System Builder Marathon, March 2010: $1,500 Enthusiast PC

[cleeve]

In this System Builder Marathon, we get to make a great $1,500 Core i7-920 enthusiast PC and then pit it against the Core i5-750 system from our previous series. Is the extra money for the Core i7-920 worthwhile, or can the Core i5-750 go the distance?

System Builder Marathon, March 2010: $1,500 Enthusiast PC : Read more

 

[shubham1401]

Now this is an excellent PC for overall usage...

 

[sabot00]

Love to have this PC. Great components, really wish Fermi at least drops prices.

 

[skora]

I find it funny Cleeve that you mention the effects of ATIs monopoly on the high end GPU market but nothing on the CPU front. How much better off would we all be if AMD had a competing product for the Core i5/7s.

Out of curiosity, how big is the storage capacity needed for your benchmark suit? I know you were over budget, but how close could you have come to one of the lower capacity SSDs and their performance advantages?

 

[Guest]

The labels on all the charts appear to be wrong. They're mentioning a "Current $1300 System" but I thought the current system was $1500?

 

[anamaniac]

To be honest, this just somehow seems disappointing to me.
But then I think of how much I spent on my rig, and got less, I'm even more disappointed.

It's crazy that prices keep raising on everything though. 6 months ago I was $9/GB for DDR2, in Canadian dollars. $12.50/GB for DDR3. It's absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Otus]

It looks like i5->i7 is not worth it for gamers. The increases when FPS

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]Otus[/nom]It looks like i5->i7 is not worth it for gamers. The increases when FPS[/citation]

I've got news for you: i3->i7 is not worth it for gamers. Tom's Hardware has an interesting article in the works.

 

[p1n3apqlexpr3ss]

@Crashman
Sounds good, this something to do with the i3 HTed vs traditional quad thing?

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]p1n3apqlexpr3ss[/nom]@CrashmanSounds good, this something to do with the i3 HTed vs traditional quad thing?[/citation]

I think it's a Windows 7 thread shifting and dual-threaded games thing, since both the i3 and i7 have HT.

 

[Stardude82]

[citation][nom]SethVN[/nom]The labels on all the charts appear to be wrong. They're mentioning a "Current $1300 System" but I thought the current system was $1500?[/citation]

The whole comparison is BS. $200 is a lot of money where I come from and the stock cooling on the i5 750 is garbage. The low-end Conroes had much better cooling and they were only 65W TDP. I say stick your no-name heatsink on last quarters machine, call it a $1400 box, redo the overclocking and then publish the results as that way they will be at least somewhat relevant.

 

[baracubra]

Great build!

One thing I would change is the case...this doesn't look mean/rough enough for such a gaming rig, and there's no option of adding lights to interior to beef it up cuz the side cover isn't transparent 🙁

 

[Onus]

You broke the budget. Sorry, but FAIL.

 

[eddieroolz]

Seems like a fairly decent article to me. The increase in gaming performance is just staggering 😵

On a side note, whoever that gets this rig is very lucky, the i7 in this one is probably one of the more overclockables ones, it seems. Too bad I'm just north of the 49th 🙁

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]Stardude82[/nom]I say stick your no-name heatsink on last quarters machine, call it a $1400 box, redo the overclocking and then publish the results as that way they will be at least somewhat relevant.[/citation] It's not just "any" no-name sink, it's one that provided surprisingly good performance in its review:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/corsair-h50-fort120,2370-5.html

 

[RySean]

The RAM for the current build was incorrectly listed as:

2 x A-Data 2GB DDR3-1333 Kit
2 x 2GB (4GB Total), 533 MHz (1,066 MHz DDR), CAS 7-7-7-59

Feel free to delete this comment once it's fixed.

 

[the_krasno]

I commend you for the case choice. I have that case myself, installed 2 more fans and never regretted it!

 

[Stardude82]

[citation][nom]Crashman[/nom]It's not just "any" no-name sink, it's one that provided surprisingly good performance in its review:http://www.tomshardware.com/review [...] 370-5.html[/citation]

Nearly any no-name heatsink would be better than the current stock cooling. I wasn't dissing the sink, the defensiveness makes me think there was some shilling for New Egg going on since Rosewill is just the name New Egg slaps on to "unbranded" imports.

 

[Sihastru]

AsRock motherboard, had one once, NEVER again! The problems are not worth the amount of money you might save...

 

[peckiro]

Good matchup. For the money though I think I'd still go with the I-750.

 

[cib24]

Swap the cooler with a Hyper 212 Plus and the PSU with a Seasonic 750w 80-plus certified Gold and I'd buy it.

 

[e_marston]

For those with a Microcenter in their area i7 920s are only $199 making this build much more attractive. So those fortunate folks could actually drop $80+ off the price of this system.

 

[enzo matrix]

No mention as to why two 5850s were chosen over a single 5970?

 

[Onus]

I've got news for you: i3->i7 is not worth it for gamers. Tom's Hardware has an interesting article in the works.

That's VERY interesting. I'm really itching to read it.

Given this: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/default.aspx?p=118&p2=47&c=1 in which the i7/920 pretty much smokes i3 (as one would expect; i7/860 numbers are similar), for your statement above to also be true implies that the same can be said for AMD 955BE vs. Intel i7 (limited to gaming, of course), as the 955BE also outperforms i3 in games.

Dang, I hate to sound like an AMD fanboy, but for gaming, this gives AMD an overwhelming bang/buck win, also based on the heavy platform limitations of P55 (vs. much more expensive X58), especially if you throw SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0 into the mix.

 

[jedimasterben]

The Lynnfield-based Core i5-750 employs an on-die PCI Express controller limited to 16 lanes of second-generation connectivity. Compare that to the X58 Express chipset's 36 lanes.

Seriously, does anybody EVER mention that the P55 Express PCH has 8 lanes of PCI-e available?