System Builder Marathon, August 2012: $500 Gaming PC

[pauldh]

Paul went all-out last quarter, cramming massive graphics performance into his $500 gaming PC. This time around, he pulls back a little bit on his GPU in order to use a better-balanced processor. Can he maintain playable frame rates in our gaming suite?

System Builder Marathon, August 2012: $500 Gaming PC : Read more

 

[crisan_tiberiu]

so, looks like 500$ (Euro in europe ) its enaugh to play any modern game that is trown on the market... ty consoles

 

[itzsnypah]

I think it would be interesting if next quarter for your Budget PC you try to bring the performance per watt as high as you can while still maintaining an enjoyable gaming experience. Something like a G620+HD7750/70 with a high efficiency PSU such as Rosewill CAPSTONE 450.

Ever since I read the 7950B/7970GE review on here/anand performance per watt for me has been a priority when selecting components.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

I think it would be interesting if next quarter for your Budget PC you try to bring the performance per watt as high as you can while still maintaining an enjoyable gaming experience. Something like a G620+HD7750/70 with a high efficiency PSU such as Rosewill CAPSTONE 450.

On the contrary, for a 500$ build, energy consumption and heat should be least concerns. Tweaking, overclocking and extracting the last possible performance from your hardware are the primary concerns of a 500$ gaming build. Even after HEAVY overclocking, you wont get 50W over the stock settings.

 

[sam_fisher]

[citation][nom]mayankleoboy1[/nom]On the contrary, for a 500$ build, energy consumption and heat should be least concerns. Tweaking, overclocking and extracting the last possible performance from your hardware are the primary concerns of a 500$ gaming build. Even after HEAVY overclocking, you wont get 50W over the stock settings.[/citation]

One may presume that someone after a $500 build is on a budget and hence doesn't want higher power consumption from overclocking.

 

[yyk71200]

Well, considering that I already have 3570K with GTX570, I'll be interested only in either $2000 PC or a graphic card from a $1000 PC.

 

[loops]

At least I can take less heat for recommending b75 mobo...

 

[itzsnypah]

[citation][nom]mayankleoboy1[/nom]On the contrary, for a 500$ build, energy consumption and heat should be least concerns. Tweaking, overclocking and extracting the last possible performance from your hardware are the primary concerns of a 500$ gaming build. Even after HEAVY overclocking, you wont get 50W over the stock settings.[/citation]
According to the performance summary and efficiency page of this article Overclocking the GPU had a 13%(average according to this article) increase in power consumption for an extra 2% (average) performance. That seems like the opposite thing I'm talking about.

Overclocking is good for performance per dollar, not performance per watt.

 

[abegnale]

@Paul Henningsen,
Why not substitute some existing parts for either an I3-2100 and/or an eVGA 560 Superclocked?

 

[giovanni86]

Nice, looking forward to the next builds. Some times OC does yield its advantages, those few frames can help and have helped me in games running smoothly or just over 30FPS. I honestly don't see why people are concerned with power, PC's don't cost much to run even overclocked. Unless your poor or working at McDonald's, then i see no reason why power is an issue unless otherwise stated. This whole green thing is a pain in the ass. I'm power hungry sorry.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

^ there are no existing parts. This is a new build

 

[emad_ramlawi]

Now thats what i call an balanced build, good job .

Also i agree with itzsnypah, Tom hardware should make an article on PC build with maximum performance that you can squeeze out of lowest watt, some people started to care about those things, and being green to the environment is nothing to be ashamed of.

 

[mayankleoboy1]

^

Then i have this Excellent VIA CPU+MB combo for you. Efficient as hell. Best bang for the Watt possible. Ever.

 

[sarinaide]

We need to enforce the "no celeron please" rule, terrible for that $500 PC.

 

[sarinaide]

[citation][nom]sarinaide[/nom]We need to enforce the "no celeron please" rule, terrible for that $500 PC.[/citation]
"Pentium"

 

[supall]

Thanks for this article. This gives me more ideas on how to build a computer for my brother this coming Christmas. Although, by that time, I would love to see if it might be possible for a Trinity-based gaming system to be built for around $500 and how it performs against this build.

