System Builder Marathon, Q1 2013: $600 Gaming PC

[Cazalan]

I would have gone with the FX-6300 at the $600 price point.

 

[ojas]

It's interesting, that simply by disabling on-board graphics the power consumption of the quad core dropped to that of a pentium.
[citation][nom]seller417[/nom]A10-5800K Trinity 3.8GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) ($130 @ Newegg)MSI FM2-A85XA-G65 (Hudson D4) ($100 $ Newegg)Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3 1600 ($63 @ Newegg)SeaSonic 520W 80 Plus Bronze ($65 @ Newegg)128GB SSD OCZ Vertex 4 ($110 @ Newegg)500GB HDD Western Digital WD Blue 7200 ($60 @ Newegg)APEVIA X-PLORER2 Series case ($60 @ Newegg)SAMSUNG DVD Burner ($16 @ Newegg)Total $604the A10-5800K integrated GPU performs great on most games. If you plan on playing Crysis then you shouldn't be looking at budget gaming systems to begin with.the money saved from the dedicated GPU lets you go with an SSD, 8GB of RAM and a nicer case.[/citation]
A $600 gaming-first machine today should be able to run Crysis 1, 2 and 3 @ 45 fps, very high settings, 1050p AT LEAST.

 

[Onus]

^Sorry, that's fine for general purpose, but can't compare as a gaming PC, nor as a productive-work PC.

1. The APU isn't in the same league as the i5.
2. Lack of a discrete GPU makes it useless for the latest games with good settings at 1920x1080.
3. No cooler [plus a MSI mobo] will limit overclocking.
4. The PSU is way oversized for the build.
5. In my experience the Apevia case will be cheap junk.

And finally, the lowest-budget SBM builds have had no difficulty playing Crysis for a good while now.

 

[manicmike]

I'm currently running a gaming rig with an AMD FX-6100 OC'd to 4.2 GHz, on the Biostar TA990FXE Mobo and 8GB 2x4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 2000 running @ 1866, and I have been considering switching to an Intel CPU and Mobo (I plan to buy a GTX 670 eventually, and no PCIe 3.0 support from AMD CPUs yet as far as I know...) and was wondering if the step up to 3570k from 3550p was worth the $50...

I plan to OC as much as I can, and this article gave me some decent insight into how much headroom the 3550p actually has. Thank you Tom's!!! 😉

 

[Sakkura]

@Sakkura

That's my preferences in order to save a few bucks for the 2GB 7850 and 8GB RAM. Seeing newer titles requiring more and more VRAM, I personally would not settle for a 1GB card nowadays and having 8GB memory instead of 4GB really gives some more flexibility running background programs whilst doing other things (ie. gaming).

If you want to save money, you need to go with a B75 board instead of H77.

 

[pauldh]

[citation][nom]seller417[/nom]A10-5800K Trinity 3.8GHz... (Total $604the A10-5800K integrated GPU performs great on most games. If you plan on playing Crysis then you shouldn't be looking at budget gaming systems to begin with.the money saved from the dedicated GPU lets you go with an SSD, 8GB of RAM and a nicer case.[/citation]
Everyone's gaming needs are different, but it's a huge mistake to assume only rich folks deserve to play the latest demanding games. This $600 build can play FC3 at 1920x1080 Ultra with 2X MSAA, where i3 + 7870 LE could likely handle 4X MSAA fine. Gamers don't need to be rich, but most are best served by dedicated graphics.

While impressive for integrated, Trinity would be limited at best to medium details at 1280x720 or low details at 1920x1080 in games we test such as FC3, BF3, and even less demanding Skyrim.

 

[Traciatim]

[citation][nom]seller417[/nom]the A10-5800K integrated GPU performs great on most games. If you plan on playing Crysis then you shouldn't be looking at budget gaming systems to begin with.the money saved from the dedicated GPU lets you go with an SSD, 8GB of RAM and a nicer case.[/citation]

If by perform great you actually mean perform terribly even on medium settings at mediocre resolutions... then I agree. That build is good for people playing farmville, not any 3D games.

 

[Marcus52]

Nice job as usual, but about your comment that you want a gaming rig to be good at productivity apps too - well, any good gaming rig is going to do an acceptable job if your priority is gaming, so I still don't see your point in making over half your benches determine the success of a gaming build.

Perhaps the title of your articles would be more accurate if you called them general-purpose builds and not "gaming" builds.

 

[doggysoft]

what about 965 + 2x 7770 CF ?

 

[Onus]

what about 965 + 2x 7770 CF ?

