System Builder Marathon, May '09: $1,300 Enthusiast PC

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jtnstnt

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It looks like you guys have a fetish for silverstone sff cases, and small motherboards. You guys probably like other small things...
 

one-shot

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Was the peak power draw measured from the wall? If so, do you know the efficiency of the PSU to determine the approximate power draw from the components at a given level of output? Overall, great article. I hope my 650Watt PSU with 3 X 19A 12V rails can handle another GTX 260 Core 216.
 

serifus

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if you wanted to go SFF it would be nice to see one done in an LIAN-LI PC-A05NB. at least you still get the full atx boards in those.
 

SpadeM

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This system is no slouch and cuts through our new gaming benchmarks like a hot knife through butter.
I wonder how exactly does the selection of components go. I mean it seems that there's some attention given to the forums to be politically correct, but that's kind of it. For $1300 a Phenom 2 + micro AM3 board + 2x4890 in crossfire is a much better solution so .. why not choose the better option?
[img=http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/594/systemg.th.jpg]
 

capttylor34

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That system looks quite crowded on the inside, and that Dark Knight is big for a regular sized system, I'm actually kind of impressed you managed to fit it in a Micro ATX at all. I suppose as long as it runs stable, theres really no problem. Still think the articles should be titled "Micro System Build-off" just to let people know off the bat what they're about to read.
 

IzzyCraft

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[citation][nom]SpadeM[/nom]I wonder how exactly does the selection of components go. I mean it seems that there's some attention given to the forums to be politically correct, but that's kind of it. For $1300 a Phenom 2 + micro AM3 board + 2x4890 in crossfire is a much better solution so .. why not choose the better option?[img=http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/594/systemg.th.jpg][/citation]
That's not a better solution it's just an AMD ATI themed solution

Although i guess it would be stronger in the fps in games it wouldn't be nearly as rounded system i rather have i7 because i do cpu heavy tasks just my view;)

I mean if they just wanted max fps they could have gone LGA775 with E8500 and shove 2 4890's in there i'm sure that would produce the highest fps.
 

armistitiu

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I'm tired of seeing I7 920 in every damn "recommended" PC. I'm not saying go AMD but please just try to vary them a bit it's getting stupid. Also try building your own benchmarks or at least change them once in a while.
Btw i\m getting tired of people picking up I7 and saying "because i do heavy CPU tasks" (not necessarily IzzyCraft ) and in fact all they need is a browser,OpenOffice and WoW minimized in the taskbar.
The article is well done no doubts but try using other brands also. It\s starting to sound biased.

 

ohim

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This article would be great if you could do : what you can buy for 1300 Intel parts and what you can by for 1300 AMD parts ... and put the 2 PCs to compeat to eachother :p it would be a more interesting article than just buy a pc and ... show what ?
 

nerrawg

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Nice slick system this - looks like 2 x 260's is pretty good value at 1920 x 1200 for those that want to max out the settings in the most demanding games. Was wondering however if there is a good technical explanation for the power consumption results because they seem pretty strange?
 

ohim

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About nvidia still surprised that they didn`t removed the 185.85 forceware drivers since that`s a total failure of drivers and it`s still being posted as the latest drivers even on windows update. Guess once you get the crown you get to piss on your customers as well.
 

BaC-80

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I can not believe how much we get screwed on computer bits here in the UK
I priced up the parts in this system and it comes out at £1098.00 on 26th May 2009 that means it comes out at $1740 a big difference
Motherboard
DFI LANParty Jr X58-T3H6 Micro-ATX
Intel X58/ICH10R, LGA1366
$220 uk £189.99

Processor
Intel Core i7-920
Four Cores, 2.66 GHz, 8 MB Cache
$289 UK £225

Memory
G.Skill 10666CL7T 6GBPK
Triple-channel memory kit 3 x 2 GB
$90 UK £80.73

Graphics
2 x BFG GeForce GTX 260 OC in SLI
896 MB GDDR3-1998 Per Card
590 MHz GPU, 1,296 MHz Shader
$340 UK £343

Hard Drive
Western Digital Caviar Black
640GD, 640 GB, 32 MB cache
$75 UK £51.60

Optical
Lite-On iHAS422 DVD±R
DVD Burner SATA
$28 UK £22

Case
SilverStone TJ08-B Micro-ATX Mini-Tower
$99 UK £59

Power
PC Power and Cooling Silencer 750 Quad S75QB, ATX12V 2.2, 80-Plus Certified
$120 UK £88

