System Builder Marathon, August 2012: $1000 Enthusiast PC

[BSMonitor]

Intel Core i5-3570K is a king of all builds ever for $230. Unlocked and 22nm. And yet everyone worries about Intel with no competition. I think Intel recognizes what the bread and butter price point is now. It's not $500-1000 top end CPU's. It's $225 ones.

4.6GHz overclock for free essentially... Unreal.

I would pony extra $20 for Z77 on the MB and maybe 660 Ti. A year from now, pick up another 660 Ti for $150-200 ... SLI and Xfire extend the life cycle... Love it.

 

[Guest]

Why not use the 60gig using Intels SMART CACHING? I have many friends who swear by it. Would it not also improve the performance of games as well?

 

[jaquith]

I have no problem with the budget going over for decent stuff. Further I have no problems with the P67, BUT you need to verify the IB is supported AND the BIOS (UEFI) has the minimum BIOS revision to support the IB CPU otherwise it will NOT post.

My question is did the ASRock come with an IB supporting BIOS or did you need a donor CPU???

 

[ojas]

Good build. A friend and i were planning a build with the same CPU+GPU combo, impressed to see how it does.

Perfect for 1080p.

 

[cknobman]

[citation][nom]jaquith[/nom]I have no problem with the budget going over for decent stuff. Further I have no problems with the P67, BUT you need to verify the IB is supported AND the BIOS (UEFI) has the minimum BIOS revision to support the IB CPU otherwise it will NOT post. My question is did the ASRock come with an IB supporting BIOS or did you need a donor CPU???[/citation]

READ

THE

ARTICLE

 

[sarinaide]

$180 - Z77 UD5H and $270 - 7870 would have not only saved it would be better representative of the $1000 build. It was almost as though they deliberately tried to fit a card that saturates half the budget and try piecemeal the rest around it into scant resources.

 

[zooted]

This build would be good for 1080p for the next few years.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

basically someone who got that board and an IB, without having a SB in spare, is screwed.
He cant POST.

 

[TeraMedia]

@jaquith: Don answered your no-post question in the article. He had to use a donor CPU.

The need for what jaquith calls a donor CPU should not be glossed over. I faced this once with a Foxconn A9DA board, and ended up having to purchase another (cheap) CPU just so I could upgrade the BIOS and use the parts I'd already paid for. The cost of that additional CPU should be included in the total system cost, less whatever it is selling for used on Ebay. Or, go through the MB vendor's RMA process, pay whatever shipping charges are involved, get them to flash it for you, and then include those additional costs in your total.

I'm disappointed in the over-budget expenditures. I like pushing the limit, but going this far over wasn't necessary. I suspect that the 660 Ti wasn't available when parts were ordered, or else I can't explain why you willingly went overbudget when you could have stayed under and gotten that card instead. It's clearly targeted at the mid-range enthusiast market, which is what this build is supposed to be. A 7950 could have also done an adequate job and kept you under budget.

 

[sarinaide]

So a person buys this and cannot POST without a buddy or vendor bailing him/her out, this is a complete fail for this month. Z77+3570k+7870/7950/660ti and probably save some extra too. The P67 was a total skimp just to fit in a GTX 670 when honestly a HD6850 still games well to over ambitious on a entry level mainstream build and went over budget.


Can see the $2000 with a X79+3960X and the rest bits and pieces.

 

[Nills]

This is a great build and it shows how far $1000 build has come. Perfect 1080p performance! Ruh roh, 2560 x 1600 is looking very good too, this system can handle a Catleap monitor for $300 more. That's $1300 for good 2560 x 1440 performance on a 27" IPS monitor. A great battle station we all can afford.

I'm not sure why 670 @ $400 instead of 7970 @$400. Especially since the 7970 can be flashed to a Ghz edition. Is it a thermal issue? Because that power supply is overkill for a 670. I'm not a huge fan of the P67 board choice like everyone else.

 

[sherlockwing]

Imo 660Ti(MSI/PE version) + a larger SSD is better than the current Windforce 670+small SSD in overall sytem performance since you can get quality 120/128G ssd at the $120 range( Samsung 830) and will allow you to hit the budget target easier.

 

[jaquith]

[citation][nom]cknobman[/nom]READTHE ARTICLE[/citation]
First no surprise. It's frigging buried and not where I expected it to be, and it should be on the first page (WARNING) or by the MOBO info.

Deceptive Add $50+ to the build cost for anyone trying to copy this build. $10 TIM and $41 Intel Celeron G440 as a Donor CPU/RMA Shipping + Time/Repair Shop Costs.

Therefore, instead of that waste for 99.9999% of the people use a Z75/Z77 MOBO. The real total build cost is $100+ over the ($1000) budget.

With our machine built, the only problem we ran into was an old UEFI version that didn't recognize our CPU. Fortunately, we anticipated this and had a Sandy Bridge-based chip on-hand to use for updating ASRock's platform. Surprisingly, the only firmware version we found on the company's support site was bundled in a Windows-based installer. So, we had to get the operating system up and running before we could swap in the Core i5-3570K.

