System Builder Marathon, Sept. 2010: $2000 Performance PC

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elpaletero

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That's a huge disappointment! While I was 100% certain that it would not come close to the core I7's gaming performance I certainly expected it to do much better than it did. I was seriously considering replacing my unlocked/overclocked x3 720 with one of these in the next month or so. I guess I'll be holding on to it for a while. Hopefully AMD's upcoming procesors will be compatible with my AM2+ board. Otherwise I'll start saving up for a complete new Intel build...
 

Crashman

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[citation][nom]husker[/nom]That was a $200 AMD processor. Should we drop a $200 intel processor in it's place and see how it compares?[/citation]You could if you wanted to, in fact you're going to see how a $200 Intel processor compares tomorrow. The only problem is...it's not really fair to compare a 4GHz AMD overclock (too hard) to a 3.7 GHz Intel overclock (too easy)[citation][nom]elpaletero[/nom]That's a huge disappointment! While I was 100% certain that it would not come close to the core I7's gaming performance I certainly expected it to do much better than it did. I was seriously considering replacing my unlocked/overclocked x3 720 with one of these in the next month or so. I guess I'll be holding on to it for a while. Hopefully AMD's upcoming procesors will be compatible with my AM2+ board. Otherwise I'll start saving up for a complete new Intel build...[/citation]2/3 of the benchmarks are non-gaming and it still came up short. There simply aren't many programs out there that are both AMD-optimized AND designed to use all six cores.
 

Moores Law

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Wow, the $2000 build was okay, I especially like that case. but something tells me we could probably get more performance for that amount of cash.
 

Moores Law

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Wow, the $2000 build was okay, I especially like that case. but something tells me we could probably get more performance for that amount of cash.
 

radguy

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I think everyone is being a little hard on amd here. As a builder you know that amds p2 architecture isn’t as good as intels core on a clock for clock bases and this cpu is only going to beat intels $90 more expensive proc in apps that likes multicore as opposed to multithread. And how many applications do that?

However by saving $90 on the proc and $50 on the mobo it helps to get you 2 480s vs 470s. So in overclocked gaming benchmarks at 2560x1600 on the ultra settings we got better performance on 3 out of 4 games. Crysis almost runs at 50 fps a SBM best I believe.

Also the reason you guys don’t put ssds in here is because in your benchmarks (besides pcmark) there is no place for an ssd to show any good value in your results.
 

doron

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What about NB / HT overclocking? ~2500mhz should be the sweet spot and this cpu will probably take you there easily, hopefully to eliminate some bottlenecks - After all, 1mb l3 cache per core isn't much at all and increasing NB (thus lowering l3 latency) should yield noticable improvements

Other than that very interesting article! Kudos for the bravery in the component selection (mainly cpu) :D Nice to see amd's 6 core abilities and drawbacks in all these real-world scenarios.
 
G

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Tom's Hardware makes a good point. People kept griping to do an AMD system, and well... we see that for this price range AMD doesn't offer much in the way of competition. This computer would have been excellent in the $1000 range, but really isn't a $2000 performance machine.

I swear it's the opposite of the netburst days. People griped about the P4 while AMD fans claimed that matching "performance" through pure clock speed was a sign of a poor processor, yet look how far an X6 has to be pushed in terms of GHZ to match even a quad core i7? Suddenly most people love it because it has a green logo on it instead of blue?
 

henryvalz

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We do three or four Intel-based builds in a row and everyone starts asking why we're not giving AMD a chance to shine.

That's what you get for listening to AMD fanboys, Chris! ;)

Can't wait to see the $1000 system.

I'm kind of amazed you wouldn't sacrifice some cost in order to get an SSD in there, given that it has shown the greatest effect on system speed per dollar.

I love how these system builds have become like NFL games, where the morning after we break down every part of them. We should start a computer-sports radio station! :)
 

SpadeM

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skora

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If there's just one person who had a similar build in a shopping cart and reads this and changes their build, then the article is a success. Tom's is great for challenging the status quo and asking the what "ifs." Would you rather do it with your money?
 

James296

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for $2000 I would of gone with intel (best performance clock for clock per dollar) but it's nice to see you try to do a high end amd build. Althrough I would of like to see a AMD vs. Intel build (2g of course), as amd would have the graphics power but intel would have the cpu power. also thanks for doing a amd/sli combo...been trying to find a mobo that would do this with causing me to go loony. anyway, I'm already wondering what you're doing for the $1000 and $500 builds.
 

marraco

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[citation][nom]cangelini[/nom]...We do three or four Intel-based builds in a row and everyone starts asking why we're not giving AMD a chance to shine.[/citation]
Congratulations.
Showing what not works is very valuable.

I still miss the SSD. They make a much better user experience, even if is not reflexed in 3D benchmarks.
 

triculious

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thanks for the build, guys... honesty is appreciated
I know it would take massive amounts of money and time, but I would really love to see some builder marathon with AMD vs Intel build for each price tier... alas, one can dream... and request =P
 
I have no temptation to build another rig for myself until I see what Bulldozer and Sandy Bridge bring to the table. With only one GTX480, this system would outperform my current primary though, so I'd be very happy to win it.
 

jestersage

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Love the case! Too bad I don't live in US of A.

Fanboyism aside, I think 480s in SLI were overkill - and too bad about that bottleneck. 5870s in crossfire might have been better. Yes, it would have been an all AMD build, but hey, I'm sure 460s in SLI are going to come up in later builds.

Looking forward to the other two machines.
 

Rokitty

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I would like to see if an 890FX with Crossfire Radeon's base config for the same amount of the Nvidia chipset board/SLI 480's would produce the same CPU limitations, same CPU, same everything else.
 

theoutbound

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Even though it didn't light the benchmarks up, it's still great to see what a high-end AMD system can do. It's nice for you guys to build these systems and give TH readers good information about what to expect before we spend our money. Thanks for the build and we can't wait to see the next one.
 

shin0bi272

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LOL half the price of the stupid thing is the 2 video cards! You could have gotten 2 5870s and saved 200 bucks and gotten almost the same performance. Then spent that 200 bucks on a real cpu :p
 

avatar_raq

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[citation][nom]husker[/nom]That was a $200 AMD processor. Should we drop a $200 intel processor in it's place and see how it compares?[/citation]

By all means! An i5-750/760 overclocked to 4Ghz+ (which it hits rather consistently) would beat the crap out of the 6 core amd cpu used here! Don't forget that the only advantage the core i7 cpus have over the core i5 750/760 is hyperthreading which gives a marginal performance boost in a handful of applications only.
 

doron

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[citation][nom]SpadeM[/nom]Misuse is the right word...given the right circumstances it could have dominated the benchmarks. Too bad this article didn't come out before the testes were done, maybe the builder could have picked up some ideas.http://www.anandtech.com/show/3877 [...] -scaling/7[/citation]

Just as I said only with hard evidence.. It would be pleasant if you'd overclock the NB and post at least some results just for us to see the difference - And just as I said before, there will most definitely be a difference (measly 1mb l3 per core absolutely screams for a latency reduction).
 
I think it overdoing it. I would prefer a SSD and 2 GTX460 in SLI with a better power supply and probably a core i5 and a sound card than this.

At least it gives us a good glimpse of the new 6 core chips from AMD. AMD is the best choice for anyone not spending more than 450$ on graphic cards. After that it's a waste...
 
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