System Builder Marathon, Q2 2013: $1300 Enthusiast PC

[RedJaron]

If I were a betting man:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($319.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($119.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-I DELUXE/WD Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($207.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($353.98 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 690 4GB Video Card ($999.99 @ Newegg)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($95.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 660W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($148.54 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2597.99

All the Titan talk has said it is THE card if you're limited to a single card in a tight space, so I'm banking on that. And I've a sneaky suspicion Tom favors Lian-Li cases over the Prodigy. Here's my final guess:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($319.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i 77.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-I DELUXE/WD Mini ITX LGA1155 Motherboard ($207.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Tactical 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($144.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($249.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($159.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX Titan 6GB Video Card ($1024.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Lian-Li PC-Q08B Mini ITX Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 760W 80 PLUS Platinum Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($189.71 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($71.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $2574.90

 

[Onus]

slomo4sho posted a sweet build, and somehow RedJaron edged it out. I guess I'll know soon if this keyboard is drool-resistant.

 

[RedJaron]

slomo4sho posted a sweet build, and somehow RedJaron edged it out. I guess I'll know soon if this keyboard is drool-resistant.

will the h100 fit that lian li case ?

I'll admit, I don't know. I'm not big on liquid cooling or ITX cases.

 

[airborn824]

why not use a fx8350+7970?

 

[RedJaron]

why not use a fx8350+7970?

Why use an FX when an i7 is in the budget? Compute performance aside, the heat from an FX CPU in an ITX case is not the best way to go. And the Titan has better thermals than the 7970 as well.

EDIT: Sorry, you're probably asking about the $1300 build rather than our hypothetical $2600 budget. Still, the heat from an FX in an ITX case isn't a great idea.

 

[The Indomitable]

$420 for a 2gb 680? That's what I call uber fail.

 

[slomo4sho]

why not use a fx8350+7970?

No available AM3+ ITX boards...

slomo4sho posted a sweet build, and somehow RedJaron edged it out. I guess I'll know soon if this keyboard is drool-resistant.

If the Titan could compete with the GTX 690...

 

[Onus]

For 1080p gaming, the graphics cards are essentially equal (i.e. overkill); he got the edge over the smaller case and the faster SSD. I'd very happily win either though...

 

[laststop311]

I'm sorry but the choices made for this system were honestly idiotic. One of the worse marathon builds I've ever seen.

 

[laststop311]

I think the whole aminstream lineup is BS and just exists so we have to pay extra foor the real cpu's. They gimp so many geatures from the main stream. At least I can finally start saving for my Q4 2014 8c/16t upgrade over my i7-980x. 5 years to make a worhty upgrade shame on u intel

 

[CheesyHotDogPuff]

I feel you used too much money on this build, considering $1300 is 30% more then $1000, and a lot of people don't have $1300. $1000 on the other hand is easier on the wallet.

 

[RedJaron]

slomo4sho posted a sweet build, and somehow RedJaron edged it out. I guess I'll know soon if this keyboard is drool-resistant.

If the Titan could compete with the GTX 690...

Depends on what you're looking for. The 690 will edge the Titan a bit in gameplay, but the Titan will also exhaust all of its heat and has better all around compute. So now my question is can we merge those builds? Keep the 512GB SSD, the i7, the mboard feature set, and the $1000 GPU without breaking $2600?

 

[Novuake]

Absolutely no amount of reasoning can convince me to justify a GTX680 above a GTX670...
I still do not get the logic behind most of this despite decent explanations.
CX750m? Overkill and not really the most stable PSU, not bad but still.
Adata SSD? Most of them vary so much in their performance and reliability, I would not touch them.

 

[Crashman]

slomo4sho posted a sweet build, and somehow RedJaron edged it out. I guess I'll know soon if this keyboard is drool-resistant.

If the Titan could compete with the GTX 690...

Depends on what you're looking for. The 690 will edge the Titan a bit in gameplay, but the Titan will also exhaust all of its heat and has better all around compute. So now my question is can we merge those builds? Keep the 512GB SSD, the i7, the mboard feature set, and the $1000 GPU without breaking $2600?

Do I see marriage in your future? One hour left and counting!

 

[airborn824]

why not use a fx8350+7970?

Why use an FX when an i7 is in the budget? Compute performance aside, the heat from an FX CPU in an ITX case is not the best way to go. And the Titan has better thermals than the 7970 as well.

EDIT: Sorry, you're probably asking about the $1300 build rather than our hypothetical $2600 budget. Still, the heat from an FX in an ITX case isn't a great idea.

for $1300

 

[jbheller]

Seriously....you would put a fan on the outside of that Li-Li case? How ugly could you make it? I built a similar system with a corsair h60 cooler and a Zotac Z68-a-e motherboard. Yes it was quite fiddly to assemble, but I was able to fit the cooler inside without it getting in the way of any connectors. If you still can't get it to fit, use a bitfenix prodigy case. More room and half the time to built it.

 

[RedJaron]

slomo4sho posted a sweet build, and somehow RedJaron edged it out. I guess I'll know soon if this keyboard is drool-resistant.

If the Titan could compete with the GTX 690...

Depends on what you're looking for. The 690 will edge the Titan a bit in gameplay, but the Titan will also exhaust all of its heat and has better all around compute. So now my question is can we merge those builds? Keep the 512GB SSD, the i7, the mboard feature set, and the $1000 GPU without breaking $2600?

Do I see marriage in your future? One hour left and counting!

