System Builder Marathon, August 2012: $1000 Enthusiast PC

Features
By Don Woligroski
published

Memory, Hard Drives, And Optical Drive

Memory: Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1600 Memory Kit

Our readers want to see 8 GB of overclockable memory in our mid-range enthusiast build. So, we're obliging, even if it pushes us a little over our budget. Priced at $55, this kit boasts fairly tight 8-8-8-24 timings, and we look forward to seeing how scalable it might be in our ASRock motherboard.

Read Customer Reviews of Mushkin's Enhanced Blackline 8 GB DDR3-1600 Kit

SSD: OCZ Agility 3 AGT-25SAT3-60G 60 GB

Read Customer Reviews of OCZ's Agility 3 60 GB SSD

A solid-state drive is one of the most significant upgrades you can drop into your PC. And, for a mere $60, OCZ’s Agility 3 gives us enough space for our operating system and a few performance-sensitive applications.

It's not the fastest model available, and it's certainly not very large. But our tests demonstrate that even a mediocre SSD is many, many times more responsive than a conventional hard disk.

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 750 GB 32 MB Cache

Read Customer Reviews of Seagate's Barracuda 750 GB

With a fast SSD providing quick access to the files needed to boot-up quickly, we picked Seagate's 750 GB Barracuda for our storage drive. It’s a decent performer and reasonably priced at $70.

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-222BB/BEBE 22x DVD-ROM

Read Customer Reviews of Samsung's SH-222BB/BEBE DVD-ROM

We didn’t pick this "bebe" for its name. We chose it because it was selling for $15 when we bought it, and we needed to save every penny possible.

Don Woligroski
123 Comments Comment from the forums
  • alchemy69
    Bring on the usual motley crew of those who could have done it so much better.
    Reply
  • lighter17
    What's going on with the processor price. The i5-3570k is $230 not $300. Then there's no mention of the CPU cooler in the price list.

    And you're pairing an Ivy Bridge CPU with a P67 motherboard to save a few dollars?

    Does anybody proofread these articles?
    Reply
  • lunyone
    ^^^ Just noticed and was starting to type that same mistake too :)
    +1 for the p67 and not a maybe a B75 based mobo like:

    or

    Z77 based mobo for ~$95 shipped??


    Just a though on the mobo situation....

    Reply
  • lunyone
    ^^^ Links didn't work, trying again below:

    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    i love how much difference a few months had on the performance.

    Just want to mention : i dont see the use of including an optical drive in 2012. i cant remember the last time i used an optical drive. And with digital sales outselling physical discs, i dont see why it is included.
    Its not about saving $15. Its about buying a part that you will be using less than a couple of times in an year.probably lesser.
    Reply
  • cangelini
    lighter17What's going on with the processor price. The i5-3570k is $230 not $300. Then there's no mention of the CPU cooler in the price list. And you're pairing an Ivy Bridge CPU with a P67 motherboard to save a few dollars?Does anybody proofread these articles?Good catch. Not sure what was up with Don's pricing, but his CPU was way off, and he forgot to include the cooler in his price list. I've updated it, and it's only $7 bucks off his original quote, so we're still in good shape. Appreciate the sharp eye, guys!
    Chris
    Reply
  • wildkitten
    mayankleoboy1i love how much difference a few months had on the performance.Just want to mention : i dont see the use of including an optical drive in 2012. i cant remember the last time i used an optical drive. And with digital sales outselling physical discs, i dont see why it is included. Its not about saving $15. Its about buying a part that you will be using less than a couple of times in an year.probably lesser.I think there is still a place for optical drives. I just finished a new tower build myself, an i5 3570k myself with the same video card on an Asus P8Z77-V Deluxe. I put in a Blur Ray burner that was only $90. With almost all new phones doing 1080p video, I can burn discs for friends and family of personal videos. People also still have CD players in cars and honestly, on a price per GB bases, it's still the best form of backup.
    Reply
  • 60 gb SSD? why bother?
    Reply
  • blackball3242
    The asrock professional series is shown whereas the actual motherboard being used is the performance series.

    I almost thought the motherboard had 3 pcie slots for only $100- that would have been a steal!
    Reply
  • nathcarter
    Any particular reason for P67 over Z77? Is it purely cost-based, or are there significant performance benefits?
    Reply