System Builder Marathon Q1 2016: $662 Budget PC

[Onus]

Clearly, as you have done yourself, a builder is not restricted to a single site. For these builds, however, that restriction is essentially absolute. These SBM machines and their builders also have multiple goals. They want to win the value comparisons vs. one another, but they also realize that someone is going to win that machine, and make concessions on pure value for the sake of the eventual winner (which has not been me yet, fwiw). Sometimes it is a discussion of the trade-offs that is particularly interesting. One thing the builders are unlikely to be willing to give up is overclocking, even if the eventual winner might only run stock. For that reason, some higher capacity parts than strictly "necessary" are often used (e.g. a Z170 instead of H110, or an aftermarket cooler, or case with more fans).
Given the constraints and mixed goals of the SBM builders, I think they do a pretty good job, even if the lessons include what not to do.

 

[ComputerSecurityGuy]

I think this is a great build for Americans

Here in Canada, that motherboard is crazy expensive, and the i3 alone is over $170 after shipping. Since AMD's new 870K with the quiet cooler is just $110 CAD, AMD still wins for me outside the U.S.

It's actually the strong dollar, not particularly Intel's fault. Although I will say that Intel has been raising prices lately, since AMD has provided poor competition.

 

[RedJaron]

I also didn't bother reading the article before coming to my own conclusion that overclocking isn't worth the extra money.

Which means it would be fair for me to give you the same treatment and say that I didn't bother reading your post before coming to my own conclusion that it wasn't worth the time you took to write it.

Others have already pointed out some of the SBM rules, so I don't need to go over those again. However, I'll still address a few downsides of your proposed alternative.

First, your pricing isn't accurate. You haven't included an OS as I did. If we toss that out, my build was $100 less. You're also counting mail-in rebates in your final price, which is also against the SBM rules. Correcting your prices, your build is closer to $550 than $400.

Second, your chosen RAM will have much lower bandwidth than mine. It's a single stick, it's lower frequency, and it's much higher latency. An H110 board means you can't tweak the RAM. The H110 also has some other limitations, but that's up to an end user. The original H110 I had for this build had USB 3.1, something yours lacks. Just because memory bandwidth may not be important to you does not mean it's not important to anyone. Some workloads are very sensitive to RAM and see big benefits from higher bandwidth.

Third, your GPU is binned rather lower than mine. There's always a chance it may overclock better than the one I had, but that's not a given. Bottom line, the card I chose had a guaranteed higher minimum than yours.

Fourth, that case has only two fans: a 120mm intake and 80mm exhaust. Smaller fans are almost always noisier than larger ones since they have to spin faster to move as much air. Furthermore, that's a top-mounted PSU, meaning your PSU acts as a heat exhaust. Many, I would venture most, builders prefer the PSU to have its own intake so that it stays cooler and thus extends its lifespan.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

RedJaron pretty much summed it all up. Also, Bloodbath admitted to trolling.

 

[Guest]

et cet

I half concede the OS cost, but not really since students get it free and entrepreneurs can find re-seller keys for quarter price. $100 off big woop I was $200 below. Anyone on my imaginary ~$400 budget isn't going to have the luxury of scruples, unless that's what made them poor in the first place in which case they can use Ubuntu these days. Further issues with my pricing must be the result of not reading my other post, understandable after all it's pretty winded. Should you be skimming this sentence you may notice that my prices do not include rebates, I even have disabled them from PCPP, and single-channel is to allow future expansion without buying a new motherboard. This isn't an APU we're running, our theoretical user will somehow carry on without the satisfaction of knowing his RAM is blazing fast.

Furthermore I've never had a kid show me his piggy bank and then turn to his friends with 'sorry guys, I'm not going to be playing games with only a meager measly five megabits, Mr. BATH can <<edited by moderator>> right off with that suggestion.' I've never heard a hardworking debtor say to me 'no, I will not settle for an 80mm fan and maybe spend $5 on a new one later I'd rather save up another two months.' Anyway turkey has the right idea.

<<watch the f-bombs please. Also, Tom's Hardware does not support any form of software piracy. None. Period. Removed some inappropriate contnt.>>

 

[RedJaron]

I'm willing to entertain a troll ( for troll you brag to be ) for a little bit if it can be educational to others. You proposed an alternative that had some merit, but also a lot of drawbacks. Pointing those out can be helpful to others. Regardless, had you bothered to read anything other than the part list, you would see that I pointed out many times that this build could be accomplished cheaper without losing much performance as seen here.

However, it's pointless to discuss machine cost and value with someone who refers to obeying copyright and piracy laws as "a luxury of scruples." If you consider stealing to obtain computer parts acceptable, I would ask you to leave. I echo the warning already given: Tom's Hardware has no tolerance for those espousing, advertising, encouraging, or engaging in software piracy. Further infractions will be met with swift and hard consequences.