System Builder Marathon, June 2012: $2000 Performance PC

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]Kreelor[/nom]I read the Newegg Users Comments. Only 58% of the people who bought this Mb gave it a 5-star rating. That leaves the rest of the people complaining about DOA's, bent pins, BIOS problems, poor ASrock support, pitiful user manual, error codes without explanations, etc. The list goes on on and on.Almost every motherboard I've seen reviewed and recommended here on THG has a similar story. I have no confidence in buying! It appears to me that the "luck factor" is 50%; you'll get a board that works, or a dud. That's not reasurring. I'm stuck in limbo, trying to complete my new build without gambling on whether or not Newegg will accept an RMA. If I have to wait weeks for that, then the 30-days will expire on all the other parts I bought from them. Geeesh. I guess the system builders on THG are just the luckiest people in the world.[/citation]But you see Tom's Hardware "putting its money where it's mouth is" on this, since the Extreme6 used in this review was purchased from a retail site (rather than hand-picked by its manufacturer).

 

[manicmike]

Love the builder articles, but I would advise against trying to sli with that small of a clearance unless the cards are water cooled. I have 2 GTX 550s sli'd, I had to take off the plastic hood off and add 3 fans blowing directly on the cards to keep the top card on the high side of safe operating temps.

Also, it always makes me come to the forums to post comments, can never post directly from the article. don't know why...

 

[blazorthon]

Love the builder articles, but I would advise against trying to sli with that small of a clearance unless the cards are water cooled. I have 2 GTX 550s sli'd, I had to take off the plastic hood off and add 3 fans blowing directly on the cards to keep the top card on the high side of safe operating temps.

Also, it always makes me come to the forums to post comments, can never post directly from the article. don't know why...

What web browser are you using? Some of the browsers aren't as tolerant of buggy sites such as Tom's.

 

[gseguin]

Gaminv vs General Purpose.
I'd like General Purpose. I think the BD creation isn't required since most high-end users will use some kind of streaming device or HTPC direct connect instead. Simply increase the suggested value of applications, graphics, encoding and programming in the review, then 4 core ivy bridge vs 6 core Sandy bridge may not be as easy a decision.

I think the SSD should be a 240GB drive, as it's currently a better $/GB . Sure, the smaller drive gives the same performance, but the extra 120GB allows it to be used as a work drive as well. That's where the gamer may not care, but I do.

 

[Guest]

I know sli is mentioned but this is my first time building and I would like to know if there would be room for dual gtx 670's in both pci 3.0 slots? It seems like the lower card would be right up against the first card. Would that harm either piece of hardware in any way? Should I go with a bigger case or is there plenty of room and I just don't see it?

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]Cruiser970[/nom]I know sli is mentioned but this is my first time building and I would like to know if there would be room for dual gtx 670's in both pci 3.0 slots? It seems like the lower card would be right up against the first card. Would that harm either piece of hardware in any way? Should I go with a bigger case or is there plenty of room and I just don't see it?[/citation]

It's usually best to have a one slot clearance between multiple graphics cards, but a second three slot GTX 680 should be fine in that machine, although it would probably raise temps more than it would if there was a one slot or more clearance. So long as temps are kept low enough (shouldn't be a problem, but it's always a possibility), then a second triple slot 680 for SLI shouldn't have much trouble. Either way, neither card should get damaged, at least they shouldn't IMO. Since these cards have triple slot coolers despite using a fairly small amount of power (especially considering their performance), I wouldn't expect them to have much trouble at all in this computer even if the cards have a little less airflow than you might want to have. The huge coolers should keep temps reasonable so long as they have at least some airflow. A side intake fan near the graphics cards might be a good idea.

 

[Gamer_Pollution]

Great, I was going to enter, seeing I need a new gaming computer, but I need to be a US resident. Come on, where's the love for Canada?

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]Gamer_Pollution[/nom]Great, I was going to enter, seeing I need a new gaming computer, but I need to be a US resident. Come on, where's the love for Canada?[/citation]

Some sort of laws stops Tom's from letting other countries (and if I remember correctly, also people living in the US state of Rhode Island) enter legally. It's out of Tom's control.

 

[Gamer_Pollution]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Some sort of laws stops Tom's from letting other countries (and if I remember correctly, also people living in the US state of Rhode Island) enter legally. It's out of Tom's control.[/citation]
I didnt know that. If it's out of their control, then I guess I can't complain 😀

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]Gamer_Pollution[/nom]I didnt know that. If it's out of their control, then I guess I can't complain 😀[/citation]

How about if I win the computer, we toss a coin and the winner of the coin toss between us gets the computer 😉

 

[PCgamer81]

Nice build.

If it were up to me, I would go with the i5 2500k (time tested and still one of the best), and the GTX 670. I would use the extra money for a bigger SSD and faster HDD.

But in any case, awesome build as always.

 

[PCgamer81]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]How about if I win the computer, we toss a coin and the winner of the coin toss between us gets the computer[/citation]I tell you what, if I win, I will share it with you. I have basically everything I need already. I will take the GPU and SSD and send you the rest. I promise.

 

[Gamer_Pollution]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]How about if I win the computer, we toss a coin and the winner of the coin toss between us gets the computer[/citation]
Alright then 😀 Unless you are just trolling me lol

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]Cruiser970[/nom]I know sli is mentioned but this is my first time building and I would like to know if there would be room for dual gtx 670's in both pci 3.0 slots? It seems like the lower card would be right up against the first card. Would that harm either piece of hardware in any way? Should I go with a bigger case or is there plenty of room and I just don't see it?[/citation]The board is triple-slot spaced, most performance cards are double-slot. You'd get plenty of air between them.

