is still more than adequate for much more than 'occasional' gaming though.

    Each type of build will focus elsewhere depending on the specific intentions. There are a lot of editing and content creation type tasks as well as office work and other computing that requires little in the way of a gpu at all and instead may focus on a raid array or more ram. Or a gaming setup that will sacrifice those things for a bigger gpu. Still a solid build and a good article. That cooler just makes me think the rest of the build was complete and someone rummaged around in a bin of extras to find something to cool it and that's what they came up with.

    It's not a terrible cooler but at $50 I would expect a better level of performance. The be quiet pure rock has better thermals and nearly equal sound levels for the price, literally. Scythe mugen 4 comes to mind (though newegg has just about the highest prices on it), raijentek themis evo etc. More of a personal preference, but the 612 v2 appears to have the same wonky retention system as the 212 evo as well. Hard to beat the true spirit 140 power at the $50 mark when given a case plenty wide to support it.
    Reply