System Builder Marathon: $1,250 Mid-Range PC

[jcknouse]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]Recommended to use Ubuntu or Windows 7 Beta unless you already have a retail license you're ready to transfer.[/citation]

lol. Good call...until August 1, 2009. lmao ;-)

 

[ackthbbft]

How stable will this system be with that much RAM if running 32-bit XP Pro? I've never had much luck with anything over 2GB (although that could have been mobo-limited), and I've heard many discussions that anything more than 3GB is not recommended for XP (particuarly when adding in a video card's memory into the mix).

 

[waffle911]

All this time and no-one pointed out... on page 6 you guys said you couldn't push the GDDR5 clock past 950, but on page 7 you list the overclock setting of the GDDR5 as 1100. What smoke and mirrors did you need to use to pull that out of your hat?
Also, if the system RAM is overclocked, why doesn't the spec page reflect the higher clock speed and still show the loosened timings? It reads as if all you did was dial back timings, without actually doing anything to attempt to improve upon the stock performance; I know this cannot possibly be the case.

 

[mwinfie]

Why is a 4870X2 in a midrange build? I have a Sapphire 4870 1G and I have yet to play a game that even puts a dent into my frame rates with 4xAF/AA. I haven't played Crysis on it, nor do I plan to (I'm into multiplayer), but my guess is it would still handle it pretty well.

I want to see a series of builds that are based off the initial platform. Say, start out with a Dragon platform minus the Phenom II. Go with a cheap dual-core ($78 for 7750 BE), a single 4870, 4GB of RAM. OC the CPU and 4870 then benchmark the system.

Then with the same basic platform (motherboard, hdd, powersupply, etc) upgrade the CPU to a Phenom II, add another 4870, add some more ram, lets say go from 2x2GB initially and then add another 2GB stick. Same drill, OC, benchmark, G2G.

You could then do this same thing when the next round of Phenoms hit, that are supposed to hit 4GHz, and put the benchmarks side by side and see what kind of performance increases you get.

People don't want to buy a new computer every 3 - 4 years. A series like this would demonstrate a smarter way to design your PC then just setting a budget and getting the best you can for that budget, IMHO.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]mwinfie[/nom]Why is a 4870X2 in a midrange build? I have a Sapphire 4870 1G and I have yet to play a game that even puts a dent into my frame rates with 4xAF/AA.[/citation]

Frankly, you don't play demanding games at demanding resolutions. A lot of our readers do, and I know I do.

[citation][nom]mwinfie[/nom]A series like this would demonstrate a smarter way to design your PC then just setting a budget and getting the best you can for that budget, IMHO.[/citation]

That's not a bad idea for a series - but neither is what we're doing, it's just diffrent approaches that illustrate diffrent things. The SBM is designed to show what diffrent budgets can achieve as far as performance benefit.

 

[mwinfie]

Wow Cleeve, that was a fast response. I'm still playing on the monitor left over from my old Athlon XP system. 1280x1024 makes me sad but my frame rates happy. Despite my nit pickings I still love this site and the articles you publish. Keep up the good work!

 

[randomizer]

Well at 1280x1024 you can't expect your framerates to drop that much

 

[spearhead]

[citation][nom]Cleeve[/nom]Frankly, you don't play demanding games at demanding resolutions. A lot of our readers do, and I know I do.That's not a bad idea for a series - but neither is what we're doing, it's just diffrent approaches that illustrate diffrent things. The SBM is designed to show what diffrent budgets can achieve as far as performance benefit.[/citation]

i find it amazing they are able to put it in tough. imagine the amount of headroom this system has my friend because of the radeon 4870x2 i smell crysis on veryhigh

 

[bustapr]

How can an E8500 kick an i7's butt so badly on crysis.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]bustapr[/nom]How can an E8500 kick an i7's butt so badly on crysis.[/citation]

Crysis is all about the videocard, not so much the CPU.