System Builder Marathon, March 2012: $2600 Performance PC

[mkw34]

Since it's an active topic in this thread I've always thought that a general purpose machine would be the $1250-$1300 budget one. If you spend $2500 plus that would be a dedicated purpose machine.

 

[blazorthon]

Since it's an active topic in this thread I've always thought that a general purpose machine would be the $1250-$1300 budget one. If you spend $2500 plus that would be a dedicated purpose machine.

Well, $1250-1300 is about the highest budget for most gaming builds. The $2600 build made more sense because that is where you can afford SB-E to truly boost the general purpose and computational performance over LGA 1155 systems without sacrificing a potent graphics card. The 7970 merged with a six core SB-E CPU means a whole lot of general purpose and computational performance on both the CPU and graphics subsystems.

 

[The Halo Don]

The case looks nice, why so expensive though?

brb researching.

 

[Crashman]

[citation][nom]The Halo Don[/nom]The case looks nice, why so expensive though?brb researching.[/citation]Extra fans aren't free?

 

[robthatguyx]

really who builds a x79 performance pc and doesn't liquid cool or overclock id rather drop to 8gb 1866 sniper and get a 120gb mushkin ssd and use that cash to invest in a razars 360 and waterblock then sell the other hardware after

 

[blazorthon]

really who builds a x79 performance pc and doesn't liquid cool or overclock id rather drop to 8gb 1866 sniper and get a 120gb mushkin ssd and use that cash to invest in a razars 360 and waterblock then sell the other hardware after

Prefer what you want now, but 8GB isn't enough for a lot of productivity and you'd regret that decision from the start if you had such a machine for productivity and only gave it 8GB of RAM. Besides that, that CPU has a more than adequate overclock on one of the best air coolers available. The huge increase in cost by going to high end water cooling would be extremely non-cost effective, especially for the minuscule performance gain that it would offer.

If you think that 4.6GHz is a poor overclock, please remember that this is a productivity machine, not just a gaming machine, and it needs reliability. Going over that clock frequency will rapidly lose stability regardless of the cooling.

 

[Gymna]

How did those rosewill intake fans with the cable splitter end up working out in terms of air flow and noise?

I'm asking because I'm building a similar computer in the same case and I've found multiple fans in the same air flow range with much higher noise levels. I've also found multiple fans in the same noise range with much lower airflow. Seems like the fans you used got the best of both worlds without pushing the audible limit.

 

[blazorthon]

How did those rosewill intake fans with the cable splitter end up working out in terms of air flow and noise?

I'm asking because I'm building a similar computer in the same case and I've found multiple fans in the same air flow range with much higher noise levels. I've also found multiple fans in the same noise range with much lower airflow. Seems like the fans you used got the best of both worlds without pushing the audible limit.

This is a $2600 computer that they wanted to be respectable, so they used high quality fans.

 

[RedJaron]

i'm effing tired of people who religiously preach how sufficient i3/i5 is, you know, not everyone uses pc to play mw3

The thing is, the vast majority of people use a computer to surf the web, check email, store a music collection, type up documents and spreadsheets, and little else. Some will do some very basic picture editing or a movie here or there, but nothing that will fully utilize even a quad core i5. With that in mind, an i3 or i5 IS more than sufficient for their needs.

While not all people play MW3, far fewer people actually do heavy programming, digital video editing, 3D design, hi-res graphic creation, or even overclock their hardware.

 

[Guest]

Why use CL9 RAM when you can get CL7 for about the same price they are much faster. CL7 RAM have a access time on 8,75ns while your CL9 have 11,25ns latency. TH always use high CL RAM