System Buyer’s Guide: $1700 Performance Midrange
by Mike Jones and Jarred Walton on May 12, 2010 4:52 AM ESTBase System Components
Here's a recap of the common system components.
| Common System Components | ||||
| Hardware | Component | Price |
Estimated Shipping |
Rebate |
| Cooling | COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 Plus | $27 | $3 | |
| Video | Gigabyte HD 5850 1GB (OC) | $310 | $8 | |
| Memory | G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3-1600 F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL | $110 | ||
| Hard Drive | Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB WD1001FALS | $100 | ||
| Optical Drive | LG BD/HD DVD 10X BD read/16x DVD read/write UH10LS20 - OEM | $105 | ||
| Case | Cooler Master Storm Scout SGC-2000-KKN1-GP Mid-Tower | $80 | $10 | |
| Power Supply | Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750w 80 PLUS Certified SLI/CrossFire Ready | $110 | ($20) | |
If you’re interested in overclocking—or if you’re a builder simply looking for a quieter cooling solution than the retail fan—the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus is tough to beat in the performance midrange segment. With its single 120mm PWM fan operating between 600-2000 RPM, the Hyper 212 offers nearly silent operation at light loads (down to 13dBA), and manages to move an impressive 76.8 CFM at a fairly quiet 32 dBA maximum. Its four heatpipes make direct contact with the processor, facilitating rapid transfer of thermal energy, and it includes clips for mounting a second fan should you desire even more airflow. At $30 including a fan, it’s a great buy, and it works with both 1156 and AM3.
Continuing the theme of high performance/high value, the G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB DDR3-1600 CAS 9 kit—featured February’s PCs for Under $1000 guide—remains a compelling a choice, with a high bang for the buck ratio. Running at a low 1.5v, and reportedly solid overclockers, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better DDR3 solution in this price range. They also come with a lifetime warranty. Dropping down to DDR3-1333 (not that it won't likely overclock to DDR3-1600 speeds anyway) will only save about $7, so it's really not worth your time in our opinion.
The video card of choice for this system is the aforementioned factory overclocked Gigabyte Radeon HD 5850 1GB. As noted in last fall’s 5850 article, this part is the value alternative to the potent 5870, delivering between 85% and 90% of the performance of the larger card (depending on resolution) for roughly 80% of the money. Moreover, as prices on the GTX285 have remained significantly higher—despite the superior performance of the DirectX 11 5850—and a $30 or more premium seems too much to ask for the 2%-8% performance gains offered by the GTX 470, NVIDIA does not at present threaten the 5850’s value position. In short, the 5850 occupies a sweet spot in the desktop graphics card market, and doesn’t appear to have a direct competitor. It offers a ton of performance and, though not cheap, it appears to be the card to beat in the performance value segment. This particular card—with its GPU overclocked a mild 40MHz from the factory—delivers slightly upgraded performance for the same price as a stock card, or less. If you don't care about gaming, obviously you can downgrade to a number of less expensive GPUs.
The Corsair 750TX—another carryover from last year’s performance midrange system—is still a strong bargain, with a final cost of $90 after rebate. It has an impressive feature set—including a single 60A 12V rail—is 80 PLUS Certified, and SLI and CrossFire ready. It continues to enjoy a sterling reputation as a stable, quiet power supply, and offers some headroom for future system upgrades down the line. While you could certainly build this system with a smaller power supply—many manufacturers recommend a 500W minimum for the 5850—the 750TX is such a strong value, and a solid power supply is such an essential component to system stability, that it remains an easy choice here.
Those looking to run a lower spec PSU with a single GPU will be fine with the little brother of our recommended PSU, the CORSAIR CMPSU-400CX 400W. Priced at $50 (with a $10 MIR), it should be more efficient when your system is idle while still providing enough juice for the 5850. If you are thinking about going the Clarkdale route and/or a less powerful GPU, then we'd definitely recommend the 400W PSU as a more sensible choice. Just don't try running SLI/CrossFire setups.
Though the time for suggesting the purchase of an SSD boot/OS disk in this segment appears to be drawing closer, prices just aren’t there yet for most of us. In the meantime, builders will certainly be satisfied with the tried-and-true Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s. It has earned a reputation as a reliable drive, and consistently outperforms other 1TB 7200RPM drives in benchmarking. There are less expensive alternatives, however, and, if you don’t mind a slight drop-off in drive performance—unnoticeable for most users—this is a good part to look for on the cheap. 1TB 7200RPM drives are available from all of the major manufacturers for $80 or less.
For those of you that prefer faster random access times (useful for loading multiple apps at once), SSDs start at around $100 for a 32GB model. It won't offer the raw performance of the top SSDs, but for random access it will still be an order of magnitude faster than a conventional HDD. Really it's a question of balancing priorities, and you can go many different routes with a budget of $1000+.
