System Builder Marathon, Dec. 2009: $1,300 Enthusiast PC

Status
Not open for further replies.

noob2222

Distinguished
Nov 19, 2007
2,722
0
20,860
Very smoothe build, pretty limited with the 5850s with the pricing once past that, but this thing handles it well, esp since the cpu was lucky enough to stay fast while undervolted.

Not all cpus are the same, this one compared to the $2500 build definatly shows it. Takes a bit of luck sometimes or bad luck.
 

Tridec

Distinguished
Oct 28, 2009
84
0
18,640
Just a thought, but why not use an I7 920 CPU, with an asrock x58 Extreme motherboard? I see a lot of people bought their I7 920 CPU for 199 dollars and the motherboard costs 170 dollars.
Pair that up with OCZ 1333 platinum 7-7-7-24 memory, that can easily be overclocked to 1600 7-7-7-24 and you'll have a powerful system with 36 PCI-e lanes and loads of CPU overclocking room thanks to asrock's great motherboard.
 

SpadeM

Distinguished
Apr 13, 2009
284
0
18,790
Good article, and yes the quadfire setup was sweet back then!! I just have a question/suggestion to make, and if you find worthy of a replay I'd much appreciate it.

Since you are willing to experiment with different setups, and since we see the problem with the Phenom in the application suite, why not try something more exotic like pairing a nvidia based card with the crossfire cards to act like a PPU / video transcoding accelerator (TMPEng supports CUDA at least to act as a filter). I don't know if this makes sense in a marathon build, but I'd like to see something like this benchmarked.
 

burnley14

Distinguished
Apr 1, 2009
682
0
18,990
I'm not especially interested in the gaming results per se, but this build certainly solidifies my choice to go with an Intel processor over AMD based on productivity benchmarks.
 

optional22

Distinguished
Nov 17, 2008
69
0
18,640
Aside from the video cards, this is essentially the same build as the $2,500 build recently posted performance-wise. What is the point?
 

cangelini

Contributing Editor
Editor
Jul 4, 2008
1,878
9
19,795
More specifically, these guys are trying different things each time we do a round of SBMs--sometimes the results are great, and sometimes they're not as good. The point is that we're putting the machines together and reporting on the results so that you can decide if you want to do the same or not. And hopefully, when we come across a result that doesn't look so hot, we'll call out where our mistake was in building the box.

Just think how boring these would be if every quarter we did a Core i7-920-based machine at $2,500, a Core i5-750 machine at $1,500, and a Phenom II-based box at $700! =)
 

davenjes

Distinguished
Dec 23, 2009
1
0
18,510
Thank you for this build. Can't wait for the comparison of all the December builds. My last computer was significantly influenced by a previous enthusiast build, and it has worked well so far.

 

zelannii

Distinguished
Apr 14, 2009
176
0
18,680
I really don;t understand the choice of using 2X 5850 when you could have gotten a 5970 for $20 less. Yea, i know, the day you built it they were not in stock, but the waiting list was down to a week or less a month ago, and they're readily available now... That $20 would have upgraded the CPU to an i7 or the RAM past 4GB.


Otherwise, great build.
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
[citation][nom]zelannii[/nom]I really don;t understand the choice of using 2X 5850 when you could have gotten a 5970 for $20 less. Yea, i know, the day you built it they were not in stock, but the waiting list was down to a week or less a month ago, and they're readily available now... That $20 would have upgraded the CPU to an i7 or the RAM past 4GB. Otherwise, great build.[/citation]

Actually availability was still a guess when these were ordered. They were ordered a week before the 5970 launched, and it was guessed that the 5970 wouldn't be available for several weeks after launch based on availability of 5870's.

What I'd love to see is a comparison of "every possible" 58xx/59xx configuration :)
 

masterasia

Distinguished
Feb 9, 2009
1,128
0
19,360
Wow, this thing totally pwned the Sep. AMD build. Power consumption is way less too. Best bang for buck today.

