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

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notty22

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[citation][nom]fozzie76[/nom]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.[/citation]
Your joking right ?
 

jcknouse

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[citation][nom]notty22[/nom]Your joking right ?[/citation]

I don't think he/she was. lol

And...a 720BE @ 4.4GHz? Hm. I only got mine to 3.4 on air. If water is that much better, I'm gonna start shoppin around for a WC solution lol
 
G

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For the same build on Newegg's wattage calculator, Newegg is suggesting about 300 watts more than the max CPU/GPU load that Tom's showed on the power/temperature benchmarks. Is Newegg always off on this?
 

fozzie76

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I just built one for a friend, got it to 4ghz on air using a zalman 120mm heatsink. 3.8 to 4ghz seems to be the standard for air on the 720be, just read the reviews on newegg. If you only pulled 3.4 you must be using that crap stock AMD heatsink. Took me all of 5 minutes.. bumped up the vcore and adjusted the multiplier.. runs about 59C with all 3 cores maxed.
 

Someguyperson

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While the build id impressive, I think it missed the point of a "Mid-range" gaming machine. Graphics performance is outstanding, but this setup just wants a 2560x1600 monitor, which is almost the price of the machine itself! Even with eyefinity, three half decent 1080P monitors with the Displayport to DVI adapter, you're talking $700 worth of monitors, which is half the cost of the machine itself. I'm not saying it's a bad build, it's just the graphical preformance is way beyond the call of duty. I do think the machines should include monitors, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc. to reflect a much better idea of how much it would cost to play a game at a specific resolution.
 

Crashman

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[citation][nom]Amanee[/nom]For the same build on Newegg's wattage calculator, Newegg is suggesting about 300 watts more than the max CPU/GPU load that Tom's showed on the power/temperature benchmarks. Is Newegg always off on this?[/citation]

Newegg has lots of "padding" in its numbers to help account for having too much power on the wrong rail and not enough on the rail you need.
 

xtc28

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I still say its a good build for the cash spent. Most of our REAL gamers would probably be very happy with this build. Although I do agree with the above comments on monitors, I dont agree that they are a must at this point in life.
 

billiardicus

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Nice build. But no one builds a $1300 pc, and suddenly discovers they don't have another $50 for a good cooler. That's irritating, because everyone who built this pc would have put in a cooler and got a much better overclock.

I wish you guys would worry less about meeting an exact budget, and instead build 3 different pcs in the 500-700, 1000-1400, and 2000-3000 range.

Not including a aftermarket cooler in this build is just rediculous.

 
[citation][nom]Amanee[/nom]For the same build on Newegg's wattage calculator, Newegg is suggesting about 300 watts more than the max CPU/GPU load that Tom's showed on the power/temperature benchmarks. Is Newegg always off on this?[/citation]

I always use the thermaltake PSU calculator: http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/
 

efficentD

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[citation][nom]someguyperson[/nom]While the build id impressive, I think it missed the point of a "Mid-range" gaming machine. Graphics performance is outstanding, but this setup just wants a 2560x1600 monitor, which is almost the price of the machine itself! Even with eyefinity, three half decent 1080P monitors with the Displayport to DVI adapter, you're talking $700 worth of monitors, which is half the cost of the machine itself. I'm not saying it's a bad build, it's just the graphical preformance is way beyond the call of duty. I do think the machines should include monitors, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc. to reflect a much better idea of how much it would cost to play a game at a specific resolution.[/citation]


Maybe even the OS (even thought that is easy for someone to add) if we are going that far. I agree with the idea of building one 2560x1600, one 1920x1200 and one 1650x1050 one month and just let us know what other goodies like water cooling, TV cards, SSD, big storage, etc. you can get and still stay in budget and make great performance in the respective resolution tier. Maybe even bump up the budget to 1,2 and 3K or more to make it work with the peripherals and whatnot. 120 FPS is nice, but I really can't process information that fast, even if my PC can.

Great articles, always. Research is always interesting, especially since Tom's keeps it fresh by mixing it up.
 

coldmast

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[citation][nom]Amanee[/nom]For the same build on Newegg's wattage calculator, Newegg is suggesting about 300 watts more than the max CPU/GPU load that Tom's showed on the power/temperature benchmarks. Is Newegg always off on this?[/citation]

yeah, according to newegg you need 1100 W power supply for yesterdays $2500 machine - and clearly it doesn't; but hey it's newegg and when you go up 200W that usually means your getting dinged for an extra $50, plus their are a lot of PSUs that can't deliver their advertised wattage or adequate clean power even on a good day.

[citation][nom]sincreator[/nom]I always use the thermaltake PSU calculator: http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/[/citation]

thanks for the tip
 
@Coldmast. I usually put the CPU utilization(TDP) to 100%, and I also put the system load to 100%. I always put the capacitor aging to 25% as well. I always recommend going about 100w above what the PSU calculator says. So if the calculator says 550w, I would recommend a 650w usually. As you can tell from the suggested PSU's that pop up, Thermaltake themselves recommend one a bit higher as well. Most likely to cover future upgrades I would guess.
 

jtabler

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It would be nice if we could see something more demanding than Fallout as the RPG choice. Isn't The Witcher or even Mass Effect more demanding than Fallout? What about Dragon Age?
 

jcknouse

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[citation][nom]fozzie76[/nom]I just built one for a friend, got it to 4ghz on air using a zalman 120mm heatsink. 3.8 to 4ghz seems to be the standard for air on the 720be, just read the reviews on newegg. If you only pulled 3.4 you must be using that crap stock AMD heatsink. Took me all of 5 minutes.. bumped up the vcore and adjusted the multiplier.. runs about 59C with all 3 cores maxed.[/citation]

Nah. I have a ZeroTherm Nirvana NV120 on it with AS5. But, I don't get near 59C. I'd never run a CPU that hot. Mine is running 3.4GHz@26Cidle/44Cfull. Plus, mine's unlocked on 4 cores, not 3.

I'm sure I could bump the CPU-V more and raise the mult and the ref clock. Or maybe not. I might just have a weak chip. I really didn't try to OC the 720 that much. 3.4 worked for me at the time.

As for my 550BE in the new rig I just built, I unlocked it to 4 cores and overclocked it to 3.7 right now with a 92mm Zalman HSF and it's only at 1.375V and not hitting 50C full load either. That took me all of 30 mins, with rebooting for fine tuning and all...and of course, 7+ hours of Prime95 64-bit testing to ensure stability.

Besides, I don't have lots of time to sit around and tweak for 4-6 hours and compare CPU-V and its translation to increased clock or mult benefit.

I get a good stable clock right out of the chute, then I'm happy.

But...4.4GHz? C'mon. Guys on OC sites aren't even getting that on water, and they are guys who are overclocking experts.
 

cadder

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Stock cooler??? Stock cooler!!! #^*()&*%$ budgets! (I think I would have figured out a way to get a better cooler.) It was a clever poly to undervolt in order to maintain some overclock. The i5 seems to be a great chip even at stock speeds just by virtue of its turbo mode.
 

Computer_Lots

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I'm looking at an add for a local retailer who's name sounds like "French Fr*'s". I see an MSI X58 motherboard with a Core i7 920 for $279.00. I wonder how something like this would affect the budget build :)
 
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