System Builder Marathon, March 2011: $2000 Performance PC

[SpadeM]

Small question here ... did u raid those 2 SSDs on the sata 3 ports or the sata2 ones? And if you did go with sata 3 ... is there any real benefit given the fact that the controller on the ssds are sata 2?

 

[mr wizzard]

When will there be a review about a 2000 dollar A/V workstation with an SD and less overkill graphics? Silent would be a plus ...

 

[Luay]

If I were your boss I would make that order of two extra 2560x1600 displays as an appreciation of your hard work! Speaking of which;

$100+ extra just for NF200 is questionable, unless you're going for a third 6950 @5670x1080, and re-test @ 5760x1080, and reach a minimum of %180 scalability, then I take it back!

$100 extra for i7, for a gamer, is a waste. 2500K ftw.

$100 extra for SSDs in Raid is Pretty hardcore, meaning no value (for me at least.

$100 extra for BD-R: When the software comes out, I'll buy it.

I'd use 300 out of this $400 saving to invest in either a third 6950 if my first wish becomes reality, or, more realistically, noise dampening:
1) Gold Seasonic X-Series 850 PSU (more quite and efficient)
2) Silverstone Raven 2 Evolution case (equal air intake for both 6950s= less heat and fan noise from the top card)
3) Noctua NHC14 cooler. (minor decrease in performance, but anything stronger is overkill for sandy bridge as you mentioned, and a massive decrease in noise)

If I was your boss, I would also enter contestants living outside of the US, under the condition that they have a US address you can ship to

 

[Darkerson]

[citation][nom]dertechie[/nom] These are 1GB 6950s. Without a BIOS for a 1GB 6970, you can't flash those, and AMD has not released a 1GB 6970. We also never know when/if they'll start fusing off extra shaders now that specs are finalized.[/citation]

Wrong. I have one of these 1GB XFX Radeon 6950's, and I was able to edit and flash the unlocked bios in order to enable the extra shaders. Ill admit, it didnt do a whole lot by itself, but coupled with a healthy overclock, I cant complain. Most of the tools necessary are on techpowerup.com.

 

[Guest]

Why is everyone dead set on AMD GPUs these days? I realize it uses more power and is expensive; but, my 580 smokes any of the AMD cards out there currently. I suppose each to his own, personally, I have never found the heat and power consumption to be issues that I would give up horsepower for. Custom cooling options keep my (single)580 at 45C at load.

 

[miltduds]

Any chance we can get numbers on how loud this machine was at load?

 

[nevertell]

You should have used the 6970's bios, would be faster. I guess.

 

[joytech22]

Contest is limited to residents of the USA

Not surprised with this at all.

Does it really cost that much to send a system somewhere? I'm not poking fun here it's a serious question, Or is there some law in the US that stops people from sending stuff out?

Just curious.

 

[jfby]

I built my first computer in 2001, and another in 2004. Since then I've only bought parts to replace ones that died until last year when I built an Intel Core i7-930 system. I can say now is the most exciting time as far as I can tell with performance wide spread across the spectrem and available to many more than it has ever been before with a relatively small budget.

 

[shoelessinsight]

Thank you for running all the tests with C-States both on and off. That was a wonderful bit of information about Intel's impressive work toward high energy efficiency.

I don't think I've been as impressed with a lineup of processors since AMD released their first dual-core processors.

The system builder articles are always a good read and are always well done, but I was especially satisfied by this one. Thanks again!

 

[rolli59]

Nice build. Savings can be had on PSU, motherboard and optical drive for a great performing system for less without compromise in performance.

 

[cangelini]

[citation][nom]joytech22[/nom]Not surprised with this at all.Does it really cost that much to send a system somewhere? I'm not poking fun here it's a serious question, Or is there some law in the US that stops people from sending stuff out?Just curious.[/citation]

It's not about the cost of sending the systems--if that were the issue, we'd offer them internationally, no question. The problem is tax-related; we have to stay within the letter of the law.

 

[deadheadbob87]

Another excellent build! Now time to save up and upgrade my old POS to something like this.

