System Builder Marathon, June 2012: $2000 Performance PC

[Crashman]

After a little inflation over the past few quarters, we chop $600 off of the most recent build. Is there such a thing as more performance from a smaller budget? Thanks to Intel's Ivy Bridge architecture and GeForce GTX 680, the answer is: sometimes.

System Builder Marathon, June 2012: $2000 Performance PC : Read more

 

[Trialsking]

Very nice build, if only I had $1800 to spare

 

[rohitbaran]

Well, is GTX 680 availability good enough now?

 

[mayankleoboy1]

i would never buy a green 5400 RPM over a 7200 RPM drive, no matter the cost.

 

[Guest]

Now imagine if two GTX 670 were available!!

 

[vakuma5000]

Awesome Build!!

I have the exact same GTX 680 from ASUS, and I love it. Managed to get 1337Mhz out of the core and 6800 out of the memory. I achieved that with only 115% power limit. If I raise the power limit any higher, i start to loose performance and stability. That is a truly awesome memory oveerclock you got out of it! Congrats!

Very much looking foreward to the value comparison.
Would LOVE to see the 1800$ build win the value comparo!
GO GTX 680!!

My vote goes towards keeping a gaming focus as opposed to a more "all-in-one" type build.
Love the System Builder Articles, love Toms!

 

[strandiam]

So many great cases to choose from with so many great features....

 

[vakuma5000]

Unfortunately GTX 680 availability is still pretty spotty.
Had to spend 2 days on newegg, refreshing the page every few mins to get the model i wanted.
However, it IS looking better. They are listing them more often on newegg, and they don't sell-out as quickly as they were a few weeks ago.
Check newegg daily from 5:30pm to 6:30 pm CST, and you should be able to catch one.
The GTX 670's are in stock right now.
Good luck rohitbaran!

 

[slicedtoad]

should we keep the gaming focus or move back towards higher-cost do-it-all machines?

Personally, I'm happy with the gaming focus. Don't know how others feel but gaming performance is more important than productivity benchmarks for me. I compile a lot of code and do some video encoding but I find gaining fps in games is more important than shaving seconds off my work. Besides, productivity follows gaming performance close enough.

On another note, I dislike value comparisons when things like SSD size and optical drives have made an impact in price. A larger SSD does nothing for a benchmark but is awesome in practice. I'd prefer only comparing the combined price of the gpu, cpu, cooler(s) and mobo in the value chart. That's not a perfect solution but it annoys me that things like high quality PSUs, nice cases, blu-ray burners and large SSDs throw things off so much.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]strandiam[/nom]So many great cases to choose from with so many great features....[/citation]Perhaps the award-winning NZXT Phantom 410 next time?
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mana-136-midgard-ii-phantom-410,3203-5.html

 

[sam_fisher]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]Perhaps the award-winning NZXT Phantom 410 next time?http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 203-5.html[/citation]

My only dislike about this build is the case, for a $2000 PC I would prefer a case that was tidier and larger than the Antec Nine Hundred (especially with the layout of the HDD bays). The NZXT Phantom 410 would be much better for that budget.

 

[ojas]

should we keep the gaming focus or move back towards higher-cost do-it-all machines?

do-it-all if it's greater than $2000, otherwise gaming.

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]Perhaps the award-winning NZXT Phantom 410 next time?http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 203-5.html[/citation]
Or maybe the original Phantom? Even the Corsair Graphite 600T is good...

 

[strandiam]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]Perhaps the award-winning NZXT Phantom 410 next time?http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 203-5.html[/citation]
One of many great choices. If I had a $2000 budget instead of the $900 I'm currently working on, I would go with something a bit nicer like Thermaltake Chaser MK-I, Corsair Obsidian 650, Rosewill THOR V2, or one of many other feature rich cases.

 

[cmcghee358]

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

It's a data drive.. why wouldn't you?

 

[DookieDraws]

Great read! I too enjoy these type of articles. Been a reader at Tom's for many years. Keep it up!!!

