System Builder Marathon, Sept. '09: AMD System Value Compared

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Good job on the $650 and $1250 builds but the $2500's SSDs are questionable.

I personally would have gone 2x VelociRaptor 150GB in raid 0. Unfortunately is still short of of the cheapest HD 4890 on newegg for quad CF... I would reconsider the raid 1 setup and water cooling next... Would 2x VelociRaptor 300GB and no raid 1 work too?

I have fileserver so my primary system's storage system is for performance so raid 1 out and HD 4890 in for me. 🙂



 
Btw I love the test, neven seen such a test with four gf'x... Allmost up to the 1000 watt use, that will run a little expensive, have to get your own windmill
 
I just built a similar system. But with BE AMD chip, 6 GB memory and 2 4890's.
I will post some results. The unit cost me 1550 with rebates, I went all out of a sweet case that pumped up the price.
This is for gaming. The article bears out my theory that although AMD may not be "king" the value for performance is on par with i7 series 920's when it comes to frame rates. I am not intending to do video/productivity or anything else just fragging. Its a win.
 
I just built a similar system. But with BE AMD chip, 6 GB memory and 2 4890's.
I will post some results. The unit cost me 1550 with rebates, I went all out of a sweet case that pumped up the price.
This is for gaming. The article bears out my theory that although AMD may not be "king" the value for performance is on par with i7 series 920's when it comes to frame rates. I am not intending to do video/productivity or anything else just fragging. Its a win.
 
[citation][nom]maniac5999[/nom]I think that for gaming today an all AMD build at about $800 is definately the sweet Spot. Here's what I'd do:AMD Phenom II X3 720 $119 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103649The X4 945 is better but current games get almost no benefit from a 4th coreGigabyte AM3 Mobo $80 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128392It might be worth it to go for a Mobo with 2 PCIe x16 slots for a possible crossfire setup later on4GB DDR3 1333 Ram $73: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6820148262ATi 5870 $380: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102856500GB HDD $57: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6822136073it might be better to go for 1TB of storage at an extra $25Case, PSU and DVD drive will probably be $100-150There we go , an ultimate AMD gaming rig for $800-900 depending on your options, And it can probably beat an i7 920 with a pair of GTX260s in most games.[/citation]

Yeah I would agree. If I won one of (try saying that 3 times fast) these I wouldn't mess any more w/the oc settings, especially the 1250 build w/the crazy quad-fire action going on in there. It looks like they'd get a little warm in there.
 
[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]One more day on the contest setup guys, sorry. Factors outside of my control and all of that...[/citation]

Wow looks like one more day is gonna turn into at least two.
 
Heh, I keep checking to see if the contest has been posted. Not like it's a rush or anything, I just don't wanna miss out when the contest is posted. This could save me a lot of money since I'm currently building a pair of new gaming rigs.
 
I keep checking to see if the contest is up. Not like it's a rush, but I'm already in the process of building two new gaming boxes, so this could save me a lot of money! POST IT DO IT NOW! 😉
 
iv been looking as well. but patiently waiting :) and heck i would be greatly apreciative to win even one of those bad boys. new favorite game + contest = entry ah can you feel the excitement, everyone waiting for the post button.
 
[citation][nom]overshocks[/nom]why they using amd cpus just because people are complaining? so pathetic... amd processors..they suck i5 750> all amd..thats sad at $198 price[/citation]

1156 motherboards wouldn't work well for three or more graphics cards.
 
Great Article/s Mr. Soderstom.

Great tools for one such as myself who periodically build systems.
I always come to TH to research my next build and this article demonstrates $/performance that's easy to sort.

I find myself a little out of touch with this article now because as with many others, I'm Only Upgrading my puter.

Bang for the buck for Upgrading is far cheaper of course. And Demand is likely to be higher for allot of TH readers who have successfully built personal systems in the past.

My current upgrade is as cheap as your $600 rig but smokes or matches your $2500 dollar rig.(less graphics because I and many tend upgrade graphics 4:1 that of system (mobo/CPU/Memory/OS) upgrades).

If you kept these systems and upgraded them as performance gains became worthy in the future, TH readers could gain a guide that may follow their own upgrade needs.

Thanks,
A.J.
 
So let me get this straight. I'm paying $40.66 just for the bays to 'hold' my SSD. I'm not a fan of taping my SSD in my case, but paying over $40 for cheap pieces of plastic to hold the drives is not good design. There should be a better alternative for cheaper.
 
[citation][nom]nolie[/nom]So let me get this straight. I'm paying $40.66 just for the bays to 'hold' my SSD. I'm not a fan of taping my SSD in my case, but paying over $40 for cheap pieces of plastic to hold the drives is not good design. There should be a better alternative for cheaper.[/citation]

The drive "rack" is actually fairly nice, and I saw it for $22 at Newegg yesterday. As for the 3.5" to 5.25" bay adapter, Newegg added a new model for $5.xx yesterday. I hope $28 is more appropriate for you.
 
I know that's nitpicking and you didn't mind value in your 2500$ rig, and I really appreciate all the efforts and thoughts put into these systems, but that's still rather unfair since (gaming) performance/value was one of the criterias, when the 2500$ system would actually perform the same as a ~1800$ one.
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