System Builder Marathon, Q4 2012: $500 Gaming PC

Deals
By Paul Henningsen
published

Benchmark Results: Audio And Video

Although a number of our tests are changing this quarter, we retain the same workloads and executables for iTune and Lame. We know that there's virtually no difference between Windows 7 and 8. So, we can assume the difference in encoding time between both machines is a result of this quarter's 100 MHz-lower clock rate.

Our comparison has to end there, though, since we're updating the rest of our tests.

Considering the processors in both machines share the same architecture, we expect (and receive) roughly the same outcome from our threaded benchmarks. This quarter's machine ends up being a little bit faster. Could this be a result of tighter memory timings?

Paul Henningsen
150 Comments Comment from the forums
  • killerchickens
    $501 Plus $100 for a copy of windows 7.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    killerchickens$501 Plus $100 for a copy of windows 7.Run Linux, this is a hardware shootout.
    Reply
  • willyroc
    I personally feel that they could have gone with H61 and gotten a 2GB 7850 instead.
    Reply
  • killerchickens
    CrashmanRun Linux, this is a hardware shootout.
    Linux for a gaming desktop I dont think so.
    Reply
  • willyroc
    Not to mention that the 500GB version of the HDD is only $3 more.
    Reply
  • jerm1027
    Our best alternative remained the quad-core Phenom II X4 995 Black Edition for $95. But we chose not to revisit this old favorite, figuring that adding a Radeon HD 7850 would have taxed our budget.
    What about the Phenom II 965? It's only $75 at TigerDirect.
    Reply
  • killerchickens
    Why is Windows 8 Professional being used?
    Reply
  • EzioAs
    9539399 said:
    I personally feel that they could have gone with H61 and gotten a 2GB 7850 instead.

    I think they'd be better off with a B75 motherboard, 4GB RAM and an i3-3220.
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    I am not very comfortable using windows8 in these benches. Reason : Drivers have not yet matured for win8. I would have waited for the next quarter SBM before using win8.
    Reply
  • killerchickens
    Windows is free and we use Linux in are gaming Machines what are we in Soviet Russia .
    Reply