Breaks the budget. You'd need a cooler for a decent OC, and a more substantial PSU; not much more, but again it breaks the budget. And, it still loses [badly] to the i5 in productivity applications. Then there's the subjective nature of micro-stutter. While adding a second HD7770 to a build that has one already might be interesting, I don't think you'd want to start out that way.

 

[f-14]

[citation][nom]stickmansam[/nom]Why is Canada not included in the draw? I want my rights you hear me! QQAFAIK there are no restrictions to contest stuff in Canada[/citation]
you for get tax/duty/import and import regulations/restrictions and X4 shipping cost

 

[achoo2]

This is, hands down, my favorite build of all the machines created for the series. I, too, would be interested in seeing if a 7870 is worth trading down to a lesser CPU, but I would happily recommend this build for myself, friends, or family. If this machine doesn't ace the value comparison, then I think you guys will need to overhaul your metrics to remove bias.

 

[jdwii]

I can't believe you guys are not reviewing crysis 3

 

[caamsa]

I just don't agree with that power supply and hard drive. That hard drive should have a back up of some kind. Also this is supposed to be a gaming build and you throw in applications in and that really skews that last chart you show that has nothing to do with gaming.

 

[groundrat]

Fascinating article. Convinced me to buy that i5 after all.

 

[cmi86]

I agree with the quad core as dual cores are becoming more and more irrelevant in the performance PC world as every day passes, including gaming. However on thing I would change is the damn cable management ! How come you guys get all these nice fancy parts and then just slop them into a case ? Take a little pride in your build and make an appealing and functional package.

 

[JonnyDough]

No USB 3.0 on that case. Fail.

 

[JonnyDough]

Oh, not to mention it has been discontinued on NewEgg. Maybe you should have checked with your marketing partners to make sure it would be available to us for the short foreseeable future?

 

[autoboy]

Best build yet. This is a fantastic build fitting a quad core CPU, overclocking, and a GPU capable of 1080p high settings. Dual cores seem to do pretty well on your benchmarks, but they fall down in some games that matter such as BF3 multiplayer and aren't that future proof. While you might have gotten more fps in some games going with an i3 and a 7870, you'd sacrifice too much for games that use 4 threads and you'd get no overclocking which is boring reading. Nicely done. I hope you win.

I also want to say that I really like the new price breakdown. It will make for a more competitive matchup this time around especially since after $1000 you're starting to spend money on luxury items like an SSD, BD drive, and fancy cases. Those things are nice, but affect the value scores too much to include in this format. If people want those things then by all means get them, but they don't benchmark well except maybe for the SSD which you can fit in a $1000 build anyways.

 

[RedJaron]

I like the angle of this SBM, with the tighter budget groupings. Should really be interesting.

I like the idea of the i5/7850 over the i3/7870. Yeah, the latter would serve up some better gaming frames, but the i5 just makes a better system base. The only question is whether that PSU would be strong enough for a GPU upgrade down the road.

One question on the 3350P: does disabling the HD4000 also disable the Quick Sync? I know that may not be a big deal to most users. But if this is to be used as a productivity machine as well, anyone processing a lot of home movies might want the added transcoding speed.

 

[ingtar33]

once again tom's misses the boat. The i5 is a superior CPU to the FX 6300... that said the FX6300 performance is right there... within a few frames using the same GPU. So by saving scratch on the CPU and MB... you can scrape up some money for where the battle really would be won. with a GPU.

This build would spank Tom's easily.

/ /

CPU: ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: ($77.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: ($49.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: ($25.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $579.48

(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-26 21:34 EST-0500)

 

[ingtar33]

shoot.... here is a repost.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gfx8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gfx8/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gfx8/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($77.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z5 ATX Mid Tower Case ($25.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $579.48
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-26 21:39 EST-0500)

 

[ingtar33]

sorry.. here is a repost.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gfx8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gfx8/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gfx8/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($77.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z5 ATX Mid Tower Case ($25.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $579.48
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-26 21:39 EST-0500)

 

[ingtar33]

repost... :\

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gfx8
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gfx8/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Gfx8/benchmarks/

CPU: AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor ($119.99 @ Microcenter)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-DS3 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($77.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($49.50 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($39.99 @ Microcenter)
Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 XT 2GB Video Card ($239.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Zalman Z5 ATX Mid Tower Case ($25.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg)

Total: $579.48
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-26 21:39 EST-0500)

 

[ingtar33]

sorry everyone. didn't mean to spam. 🙁

my post wasn't posting...