System Builder Marathon, Q3 2013: $2550 Performance PC

[Mitche01]

Going of this article:
http://alienbabeltech.com/main/gtx-770-4gb-vs-2gb-tested/3/
Its clear that 4Gb versions of the GTX770 don't utilise the 4gb of VRAM - so I cant imagine GTX760 doing so either considering they are less powerful.

I think it would have been better to go for 3 2GB GTX760s as it would have been cheaper.

 

[vertexx]

Really informative! Monday morning pundits always think they're smarter than the coach. It was great to see the throwback build using SBE and to understand the strengths and weaknesses of that build.

The only thing I would say should have been known up front was the choice of that Lian Li case. That build was going to be all about case airflow, and Lian Li's, while they look great and have superior build quality, are not known for their airflow efficiency.

Any enthusiast building a beast like this would probably opt for a different case. The jury's out whether that would have helped your overclocking though.

Something like this Corsair Carbide (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139022) while saving $$ on drives might have worked better from a cooling standpoint while sacrificing on storage. But it's all about the trade-offs, right?

 

[TeraMedia]

I think Tom was beginning to feel the beginnings of autumn, and the approach of winter. This system makes a great space heater.

I usually find myself hoping to win the high-end machine first, and then the mid-range. This time, I don't want this system. I don't need the extra 760s (and selling something on eBay that you won ... just to turn around and pay taxes on the winnings plus sales tax just doesn't seem like fun to me), and this system also gives a completely different meaning to the term "burn-in".

I applaud the daring of trying out triple-SLI with the "latest" NV GPUs. From that perspective, this was a good build. Seeing the opposing effects of higher core count, memory bandwidth and L3 cache size vs. higher PCIe and RAM latency and lower IPC of the SB-E architecture is always useful.

But this system just isn't practical. It isn't particularly upgradeable (most upgrades require a part replacement instead of an addition), and it's already dated.

And that brings up an idea - what if one of the quarterly SBMs was more of a System Upgrade Marathon - the authors pick one of their previous builds and have a fixed (but perhaps scaled) budget with which to upgrade it in whatever way they can. The winner is the one who generates the greatest increase in performance for the lowest cost. I know that you guys don't have the original systems anymore so that complicates things considerably, but perhaps you can figure out a way to do something like this.

 

[cknobman]

Great processor choice.

Odd case choice.

Possibly one of the worst graphics setup choices I have ever seen on the Performance PC. Waste of money.

 

[de5_Roy]

3x7970's would decimate this build for the same amount of money...

not without fully updated frame pacing from amd, especially in eyefinity resolutions and 4k. amd would also have to support tri-fire (with profiles) for the games in toms' benchmark suite.
heat might have been another concern. afaik only HIS offered 3rd party blower type coolers for 7970s...i dunno for sure. i think HIS later updated their coolers for dual fan versions though.

ivb-e with radeons (hopefully the new ones) sound good. hopefully amd updates their drivers for multimonitors by that time. lots of hope needed. i am guessing amd's lack of driver support kept radeons from the higher end builds.

how about a centurion (e.g. amd fx9370) with cfx radeons in one of these higher end builds? winter is coming...

both $1300 and $2550 builds provide us with information and some confirmations that might not have come to light otherwise. and we see the cpus and other components(of all 3 builds) perform in a real pc configuration within set budget, instead of specialized test pcs.

 

[aebome]

I also agree that the budgets are too widely spaced. We all know that with $2500+ an insane build is possible, but it never wins the value award, and easily can go overboard (who wants to power this SBMs $2550 build? Definitely not me). I think the SBMs would be more valuable with a more compressed budget range, such as the $500-$1000-$1500 suggested previously, or even a $600-$1200-$1800 spread (as long as I'm throwing out suggestions a $550-$1100-$1650 spread could be very interesting). The value becomes more of a competition, and also provides a scenario where real compromises must be made while still trying for performance/value crowns.

Additionally, not a fan of this build, especially the tri-SLI choice. It requires too many compromises (8 slot case, motherboard layout, increase power and heat, and for right now older Sandy Bridge architecture that is known to be inefficient). Dual 770s would have been a better choice in my opinion, even if it didn't match the previous build. Also, not a fan of the case, especially with better ones available under $100 (Carbide 500/400, Silverstone options, even some other Lian-Lis, etc).

 

[davefromcalgary]

I definitely feel that all three of last quarters builds were more worthwhile, and I feel this is due to the limitation imposed by mATX form factor, much greater planning and consideration was given to the component choice. You could almost feel the pride reading the clever decisions made last quarter, where as this quarter seemed to lack the same forethought. Last quarters 2500 build in particular I thought was extremely cleverly implemented.

 

[Amdlova]

lol 850 + watts need on this build ? if mine 3770k push more than 300w from the wall. i go out and shot my self.

 

[Steveymoo]

Nice build! It's good to see what the performance benefits (or deficits,) of using a tri-sli set up are. I would like to see this system re-benchmarked when the next gen console titles start filtering over to PC, since hopefully they will take full advantage of all 6 cores.

 

[slomo4sho]

lol 850 + watts need on this build ? if mine 3770k push more than 300w from the wall. i go out and shot my self.

Congrats on your integrated graphics?

 

[InvalidError]

lol 850 + watts need on this build ? if mine 3770k push more than 300w from the wall. i go out and shot my self.

Congrats on your integrated graphics?

300W is enough for pretty decent rigs. A stock i7-3770k uses around 50W at full-load, a stock HD7870 uses around 150W. Throw in the HDD, SSD, RAM and other support components along with PSU losses, you get around 300W.

