System Builder Marathon, Sept. '09: $1,250 Enthusiast Build
Table of contents
- 1. System Builder Marathon: $1,250 AMD System
- 2. Video Cards, Motherboard, And Case
- 3. Power Supply, CPU, And Cooler
- 4. Memory, Hard Drive, And Optical Drive
- 5. Assembly And Overclocking
- 6. Test System And Benchmarks
- 7. Benchmark Results: Synthetics
- 8. Application Benchmarks: Media Encoding
- 9. Application Benchmarks: 2D And 3D Graphics
- 10. Application Benchmarks: Productivity
- 11. Game Benchmarks: First-Person Shooters
- 12. Game Benchmarks: Real-Time Strategy And Flight Simulator
- 13. Game Benchmarks: RPG
- 14. Power And Temperature Benchmarks
- 15. Conclusion
System Builder Marathon, September 2009: The Articles
Here are links to each of the four articles in this month’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published). And remember, these systems are all being given away at the end of the marathon. Keep an eye on this space; this is where we'll post the link to enter the contest for all three systems once the series concludes!
Day 1: The $650 Gaming PC
Day 2: The $1,250 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $2,500 Performance PC
Day 4: Performance and Value Dissected
Introduction
I'm fully prepared for the legions of people who will call me crazy for the path I have chosen in this month's $1,250 System Builder Marathon (SBM) build, which addresses the legions of readers who wanted to see a series based on AMD-based platforms. A part of me would have liked to play it safe, but sometimes a hardware reviewer has to do what a hardware reviewer has to do. So, with my colleague Thomas Soderstrom wielding double my budget, I went outside the box a little bit to see if I could work a little magic from my build to keep this little competition interesting.
The heart of this beat remains fairly basic for a $1,250 AMD-based box: there's a nice Phenom II X4 945 CPU, 4GB of low-latency DDR3 memory, a premium 790FX-based motherboard, a solid power supply, and a good case. It's the choice of graphics cards--well, more specifically, the quantity of graphics cards where I left the tried-and-true formula behind:
| $1,250 Enthusiast AMD PC Parts Prices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Motherboard | MSI 790FX-GD70 | $165 |
| Processor | AMD Phenom II X4 945 | $170 |
| Memory | Patriot 4GB (2 x 2GB) PVS34G1333LLKN | $85 |
| Graphics | 4 x Gigabyte GV-R485OC-1GH Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire | $480 |
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar Black | $75 |
| Optical | Sony Optiarc AD-7240S-0B | $33 |
| Case | NZXT Tempest ATX Tower | $100 |
| Power | PC Power & Cooling S75CF, ATX12V 2.2, 80-Plus Certified | $120 |
| CPU Cooler | Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283 | $37 |
| Total Cost | $1,265 |
That's right folks, it's not a typo--there are four graphics cards in this $1,250 build. Read on, and I'll explain.
- Hardware,
- amd ,
- enthusiast ,
- crossfire
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And remember folks, this competition is NOT open to UK residents!
Nice !
Interesting choice going with 4 cards, i wonder how much difference you would get with 2 x 4890, i bet it'd be real close to the 4 x 4850.
four cards is simply stoopid. i mean, its 4850, who needs four of them??
if i won that machine, i'd swiftly put two of those GPUs to better use...
I assume the price for the intel computer was what it was in April and not now? If that is the case; the intel computer is cheaper, better at everything excluding gaming, about the same at gaming and cheaper to upgrade (2 cards instead of 4).
Just a thought.
i wonder how much difference you would get with 2 x 4890, i bet it'd be real close to the 4 x 4850.