 

[Onus]

Ok, I've thought about this build for the last four+ hours. There's a lot to criticize, but I'd like to offer constructive ideas as well.
First of all, you busted the budget. Suggest what that extra money could buy, but stick to the budget. It is what defines the scale against which these machines are measured.
Second, I agree that a 60GB SSD just for the sake of meeting some artificial requirement for a SSD is pointless. Why not make it 32GB? Seriously, why not a Z68/Z77 and set up SRT?
Third, enough with the "academic" benchmark victories please. Measure minimum FPS, and everything over 60FPS counts the same, as they are essentially indiscernible. Feel free to give one point in a new category, "Future-resistance," for each title in which a minimum FPS of (e.g.) 70 is achieved; maybe another point if (e.g.) 90 is maintained. Otherwise, regardless of what the benchmarks say, if an experienced user cannot readily discern a difference in the playability of one system from another, disproportionate benchmark scores should not be permitted to give one of them a significant victory over the other. To that end, using a HD7870 would have taken care of the budget issues and allowed a selection of a current mobo and a reasonable SSD.
This build "felt" cobbled together, with a mix of old and new parts. I don't feel like I learned anything from it. If I win these parts, at the very least I'll use a 120GB SSD; very likely I'll also switch to a Z77 board.

 

[ram1009]

It seems to me that you are "spreading the love" a little thin when you recommend a known problematic SSD to the exclusion of obviously superior competitors. Yes they cost a few dollars more but there are better places to save money.

 

[lunyone]

I don't like the budget busting, because it's easy to bust a budget (especially if your not paying for it). I also don't like the p67 mobo. I would rather have a z77/b75 based mobo instead and spend $0-20 more than the p67 based mobo. I would also use a different GPU to make sure that I have either a bigger SSD and/or other parts and make sure I'm within the $1k budget.

 

[pacioli]

This SBM is turning out very well so far!

 

[niknikktm]

Wow. I missed that the first time around. Tom's actually published a build where most of us would have to purchase a second CPU and install it first just to get it to post??? Seriously??? SHAME ON YOU!

 

[fulle]

[citation][nom]larsenex[/nom]Why not use the 60gig using Intels SMART CACHING? I have many friends who swear by it. Would it not also improve the performance of games as well?[/citation]

Because they have a really foolish motherboard choice, and clearly should have went with a Z68 or Z77 motherboard. It wouldn't have added ANY extra price, or negatively effect the OC, while adding more features.... you know, like SSD smart caching.

LOL, the SSD was used as a boot drive instead. It's.... really bad.

 

[Traciatim]

[citation][nom]jtt283[/nom]It is what defines the scale against which these machines are measured.Second, I agree that a 60GB SSD just for the sake of meeting some artificial requirement for a SSD is pointless. Why not make it 32GB? Seriously, why not a Z68/Z77 and set up SRT?[/citation]

I really don't understand why more people don't use just a 60GB SSD with SRT. It completely removes the drive management restrictions, and makes pretty much everything you use on a regular basis near as fast as a straight up SSD. In my own testing I couldn't even notice the difference between booting off of my SSD vs Booting to an SRT'd spinning drive, and all my daily apps are in pretty much the same boat.

 

[niknikktm]

For those of us who dont have a loaner Sandy Bridge CPU laying around to get this kluged together build to post, take the cost of buying that loaner CPU (which wasn't included in the builds price tag!) and use it instead replace that P67 Mobo with the Gigabyte GA-Z77-DH3 mobo (which incorporates Viru MVP) and upgrade the 60GB SSD to a 120GB model. Then you have a build that makes sense. Lord knows the current build does not.

 

[TeraMedia]

Actually, I have to say that I'm glad THG did this build the way they did. From an education standpoint, this build has a lot to say:

- Mobo choice matters. Choose poorly, and you can't boot
- Unlocked multipliers matter (if you OC)
- What SSD size (if any) is appropriate for a given budget, and how should it be configured (along with "Mobo choice, part 2: Mobo features matter")
- A cheap case can meet your needs, if your budget requires it

And the winner of this particular build will get a rockin' CPU and GPU with adequate RAM and functional HDD, ODD and SSD. They'll be able to swap in their own case, Mobo, etc. as desired so the core components they get offer maximum value.

 

[spookyman]

Hmm..

The system is a great baseline. Could adjust it with a few parts.

You can get the i5 3570k for $189 plus a Z77 MB at Microcenter for lot less then newegg charges. Replace the CPU cooler with a CoolerMaster 212 EVO. Upgrade the video with a 7970.

 

[cknobman]

[citation][nom]jaquith[/nom]First no surprise. It's frigging buried and not where I expected it to be, and it should be on the first page (WARNING) or by the MOBO info.Deceptive Add $50+ to the build cost for anyone trying to copy this build. $10 TIM and $41 Intel Celeron G440 as a Donor CPU/RMA Shipping + Time/Repair Shop Costs. Therefore, instead of that waste for 99.9999% of the people use a Z75/Z77 MOBO. The real total build cost is $100+ over the ($1000) budget.[/citation]

I completely agree with the stupid logic behind the MOBO choice especially if "Johnny" @ home was trying to replicate this. Who on earth buys a freaking motherboard that does not support your proc out of the box???????????

There is no valid reason why the builder should not have used a Z77.

 

[giovanni86]

I personally like the build, though it does go over budget it lays a foundation to build off it. From personally looking you might add +25/30 to MB and i would up the memory to 16GB's all in all even after considering the OS the price comes around $1200 and in reality i paid wayy more for a build back in 2005 that only played games at 1280x1024 on medium settings so people just need to lay off the budget thing and get real this is a mad machine with tons of power.