System Builder Marathon, December 2010: $2000 PC

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[citation][nom]gti88[/nom]$2000 config with TWO gtx 580:ASUS Maximus III Formula LGA 1156 - $179Core i5-760 - $205Noctua NH-U12P - $75Kingston DDR3 4gb - $56ENERMAX REVOLUTION85+ 920W - $200SAMSUNG Spinpoint F4 2Tb - $100COOLER MASTER CM690 II Advanced Black Steel - $80GTX580 x2 (SLI) - $1100Total price: $2005[/citation]


How about staying at the $2000 mark rather than going over.
EPIC FAIL, no seriously!
 
That is almost my system, except I have a Core i7 920 at 4.2GHz, Corsair memory, dual Gigabyte GTX 470s, and a single 120GB SSD. This is a cool setup. It justifies everything I spent my money on over the past year. Thanks a bunch.
 
Great build but with it being so close for the upcoming Sandybridge CPU's next month I think that many people would wait to start a new build on that platform instead.
 
Blueray drive is a waste of money for most people. I haven't even had a DVD drive in my systems for the past few years. I have a spare one sitting around that I attach when I need to install the OS.

The case, while nice is overkill, but a $250 case for a $2k build isn't that unreasonable.

I'm surprised that they didn't go for 12GB of ram. Sure it isn't really necessary, but then neither is a $250 case or Blu-ray, and I'd rather have the extra ram than either of those.

Realistically though, other than more RAM and no Blu-ray, this build is pretty good, and is close to what I would build for that price.

Too bad you couldn't use Black Friday deals. I just build a system and picked up a Seasonic M12D 850W PSU for $75 (down from $250) and an Antec P183 case for $70 (from $160), both of which I'd choose over these components (though the case is just because I think it looks better). Not to mention saving more than $100 on the CPU (i5-760) and a decent amount on the rest of the build.
 
Nice recovery in LL part. But, forget the build, this article was the most educational and informative article I've ever read in the SBM series.I never thought memory bottlenecks can have such a detrimental effect on this system's performance.
 
[citation][nom]gm0n3y[/nom]Blueray drive is a waste of money for most people. I haven't even had a DVD drive in my systems for the past few years. I have a spare one sitting around that I attach when I need to install the OS.The case, while nice is overkill, but a $250 case for a $2k build isn't that unreasonable.I'm surprised that they didn't go for 12GB of ram. Sure it isn't really necessary, but then neither is a $250 case or Blu-ray, and I'd rather have the extra ram than either of those.Realistically though, other than more RAM and no Blu-ray, this build is pretty good, and is close to what I would build for that price.Too bad you couldn't use Black Friday deals. I just build a system and picked up a Seasonic M12D 850W PSU for $75 (down from $250) and an Antec P183 case for $70 (from $160), both of which I'd choose over these components (though the case is just because I think it looks better). Not to mention saving more than $100 on the CPU (i5-760) and a decent amount on the rest of the build.[/citation]

Black Friday deals is an exception that they can't afford to use as this is an unrealistic picture of the price.
 
It's pretty normal for users used to their onboard audio to find dedicated cards and expensive headphones/speakers to be overkill or a plain waste of money. That is... until they listen with their very ears how much better good sound hardware really is like. Sure that wouldn't be a $2000 box but probably $2300 or more but it really changes one's experience upon listening to music, watching a film or even playing a 3D game.

Another thing is... I'm always preaching HDD is anything but reliable. Getting another to use as RAID-1 is really cheap nowadays. I can't believe people risk losing important data to save $70 or even less.
 
I think this build fails in all the applications it was thrown at and clearly shows a bad combination of parts for the price. Price per dollar clearly shows the HD5870 > the GTX470. The application of the GTX470 is better suited to a non-sli solution as well.
 
[citation][nom]falchard[/nom]I think this build fails in all the applications it was thrown at...[/citation]
Utter nonsense. To say this build could be improved is one thing, but to suggest it "fails in all applications" is downright silly. This system likely runs rings around 98% of the systems out there, RAM problems or not. I already said it isn't what I would build, but that's because it's massive overkill, not because it "fails."
 
I still think that these SBM's should be seperated out at $500, $1,000, & $1,500. Than you could follow up with (if we added xxxx to xxxx system, you see xxxx result). Most gaming systems are going to be purchased in the $500-1,000 range for obvious reasons (price for performance). They will also usually only have 1 GPU and 1 Monitor used. Those that have the luxury of Dual/Triple GPU's aren't considered the "norm" for most gaming valued systems, not that a $2k system is supposed to be as much as a "value" as a $1,500 or $1,000 system will be.
I do like that you did run into a parts ordering issue, since most people have run into this one time or another when building multiple machines. I don't like how the memory isn't being delivered how it's pictured, but this seems to be prevalent with a lot of sites.
I do enjoy reading your thoughts on these builds, but wish that they were a bit more "realistic" as far as costs go.
 
