SBM 2: Mid Cost System

System Builder Marathon September: The Articles

Here are links to each each of the five articles in this month's System Builder Marathon (SBM).

Day 1: Low Cost PC compared to last SBM Low Cost PC
Day 2: Mid Cost PC compared to last SBM Mid Cost PC
Day 3: Higher Cost PC compared to last SBM Higher Cost PC
Day 4: All Three September SBM PCs Overclocked
Day 5: Summary - Price- Performance Winner

Just Another Four Core System?

With prices of just about everything except computer components increasing, we stretched our budgets out a little for this month's System Builder Marathon. In spite of low-cost system builder Don Woligroski's bang-for-the-buck desires, the actual limits were supposed to be $1,000, $2,000, and $4,000 for the low-cost, mid-priced, and high-end hardware configurations. Don might have filled his budget, but mid-priced system builder Shelton Romhanyi came up with a mid-priced configuration that's so far under budget that it leaves room for software and a few peripherals!

Big changes from last spring's mid-priced build include an upgrade from dual to four core processing, and from the 8800GTS to an 8800GTX graphics card. We've also made a bunch of other changes for mid-priced buyers to consider.

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