Well, I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say most members around here are gamers. I am, but I also do photo/video editing as a hobby on an older, and very sad build. By the way, I expect to be having a funeral for that poor fellow any day, now.

Now, about the reviews - I like seeing how much performance you guys get out of those lower-end builds. I'm sure those lower-end configs have helped a lot of folks around here with their build decisions. Especially those of us who can't afford the higher-end stuff. Today, those higher-cost do-it-all machines would/should run games fine, too. Honestly, the way technology has advanced and keeps rapidly advancing, you can build a pretty sweet do-all-machine for less than a grand these days. And one to last a few years at that! So, I like seeing those "budget" builds.

Also, I'd love to see video reviews on these builds. It'd be nice to see some performance video of the set-up and also be able to hear how loud/quite the machine is. You guys think this would be a possibility for future reviews?

Well, it's very late and I'm going my behind to bed! Too tired to proof read! Sue me if ya find any errors! Good night fellows!

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]sam_fisher[/nom]My only dislike about this build is the case, for a $2000 PC I would prefer a case that was tidier and larger than the Antec Nine Hundred (especially with the layout of the HDD bays). The NZXT Phantom 410 would be much better for that budget.[/citation]Same price for the case, similar quality so this is really just a matter of preference. I like cases that are small enough to look good on my desk I don't like drive doors But I'd still pick the 410 for someone else

 

[killerofall]

Personally if I had that much money to spend on a system I would put a bit more money towards the case, like in the $150-$200 range. I would either want to do a themed case, where everything looks the same, a quiet case (maybe water-cooled), or a clean and elegant look (I think that the later would be best but that's just me).

I do think that it should be more towards gaming as that is what most people here do. However it might not be a bad idea to include a workstation build as well that was business first and gaming second for those people who work at home/small business and don't want to spend extra on a separate gaming machine, or maybe just make it business only, it depends on how you want to take it and what your business is. I don't do this so I don't know what the requirements for the build would be but I am sure that there are plenty of people out there who can provide quality input.

 

[yyk71200]

If you remove 680 and put 2 x 670 $400 each, you'll be at $2001, just at budget.

 

[csf60]

"ASRock Z77 Extreme6:
LGA 2011, Intel X79 Express
Stock 100 MHz BCLK"

(Typo in test hardware configurations)

 

[simonmodule]

Toms Hardware, you have writen i7-3770k(sandy bridge), where it actually is ivy bridge

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]csf60[/nom]"ASRock Z77 Extreme6:LGA 2011, Intel X79 ExpressStock 100 MHz BCLK"(Typo in test hardware configurations)[/citation]Fixed, thanks! (table copy/edit error, my greatest downfall)[citation][nom]simonmodule[/nom]Toms Hardware, you have writen i7-3770k(sandy bridge), where it actually is ivy bridge[/citation]I don't know what happened there, (sleep editing Chris?) but it's now fixed!

 

[killabanks]

nice machine forget the 6 cores for now please

 

[roltzje]

The power draw of these new CPU/GPUs is really amazing. My old setup with a Q8300 and GTX 280 both stock would draw 100W on active idle, and over 250W during gaming. My upgraded setup with a i5-3570k and 7770 (similar performance to the 280) draws just 44W during idle! Its incredible, almost laptop-like power draw, but with a heck of a lot more horsepower. During a gaming load I do around 130W, which is also amazing.

I am planning on returning my 7770 though for something more powerful like a GTX 660 when it comes out. I have a feeling it will be very efficient, going by the 670/680

 

[assafbt]

gaming focus is nice, but there is such a thing as too much gaming focus. Next to highest end card in the market, is a bit too much even for the 2000$ system, especially when most purchased monitors are still no higher in resolution than 1080p. Concessions on other pieces of equipment did not justify this GTX680, even for a high end gamer. That gamer would probably upgrade in a year and a half to something much better, so the 680 would have made sense for a 3000$ if you had such budget, but not when other concessions were painful.

Just my personal 2c

 

[Guest]

Nice math. $359 to spare? I think you meant $259. Unless, of course, you were considering a $2100 build. Otherwise, a well-worded article and a joy to read.