System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2009: $1,300 Enthusiast PC
Table of contents
- 1. System Builder Marathon: $1,300 Enthusiast System
- 2. CPU, Motherboard, And Case
- 3. Video Cards And Power Supply
- 4. Memory, Hard Drive, And Optical Drive
- 5. Assembly And Overclocking
- 6. Test System And Benchmarks
- 7. Synthetic Benchmarks
- 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 Sim
- 13. Game Benchmarks: Role-Playing Game
- 14. Power And Temperature Benchmarks
- 15. Conclusion
System Builder Marathon, December 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.
To enter the giveaway, please check out this Google form, and be sure to read the complete rules before entering!
Day 1: The $2,500 Performance PC
Day 2: The $1,300 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $700 Gaming PC
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected
Folks expecting something extraordinary, like the AMD beast with four Radeon HD 4850s that was in our previous $1,250 system, might be disappointed at first. Our new $1,300 Intel system is fairly mainstream in comparison. But don't let that fool you because this machine packs a heck of a punch, which we'll see in the benchmarks.
First, let's look at the components:
| $1,300 Enthusiast System Components | ||
|---|---|---|
| Motherboard | Gigabyte P55-UD4P LGA 1156 Chipset: Intel P55 Express | $170 |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-750 2.66 GHz 4 Cores, 8.0MB L3 Cache | $200 |
| Memory | 2 x A-Data 2.0GB DDR3-1333 Dual-Channel Kit 2 x 2.0GB (4.0GB Total), CAS 8-8-8-24 | $92 |
| Graphics | 2 x Radeon HD 5850 (CrossFireX) 1.0GB GDDR5-4000 Per Card Radeon HD 5870 GPU at 725 MHz | $620 |
| Hard Drives | WD Caviar Black 640GB 640GB, 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/s | $75 |
| Optical | Samsung SH-S2232C 22x DVD+R, 8x DVD+RW, 16x DVD ROM, 48x CD ROM | $27 |
| Case | NZXT M59 | $60 |
| Power | Corsair CMPSU-750HX 750W ATX12V, EPS12V , 80-Plus Certified | $110 |
| Total Current Cost | $1,354 | |
Although the previous AMD build featured four graphics cards instead of two, and we didn't have the budget for an aftermarket CPU cooler, we've still broken through our $1,300 target limit by $54--or $24 with $30 worth of mail-in rebates. This is not something we're proud of, but something we'll have to live with given the current climate of gradually-rising prices.
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Why Crossfire? I know it's cold in UK this time of year, but there are more efficent ways to warm your house.
Wow!! What a beaut! Still, 4x 4850 just gets my boy racer enthusiasm tingling over the pure silly splurge of tech.
wait a moment p55 deosnt cut the performance from graphic card because of it's lack of lane, instead of using 16 it using 8 when you 2 cards
but my question is how significant this cut is?
ps:i have seen an article here about it but dont find it.
+sorry for my english
I seem to remember reading that it only cut's the performance by a max of 10%, though don't quote me on this
I believe it's a 5-6% performance loss, using PCIe 8x lanes with 16x cards.
What a fugly case...