System Builder Marathon, June 2012: $2000 Performance PC

[Guest]

I am more with the higher-cost do-it-all machines.

The business users do not follow these posts, but the system builders do. So maybe you should let us have a chance to see the performance of such machines when they are built with productivity in mind.

 

[hellfire24]

not trying to be an arse but i can build a better build for $2k.

 

[vitornob]

Keep the gaming build. It gives us a new perspective, since many here are for the games.

 

[Guest]

Why not liquid cooling?

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]Caltron[/nom]Why not liquid cooling?[/citation]At this size, the only advantage would be increased portability. You need a really BIG radiator to beat the cooling of the CNPS12X.

 

[dgingeri]

Personally, I would have gone with the Core i7 3820, and Asus X79 Sabretooth, and a Corsair H100 cooler. It still would have been below $2000 (at $1850)and had much better I/O, memory, and CPU upgrade possibilities, while still being able to overclock as high. The video cards (with a second GTX680 later on) would operate at a full x16 bandwidth, have a slot between them, and still have a x8 slot for a raid controller. On top of that, it would be a MUCH sturdier, more reliable motherboard. This one is clearly a fail at planning.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, a great idea to spend $540 on a GPU and save $58 by getting only 8 GB instead of 16 GB RAM... bah.

Oh, and if you are just building for benchmarks, then get rid of the HDD, DVD, custom cooler and case (just place the MB on a table, it works fine for testing), and add a second GTX 680.

If only building for gaming benchmarks, then fit in 3 GTX 680 by also using the cheapest RAM, Sandy Bridge CPU and disk you can find.

Either way, this build is totally dumb, as usual.

 

[hellfire24]

At this size, the only advantage would be increased portability. You need a really BIG radiator to beat the cooling of the CNPS12X.

yeah that's right but CNPS12X is huge as hell

 

[R6ex]

Definitely Gaming Focussed!

 

[burnley14]

What a difference a couple months make. Pretty amazing how much performance in general has increased that a system $800 less has better performance than one so much more expensive only a few months prior.

 

[Luay]

This is by far the best build I've seen by any site. Finaly you throw out the Blueray drive and focus on performance!

I wouldn't trade the Antec 900 for anything except maybe the Rosewill Blackhawk, or, if you want SLI, its big brother Thor V2. I'm also unfamiliar with the Zalman cooler, but that doesn't mean I'd give it a try over the NH-D14. I always thought there's a reason why some PC parts such as the Zalman coolers never make it to reviews.

Since you went for a 120GB SSD, a Seasonic Gold PSU and Asus DCUII card, then the Blackhawk and NH-D14 would have made this build not only the most powerful under $2000 build, but also the quitest! You were so close to perfection!!

You guys must be busy all the time but you have to catch up on 30nm RAM kits from Samsung.

Stop the hating of triple slot VGA coolers! SLI is easy because You don't have to pay more than $350 for a spaced out, PLX-equipped, premium Ivy-bridge motherboard! Take a look at Gigabyte's Z77 Sniper and you'll see it's easy to have a triple slot cooled card in SLI with enough space between the cards.

 

[A Bad Day]

I would prefer two different contests, one focused on gaming, the other focused on do-it-all tasks. But that could get expensive sadly.

 

[hellfire24]

This is by far the best build I've seen by any site. Finaly you throw out the Blueray drive and focus on performance!

I wouldn't trade the Antec 900 for anything except maybe the Rosewill Blackhawk, or, if you want SLI, its big brother Thor V2. I'm also unfamiliar with the Zalman cooler, but that doesn't mean I'd give it a try over the NH-D14. I always thought there's a reason why some PC parts such as the Zalman coolers never make it to reviews.

Since you went for a 120GB SSD, a Seasonic Gold PSU and Asus DCUII card, then the Blackhawk and NH-D14 would have made this build not only the most powerful under $2000 build, but also the quitest! You were so close to perfection!!

You guys must be busy all the time but you have to catch up on 30nm RAM kits from Samsung.

Stop the hating of triple slot VGA coolers! SLI is easy because You don't have to pay more than $350 for a spaced out, PLX-equipped, premium Ivy-bridge motherboard! Take a look at Gigabyte's Z77 Sniper and you'll see it's easy to have a triple slot cooled card in SLI with enough space between the cards.

nice speech bro.