 

[doggysoft]

Stop using those f*cked up CPUs... why you keep using crappy pentiums???
I bet that my good old Phenom 955 will blow away ANY pentium you've put so far in 500$ crappy pc.
PLEASE I beg you stop using this sh*t... :/ Since half a year you see a CPU limitation and you keep putting pentiums. When someone make a mistake the next time fix it but you don't... I bet Intel pays alot no other eplonation here!

 

[MaxGardener]

[citation][nom]doggysoft[/nom]Stop using those f*cked up CPUs... why you keep using crappy pentiums???I bet that my good old Phenom 955 will blow away ANY pentium you've put so far in 500$ crappy pc.PLEASE I beg you stop using this sh*t... Since half a year you see a CPU limitation and you keep putting pentiums. When someone make a mistake the next time fix it but you don't... I bet Intel pays alot no other eplonation here![/citation]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-fx-pentium-apu-benchmark,3120-10.html

pretty damn close, the Phenom 955 is definitely more attractive for overclockers, but offer limited upgradablilty because of motherboards etc. Pentiums use the 1155 socket, and therefore are upgradable to a better 2nd gen or 3rd gen processor, which anything above the g860 kicks the shit out of the Phenom

 

[jabliese]

Temperatures above Ambient chart, you have the current PC vs the current PC.

 

[BSMonitor]

One may presume that someone after a $500 build is on a budget and hence doesn't want higher power consumption from overclocking.

Well, there is "living in my parents basement and unemployed" budget. And there is "living on my own" budget. Clearly, mayankleoboy1, is the loving parent budget.

Not hating though, the Kardashians all do

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]crisan_tiberiu[/nom]so, looks like 500$ (Euro in europe ) its enaugh to play any modern game that is trown on the market... ty consoles[/citation]

Of course a $500 machine should be able to play any PC games today. It can't play nearly as well as a higher end setup can, but are you so elitest that you think that people with less money shouldn't be allowed to play?

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]MaxGardener[/nom]http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 20-10.htmlpretty damn close, the Phenom 955 is definitely more attractive for overclockers, but offer limited upgradablilty because of motherboards etc. Pentiums use the 1155 socket, and therefore are upgradable to a better 2nd gen or 3rd gen processor, which anything above the g860 kicks the *** out of the Phenom[/citation]

The i3 is above the Pentiums, but it doesn't beat a Phenom II x4 CPU by too much at stock (in fact, they can trade blows depending on the game and settings, although the i3 usually has a minor lead). Take overclocking into the equation and any Phenom II x4 can beat the i3s while being cheaper, although it would obviously have a fraction of the i3's power efficiency.

Even Llano is good at doing this because it is so cheap even for its performance and it can overclock pretty well, although it would probably be unable to top the i3s by much, if at all, but it should still be able to beat the Pentiums. Heck, I often see Phenom II x4s around for $100 or a little less and one with a half-decent motherboard could easily beat the Pentium G860 without much increase in price, if any at all.

Any motherboard with an AM3+ socket offers upgrading to Piledriver, Steamroller, and possibly its successor too. That'd be a good upgrade path.

 

[Onus]

Well done. The in-depth discussion following the last $500 SBM clearly paid off. Any niggling to be done here would be based on irrelevant personal preference. The same may also be true for the kudos, but I was happy to see that again you got nice results from a Rosewill case. I thought the cable-management job was as good as could be expected, but then it isn't my strong suit, and others may be more picky.
What does $50 more buy? As well as this system performs, I might look at durability, such as choosing a WD Black drive for its 5-year warranty. Temps were not bad, and I don't think noise was either so a better (i.e. quieter) cooler probably isn't needed. All in all, a good budget system. I'd be happy to win it.

 

[AznCracker]

wow i have a i5 2500k with a gtx 460. looks like i need a new video card lol

 

[bustapr]

hey Paul. would you consider doing some other tests on your next $500 build with games like starcraft 2 and witcher 2(preferably witcher 2) to see how the dual core(if you choose one) handles those cpu intensive games?

really good build however. looking forward to the next ones.