System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2009: System Value Compared

Great conclusion Thomas, good System Building Marathon overall. My only wish is to see something with an AMD processor next time, specially on the market segment where they shine.

I am really impressed by the performance of $1300 PC.

It came so close to the $2500 PC without breaking the bank.
Simply awesome!!

typo on the last page, overclocked $650, not sure if that was the value used in the chart, might check that also.

Good conclusions..

This article can get more interesting if you add previous [September’s ] systems data to the charts.

Yes the previous systems would have been really nice to compare, espacially in the conclusion.

ibnsinaGood conclusions..This article can get more interesting if you add previous [September’s ] systems data to the charts.

Sorry, but that wouldn't be fair. First of all, September's systems used different benchmarks, settings, and OS. Second, September's systems used both AMD graphics that pre-date these, plus AMD processors, and people would have used the older graphics as an excuse to beat up on the CPU. AMD fans would have gone nuts as well, claiming the authors were trying to use the superior graphics of this SBM to skew readers against AMD. Tom's isn't interested in publishing invalid results or creating fake controversy.

psycho sykesA question..Does those come with Windows 7 installed? Or they won't be real 700-1300-2500 machines.. Right?!

Windows 7 was only installed for the benchmark analysis. For anyone who would like to copy one of the builds and still stay on budget, Ubuntu is suggested.

Crashman
First of all, September's systems used different benchmarks. AMD fans would have gone nuts as well

If you compare the benchmarks, is more or less identical with 1-2 minor differences. What’s wrong with idea of comparing different configurations? I don’t agree with the thought of AMD fans getting upset about it, to contrary they will be happy about gaining new knowledge.

First of all, Merry Christmas everyone!
Second of all, congratulations to Don. His tweaking contributed heavily to the superiority of the $1300 machine. The $700 machine pulled up lame when not gaming, and the $2500 machine was crippled by inadequate cooling.
If I win the big guy, I'll put it in my CM-RC690 and see how it does. The little guy will get my Q9450, but Don's build just needs a better cooler.
Nice series.

Merry xmas to the staff and thanks for writing these articles at an otherwise slow time of the year due to holidays. I've enjoyed reading them.

I enjoyed the whole series. Popular hardware in different configurations, always interesting to read the results.
I notice a lot of game players ask "will a cpu like the AMD 620 4x2.6 bottleneck a crossfire system of ie 5750,4850,5770". And the answer is evident in these benchmark results. YES, even the i5750 system with turbo liked o/c. All fps were very good except maybe the 700 dollar system at stock levels, but they all showed improvement with o/c. In these tests the o/c includes gpu o/c as well. It was bugging me, the 700 dollar system, using 2 4870's. I've been following prices diligently and I thought that was unrealistic, $250. I had suspicions that you snuck them in to make sure you beat the Sept system with 4850's. But a quick look this morning showed a Diamond 4870 for 129.99
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10010069&prodlist=froogle
Thats a great deal to build on.

Love this series. Always a great read.

Crashman "Windows 7 was only installed for the benchmark analysis. For anyone who would like to copy one of the builds and still stay on budget, Ubuntu is suggested."

How many of those popular games will run on Ubuntu?

I'm still upset about the 2500$ build.

In addition to all the improper decisions you've mentioned in the conclusions page, the case was completely inadequate for this kind of high-end hardware (unless you mod it) and costs 2 times more (!!!) than the much more able antec 200.

That by itself could allow buying 2 intake fans and a better cpu cooler, thus increasing overclocking by a big margin, consequently improving overall system performance.

doronI'm still upset about the 2500$ build.In addition to all the improper decisions you've mentioned in the conclusions page, the case was completely inadequate for this kind of high-end hardware (unless you mod it) and costs 2 times more (!!!) than the much more able antec 200.

It's nice when a case has enough room for both the graphics cards and the hard drives, not either/or.

The conclusion makes up for the Hi-end build, I guess next Hi-end build will rock. As for the 700$ build...please consider AMD for the next one.

@Crashman - Then how about Coolermaster 922 which costs 100$ on newegg?
I know that's 10$ more but your afoermentioned case has the same 100$ price tag on newegg.

Even better, for 90$ you could get a mighty Antec 900 (First gen) with all its 3x120mm + 1x200mm fans bundled.

doron@Crashman - Then how about Coolermaster 922 which costs 100$ on newegg?I know that's 10$ more but your afoermentioned case has the same 100$ price tag on newegg.Even better, for 90$ you could get a mighty Antec 900 (First gen) with all its 3x120mm + 1x200mm fans bundled.

Yeh, it's a good deal. Unfortunately it didn't fit within budget at order time, when the Lian-Li case was on sale for $80 and the total purchase was $2495.

hmm i have an idea. Give us, toms readers option to choose builds in each segment. Post few configurations for each budget for a survey, and build the winer.

i would have loved to see the athlon 620 overclocked to 3.2 gigahertz instead of that shitty dual core. i mean a quad core makes sense to drive those 4870's.

Well, as for the 5850 versus the 5870 in CF... after seeing much benchmarks of the 5970, it was obvious the extra money wasn't worth it.

As for cpus being a MAJOR drawback in a system... no... the AMD built with quad 4850 GPU actually won a few rounds over the CF 5850 and a core i5... which is really surprising...

I wonder how 3 4890 would perform over 2 5850... and even 2 5870.

In canada, the Powercolor 4890 is selling for 150$CAD at NCIX... that means 140$US...

The 4890 is really now the sweetspot of gpu.

The cheapest HD4890 on Newegg (US) is $190. I'd take the slightly weaker HD5770 for $155 for the power savings (and resulting lower heat and fan noise), Eyefinity, and DirectX 11 support.