The card in this build was triple slot, so there's less space. But I don't normally recommend triple-slot cards anyway, due to the fitment issue.

 

[Abion47]

[citation][nom]mayankleoboy1[/nom]i would never buy a green 5400 RPM over a 7200 RPM drive, no matter the cost.[/citation]

Well the build also has a 120 GB SSD. Anything I would have that I would need to have the faster performance of a Black HDD I can put on the SSD anyway, leaving the low performance drive for my files and such. I think it's actually a smart compromise, seeing as for $1800 I would be getting an SSD anyway.

 

[tapher]

Word; keep the gaming focus! At this price point, I think the gaming resolution issue should focus on triple monitor gaming. Can the machine play at such resolutions?

 

[xtreme5]

wow, killing rig.. Excellentano..

 

[jimmysmitty]

Why was a case like the Antec 900 that has grey internals, horrible hard drive bays, horrible cable management and a bottom mounted PSU that has to pull air down from the same area the GPU has to pull from.

Why no spend the extra $40 on a nice case like the Corsair 500R? It beats the Antec 900 in pretty much every way in terms of cooling ability, cable management and has room for longer cards even with the drive bays filled.

Thats probably the only thing I dislike about this build. A poor case decision.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]jimmysmitty[/nom]Why was a case like the Antec 900 that has grey internals, horrible hard drive bays, horrible cable management and a bottom mounted PSU that has to pull air down from the same area the GPU has to pull from.Why no spend the extra $40 on a nice case like the Corsair 500R? It beats the Antec 900 in pretty much every way in terms of cooling ability, cable management and has room for longer cards even with the drive bays filled.Thats probably the only thing I dislike about this build. A poor case decision.[/citation]

Crash has explained why the Antec was used more than enough times and I think that it's made clear enough in the article anyway.

 

[Dax corrin]

Oh yeah, I want. Signed up for sweeps already.

 

[jimmysmitty]

This is similar to my SB 2500k build last year. Last week there were several 680s available for several days. It looks like this week they've dried up again. However, as one who lucked into getting an EVGA SC 680 early on for that SB build, if I had it to do over, I'd have gotten a 670 (after waiting for that bad batch to flush out of the market). Now I'll be forced to buy another 680 for SLI which will be $200 combined more than a pair of 680s. I'm almost tempted to sell the 680 now for about $50 off purchase price and pick up two 670s.

And that Zalman cooler looks really good. It would look way better than my fugly (but highly functional) NH-D14, but according to Frostytech, it's a few C over that cooler in peak performance. Whoever came up with the color combo of the NH-D14 needs to be banned from ever choosing cooler colors in a company for life. Finally, I don't know why so many people hate on the Nine Hundred case. It's top quality steel, and looks damn fine on top of my desk without being a massive monstrosity. This is one of the best cases for those of us that like to keep our air-cooled rigs away from the floor and up in "clean air."

My 500R is up and off the floor in the "clean air" and fits nicely on a small desk I have to the right of my desk with the monitor, m/KB etc (its a corner desk).

I think my issue is the lack of newer features that can be gotten for the same price or a bit more. I really hate the HDD and PSU mounting TBH.

 

[Obie327]

I would love to win that 2000 dollar I7 rig. Looks wicked in that windowed Antec 900 case and the cooler/hardware setup. Crossing my fingers 😀

 

[g-unit1111]

[citation][nom]mayankleoboy1[/nom]i would never buy a green 5400 RPM over a 7200 RPM drive, no matter the cost.[/citation]

Really? The difference between 5900 RPM and 7200 RPM when using a fast SSD as your primary is such a moot point that I'd personally choose the extra TB of storage over the *slightly* fast speeds. With the Chronos as your primary, you'll never know the difference. And if you do, I'd like to see the benchmarks that prove it.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]g-unit1111[/nom]Really? The difference between 5900 RPM and 7200 RPM when using a fast SSD as your primary is such a moot point that I'd personally choose the extra TB of storage over the *slightly* fast speeds. With the Chronos as your primary, you'll never know the difference. And if you do, I'd like to see the benchmarks that prove it.[/citation]

You could also use a freeware caching program that could allocate some of the SSD to the HDD (just a few GB, if that, should do the trick) and that would probably cut down most realistic differences from almost nothing strait down to nothing.

 

[vikjha]

I'm sorry for not starting a new thread but i wanted this to get read by a larger amount of people for a more rounded view... (and since this article is about value and i'm a broke ass grad student it sorta makes sense)

I've been reading Tom's for about 6 months now planning on building my own gaming PC (i only own a PS3... i'm sorry for consoles holding back comp graphics guys)... basically because i wanted to experience amazing graphics and when rumors surfaced that the new PS would have a amd6670 i was pissed.

the latest rumor http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/06/08/playstation-4-reportedly-comes-with-amd-fusion-cpugpu-2gb-ram/

is much cooler... i'm happy to hear that it may be a 7900AMD... only clocked at 800mghz (for overheating protection i guess?)... when it comes out in holiday 2013... it will be what... 1 generation behind maybe 2?

for a person like me, who jus wants the most beautiful graphics at 1080p... if this were true do you guys think it will compete with PC graphics for a couple years at least? I could really use the extra money for some traveling.. but i don't know if 800mghz clock would seriously stunt it (not to mention the x86 processor fusion thingy) ... i think i could get by for a year and a half with last of us, tomb raider (i hope u guys get much more amazing graphics and not a shit port)... thanks in advance for ur opinions