System Builder Marathon: The $5,000 Extreme PC

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Audio And Optical

Audio: Asus SupremeFX X-Fi Riser Card

We had originally planned to use a separate audio card, but fluctuating prices for other components prevented us from installing our chosen card prior to testing. Imagine our surprise when, after we finished testing, the price of our system dropped by several hundred dollars. Yet we weren’t supremely disappointed about using the motherboard’s audio solution, as its SupremeFX X-Fi audio riser is more than adequate.

Had we known in advance that component prices would scale back prior to today’s article, our first choice for an audio solution would have been the Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3 Deluxe.

Further examination of the card revealed that its ribbon cable would have restricted airflow to our graphics cards, so we’re just a little relieved that we didn’t use it. The Xonar Essence STX could have been a better choice since it doesn’t require the airflow-blocking ribbon cable and recent price drops for other components would now allow it to fit within our budget.

Optical: LG GGW-H20LK Blu-ray Burner

With adequate storage, a powerful processor, and a Blu-ray burner that also has HD-DVD read capabilities, it would be easy for anyone who made the “wrong bet” in the HD video wars to convert a collection to the “right” format. Anyone who didn’t make that mistake should still be able to appreciate the high performance and moderate price of LG’s part number GGW-H20LK multi-format BD-RE drive.

Read Customer Reviews of LG's GGW-H20LK Blu-ray Burner

BD-R writes of 6x exceed that of current availability blank media and BD-RE rewrites make backing up large amounts of data an easy, if somewhat slow, task. DVD writes of 16x on the other hand aren’t setting any speed records, but anyone truly annoyed by DVD-R speeds can cheaply add 22X-max DVD recording with a second drive.

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.
86 Comments Comment from the forums
  • xx12amanxx
    Nice article!

    I wish i could own a rig like that,but it would be that or a 383 stroker for the F-body..lol I can dream cant I?
    Reply
  • Crashman
    xx12amanxxNice article!I wish i could own a rig like that,but it would be that or a 383 stroker for the F-body..lol I can dream cant I?
    383 strokers are for copycats. Basically, too many bad 400 blocks and people found a cheap way to re-use the cranks to make their 350's bigger. If you have THIS kind of money, you'd might as well go BIG BORE too. Maybe a bowtie block? At any rate, you'll win more races with a real 400 (or larger custom size) so long as the block is good.
    Reply
  • one-shot
    It is interesting to note on Page 14. On the Sandra XII Multimedia test the Core i7 965 @ 4.2GHz scored 486,971, while the i7 920 @ 4.0GHz scored 386,867. The difference was 200MHz and made such a large difference. Did the Intel SSDs influence such a large gain in performance or the DDR3 @ 1800MHz or perhaps a combination of both?
    Reply
  • Crashman
    9469314 said:
    It is interesting to note on Page 14. On the Sandra XII Multimedia test the Core i7 965 @ 4.2GHz scored 486,971, while the i7 920 @ 4.0GHz scored 386,867. The difference was 200MHz and made such a large difference. Did the Intel SSDs influence such a large gain in performance or the DDR3 @ 1800MHz or perhaps a combination of both?

    The 965 has a higher-bandwidth QPI link, so it should be good for boosting at least a few synthetic scores.
    Reply
  • gim159
    BAH!! Why is it always Intel? Only Servers and people that wish they MAC should use Intel stuffs.. Who else is going to use all of it's features? Not gamers, that is for sure!! Like a gamer is going to spend the extra $$ for ECC memory and not spend it on more important stuff like a GC or a great board. That and an economy minded PC buyer will go AMD anytime, more bang for the buck...

    Also, Ati is better a better card, for linking I mean. The support may be crap, but it is usually worth it to get them! 4850 X2, Water cool one and watch the clock go through the roof!
    Reply
  • xx12amanxx
    Intel is the fastest thats why...This is supposed to be an uber rig.

    Ya crashman thats the problem i dont have that kind of money..lol A fresh stock rebuild bolt on's and spray will have to hold me off until better times!
    Reply
  • gim159
    ¿ "Intel is the fastest" ? Amd 2.0 is a 4.0 in the intel world...
    Reply
  • JeanLuc
    I would love to seen those Windows boot times with those RAID 0 Intel SDD's!
    Reply
  • gim159
    Yeah, Optimize the heck out of it and take all of the unnecessary stuff out.. Probably 4 sec boot, Awesome!
    Reply
  • Crashman
    xx12amanxxIntel is the fastest thats why...This is supposed to be an uber rig.Ya crashman thats the problem i dont have that kind of money..lol A fresh stock rebuild bolt on's and spray will have to hold me off until better times!
    I spec'd out a friend's 406 C.I. mouse a few years ago and he got through under $4500 with aluminum heads and a roller cam!
    Reply