System Builder Marathon, Q3 2013: $2550 Performance PC

[internetlad]

We get it, you love EVGA, and Toms is seriously grinding all up on the Nvida 700 series cards. No love for the 7970, eh?

 

[jimmyzt]

thank you for your answer I understand now

 

[doogansquest]

Wow that case is ugly and impractical when paired with the rest of the hardware.

 

[piklar]

Also why go Tri SLI then sabotage potential by selecting a small case with poor airflow? I would have thought it a no brainer to take advantage of the cards design to blow air out of the case and utilize this in a case with vertical layout and fans pushing air from the bottom to the top for optimal cooling and overclocking potential. Ha! here I am still adding comments! Your article continues to niggle at me, I know and appreciate the work that has gone into it but please consider an alternative build like the 4770K SLI 780 build I mentioned earlier and utilize the $2600 budget to its full potential as opposed to the current build that is impractical given its potential thermal issues.

 

[Crashman]

at 2k and above, there should not be any hhd's, just ssd, evo 750gb maybe, hdd is sad.

That my friend is an opinion. And one in fact that many of us would consider wrong. If you had the money for a 750GB SSD and a bunch of storage, you could buy three 2 TB HDD's for RAID 5 and have enough money left for an expensive dinner.

ssd is not an opinion, is fastest 1 unit solution, and the best solution is less parts, highest speed, stop holding back the future by buying a hhd,

Of course it's the fastest 1-unit solution, which is why the build has a 1-unit SSD. So what's your argument against having an additional 3TB of secondary storage?

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.

Opening the system was part of the diagnostics process. The shown thermal readings are with the system closed.

We get it, you love EVGA, and Toms is seriously grinding all up on the Nvida 700 series cards. No love for the 7970, eh?

Lots of love for 7950's and 7970's in the Q1 and Q2 marathons, I think they hit four out of eight builds. But this time the guys wanted me to play with the 760, and the goal was to beat the previous dual-GPU Nvidia card.

 

[Sei]

It was obvious from reading the article that the author was experimenting with parts rather than building a sustem that he would actually buy or reccommend. I think it is a good idea to do that once in a while, everyone here could choose the obvious 4770k and 780 sli.

 

[babernet_1]

Actually two nube mistakes. Power supply wasn't big enough. Takes over 750W on pcpartpicker. Once you overclock the processor and three cards you will run higher, as he found. This overtaxed supply could have caused some of his overclocking issues. Should have started with a 1000W.

Second is the case. You should have more fans blowing in than out. With that graphics card farm he should have had a couple side fans blowing right on them. Epic fail. As we saw.

 

[akula2]

674W of Power? Alright.

I hope FCC comes up with a law stating:

Any PC draws more than 500W must be off the Grid, i.e., buy your own Solar Panels! 😀

 

[gsxrme]

Fart build. 3way and 4 way SLI driver support sux ass. Been there done that with 3 8800ultras and 2 gtx295. Nvidia dropped the ball hard after next gen cards released. I was forced to sell because no more support.

 

[jmrainwa]

I'm looking to build a gaming pc with 2500ish budget so I was really looking forward to this article. I really wish you would have put together a pc that one of you might actual build for yourself. This build really doesn't seem to have any relevant real world info, more of a science experiment than anything. Love these articles, and looking forward to the rest of the series.

 

[ipwn3r456]

The Tri-GTX 760s is a good idea, but personally I won't go with any graphics configuration over 2 way SLI or CrossfireX, due to scaling issues. I would rather get 2 GTX 770s or 2 HD 7970s...

 

[chumly]

When will we see some benchmarks at 2560x1440 (or x1600)? I'm sure more people are at these resolution than 3x 1080 displays. It would make sense to bench things at QHD as well.

 

[Crashman]

When will we see some benchmarks at 2560x1440 (or x1600)? I'm sure more people are at these resolution than 3x 1080 displays. It would make sense to bench things at QHD as well.

Jump back about a year when the SBM still used 2560x1600. The reason we went to triple-wide displays is that hardly any of your fellow readers could justify the expense of a 2560x1600 display.

 

[md1032]

This is an interesting build and the guy who put this stuff together must have done his research to find a CPU/mobo combo that would allow 3-way SLI to work so efficiently. The relative performance drop represented by adding a third card is surprisingly small and he netted over 7200 3DMarks (graphics) per card at stock speeds!

The thing I don't get is what this rig was going for. My understanding is that it was intended to be the absolute maximum in graphics performance per dollar, but if so, why the expensive, slow 3 TB HDD? Why the Lian Li aluminum case? Why the $80 blu-ray drive? Heck, maybe you could have gotten away with 8 GB of RAM.

If practicality is indeed part of the equation, this is an unrealistic build. I would think that if most people spent $2500 on a computer, they would want basic things like a blingy case with a window on it, some bling-tastic LED fans, and some water cooling somewhere. Also, I think a computer of this price range should have a top-tier SSD or at least two faster "value" SSD's like the Mushkin Chronos Deluxe in RAID 0.

I think it would be interesting to see an SLI GTX 780 setup of some sort. It's within the budget.

 

[slomo4sho]

Jump back about a year when the SBM still used 2560x1600. The reason we went to triple-wide displays is that hardly any of your fellow readers could justify the expense of a 2560x1600 display.

I for one appreciate the transition since it is possible to pickup three 1080P displays for under $450 whereas a single 1440P or 1600P display is still going to run a minimum of $550.