EXCELLENT article, type of stuff I keep coming back to tomshardware for. Yes there are other options but this is a pretty damn good setup for 4+GHz and great gaming and all-around performance.

I have the same setup and have been looking for a cooler that will handle the 950 overclocked and have found it here!
 
[citation][nom]jtt283[/nom]Utter nonsense. To say this build could be improved is one thing, but to suggest it "fails in all applications" is downright silly. This system likely runs rings around 98% of the systems out there, RAM problems or not. I already said it isn't what I would build, but that's because it's massive overkill, not because it "fails."[/citation]

It fails because it costs $2000 not $1000.
 


It's the same freakin part number as the good stuff. As long as New Egg isn't relabeling memory sticks, the change, and fault falls completely on the manufacturer. As much business as NewEgg, or their competitors manage, they don't have time to do much more than make sure the part/model numbers match with what they ordered.

It ISNT the first time a model/part number has remained the same, with same specs, but the board and chips have changed. I've seen it before with Kensington RAM about a decade ago.

So, does the RAM at least meet the specification its rated at? if yes, there's no case. There IS NO GUARANTEE on the overclockability of any RAM or CPU/GPU, but it MUST be able to do what it's rated for.
 
[citation][nom]shrapnel_indie[/nom]It ISNT the first time a model/part number has remained the same, with same specs, but the board and chips have changed. I've seen it before with Kensington RAM about a decade ago.So, does the RAM at least meet the specification its rated at? if yes, there's no case. There IS NO GUARANTEE on the overclockability of any RAM or CPU/GPU, but it MUST be able to do what it's rated for.[/citation]Well, the problem is how you define spec really. The modules Mushkin previously sold under this part number were double-sided, the new ones are single sided, and that means two modules of the same part number can't be mixed.
 
How about this for going the AMD / ATI route? Having read a few reviews of GTX 460 SLI setups and some more for 6870 Crossfire setups it's clear the ATI 6870XF thrashes this and leaves it for dead.

One thing THG haven't covered yet is the viability of Hybrid drives vs. true SSD drives.

How about this for $2,000? I think it would give THG's setup a damn good run for it's money, and you get double the HDD space to boot.

http://imgur.com/c1uBd.png

(Last post in wrong review 😛 Oops)
 
[citation][nom]izools[/nom]How about this for going the AMD / ATI route? Having read a few reviews of GTX 460 SLI setups and some more for 6870 Crossfire setups it's clear the ATI 6870XF thrashes this and leaves it for dead. One thing THG haven't covered yet is the viability of Hybrid drives vs. true SSD drives.How about this for $2,000? I think it would give THG's setup a damn good run for it's money, and you get double the HDD space to boot.http://imgur.com/c1uBd.png(Last post in wrong review Oops)[/citation]Already stated the system was ordered a few days before the 6870 was available but you'll see something in the near future. As for AMD, you only need to go back a few months to find an SBM where it was tried...and failed. AMD's six-cores might be good server CPUs, but the IPC per core is too low to compete in dual-threaded apps that make up like, half the benchmarks here.

Our benchmarks are picked to represent real-world use, which is why we're not ready to ditch popular programs in favor of better-threaded alternatives that hardly anyone has heard about.
 
"Well, the problem is how you define spec really. The modules Mushkin previously sold under this part number were double-sided, the new ones are single sided, and that means two modules of the same part number can't be mixed."

And how is this different from what Crucial did with the CT2KIT25664BA1339 I purchased?

Overclockable, D9KPTs were replaced with slow, single sided, doubled density modules with the exact same part number. Why do you seem to keep refusing to acknowledge this?

Yes, Crucial is very much just as at fault as Mushkin. Maybe I am misunderstanding your position here, but it seems as if you're defending their actions while saying Mushkin was in the wrong. If I'm wrong, fair enough.

I still feel Newegg isn't innocent either. If there are multiple parts using the same number (minus a suffix Newegg won't show you, and in fact, the images show a different suffix) then they need to make seperate entries for each part. There's obviously a difference between the modules, and they're not compatible with each other.
 
[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]Already stated the system was ordered a few days before the 6870 was available but you'll see something in the near future. As for AMD, you only need to go back a few months to find an SBM where it was tried...and failed. AMD's six-cores might be good server CPUs, but the IPC per core is too low to compete in dual-threaded apps that make up like, half the benchmarks here.Our benchmarks are picked to represent real-world use, which is why we're not ready to ditch popular programs in favor of better-threaded alternatives that hardly anyone has heard about.[/citation]

OK Fair point AMD not a player in the high end.

http://imgur.com/WKIfT.png

Cheaper, too.
 
Contest is limited to residents of the USA (Excluding R.I.) 18 years of age and older. Contest starts on December 13, 2010 12:01 am, Pacific Standard Time and closes on December 27, 2010 11:59 PM, Pacific Standard Time.


/cry :'(
 
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