System Builder Marathon, June 2012: System Value Compared

[K2N hater]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Granted, this would kill power efficiency, but a Phenom II x2 @ over 3.6GHz would probably beat the Celeron G530 in performance by a little. Sempron 130 ($40) unlocked and OCed to about 4GHz would also stack up well to the $50 Celeron G530 and an FM1 Athlon II or A4 with the IGP disabled would do better than the AM3 Athlon II x2s and unlocked Semprons. Still, the G530's stock performance for the money and power efficiency for its performance is unbeatable.Cost over time through the power bill would kill any chance that AMD's dual cores had of beating the G530, but with some overclocking, they could at least be similar in performance, if not a little faster. Whether or not the stock cooler for them is the same as their bigger quad/six core brothers would be the deciding factor in whether or not they'd beat the G530 without going over its budget to have an after-market cooler.However, we both know that the G530, unlike what zyzz said, is most certainly not junk. Any CPU that can keep the GTX 560 TI performing above the Radeon 6870 in a computer that has a Sandy Bridge i5 in most games at 1080p is not junk IMO.[/citation]
I agree with you concerning the value of the Celeron on its own but we can bring the north bridge into the equation. The AMD platform comes with a much more capaple chipset with better features. Even their low-end bridges come with lots of SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]K2N hater[/nom]I agree with you concerning the value of the Celeron on its own but we can bring the north bridge into the equation. The AMD platform comes with a much more capaple chipset with better features. Even their low-end bridges come with lots of SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0.[/citation]

Yes, but AMD needs their CPUs to be overclocked to match the Celeron G530's performance and I think that we both know that going below its performance is unacceptable for this price pint in a gaming computer. AMD does have more SATA 6Gb/s and USB 5Gb/s ports, but really, how many will you use? I could probably use more than Intel's usual two each that if I wanted to, but most people wouldn't.

Even going beyond two SATA 6Gb/s means that you either have two SSDs, or you're putting hard drives on ports where they won't get much benefit unless their cache can breach SATA 3Gb/s and even then, it's not very helpful. Unless you have more than two SSDs, going beyond two SATA 6Gb/s ports is not only not necessary, but hardly beneficial at all and is definitely not more important than having adequate performance in the main purpose of these computers, gaming.

Using many USB 3.0 ports is even less likely.

 

[K2N hater]

[citation][nom]blazorthon[/nom]Yes, but AMD needs their CPUs to be overclocked to match the Celeron G530's performance and I think that we both know that going below its performance is unacceptable for this price pint in a gaming computer. AMD does have more SATA 6Gb/s and USB 5Gb/s ports, but really, how many will you use? I could probably use more than Intel's usual two each that if I wanted to, but most people wouldn't.Even going beyond two SATA 6Gb/s means that you either have two SSDs, or you're putting hard drives on ports where they won't get much benefit unless their cache can breach SATA 3Gb/s and even then, it's not very helpful. Unless you have more than two SSDs, going beyond two SATA 6Gb/s ports is not only not necessary, but hardly beneficial at all and is definitely not more important than having adequate performance in the main purpose of these computers, gaming.Using many USB 3.0 ports is even less likely.[/citation]
Again I'm not to disagree with your statement concerning CPU. The G530 is a solid performer for the price. What makes it questionable is the platform.

According to the Marvell 88SE9172 is such a poor controller it can only beat the A75 platform. Let's say you pair the it with an up-to-date SSD unit which is capable of doing over 500MB/s without RAID and we're talking about severe performance degradation. Certainly not an issue as the drive chosen is mechanical but it doesn't benefit from SSD in a way other cost-effective platforms could.

The onboard Etron EJ168 chip is a very capable USB 3.0 controller but there's not a single internal header... Let's say plugging a thumb drive to the back of a PC in order to use the 3.0 controller isn't fun at all.

So in the end it's a cheap box that does give some real good FPS for the price but doesn't hold much value in any other aspect. In my opinion it doesn't take much more money to get a more usable and upgradeable platform as I would not build a PC solely for FPS. Also whenever we talk value we're going to plan for it to survive years on through minor upgrades rather than the price to build it now.