 

[Dreadteir]

Personally, I don't mind seeing a system geared towards gaming because, that's what I'm going to want to do on my computer.

I am disappointed in seeing such a large remainder for your budget ($259!?). Yes, this is a giming system, and no, that's not enough for another GTX680, but there are still a lot of places you could have used that money. More RAM, a better case, a better SSD, a bigger or faster data drive etc. Agreed on the BD-R, not needed on a gaming build yet.

I figure if you have the $2000 budget, use as much of it as possible!

Cheers,

Dreadteir

 

[pacioli]

Keep the gaming focus. The lower budget machines are gaming focused.
Dual GTX 670s would have been in budget ($2000) and it would have been nice to see that.

 

[TeraMedia]

I liked the gaming-focused build, but I wouldn't want the SBMs to be only for gaming. Perhaps you could alternate? During the SB reign, the SBMs started to get a little bit repetitive, and then a little bit wacky (e.g. using AMD, etc.) since you were trying to come up with good experiments and/or reasons for new builds. But if you alternate, then that might allow enough time between builds for technology developments and product releases to make the new builds interesting. These past two have seen IB, Kepler, Cayman, and SB-E, which is a large amount of new technology to have in just a 6-month span of time.

Also, for your "do-it-all" builds, could you consider an HTPC-gaming edition focused on silence, features, and performance perhaps in that order? You'd need to include tuner cards, BR drives, and lossless HDMI audio support in that round which changes the focus considerably. It also gives a chance to show off some different components.

 

[Guest]

The RAM seems to be not really in line with the rest of the system. While it's cool that it was possible to tweak a 1600 set up to 2000 while playing with settings, why not spend a bit more of the extra budget cash and put in 2400 or 2600 RAM in?

 

[Pedrovsky]

Very good configuration and good mix of the components.

I just don't see why you guys left it at 1800 when the budget is 2000... You could have either cheap it out in some components to make it a dual card config...or get some beter ram + hard drive + ssd + better quality case.

But overall it's a very good build, i just whish i had the money...Really love the zalman 12x best looking cooler out there.

 

[spookyman]

I am happy I got my 2 GTX 690's from EVGA


Lets say they are very sweet cards

 

[jkrui01]

I sugest Toms to stop talking about AMD and RADEONS, if Nvidia and Intel always wins ,way put others brands in the reviews? Make it a TomsNvidiaIntelHardware.com. When i dont like something ,i dont test it and talk about it, i ignore it.

 

[g-unit1111]

$2K system and you're still using an Antec 900? I'd personally go for an Azza Hurrican 2000 or an NZXT Switch 810 on that kind of budget - there's plenty of room for it.

 

[hellfire24]

$2K system and you're still using an Antec 900? I'd personally go for an Azza Hurrican 2000 or an NZXT Switch 810 on that kind of budget - there's plenty of room for it.

that's what i said but i got thumbs down

 

[Onus]

This was an excellent gaming build, that also handles productivity well. It also looks the part, without being garish. While it exceeds my personal needs, that's only a matter of scale, which could be addressed easily enough.
I was not going to be critical, until reading the other comments so far, so I'll add this:
1. Last quarter's $2.6K PC was the quintessential Professional's PC, with a classy, quiet case. I might have kept it for this build, or used something equally classy from Lian Li.
2. Please keep the professional, all-around focus at this price point. Particularly considering today's economy, the typical gamer doesn't have $2K to spend on a strictly gaming PC. I like these articles when they represent what someone might actually build. As such, this is a very nice machine (I'd love to win it!), but who exactly would build it? See next point, as it may pertain to the professional users who would have the money.
3. This is more a question that a criticism, but is Kepler's reduced Compute performance a possible issue in an all-around and/or professional's PC?
4. Kudos for not believing you had to spend the whole budget. For an all-around PC, there's enough left for the BD drive.

 

[fantastik250]

Despite the HDD, This is one amazing setup.

 

[horaciopz]

Awesome review i was afraid that every quarter the Marathon was going up and up with their prices, that is somthing hurts budget based gamers, not everybody can get a $3000ish machine but theres's people that have at hand 2k and wants to get more for less... This is a win article, thanks Toms !