System Builder Marathon Q2 2015: $1600 Mini Performance PC

How-to
By Thomas Soderstrom
published

We’ve seen how far I can push a six-core Haswell-E in our full-sized performance build, but can the same performance level fit into a mini cube?

Synthetics

Futuremark 3DMark & PCMark

One of the performance secrets of the full ATX build is that it uses “Enhanced” turbo ratios, whereby the CPU operates at its maximum turbo ratio regardless of the number of active cores, by default. I didn’t expect to see that affect 3DMark scores, but I did notice the stark difference between CPU-based Physics tests. Conversely, the Mini ITX machine overclocked to a fixed 4.3 GHz where the full-sized system varied from 4.0 to 4.3 GHz, and the opposite ratio of Physics performance appears.

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PCMark shows that the Samsung 850 Evo in both Q2 machines outpaces the Crucial MX100 of the Q1 system, but not much else.

SiSoftware Sandra

Sandra Arithmetic loves the fixed overclock of the little system, but otherwise favor’s the big machines quad-channel memory configuration. Cryptography for example gets a big boost in bandwidth-intense Encoding/Decoding turnaround.

Fortunately for the small system, the bandwidth of quad-channel mode isn’t nearly double that of dual-channel mode. Not even when the big machine is overclocked to DDR4-3200 while the small system struggles to reach DDR4-2666.

Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
37 Comments Comment from the forums
  • UltimateDeep
    Baby PC able to out-overclock the Papa PC, gosh, this shouldn't be happening but it did anyway!
    Reply
  • MasterDell
    PSU used is not Haswell Certified.
    Reply
  • eldragon0
    Great write up, but the 5820k has 6 cores ( OC section says four physical cores)
    Reply
  • RazberyBandit
    Tricky tricky tricky tricky!

    Relate to a younger generation? A reader would have to be at least 35-years old (and into Hip-Hop) to have gotten that reference...

    You Be Illin' =)
    Reply
  • Crashman
    16145478 said:
    Tricky tricky tricky tricky!

    Relate to a younger generation? A reader would have to be at least 35-years old (and into Hip-Hop) to have gotten that reference...

    You Be Illin' =)
    I'm just fighting for your right to party. No need to take this on all by yourself, any more.

    Reply
  • CaedenV
    @Razbery and Crashman
    Nice :)
    Reply
  • Aspiring techie
    Sweet. The mini itx form factor doesn't limit performance at this price level. I guess you learn something new every day :)
    Reply
  • daveys93
    "High-resolution performance might have been better still had that machine contained a pair of R9 290X cards rather than a pair of GTX 270s."

    Typo? I think you mean 970s.
    Reply
  • atheus
    Again you sacrifice cooling performance to pick up an optical drive. Are you being paid off by big optic...oil?

    Admit it, you just chose that motherboard because it lets you plug this bad boy in:
    Reply
  • Nythious
    It's about time people start realizing that smaller cases restrict the impact of ambient temperatures because the total air volume is recycled faster than larger cases.
    Reply