 

[IcePrince1991]

At the time..(based on sales and such) my build was

NZXT Phantom (Phan-001BK) @ 109.99
Asrock Z87 OC Formula/ac @297.99
i7 4770k @ 339.99
Asus GTX780 DC2OC @ 669.99
GSkill Ripjaw 2x8GB 1600 @ 69.99 ea (was cheaper than the dual kit)
Azza Titan 1000w @ 105.99
128G Plexor M5 @ 99.99
Seagate Barracuda 3TB @ 119.99
LG Black BD Burner @ 59.99
Corsair H60 water cooler @ 69.99

Thats just under $1900.. If I had your budget I could have had The 780's in SLI 😀

 

[Crashman]

The thing I don't get is what this rig was going for. My understanding is that it was intended to be the absolute maximum in graphics performance per dollar, but if so, why the expensive, slow 3 TB HDD? Why the Lian Li aluminum case? Why the $80 blu-ray drive? Heck, maybe you could have gotten away with 8 GB of RAM....
I think it would be interesting to see an SLI GTX 780 setup of some sort. It's within the budget.

The top PC's goal has usually been "best of everything" that fit within budget. The desire to "one-up" the previous $2500 PC's GPU and CPU without losing any of its features influenced those choices.

 

[RedJaron]

Interesting experiment with the triple 760. They didn't scale as well as I hoped, but that's a nice answer to have.

I agree, the case may not have been the best decision, but that's easy to say after the fact. I wonder how this would have done in a Raven 3.

 

[slomo4sho]

At the time..(based on sales and such) my build was

NZXT Phantom (Phan-001BK) @ 109.99
Asrock Z87 OC Formula/ac @297.99
i7 4770k @ 339.99
Asus GTX780 DC2OC @ 669.99
GSkill Ripjaw 2x8GB 1600 @ 69.99 ea (was cheaper than the dual kit)
Azza Titan 1000w @ 105.99
128G Plexor M5 @ 99.99
Seagate Barracuda 3TB @ 119.99
LG Black BD Burner @ 59.99
Corsair H60 water cooler @ 69.99

Thats just under $1900.. If I had your budget I could have had The 780's in SLI 😀

You can always do better with sales and promos but that isn't the purpose of these articles. For example, my current build cost me $2400 but the same parts are currently around $3300 with current prices. This is what I paid for each component:

PCPartPicker part list

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($275)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 240M 86.2 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($60)
Motherboard: Asus Maximus VI Extreme ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($345)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($40)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($40)
Storage: Samsung 830 Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($90)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($50)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($40)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (4-Way CrossFire) ($140)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (4-Way CrossFire) ($160)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (4-Way CrossFire) ($160)
Video Card: MSI Radeon HD 7950 3GB Video Card (4-Way CrossFire) ($160)
Case: Cooler Master HAF XB (Black) ATX Desktop Case ($14)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-R8 PWM 31.4 CFM 80mm Fan ($14.40)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-R8 PWM 31.4 CFM 80mm Fan ($14.40)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-MFJR-07FK-R1 110.0 CFM 200mm Fan ($5.20)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($20)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($20)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($20)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($20)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($20)
Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM 55.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($20)
Power Supply: Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($160.00 )
Optical Drive: Asus BW-12B1ST/BLK/G/AS Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer ($60)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($120)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($120)
Monitor: Asus VS238H-P 23.0" Monitor ($120)
Keyboard: Microsoft Natural 4000 Wired Ergonomic Keyboard ($25)
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Wired Laser Mouse ($40)
Other: Coollaboratory Liquid Ultra 100% Metal Thermal Interface Material ($15)
Other: StarTech DP2DVIS DisplayPort to DVI Active Adapter ($23.20)
Total: $2411.20

 

[md1032]

Interesting experiment with the triple 760. They didn't scale as well as I hoped, but that's a nice answer to have.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/geforce_gtx_670_2_and_3way_sli_review,1.html

Could be worse. GPU Boss did this one with 3 GTX 670's (similar card) and they didn't get crap from the third card. They averaged 5450 3DMarks per GTX 670 in 3-way SLI which is crap from a card that is natively better performing than the GTX 760. Of course, they also got 8455 from a single GTX 670 which is less than my reference GTX 670 makes at 9569 (9626 after the new drivers), because they intentionally disabled turbo boost.

 

[cobra5000]

Three 760's? Yuck!

 

[Amdlova]

3770k and asrock z77 extreme 6 with gtx 670 give 275w on the wall 750w silver 230v you give no S... because your father pay the bills

 

[cmi86]

Wow that case is ugly and impractical when paired with the rest of the hardware.

It is a horrid corsair c70 rip off

 

[Crashman]

Wow that case is ugly and impractical when paired with the rest of the hardware.

It is a horrid corsair c70 rip off

And Steven Tyler ripped off Run DMC with Walk This Way, right?

Lian-Li cases usually look about the same as each other and haven't changed for like, 20 years. If you're going to accuse someone of ripping off a design, choose the one who came out with it last.

 

[f-14]

pretty much what i expected from the deficiencies in the the GPU's, the M/B, PSU, Case. and CPU Cooler
asrock= well known for riddled bios and driver problems and poor GPU slot layout not to mention lack of 32 PCIE lanes (8,4,4 really? come on guy you can get that on a 1366/1156/1155/1150 socket)
1 of the GPU's back so tight it sucks air thru a 1CM crack
Case that is poorly ventilated air flow design considering the CPU and 3 GPU's planned for it, was sucking out more air than the front fan could ever hope to provide, that's a serious problem considering the parts and what was being attempted.
over priced PSU lacking sufficient power for TRI SLI from 3 of the higher end of the spectrum of mid-range cards.
AIR COOLED CPU COOLER, over sized, and over priced compared to a lighter cheap better regulated thick radiator boxed closed loop water cooler for one of the highest and hotter Intel CPU's

i knew just the parts alone it was going to over heat and have driver bios problems.