System Builder Marathon, June 2011: $2000 Performance PC

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
[citation][nom]alchemy69[/nom]"temporary rebates" You mean that you have to pay them back sometime?![/citation]In a way that's possible: It's easy to lose rebates when the deadline is short, and it usually is.

But anyway, the big problem with rebates is that they don't live as long as the article. A month from now this system will most likely be within 5% of its current price, but those rebates won't be there.
 
Nice all-round build, but from a purely gaming PoV it would be great to compare this with a system that makes a few sacrifices to get paired gtx580's. You'd have to save over 200$ so maybe lose one of the SSD's, go back to the old case (don't hate me!) and possibly even sacrifice blu-ray just to see if those frame rates can be any higher.
 
Interesting case. I went with the Antec 900 V2 for my build couple months back, and looking back it's probably the only piece of the puzzle I'd do differently. I love the fans, especially the top 200mm fan, and it runs extremely cool and quiet, but the interior isn't as nice as I'd hoped. The Lian-Li case looks bit more more well designed, easier to manage.
 
[citation][nom]ubercake[/nom]I'm sorry but crossfire anything with all the microstuttering does not beat SLI anything with none. Nvidia SLI, even a few fps slower, beats ATI crossfires's poorer quality and consistently bad drivers any day in my book.I guess it has to do with what you're willing to accept for your value.[/citation]

Ubercake, that may have been true in the past, but i think it's a different story now. Sure, I had issue with ATI drivers years ago like a lot of folks, and I saw similar performance benefits with SLI over Crossfire. But I honestly think the tables have turned a bit, or at the very least evened out. I have dual 6950s in my new system and Crossfire works like a charm, and the drivers...well, let's just say my fears have been put to rest so far. On the other hand, my previous system with SLI has been plagued with driver issues to the point where I've had to remove and reinstall them on a somewhat regular basis.
 
I like the Lian Li case here. I certainly feel that there are too many of the 'toy' cases sold that I can't believe appeal to anyone. I purchased a Cooler Master HAF X, which was primarily purchased for its size and price. I also felt that if I was sinking a couple grand into the hardware, it would be nice to look at it once an a while through the side window.
 
[citation][nom]rfatcheric[/nom]ubercake, might want to use actual facts instead of misinformation from like 5 years ago bud... Wake up. Nvidia isn't the only video card in town anymore champ.[/citation]
I traded away my crossfire setup after the 11.3 drivers earlier this year. I couldn't stand the fact that after BFBC2 had been out a year, they still couldn't get it right.

5 years ago, when ATI was ATI, I never had driver problems on my Radeon cards.

A few months ago, my solution to the consistent driver issues was to stop accepting them altogether. Glad I did.
 
[citation][nom]robwright[/nom]Ubercake, that may have been true in the past, but i think it's a different story now. Sure, I had issue with ATI drivers years ago like a lot of folks, and I saw similar performance benefits with SLI over Crossfire. But I honestly think the tables have turned a bit, or at the very least evened out. I have dual 6950s in my new system and Crossfire works like a charm, and the drivers...well, let's just say my fears have been put to rest so far. On the other hand, my previous system with SLI has been plagued with driver issues to the point where I've had to remove and reinstall them on a somewhat regular basis.[/citation]
For the sole purpose of competition in the marketplace, I wish I could say I had your same experience with crossfire. Let me ask you though... Does the screen flicker when you play crysis 2? BFBC2 inside a tank? MOH close to a wall?

At any rate, I've had zero issues with my SLI setup and two driver updates since.. It's going to take a lot of convincing for me to consider anything AMD again.
 
I liked this build. Any nits could be attributed to luck of the draw, so I'm not going to pick. Yes, an adult would appreciate the case, and the kid inside would like how he can use it to frag all the gamerbois with their flashy bling-boxes without breaking a sweat. I'd love to win this one.
 
BUILD:
Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, SHINY NEW CASE!

ARTICLE:
We saved a couple $!
Overclock is unpredictable and varies by a few %!

Why?

You have pages of identical graphs, to conclude only 1-2% differences, then point out the slot for the extra graphics card, and the unbenchmarked Quick Sync.
 
There were plenty of builds in the forums for the $2000 competition that were a lot more interesting. Not sure why you played it so safe for this article. Was there a new guy working on this one?
 