If he used the IGP, he would be under 120W under full CPU+IGP load.

300W gets a lot more done than people think it can mainly due to GPU manufacturers' grossly inflated PSU "requirements."

 

[Calculatron]

I noted the italicized "in an open system" when discussing the heat coming off the heatsink, and I am assuming that means you had taken the side of the case off during the test. I guess it would be a moot point to even wonder what would be the effect of switching to a case with some decent top fans.

If faster fans are what was required, I wonder how a Silver Arrow SB-E Extreme might have fared. Idle curiosity.

 

[slomo4sho]

300W is enough for pretty decent rigs. A stock i7-3770k uses around 50W at full-load, a stock HD7870 uses around 150W. Throw in the HDD, SSD, RAM and other support components along with PSU losses, you get around 300W.

If he used the IGP, he would be under 120W under full CPU+IGP load.

300W gets a lot more done than people think it can mainly due to GPU manufacturers' grossly inflated PSU "requirements."

You obviously missed the sarcasm... Thank you for taking the time to elaborate on power consumption as if I were completely ignorant of the subject... Cookie?

 

[marciocattini]

The older GPU architecture is definitelly holding those GPUs back... I'd like to see how newer games would fare with this build though, ones that are more optimized for multiple cores.

 

[cmi86]

Nice build however with a budget like this I definitely think some cool features like a Raystorm cooling loop kit from XSPC or comparable, or raided SSD's or something more than just the typical massive graphics overkill.

 

[spentshells]

The motherboard tainted the results.

 

[InvalidError]

You obviously missed the sarcasm... Thank you for taking the time to elaborate on power consumption as if I were completely ignorant of the subject...

Considering the degree of elitism and condescension that often runs rampant on these forums, it is impossible to tell sarcasm from someone being serious in that context - at least not without prior knowledge or investigation of the poster... or labeled as such.

 

[givememetal]

Hello folks,

I like reading these articles because I typically learn a lot- but I am struggling with one comment that Tom made:

"Nvidia doesn’t support three-way SLI in the x8-x4-x4 mode available from Intel’s mainstream processor interfaces, and LGA 1150 boards upgraded with high-bandwidth PCIe switches cost around $400."

Can anyone help me understand the first part? Just looking on Nvidia's website, they recommend some motherboards for LGA 1155 that claim to support 3 way SLI in x8-x4-x4 mode with a Z77 chipset.

I don't mean to be contentious, I'm just confused. Perhaps LGA 1155 is not considered a mainstream processor interface? Or is it not an option because it was used on the last performance build?

Thanks

 

[rayden54]

Hmm. It's funny how much these things change depending on WHEN you put them together.

 

[lp231]

3x7970's would decimate this build for the same amount of money...

Not sure about decimating, but it would have cost a little more and not filled Paul's curiosity. IIRC, the 760 4GB's were around $20 cheaper on order day.

On the other hand, Paul's single GPU was OK with 2GB. I figured we'd need a jump to 4GB with 3-way on his GPU, but 3GB on the 7970 probably would have been enough. Also, a total difference of $60 still would have fit within the budget limit, so, maybe Ivy-Bridge E and Radeons for the next build?

This build proves that spending the most money does not equal to best performance.

In order to prove what you're saying, I would have needed to search for worse-performing overpriced parts. You'll see on Day 4 that this build has the best performance of the three. So this build actually doesn't prove anything, except maybe that six core processors boost six-core benchmarks and that more graphics power gives you better frame rates at 5760x1080 (etc). But we didn't actually need any proof for those things, did we?

Why would you need to pick the worst performing overpriced parts just to prove what I've said? This build already proves what I've said. To have the fastest gaming computer does not mean you need to spend a lot just to have one. With this much to spend on a build. It can be a lot better, but no. To waste money on it, it went with a 6 core, X79, and 3x GTX 760, just to run at insane resolutions where 99.9% of users will probably never get to play in their lifetime.
For $2550, anyone configuring a build with some sense, can come up with a build that can perform better and maybe even cost less. If this build has a $5K budget, don't tell me the first thing to get is 3x GTX Titans

 

[butremor]

Who would build and use this PC, other than a tech-site hardware editor? I really believe the actual [type of] user needs to be identified for the high-tier "professional" PC. As a result, once again I'm disappointed in what looks like clear lack of value in this build. I usually stew over my responses to these builds, and I'll have more to say about this one, but I really didn't care for it.

Totally agree.


How about for the next SBM build team goes with 1200$, 1000$, 800$, 600$ budgets?? That will target the biggest chunk of the audience of people who are looking to buy new PC.

 

[jdwii]

I could easily take 350$ out by replacing some of these components that i could put at a higher end video card solution such as 2 780's. I wouldn't go with tri SLI.

 

[Achoo22]

It was beyond lazy of the builder to not retest once he identified the driver issue.

 

[jimmyzt]

I do not no why spend on cpu cooler cooling when a i7 4770 stock cooler would have good results. waste of money, spend on a better cpu. a simple i7 4770 does a very good? why a after market cooler?

 

[InvalidError]

I do not no why spend on cpu cooler cooling when a i7 4770 stock cooler would have good results. waste of money ?

The build used an i7-3930k which is faster than the i7-4770k under heavily threaded workloads and does not include a heatsink.

The main reason for choosing the i7-3930k is because it has 40x PCIe 3.0 lanes to run the GPUs in x16x16x8 configuration instead of x8x4x4 with the i7-4770k.