The only thing I didn't like is the cable management. I'm a cable management freak and to see Tom's just shove the cables in there like that disappoints me.
 

fozzie76

Distinguished
Mar 30, 2009
42
0
18,530
"we have to wonder what four of the new Radeon HD 5750s could do in quad-CrossFire. And with a price tag as low as $480" -- THe cheapest 5750 on NewEgg is $139 x 4 = $556. You had me all excited too.. bout ready to do a new build, was gonna switch my two 5850's to four 5750's but I'd rather pay the extra $50.
 

jcknouse

Distinguished
Oct 23, 2008
447
0
18,780
[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]More specifically, these guys are trying different things each time we do a round of SBMs--sometimes the results are great, and sometimes they're not as good. The point is that we're putting the machines together and reporting on the results so that you can decide if you want to do the same or not. And hopefully, when we come across a result that doesn't look so hot, we'll call out where our mistake was in building the box. Just think how boring these would be if every quarter we did a Core i7-920-based machine at $2,500, a Core i5-750 machine at $1,500, and a Phenom II-based box at $700! =)[/citation]

ARGGGH!!! Chris! Don't put those thoughts in my head!! :p

This was cool to see what that Intel CPU could do. I am kinda jealous now...kinda. Of course, I got a PII 550BE to go 3.7GHz@1.375 on air for $99. So, I can't be too sad...except...C3 stepping came out 3 weeks later. lol

Another great read and something to consider down the line in building my next rig. I actually am seeing value for the buck now in a line of Intel CPUs. I just wish that i7-920 had been $50 cheaper. I might have gone with them.

Thanks for another good article, guys.
 

xtc28

Distinguished
May 8, 2009
1,435
0
19,310
Very impressive I might add. Makes me wish I had kept my i5 and purchased a new MB. Just recently I had an MSI BIG BANG with a i5 750. I tried to run a 4970x2 and a GTX 295 together for some reason both cards, the board and the processor were fried. For the life of me I havent a clue what happened, but it is all good as I have RMA'd all parts but my wall mounted 4870x2. The rest were sold:(
 

avatar_raq

Distinguished
Dec 8, 2008
532
0
19,010
[citation][nom]zelannii[/nom]I really don;t understand the choice of using 2X 5850 when you could have gotten a 5970 for $20 less.... That $20 would have upgraded the CPU to an i7 or the RAM past 4GB. Otherwise, great build.[/citation]
I totally agree, The same idea came to me once I started reading the specs. Besides,With the 5970 Don could have saved another 20-25 USD by switching to a single PCI-e 2 16x slot mobo (e.g ASUS P7P55D). This way the build could've sticked to the 1300 USD mark! My only concern is that the PSU then might not be enough if the GPUs are OCed to 5870 clocks, which most 5970s are able to reach!
 

avatar_raq

Distinguished
Dec 8, 2008
532
0
19,010
[citation][nom]zelannii[/nom]I really don;t understand the choice of using 2X 5850 when you could have gotten a 5970 for $20 less.... That $20 would have upgraded the CPU to an i7 or the RAM past 4GB. Otherwise, great build.[/citation]
I totally agree, The same idea came to me once I started reading the specs. Besides,With the 5970 Don could have saved another 20-25 USD by switching to a single PCI-e 2 16x slot mobo (e.g ASUS P7P55D). This way the build could've sticked to the 1300 USD mark! My only concern is that the PSU then might not be enough if the GPUs are OCed to 5870 clocks, which most 5970s are able to reach!
 

fozzie76

Distinguished
Mar 30, 2009
42
0
18,530
The "study" you guys did a while back shows that 3 cores seem to be the sweet spot for gaming right now. The build I'm about ready to buy from NewEgg is an AMD 720 with a 5850 vid card, apogee extreme watercooling, that crucial 1333 memory, gigabyte mb, case, DVDRW, WD black edition HD, and an 850w ps for under a grand after combo discounts, so one more 5850 = $1300 and I'm betting a 720 running at 4.4ghz on water would kick the snizzle out of this thing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.