 

[K2N hater]

*According to

www.legionhardware.com/articles_pages/asus_maximus_iv_extreme_z,11.html

 

[Dax corrin]

I'd take the 1000 PC. I'd hand down one on my PCs to a friend and give this one to my kids.

 

[pacioli]

How low can you go...
Here is a crazy thought... What if the SBM included an ultra low cost system. Basically the goal would be to make the least expensive system possible at the time that met certain requirements.
Lets say the system had to have as a minimum:
Case
DVD Burner
PSU
2 Gb Ram (maybe 4 GB)
160 GB HDD or whatever was the cheapest at the time
Dual core CPU + cooler (current gen or previous gen)
Mobo
Integrated graphics (on Mobo or CPU)

I think this would really show off the state of the technology and would highlight the value that you get by building the $500/$1000/$2000 systems.

As a PC builder, people often ask me for this type of build. What do you think?

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]K2N hater[/nom]Again I'm not to disagree with your statement concerning CPU. The G530 is a solid performer for the price. What makes it questionable is the platform.According to the Marvell 88SE9172 is such a poor controller it can only beat the A75 platform. Let's say you pair the it with an up-to-date SSD unit which is capable of doing over 500MB/s without RAID and we're talking about severe performance degradation. Certainly not an issue as the drive chosen is mechanical but it doesn't benefit from SSD in a way other cost-effective platforms could.The onboard Etron EJ168 chip is a very capable USB 3.0 controller but there's not a single internal header... Let's say plugging a thumb drive to the back of a PC in order to use the 3.0 controller isn't fun at all.So in the end it's a cheap box that does give some real good FPS for the price but doesn't hold much value in any other aspect. In my opinion it doesn't take much more money to get a more usable and upgradeable platform as I would not build a PC solely for FPS. Also whenever we talk value we're going to plan for it to survive years on through minor upgrades rather than the price to build it now.[/citation]

That is a very good point. In order to get quality/high performance connectivity (usually more important than quantity), an H61 board is usually not a practical option.

 

[egowhip69]

A bit off topic, but something I've really never seen...

Is it possible to get a Laptop roundup? Especially the lower division? We all have tons of family and friends that ask "I just want a mail and internet laptop"... so could you do a bang for the buck on laptops?

say like 0-400 and 400-600. I wonder who would send in what configs.?

I ask cause there is a turion 15 inch on sale, at $300, and while I know the bat life ain't that great, I'm not sure if it is a better or worse buy vs a brazos with the int graph, or a pent with the int graph... I've just never seen a top old, vs low new vs cheapie new...

I think that might be worth a look if you can get the manus to donate the laptops for a comparison.

I know I can see mobile CPU vs others, and mobile GPU vs others, but because they are clearing older gens for cheap, and have totally changes their "bang for the buck", there isn't a decent way I've found to see cross CPU, GPU and generation comparisons one one page...

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]egowhip69[/nom]A bit off topic, but something I've really never seen...Is it possible to get a Laptop roundup? Especially the lower division? We all have tons of family and friends that ask "I just want a mail and internet laptop"... so could you do a bang for the buck on laptops?say like 0-400 and 400-600. I wonder who would send in what configs.?I ask cause there is a turion 15 inch on sale, at $300, and while I know the bat life ain't that great, I'm not sure if it is a better or worse buy vs a brazos with the int graph, or a pent with the int graph... I've just never seen a top old, vs low new vs cheapie new...I think that might be worth a look if you can get the manus to donate the laptops for a comparison.I know I can see mobile CPU vs others, and mobile GPU vs others, but because they are clearing older gens for cheap, and have totally changes their "bang for the buck", there isn't a decent way I've found to see cross CPU, GPU and generation comparisons one one page...[/citation]

Laptop prices are constantly changing and that would be a lot of work. It would be helpful, but I don't think that it's practical.