System Builder Marathon Q1 2015: Our Mainstream Enthusiast PC

[Onus]

I'm not sure what I'd do if I win this one. I would definitely swap the 1.65V RAM into my AMD system for its 1.35V RAM. I'm not sure where I can fit that case, other than on my test bench. Maybe I'd swap the case with my AMD system's, so I could use this much faster machine as my primary. That means it gets that machine's Seasonic X650, and the rebuilt AMD (in this case) gets the EVGA.

 

[damric]

I use that case for my primary test bench. It's great for that, and I can close it up fast when benching is over so that bench cat doesn't get in there.

 

[synphul]

It doesn't look like a terrible build, although it looks like money was spent in odd directions. Over priced in some areas and cutting corners in others. I too would prefer to avoid 1.65v ram. They could have saved some going with 1800 ram over 2133 (since it's at 1.65 chances are it's just voltage oc'd 1800/1.5 anyway), better cases for the price or less. Likely better choices in motherboard even if it's not terrible, would have opted for a wd black over the blue and a better quality ssd. As usual, a $1000+ rig powered by a $50 psu. Oh well, to each their own.

Can't say I'd be overly excited to win this system. The cpu and gpu are the most decent components, the wd blue is a budget hdd, would ditch the ram, mobo, likely sell the case and probably just toss the psu in the circular file. Couldn't even feel good about giving that to someone else.

 

[Onus]

While I wouldn't put it in an enthusiast build, it's not like the PSU is a [non-"V" series; those are Seasonic] Coolermaster or worse, so I'd keep it for a low-stress home/office build.

 

[ykki]

How about running the same set up and tests with a 4690K just for kicks so that the difference in the two processors is blatantly obvious.

Yeah! Absolutely ZERO for gaming.

 

[filippi]

"Admittedly not an enthusiast-targeted motherboard, MSI's Z97 PC Mate comes... six power phases..."

Usually MSI low-end Z motherboards employ a analog PWM with some doubler scheme. Therefore it is not the best option for overclock an i7-4970k.

 

[HomerThompson]

The optical drive is a waste that could have gone into a quality PSU and a better motherboard. I do agree with the i7. It's 2015 and new games make use of 8+ threads for the most part. It's not 2013 when an i7 really was a waste of money over an i5 when everything was written for four threads or less. It's a trend that will continue since AAA games will need to continue to be optimized for 6+ cores to have any hope of running decently on the octacore consoles with their really weak per core performance. An i5-4690k is great on a $900 build, but on a $1300 one I'd definitely want an i7.

 

[f-14]

i would have liked to seen the problem issues with the previous build fixed with the increased budget instead of starting a whole new night mare with high rate failing pny ssd's plus that noisy cube box case, it's not even mini and it doesn't save any space infact it takes up more real estate on a LAN table which would be the whole point of that thing. i'm pretty sure the motherboard would fit on the side wall of that case, and if that case was cut in half and had a handle at the top and a slim odd fit into it side ways as well as the psu fit sideways across from the cpu as it's mounted to the wall and SSD mounting to the face panel, THEN i would very much be interested in it as a case.

i do like the zalman cooler choice, i've been wanting to see how well that works on these new cpus, everything else, good choice except i think paul scooped you on the ram. thanks don.

 

[youssef 2010]

I would've gotten a 16GB Ram kit. I realize that would push the total cost to $960 at least. But I found that upgrading from 8 GB to 16 GB to be worthwhile.

 

[Madrox7]

The Wd Blue is not budget, it is mainstream and a very solid produkt, i have six of them in raid-5 and they work like a charm. Greens are budget. Black is a little bit faster but more reliable? I dare to question that.

 

[Madrox7]

Bottleneck with a 4.7Ghz i7 4790k ? Really ??? omg.

 

[youssef 2010]

I would've gotten the 4690K and used the extra $100 to beef up the PSU, Buy an SLI capable motherboard (To be able to get another 970 in the future), and increase the memory to 16GB. After all this, you'll still be left with $ 50, this could help you increase the storage capacity or buy a better cooler for the CPU.

 

[synphul]

Madrox7, the wd blue drives aren't horrible but they are more or less the mainstream/budget line of wd's hard drives. The green's aren't budget really, they're a bit slower and consume less power which make them more eco friendly. The black's may be a bit faster but are built a bit better than the blue's (which is why they have a 5yr warranty vs the 2yr warranty of the blue's). The black's are essentially the same as the enterprise re4's but with some subtle differences with error recovery cycle times. Blacks have deeper and slower error recovery than re4 enterprise which is why they're not the best for raid setups. If the error recovery takes too long the raid will start dropping drives from the array from being non responsive. Enterprise drives are more suited to raid setups. Both black's and re4's are a bit heartier and designed to be run 24/7 (more so than the blue's). That's aside from the red's (nas drives) and purple's (dvr).

 

[Onus]

The optical drive is a waste that could have gone into a quality PSU and a better motherboard...

The optical drive does not count against the "performance" components. Especially once you realize that an ODD is typically available for closer to $14 or $15, the convenience is worth the price. Besides, this is a mainstream enthusiast PC, not strictly a gamer. Its enthusiast owner may work with a lot of media, or have other uses for an optical drive that a pure gamer might not have.
I will accept your other comments about preferring an i7 at face value. Gamer or non-gamer, the extra cores are becoming more useful.

 

[damric]

Onus, I bet you have a floppy drive, one of the BIG floppy drives, don't you?

 

[Onus]

No, not a 5-1/4" (I never had an 8") any more . I do have a couple of 3.5" floppy drives in a box, but only an old S775 system I still have can use one of those.

 

[damric]

My mother has had a the same broken typewriter sitting in her basement for almost 30 years. I should give you her number.

 

[Math Geek]

i was working on an old xp desktop and it needed a floppy to get sata drivers going for a windows install. it had the drive but i had long been without any floppy disks. ended up at local thrift store that had a new box of them. now i sit on a few just in case. there are many older systems out there that still need one for random things like this.

 

[Taintedskittles]

Just wondering how does the
Zalman CNPS9900 Max
compare against my cm hyper 212+ ?

 

[TheRaginGamer]

really not impressed with the parts choice in this build. why an i7, why the rubbish psu, ssd, the hideous case, lack of hdd (where do you save all your steam games???). The ugly cpu cooler thats $50 and hardly better than a 212 evo, mediocre motherboard and the blu-ray drive wtf???