[citation][nom]ubercake[/nom]For the sole purpose of competition in the marketplace, I wish I could say I had your same experience with crossfire. Let me ask you though... Does the screen flicker when you play crysis 2? BFBC2 inside a tank? MOH close to a wall?At any rate, I've had zero issues with my SLI setup and two driver updates since.. It's going to take a lot of convincing for me to consider anything AMD again.[/citation]

Ironically, BFBC2 runs perfectly for me on my Crossfire system, whereas I had flickering on my SLI system with the game (as well as Black Ops, others). Haven't played Crysis 2 yet, actually. Maybe the flickering isn't related to the Crossfire/SLI setup and is being cause by something else? I should confess that my SLI system runs Vista, so that could be the culprit.

In any event, i take you at your word that your experience with Nvidia has been vastly superior to your ATI experience. I know a lot of people that would say the same, however, I think AMD has really been on a roll the last two years with the 5000 and 6000 series. When I setup Crossfire and installed the drivers, it couldn't have been easier, which, as I stated before, I couldn't have said 4 or 5 years ago.

 
Okay...so what we've learned here is the difference between the catalyst 11.2 and 11.5 drivers...kinda. This is the worst SBM I've ever read. Why build the exact same system twice???? What are you guys thinking? If you're going to do that, make it the EXACT same system, so we can actually learn something about the driver updates.

If you're going to do this, why compare just two cases? I'd like to see test results for this system in at least 5 different cases. You guys could even do a matrix of different cases in different colors.


 
So again a $2000 build and when they benchmake the rig they turn off AA when ever possible? Who the heck spends $2000 on a PC and then turns off AA when they game? Very confusing i see turning off the AA for the lower setting bench but the maxed one should have AA no question.
 

My question to you is this. When you last used another card other than your Nvidias were the cards ATI or AMD? I only ask because it seems that ever sense AMD took over they have been much more focused on getting things right and not having all the issues I hear about from older ATI cards. I have hade a 6870 and a 6950 and wile I have never run a crossfire setup I have not had any issues, if I were to read the forums I would think I would have had manny issues just by going team red.
 
Is there any information on how the 2x 64GB SSDs in RAID 0 stack up (performance and otherwise) against a single 120GB unit? I'd be concerned that some RAID 0 setups will not properly support TRIM; that each of the smaller-sized SSDs would offer less performance than a bigger sized sibbling due to having less NAND die; and that the two drive configuration for the system drive adds unnecessary risk to the most sensitive part of the storage system.

A poster above referenced a March article that showed nice performance scaling in RAID setups, but the differences here are that: 1) that article relied on dedicated RAID controller hardware which is not present in a system build like today's; 2) I do not believe it was using the arrays as system drives; and 3) it did not specifically test 2 smaller drives against 1 larger drive. (See, for example, other tests around the net of the current crop of 240GB drives vs their 120GB counterparts -- the performance differences are significant.)
 
[citation][nom]cburke82[/nom]So again a $2000 build and when they benchmake the rig they turn off AA when ever possible? Who the heck spends $2000 on a PC and then turns off AA when they game? Very confusing i see turning off the AA for the lower setting bench but the maxed one should have AA no question.[/citation]For Crysis? Historic reasons that are more particular to the $1000 PC builder. Benchmark selection is a democratic process.
 

So a democratic comity came to the conclusion that someone with crossfired 6970's would not use any form of AA wile playing crysis? I have one 6950 and use 4x so im sure any person who would spend that kind of money on a gaming rig would use at least some AA. Maybe I have missed an article as to why that is done I guess thats my bad I just dont see why there would be no AA on a $2000 build.
 
Too bad they didn't use a Coolermaster HAF-922 case, it's hands down better layout more professional than the Lian-Li. Or even the HAF-912 as you can remove the extra drive bays so you have a straight shot of air from the front case fan directly to the GPU's. Price is better too, approx $90 for the HAF-922 and $50 for the HAF-912.
 
Personally I didn't like this particular Marathon build... it's about the same than the last one and it proves my point by having almost the same results as the last one.

I often read this articles looking for the experimental risks taken but this one did nothing to shine. Nothing teached, nothing learned.

Here's hoping the 1k build does something more interesting... the budget one is always interesting, though =P
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom