Introduction
System Builder Marathon, March 2008 : The Articles
Here’s a list of the System Builder Marathon (SBM) articles in this five day series.
- Day 1 : The Low-Cost PC
- Day 2 : The Mid-Cost PC
- Day 3 : The High-Cost PC
- Day 4 : All Three SBM PCs Overclocked
- Day 5 : Summary - The Price/Performance Winner
Today, we double the budget of yesterday’s low-cost PC to assemble a sweet midrange system. While the low-cost PC is a good all-round system, the mid-range PC should perform strongly at pretty much anything we throw at it.
While twice the budget rarely results in twice the performance, a mid-range system is desirable because it can provide tangible benefits in speed of applications and high-resolution graphics. Also, the extra money spent should give us a highly overclockable system. Our low-cost system isn’t going to be anywhere near as overclockable as the mid-range system.
First, a quick overview of our chosen components, then a justification of our choices.
| Current SBM Mid-Range PC Component Cost | ||
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700 | 540 |
| CPU Cooler | Cooler master HyperTX 2 | 25 |
| Motherboard | Asus P5N-T Deluxe | 250 |
| RAM | Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800 PC2-6400 - 4 GB | 128 |
| Graphics | EVGA GeForce 8800GTX, 768 MB | 415 |
| Hard Drive | 1x Western Digital Raptor 150 GB1701x Western Digital Caviar 500 GB | 95 |
| Sound | Integrated SoundMax High-Definition Audio | 0 |
| Case | Antec Nine Hundred | 120 |
| Power | PC Power & Cooling Silencer S75Q 750W | 160 |
| DVD-RW | 2x Sony Optiarc DVD-RW | 28 |
| Total Price | $1,931 |
