Benchmark Results: A/V Encoding
Many of the media-encoding benchmarks favor clock speed over cores, so we can probably assume the E8500 is going to do well in many of these benchmarks. Let's start off with iTunes:
The scores are very close here across the board, but notice how the E8500 doesn't have a colossal lead despite its huge clock speed advantage over the Q9550 and i7 920.
Lame shows us essentially a carbon copy of what iTunes already let us know: clock speed is king when it comes to audio encoding. Now let's shift the focus to video encoding using TMPGEnc:
Things begin to look interesting here as the gap widens. Look at DivX, where the quad-core CPUs like the Q9550 do very well and the dual-core E8500 is left in the dust. It is very interesting how the i7 920 takes a massive lead in this benchmark even when compared to the Q9550. Clearly, DivX takes advantage of some of the new Core i7 optimizations.
But then we look at the Xvid encoding results and see that this codec doesn't favor quad-core processors like the Q9550 does, as the dual-core E8500 bests it easily. However, once again, the new i7 920 clearly has optimizations that the encoder appreciates as it wins by a small margin despite the clock speed deficiency compared to the E8500.
Mainconcept displays an exaggerated result of what we saw when using DivX: a heavy dependence on multiple cores and a strong favoring of the new i7 CPU.
The message seems fairly clear: these audio encoders favor clock speed over multiple cores and most of these video encoders favor multiple cores over clock speed. However, all of these applications clearly appreciate the optimizations built into the new Core i7 architecture. If media encoding is your focus, you can skip the older Core 2-based offerings and head straight for i7.
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Forgive me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't the RAM be running at 850MHz as opposed to 800?
Looking at the Crysis scors - This systems are 13ish frames faster than the $625 system. Its a lot of extra cash to make the game playable.
Spelling and the grammars to be added in later!
For UK:
CPU: £235
Graphics: £350
RAM: £75
Motherboard: £90
HDD: £45
CPU cooler: £18
Case: £25
PSU: £65
Optical drive: £22
Total: £925
all this looks very good, but how do you play games on this with "NO MONITOR". A system comprises of a pc and a monitor surely?..
£925 @ exchange rate = $1320 approx..yet again tailored to US prices..
i give up on thw.uk..
Rephy, it's not as simple as an exchange rate comparison, you must also take into account our thieving government which has VAT @ 15% (if your lucky) and import duty costs. Again the government likes to gets it's cut and so you pay import duty on the VAT and also the shipping!
1)First and foremost; this article proves that the E8500 is the winner when it comes to games. How?! It achieved better FPS in crysis where every frame counts, while producing -though lower than the Q9550 and i7 920-perfectly playable FPS in the other games and it is cheaper and produces far less heat. Perhaps I will be wronged if THW showed us the minimum FPS alongside the average FPS, I know the charts will be more complicated but it will add more value to the games benchmarks at no added testing effort..Don Woligroski, please consider this! You know, after years of gaming I saw it's not the average FPS that matters most, it's the steadiness of the frame rate that makes the playing experience smooth and I remember games (like oblivion) that had -on my machine-high FPS coupled with a choppy gameplay!
2)Although the case is said to have a good finish and silent fans, it does look ugly, but I can't complain about that at 30$!
3)A sillier complaint: why picturing the case's interior with a careless cable routing ?!!
i hope that 32bit OS was a typo, that would just be plain stupid
I really don't understand these kinds of articles. If anyone is going to the trouble of building a custom PC, surely they will tailor it to the user's specific needs? Anyone who isn't interested in doing the research will surely just buy a Dell etc. If this is your target audience wouldn't you be better off doing a controlled comparison of a few Dells at different price points? (Which would be pretty useful when recommending something for friends and family.) If your audience is the sort of person who will go to the hassle of a custom build then you would serve them better by reviewing individual components thoroughly and consistently.
I really don't understand these kinds of articles. If anyone is going to the trouble of building a custom PC, surely they will tailor it to the user's specific needs? Anyone who isn't interested in doing the research will surely just buy a Dell etc. If this is your target audience wouldn't you be better off doing a controlled comparison of a few Dells at different price points? (Which would be pretty useful when recommending something for friends and family.) If your audience is the sort of person who will go to the hassle of a custom build then you would serve them better by reviewing individual components thoroughly and consistently.
I think you are missing the whole point of SBMs..they "suggest" compnents that match each other in performance and test what the whole system is capable of. Of course any one is free to finetune the choices to his/her needs butI have to say building 3 systems monthly at different price points and comparing them is no small task and I know many peaple would like to copy these systems completely or partially. Besides, pre-assembled systems are often overpriced and no enthusiast would miss the joy of a DIY assembly and would apppreciate someone who gives general dirctions to him/her.
In the UK Mesh Computers systems compare favourably with buying the kit from Microdirect and DIY. No warranty with DIY.