 

[HighPies]

[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Here's another thought: read the contest rules Clearly stated: "The information you provide will only be used to contact you if you win."We do these contests as a way to thank our readers. We use hardware from Newegg to put these builds together. It's worth substantially less to them once we're done with it. So, they allow us to give it all away. The entry info is accessible to exactly one person at Bestofmedia. It never leaves the company; I never even see it myself. Hope that helps set your mind at ease =)Best,Chris[/citation]

Please dont say readers when only half your readers may enter the contest. thank you

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]dragonsqrrl[/nom]I personally would've chosen a nicer case for a $2000 system. I know you guys have your reasons, and for the purposes of a purely price/performance oriented build it makes sense to skimp on the aesthetic qualities of a case, but for me personally, it's still nice to see a high-end case complement some high-end hardware.[/citation]It's made of high-quality steel and I think it looks very nice.[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]Just wait until tomorrow ;-) Don isn't quite as shy about flashing his bits![/citation]I did not know that about Don! And now that I know, I wish I didn't![citation][nom]SpadeM[/nom]Small question here ... did u raid those 2 SSDs on the sata 3 ports or the sata2 ones? And if you did go with sata 3 ... is there any real benefit given the fact that the controller on the ssds are sata 2?[/citation]Given that this system was ordered before the P67 was recalled, I think there's a huge benefit to having the drives connected to the first two ports [citation][nom]nitrium[/nom]On page 9 Test Settings, you have the previous $2000 PC listed with HD6870's using Nvidia Forceware 260.99 drivers. One of those is wrong.[/citation]Fixed, thanks.

 

[KT_WASP]

I'm actually glad to see the Antec Three Hundred Illusion case in this build. It proves a point that even a highend system can be housed, in what most people would consider, a budget oriented case.

I have always built to a specific budget in mind and the one area I know I can save money is a case. I see, all the time, people working within a tight budget and sacrifice interal hardware quality/performance in order to buy a $100+ case. (granted this article's budget was greater then most people's build budgets).

Money, in my opinion, is always better spent on what goes inside a case and not the case itself. As long as a case has enough fan locations in the proper places and big enough to house your selected components, then that case is perfectly adequate to do the job.

I always say to myself that "The next build I will buy a higherend case"... But, when that time comes and I have to make a decision between a nice case or a higher-end CPU, MB or GPU.. well, I always go for the latter. For example, my current $1,400 PC is housed within a $39 HeC Blitz case that has room for all my components and has five 120mm fan positions.. it was the choice between a HD 6870 1GB + nicer case, or a HD 6950 2GB + the budget case. I don't regret my decision one bit!

So, kudos to you for taking the risk with the lower priced case and having it work out!

 

[jfem]

It's nice to see the cpu reach an unusually high clock speed, haven't seen this on previous builds, but it would be better if it reached 5 GHz which I believe is possible with the Sandy Bridge cpus.

 

[hangfirew8]

USB3 anyone?

Very nice system, would love to have it. Love my Mugen 2 Rev B in a 300, but if I was buying new at this point I would prefer to have a case that has USB 3. I hope Antec takes care of their current customers by offering a USB 3 upgrade kit to current Hundred series owners.

 

[robwright]

It looks like the 2GB 6950s are even cheaper now, running around $275. It's building time...

@Dertechie, I like the sound of your build. I'd probably go with the i5 2500k over the i7, too.

 

[kkiddu]

*Gleep* *Gleep* It's on ! My fav series...thanks Toms !

 

[Krnt]

I would have bought two "Mushkin Enhanced Blackline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 996782" Kits from newegg same price, better performance.

 

[kkiddu]

"Pathetic antiques of last year"

My Athlon 2400+ just got red !

 

[Onus]

I know Antec cases are very solid and excellent quality, however it seems that many of them, even with bottom-mounted PSUs, lack cable management holes. They won't be as solid, but I'd check out the Rosewill gaming cases; most of them have better cable management, and some have that USB 3.0 port.
At twice the budget of my typical build, this is a nice system. I'd love to win it. My non-FPS titles don't need that much graphics muscle, so I'd probably take out one GPU and sell it for the scratch to buy a case with better cable management.
Actually, doesn't the winner just get the parts, not the assembled system? I'd build it in the Enermax Hoplite I've got waiting for my next build...

 

[hmp_goose]

Three thoughts:

Doesn't it matter the video cards don't have a cold air port to draw from?

What happened to "don't RAID SSDs"?

And do you think you should include monitors in these builds? If "resolution" is the third choke-point, after CPU and GPU, in system balance . . .

 

[proton9]

awesome rig!