CPU Cooler
Xigmatek Dark Knight S1283
$40 UK £38
 

SpadeM

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[citation][nom]IzzyCraft[/nom]That's not a better solution it's just an AMD ATI themed solutionAlthough i guess it would be stronger in the fps in games it wouldn't be nearly as rounded system i rather have i7 because i do cpu heavy tasks just my viewI mean if they just wanted max fps they could have gone LGA775 with E8500 and shove 2 4890's in there i'm sure that would produce the highest fps.[/citation]

The system builder marathon was always, in my mind at least, a competition between value and performance and they tended to pick the latest technologies. Sure even now for $1300 or even $2500 you can go with a Q600 or a q9650 .. it would be cheaper and the performance is similar to that of a i7 but without the bragging rights. And so paying $500+ just for a motherboard that doesn't do much since it's not used to overclock in a extreme fashion, and a processor that's 10% maybe 20% faster then it's previous Quad generations isn't going to cut it for me. That's why i was expecting a different quad core of another flavour, just to spice things up. And of course to top things off some new 4890. All in all it would have been a more balanced system that caters to the wishes of the enthusiast.

With all that said i can hardly wait for tomorrows $600 system, i wonder what GPU, RAM, PSU and HDD got picked to go with the ... i7+X58 combo
 

ifko_pifko

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I just don't understand why the $2500 PC is equiped with intel stock cooler and this one with much better xigmatek...
Also higher overclock of this system vs $2500 PC seems silly if you actually intend to compare them and calculate price/performance ratio.
 

skora

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While I agree that a small water system would do wonders for the cooling solution, isn't a rear mounted radiator the first ingredient for a disastrous PORTABLE system? The last thing I want if I'm lugging my case in and out of a trunk is exposed parts that can leak.
 

NaNoSoLdIeR

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wouldn't Scythe Ninja 2 be a better cooler for this system? I think it's the same price as the one used... And judging by my own experience with it it would have made the airflow from front to back possible.
If u had cut holes in the bottom near the fan for the graphics cards wouldn't it help?
I would have cut a hole big enough to fit a fan put a net over the fan, that would seriously cut those temperatures (I think)...
 
This one is a bit of a nightmare. I can say that, I hope, because I contributed to the parts selection thread and feel partly responsible. The case is too cramped for the system. Who could have guessed on the cooler though?
Maybe one of the top-down Scythes would have been better.
The 650W draw was a bit of a surprise. Good thing it's a PC P&C.
 

JeanLuc

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The noise table - If I was casually looking at the graphs I might be inclined to think that the default GPU fan ran at a fraction of the noise of the fan at full speed but when you look at the numbers it's more like a 20% increase. A bit misleading.

Good choice of CPU cooler although I might have gone with a the Titan Fenrir instead. However as ifko_pifko points out why did the more expensive $2500 system use a stock cooler yet you had the budget in the cheaper system for 3rd party cooling, very odd.
 

enterco

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Now, we can get to the heart of things: game benchmarks. This is what a portable LAN-party-sized system is made for in the first place, and is unfortunately where the CPU overclock will likely deliver diminishing gains as the resolution is raised and the graphics cards become the bottleneck.
If it were 'portable lan-party-sized', it wouldn't contain two dual-slot graphics cards on a micro-atx case, because of improper cooling. The choice of CPU heatsink it's also bad, and it may pose problems when the system is moved if handled improperly.
 
G

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I am running 920 @ 3.5ghz with standard cooler why not here ? Stable @24/7
windows server 2003 64 bit with standard 6 x 2gb kingston
 
[citation][nom]JeanLuc[/nom]The noise table - If I was casually looking at the graphs I might be inclined to think that the default GPU fan ran at a fraction of the noise of the fan at full speed but when you look at the numbers it's more like a 20% increase. A bit misleading.Good choice of CPU cooler although I might have gone with a the Titan Fenrir instead. However as ifko_pifko points out why did the more expensive $2500 system use a stock cooler yet you had the budget in the cheaper system for 3rd party cooling, very odd.[/citation]

I noticed that also however I believe that are doing that just to show how huge of a difference it is. My 4870 fan is at 33% idle 55% load(keeps it nice and cool though). 55% load is very loud esp with my computer right next to me. 100% load my desk rattles abit because the fan isnt perfectly centered and you can hear it in other rooms.
 
[citation][nom]DjEaZy[/nom]... is there a need of such system anyway? What yo all do with such systems? It's interesting...[/citation]

We play video games... Encode video's do, video editing. Some do 3D work. We need all the processing power in order to be more efficent..
 
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