System Builder Marathon: Performance & Value
Table of contents
- 1. What’s Your Idea Of Value?
- 2. Test Configuration And Benchmarks
- 3. Benchmark Results: FPS Gaming
- 4. Benchmark Results: RTS Games
System Builder Marathon, February 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).
- Day 1: The $625 Gaming PC
- Day 2: The $1,250 Mid-Range PC
- Day 3: The $5,000 Enthusiast PC
- Day 4: Performance and Value Dissected
Introduction
The best performance per dollar is usually found in low-cost components that are, unfortunately, often too weak to perform high-end tasks. That is to say, if the most-expensive system has the minimum required performance, the others, even if vastly cheaper but only slightly slower, fail. We certainly didn’t see many failures in our $625 or $1,250 builds, but is the $5,000 system ever really needed? That’s something each buyer must decide based on his or her personal expectations.
The $625 system certainly looks cheap and the $5,000 system certainly looks pricey, but appearances can’t begin to distinguish the vast differences of internal components. Our $1,250 system, for example, looks cheap because our builder picked the best-ventilated low-cost case in an effort to allocate a greater portion of his budget to advanced internal parts.
| System Builder Marathon Components | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Component | $625 PC | $1,250 PC | $5,000 PC |
| CPU | Intel Pentium E5200 | Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 | Intel Core i7 Extreme 965 |
| CPU Cooler | Xigmatek HDT-S963 | Xigmatek HDT-S1283 | Cooler Master Aquagate Max |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L | Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR | Asus Rampage II Extreme |
| RAM | G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-4GBHK 4 GB | G.Skill F2-6400CL4D-4GBHK 4 GB | Mushkin 998679 DDR3-1600 6.0 GB |
| Graphics | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 512 MB | Sapphire Radeon HD 4870 X2 | 2x MSI GeForce GTX 295 |
| System Hard Drives | Samsung HD501LJ 500 GB | WD Caviar Black 640 GB | 2x Intel X25-M 80GB SATA SSD |
| Added Storage | Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1.5 TB | ||
| Sound | Integrated HD Audio | Integrated HD Audio | Asus SupremeFX X-Fi |
| Networking | Integrated Gigabit Networking | Integrated Gigabit Networking | Integrated Gigabit Networking |
| Chassis | Rosewill R222-P-BK | Rosewill RZLS142A-P YE | Cooler Master Cosmos-S RC-1100 |
| Power | PC Power&Cooling PPC-S500 | Corsair TX650W | Cooler Master RS-850-EMBA |
| Optical | Lite-On 20X DVD±R iHAS120-04 | Lite-On 20X DVD±R iHAS120-04 | LG Blu-ray Burner GGW-H20LK |
| Total Price | $624 | $1,154 | $4,563 |
Because today’s article is a value comparison, we’ll carefully consider the successes and failings of each model before comparing performance per dollar.
Latest Build Your Own News
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- 30/03 – System Builder Marathon Bonus: Newegg Customer Choice PC
- 29/03 – System Builder Marathon, March 2012: System Value Compared
- 28/03 – System Builder Marathon, March 2012: $2600 Performance PC
- 27/03 – System Builder Marathon, March 2012: $1250 Enthusiast PC
- 26/03 – System Builder Marathon, March 2012: $650 Gaming PC
I would be interested to see what the increase in stock and overclocked performance could be achieved by exchanging a single component at a cost of 20% of build cost for both the $625 and the $1250 builds.
This is more realistic in some ways as it looks at the average self-builder's affordable upgrade path.
@Nick_C:
From previous i7 OC articles on Tom's you could probably replicate the performance of the $5,000 monster by dropping to an i7 920 OCed to 4GHz, cool on air (Zalman 9700 with a 1366 bracket maybe) not water and drop the SSDs entirely for a RAID 0 of 150GB Velociraptors (I know people wanted something with SSDs for the big build).
That alone would probably save about $1,000
Matching i7 performance with a Core 2 is hit and miss I think - gaming-wise the i7 doesn't offer much advantage, but is very hard to beat in media encoding without a significant OC.
"Unless component prices or program requirements change significantly, we’ll likely scale back the budget on our next enthusiast-class system"
Alternatively be more realistic with your purchases - the elitists and dreamers have had their RAID SSD system now and it's been proven now it's a waste of cash. With more focus on tangibly useful components I think you could build a real killer, especially a media workstation (sod gamers for a change - they don't need fast-access storage media!).
Plus, if the i7 Skulltrail DOES come about, you simply HAVE to do one
Top stuff - thank you
I think you are right about the $5000 scale back.
The CPU / GPU / Motherboard / Memory / Power Supply should be the basic focus. Parts and cooling to be selected for the best OC possible.
I don’t know how others have their HDDs set up. A reliable hard drive is a must at any price point. For ages I could only afford a Single HDD. If I was going to spend extra on raid I would want speed the most. SSD drives, whilst new aren’t performance miracles and unless they get faster I don’t think they are contenders
Let’s assume people are interested in and want HD films so add in a decent Blue ray drive. If the $625 system can’t handle HD I want to know about it! And for sound, well nothing less than Dolby surround 5.1 and optical out will do. If I can get extra for not much more money fine.
Same quality no frills case for all 3 systems and/or a strong OC model which fit extra fans and radiators for that job.
@ Nick_C > yes what happens when you swap just one bit? The upgrade path between the lower and mid level is what I’d be doing too.
Cheers!
@ LePhuronn > i7 Skulltrail - with what OS?
^^^ That remains to be seen really, but I should imagine Windows Vista/7 64 Ultimate for now so you can address all the RAM properly (especially if we do get 24GB per CPU)
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit
Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz (Nehalem)
Akasa AK-967 Nero Direct Contact Heatpipe CPU Cooler
Asus Rampage II Extreme Intel X58
Corsair 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Triple Channel DDR3
Asus GeForce GTX 285 1024MB GDDR3
Samsung SpinP
I got this bad boy for £1300!