I think my wife might have something to say about that. Let's say this: whichever of us is closer to your actual specs wins the box. Deal? 😉

 

[SR TEE]

Very impressive results, but if I have that kind of money to spend I wouldn't waste it on a micro build like that. I would have gotten a mid tower and a decent atx motherboard and used the savings on a bigger and better ssd and a full 16 gigs of ddr3 1866. If I had that kind of money to throw around why would I care about my electric bill as lon as I had a really goo cooling system. I do agree liquid cool is the way to go and I do have two Intel 330 120gig SSDs running in a raid 0 and I would never argue the speed of those things. Never a dull moment reading about the systems Tom's hardware puts together and I always learn some new tips and tricks from it.

Thx Tom.

 

[Onus]

Seriously....you would put a fan on the outside of that Li-Li case? How ugly could you make it? I built a similar system with a corsair h60 cooler and a Zotac Z68-a-e motherboard. Yes it was quite fiddly to assemble, but I was able to fit the cooler inside without it getting in the way of any connectors. If you still can't get it to fit, use a bitfenix prodigy case. More room and half the time to built it.

This. I just don't see anyone wanting this eyesore on his desk.
I hope that "don't try to do too much" with a mini-ITX is one of the [useful] lessons that comes from this SBM cycle. Future SBM rule: other than cables, no hardware is allowed to hang off of or out of a case, unless you do a bench-build cycle.

 

[Crashman]

slomo4sho posted a sweet build, and somehow RedJaron edged it out. I guess I'll know soon if this keyboard is drool-resistant.

If the Titan could compete with the GTX 690...

Depends on what you're looking for. The 690 will edge the Titan a bit in gameplay, but the Titan will also exhaust all of its heat and has better all around compute. So now my question is can we merge those builds? Keep the 512GB SSD, the i7, the mboard feature set, and the $1000 GPU without breaking $2600?

Do I see marriage in your future? One hour left and counting!

I think my wife might have something to say about that. Let's say this: whichever of us is closer to your actual specs wins the box. Deal? 😉

Funny thing happened on the way to "Publish": Another time-sensitive article came up. So, these were left unpublished for a month due to the lack of a contiguous publishing week, and now they're being published non-contiguously anyway. The saga continues Monday!

 

[ojas]

I don't think that was Don's "error," and in fact I might think that's too strong a word. He knows graphics card power needs as well as anyone. I think he was looking at 450W 80+ Gold PSUs, saw a great deal on a modular 750W PSU, and jumped on it without investigating anything between them. In any case, he didn't choose a bad PSU, just one bigger than needed. It's too bad he didn't have the extra money for a bigger SSD, but what's done is done.

Like I said, you're going to have a love/hate relationship with my PSU

I predict 1.2kW Platiunum rated, modular, fanless 😛

Or how about an appropriate capacity but way overpriced high-end unit?

Wouldn't mind that, as long as it makes a difference.

 

[David Siebert]

Very close to what I did for a build. And yes I made sure that I was under the 1300 price without rebates this time. I went with a 770 since they are just as fast the 680s and actually a little cheaper. And I went with the BitFenix Prodigy case and an H100 cooler since Haswell seems to put out more heat than Ivy Bridge.
And not this is not to say look how much smarter I am than the author. I have the advantage of not having to have ordered the parts for the build a month or more ago.
AKA this is just me having some fun.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/18uSI
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/18uSI/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/18uSI/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($199.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100 92.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($89.99 @ NCIX US)
Motherboard: ASRock Z87E-ITX Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($164.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($69.30 @ Newegg)
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V200 Series 64GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($74.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 770 2GB Video Card ($399.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX Tower Case ($59.99 @ Microcenter)
Power Supply: OCZ ZT 750W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply ($79.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer ($14.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1207.20
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-20 16:41 EDT-0400)

I have also built the $2700 mATX rig in PC parts picker. I wonder how close I will match the one that Tom's does.
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/18viv
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/18viv/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/18viv/benchmarks/

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($499.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110 94.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($119.88 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 EXTREME4-M Micro ATX LGA2011 Motherboard ($199.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2133 Memory ($174.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($129.98 @ Outlet PC)
Storage: Seagate Desktop HDD 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($156.99 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Seagate Desktop HDD 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive ($156.99 @ NCIX US)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX Titan 6GB Video Card ($999.99 @ NCIX US)
Case: Corsair 350D Window MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($104.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Silverstone Strider Essential 700W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($70.24 @ NCIX US)
Total: $2614.03
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-06-20 16:49 EDT-0400)

I

 

[ojas]

slomo4sho posted a sweet build, and somehow RedJaron edged it out. I guess I'll know soon if this keyboard is drool-resistant.

If the Titan could compete with the GTX 690...

Depends on what you're looking for. The 690 will edge the Titan a bit in gameplay, but the Titan will also exhaust all of its heat and has better all around compute. So now my question is can we merge those builds? Keep the 512GB SSD, the i7, the mboard feature set, and the $1000 GPU without breaking $2600?

Do I see marriage in your future? One hour left and counting!

I think my wife might have something to say about that. Let's say this: whichever of us is closer to your actual specs wins the box. Deal? 😉

Funny thing happened on the way to "Publish": Another time-sensitive article came up. So, these were left unpublished for a month due to the lack of a contiguous publishing week, and now they're being published non-contiguously anyway. The saga continues Monday!

Monday? Damn. 🙁

 

[ojas]

Yeah i'm predicting a Titan too, after all, wasn't that its main appeal (SFF gaming)?

 

[Onus]

How about that little GTX670 that Asus did for small builds? I guess since he was having fun we won't ding David for not getting all his parts at Newegg either...