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System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2011: $2400 Performance PC

System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2011: $2400 Performance PC
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System Builder Marathon, December 2011: 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 fill out this SurveyGizmo form, and be sure to read the complete rules before entering!

Day 1: The $2400 Performance PC
Day 2: The $1200 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $600 Gaming PC
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected

Introduction

Although prices are up on just about everything (except memory), the real reason we increased the budget this quarter was that we grew weary of making sacrifices. Surely the most expensive PC had the most room for compromise, but in reality, nobody is going to give up big performance potential on a $2000 machine when an extra couple hundred bucks could help even more. For $300, we were able to fix some of the problems that plagued past builds.

The other $100 covered the recent hard drive price increase attributable to the horrible flooding in Thailand.

But what were those problems, specifically? And why did they cost so much to fix? Why the heck would we worry about hard drive prices in a machine powered by SSDs?

December 2011 $2400 PC Components
MotherboardMSI Z68A-GD55 (G3): LGA 1155, Intel Z68 Express $170
GraphicsPNY XLR8 VCGGTX580XPB-LC-CPU GeForce GTX 580
PNY XLR8 VCGGTX580XPB-LC GeForce GTX 580 (for SLI)
 $1030
ProcessorIntel Core i7-2600K: 3.4-3.8 GHz, 8 MB Shared L3 Cache $320
MemoryCorsair CMZ8GX3M2A1600C8R: DDR3-1600 C8, 4 GB x2 (8 GB) $75
System DriveCrucial M4 CT128M4SSD2: 128 GB, SATA 6Gb/s SSD $210
Storage DriveWD Caviar Green WD15EARS: 1.5 TB, 7200 RPM Hard Drive
 $180
OpticalLG WH12LS38 BD-RE: 12x BD-R, 16x DVD±R $70
CaseFractal Design Arc Midi FD-CA-ARC-BL $110
PowerMushkin Joule MKNPSJL1000: 1000 W, ATX12V v2.31, 80 PLUS Gold $160
Heat SinkPNY XLR8 / Asetek Integrated Liquid Cooling   
  Total Cost: $2325


The first problem suffered by our previous build, an overheated voltage regulator that severely limited overclocking, gets addressed by swapping out the motherboard. The second problem, a pair of graphics cards with built-in overclocking limits, get exchanged for a pair known to overclock more readily. And the third issue (one we didn’t worry all that much about), a lack of TRIM support in our RAID 0 SSD array, is eliminated by picking a single drive with the combined capacity of the previous pair. A real-world user still needs more space for movies, music, and other user files, but hard drive shortages force us to pay $100 more for 500 GB less compared to the last time around. It's a bad time to have to buy a hard drive, for sure.

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  • 0 Hide
    HEXiT , 20 December 2011 00:02
    gotta say im a little surprised you didnt go for the 2011 socket and the new i7 for such a pricey setup...
    im pretty sure if you had re-jigged the numbers a little you could have squeezed this in instead of the i5 based architecture of the 1155 sockets.
  • 0 Hide
    HEXiT , 20 December 2011 22:34
    not being sarcastic m8, its just when it comes to the high end builds , toms usually shows off the latest tech... as you have with the water cooling. but i would have liked to have seen the new cpu's at work productivity wise with a decent gfx card... its a nice build but just not the build i was hoping to see this month...
  • 0 Hide
    damian86 , 21 December 2011 07:10
    I think the only reason they installed a i7 instead of an i5 is because it's supposed to be a performance pc(not only for gaming) which is where the i7 scores a bit more, so it deserves the pole. I agree with you that they could have ordered a better gfx set (imo a nice evga hydro/or phantom edition)+ I would have tried a Gigabyte or Asus MB,I quite like the msi though.
  • 0 Hide
    lkuzmanov , 21 December 2011 20:09
    Price/performance wise a pair of Gigabyte 6950 1gb OC absolutely murders GTX 580 SLI.
    They're roughly two times cheaper, quiet and cool, require less power (another saving) and would've avoided this water cooling misunderstanding at the same time allowing for a better MoBo, a better fitting top-mounted H100 and perhaps a cache SSD or a better case.
  • 0 Hide
    damian86 , 21 December 2011 21:41
    I would like to see why you think 2 6950s would murder 2 580s..
  • 0 Hide
    lkuzmanov , 21 December 2011 22:47
    @damian86 "Price/performance wise"... If you refer to Anand's Bench:

    FPS FPS (OC) Price FPS/Price FPS/Price (OC)
    2384.60 2647.15 1030.00 2.32 2.57
    2081.60 2263.74 480.00 4.34 4.72

    I've addded the OC figures assuming perfect scaling with the OC for both the PNY 580's used here and 2 x GIGABYTE's GV-R695OC-1GD.

    Things may change slightly if you only consider 2560 or 1920, remove the CPU limited titles from Anand's selection, plus the individually more powerful 580's may (or may not) provide better smoothness at higher resolutions (see micro-stuttering), but you see what I mean, I'm sure. Total Load Power under Furmark is 850 vs 510, so you can save some cash on the PSU or move up in quality.

    In the meantime I noticed they've already added a pair of 1Gb 6950's to their Enthusiast build, so I see what they've done now...
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