System Builder Marathon, December 2010: $500 PC

Features
By Paul Henningsen
published

Benchmark Results: Synthetics

Synthetics

We start off with two very similar platforms, sporting the same motherboard, processor architecture, memory frequency, and timings. The stock December rig holds a 100 MHz processor advantage and is outfitted with double the amount of memory.

The overclocked $500 build has nearly a 500 MHz advantage in processor speed, while the prior rig benefited both from an added active processing core, as well as higher memory bandwidth.

The stock-clocked CPU scores are within 3% of one another, so this story focuses on the current build’s vastly more powerful graphics hardware. Successful core unlocking scores the $400 machine a 15% higher score in the CPU tests. But this does little overall to help overcome the graphics deficiency.

The overclocked $500 PC is edged out in overall system performance but manages to win in PCMark's productivity suite. The current build’s storage performance score was a bit disappointing to us.

Paul Henningsen
111 Comments Comment from the forums
  • LuckyDucky7
    And this is really the only PC build that will stay relevant come January- it will remain the only budget platform that can be overclocked, after all.

    Incidentally, this would be the only PC you'd want to contemplate building right now (since the new Core i3s don't come out immediately like the i5s and i7s do- and the Pentium G8XX series doesn't allow overclocking of its platform.)
    Reply
  • Tamz_msc
    Ah, much better than the previous build!
    Reply
  • Proximon
    Great job squeezing everything into a very small budget.
    Reply
  • adbat
    Good build - but again it would be good to see old spec on test system page.
    Reply
  • rohitbaran
    That is a great combination for that budget. Balanced.
    Reply
  • yyk71200
    I wouldn't be very comfortable using a 380 watt PSU for a long time for GTX 460 even if it is good quality. Perhaps, I would put in something of 450 watt or higher.
    Reply
  • Crashman
    LuckyDucky7And this is really the only PC build that will stay relevant come January- it will remain the only budget platform that can be overclocked, after all.Incidentally, this would be the only PC you'd want to contemplate building right now (since the new Core i3s don't come out immediately like the i5s and i7s do- and the Pentium G8XX series doesn't allow overclocking of its platform.)So you think there's going to be a replacement platform for the $2000 PC in January? That's not going to happen for a while. Or are you suggesting the next $2000 PC should be downgraded to P67?
    Reply
  • dragoon190
    I haven't been keeping up with the system marathon much, but what's the reasoning for choosing nVidia card over AMD's? Just wondering since I'm thinking about upgrading my computer soon.
    Reply
  • jj463rd
    A really nice build this time.However the price of the case and power supply has gone up in price over at newegg.I haven't checked the prices of the other components though.This build seems to perform quite well especially in the gaming benchmarks.Good job!
    Reply
  • tstng
    I would've gone with a 6850 instead of the 460. It's a tad cheaper, not at all slower if you don't start cranckin' up the tesselation, and should fit the 380W psu a lot better. But a solid build by all means.
    Reply