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System Builder Marathon, March 2010: System Value Compared

System Builder Marathon, March 2010: System Value Compared
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System Builder Marathon, March 2010: 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 $3,000 Performance PC
Day 2: The $1,500 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $750 Gaming PC
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected

Introduction

It’s always been the goal of our System Builder Marathon (SBM) series to present three levels of enthusiast builds, beginning with budget-performance and ending with extreme-performance configurations. However, last year’s price increases took particularly hard hits on the low-cost system’s memory and high-end system’s cooling configuration. Moderate expectations and a wider selection of mainstream parts offer a little more flexibility in the middle. However, maintaining the same price structure meant increasing all three budgets by a similar level. Getting back to where we were at the beginning of last year pushed the occasionally-broken $2,500 budget to $3,000, the frequently-breached $1,250 budget to $1,500, and the completely-disregarded $625 budget to $750.

Each of the three builders approached the new budget limits with a different perspective. The $3,000 PC builder quit spending when he ran out of economically-feasible performance upgrades, coming $100 short of what he considered to be an actual limit and leaving plenty of room for several weeks of price changes. The $1,500 PC builder treated the budget as theoretical, maximizing scalability with an LGA 1366 platform that pushed the budget $23 beyond its limit before time-restricted discounts vanished. The $750 system builder focused on cramming in the highest possible gaming value at purchase time, with far less regard for what the future of prices (or upgrades) would bring.

March 2010 System Builder Marathon Components

$750 PC$1,500 PC$3,000 PC
MotherboardGigabyte MA790GPT-UD3H
Socket AM3, 790GX
ASRock X58 Extreme
LGA 1366, X58 Express
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD7
LGA 1366, X58 Express
ProcessorAMD Athlon II X3 435
2.90 GHz Triple-Core
Intel Core i7-920
2.66 GHz Quad-Core
Intel Core i7-920
2.66 GHz Quad Core
MemoryG.Skill DDR3-1600 CAS 9
2 x 2GB (4GB Total)
Crucial DDR3-1333 CAS 9
3 x 2GB (6GB Total)
Crucial DDR3-1333 CAS 9
3 x 2GB (6GB Total)
Graphics2 x Sapphire HD 4850
512MB GDDR3-1986
625 MHz GPU
2 x Visiontek HD 5850
1GB GDDR5-4000
725 MHz GPU
PowerColor HD 5970
2GB GDDR5-4200
Dual GPU at 750 MHz
System
Hard Drives
WD WD6401AALS
640GB, 7200 RPM, 32MB
WD WD7501AALS
750GB, 7200 RPM, 32MB
2x Crucial CT64M225 SSD
64GB x 2 (128GB Total)
HDD
Accessory
NoneNoneSNT-SATA2221B
2x 2.5" Mobile Rack
Additional
Hard Drive
NoneNoneWD WD1001FALS
1.0TB, 7,200 RPM, 32MB
OpticalLG GH22NS50
22x DVD±R
Samsung SH-S223C
22x DVD±R
Lite-On DH-4B1S-08
4x BD-R,  2x BD-RE
CaseAntec Three HundredCooler Master CM 690Cooler Master Cosmos-S
PowerAntec EarthWatts EA650
650W 
Corsair CMPSU-750TX
750W
SilverStone ST1000-P
1,000W Modular
CPU CoolerXigmatek HDT-SD964
92mm Tower
Rosewill FORT120
120mm Tower
Swiftech H20-220
Ultima XT Liquid Kit
Current Price$789 $1,582 $2,926


The value goals of today’s comparison meant frivolous spending would be out of the question. Less than 10% of the $3,000 system’s total price was spent on added storage and Blu-ray capabilities. Similarly, less than 10% of the $1,500 system’s price was spent on upgrading to LGA 1366. The $750 PC builder was even thriftier, with less than 1% of the PC's price spent on an upgrade to 640GB.

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  • 0 Hide
    pertshire , 19 March 2010 17:31
    Nice article. I hope that you guys make an athlon x4 620 build next smb. It'll be interristing how much it fair to x3
  • -1 Hide
    LePhuronn , 19 March 2010 20:37
    "prefers Intel technology"? "Photoshop loves Core i7"?

    Are alternatively when it comes to number crunching and CPU-intensive operations such as media work Intel's architecture crushes AMD.

    That's why these types of software run better on Core i7, not because they've been programmed to prefer Intel.