Though Blu-Ray burners continue to be too expensive to recommend for this segment, the capability to read them is a must have in the performance segment. The good news is that the prices of Blu-Ray/DVD combo drives have fallen to the point that $105 buys you an LG UH10LS20 with 10X BD read speeds and 16X DVD burns. If you require Blu-Ray burning capability, an LG WH1LS30 can be had for around $160. Naturally, if you have no interest in Blu-ray you can swap this drive out for pretty much any DVDRW and save $80...which as many have pointed out in the comments is enough to get you very close to adding a small OS+Apps SSD like the OCZ Onyx.
Rounding out the base system is the case. There was a lot to like about the Cooler Master Storm Scout when we recommended it for last year’s performance midrange system, as it brought a lot to the table for $100. Today? Checking in at $80, that same case is a serious bargain and, because it offers a lot without breaking the bank, it seems like a proper home for the performance midrange system. It offers quiet, effective cooling courtesy of 1 x 120mm and 2 x 140mm fans, screw-less design, a control panel for adjusting LEDs and fan speed, eSATA, USB and audio connectivity via a top-mounted I/O panel, and even a carrying handle should you require some mobility out of your desktop. It also offers plenty of room for your peripherals, offering five 5.25” and six 3.5” drive bays. The style might be a bit flashy for some—the handle, red LEDs and overall military-tech feel skew a bit toward the LAN party crowd—and more conservative builders might prefer a more buttoned-up option. For those users, we suggest looking at the Lancool PC-K56, a quiet and well-designed steel case by the highly regarded Lian Li, available for the same price.
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knofix - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
I cant figure out what the target audience is for these systems. (OK maybe MAC buyers, since these two systems fall into their price range and maybe the nobrainer-rich kid with lots of dosh to spare)PC gamers would opt for better CPUs and SLI/CF perhaps, audio enthusiasts would sneer at the speakers (they are utter crap, usable for video streams with 5.1 channel sound yes, but they just massacre the audio files in stereo (so do 2.1)), media coders would be satisfied with the 6core and so would creative artists, although I think they would pick double the CPU power these 2 configurations have to offer and be satisfied with the GPU at hand (since Adobe loves GPUs now) but all of the above mentioned groups would hang you for only including 4GB of RAM. All of these groups of users would benefit from having a SSD.
So all of these guys are mid/high end users. And none of those would pick the configuration you bungled up. Verdict - FAIL
Since me being from the EU, I cant possibly imagine how much these two systems would cost here. OK I can. Price x 1.3, lets call it 2K Euros - btw. that would be the equivalent of an OVERKILL systems price in EU. (lets skip the wealthy minority and focus on real people - that is what mainstream means I guess).
killerclick - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
I hate poor people whining all the time about how they can't afford this or that.Anyone know where I can get a diamond encrusted laser mouse?
Ditiris - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
Pretty sure Razer makes that.
Setsunayaki - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
I'm sorry, but most players play games that are 3 - 5 years old and enjoy playing them. They play the occassional new game out there. Sorry,. but the top games are played by such a marginally low population. I'm part of a gaming club that is linked to other gaming clubs in the state and recently the majority of gamers out there were not playing Crysis or Batman.I still have an older system and with my configuration at 1900 x 1200 (and higher resolutions) play top games. Only lackluster thing in here is my aging video card, but for the most part I can get a stable to good framerate.
The majority of people that I know swiched from PC to XBOX360 in order to play games. They don't want to be troubled with frequent upgrading and only care about just playing game. I personaly do not own next generation consoles, but I know many who have made the switch back to consoles lately....
Majority of computer users are not gamers, they do basic things and I can build a system for basics that is $200 - $300, While a lot of parents do not want their kids messing around their hard earned PCs, so they buy them consoles. Until the industry can make enough software and not just enough to count on my fingers....the majority wont care about the highest end software out there...or even the latest action games when anyone can buy a console and be littered with them.
Polizei608 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
Maybe it's midrange because the person who got it was-MAAAAAAAAAAAAIKKKKKKKKKKKKE JONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNES
numberoneoppa - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
lol'd hard.skrewler2 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
might want to fix thatFrostburn - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
What is up with the horrible picture for this post? For a moment I thought it was a joke from your very first System Buyer's Guide or something, the worst looking case I've ever seen and a 7 year old 4:3 LCD monitor!Just about anything call fall into the "Midrange" category unless it is the fastest and most expensive parts out there. The system looks more expensive because they are buying a new monitor, keyboard, mouse, surround sound setup and a new OS to go with it. Most PC builders will already have/keep most of this stuff the same when they upgrade their system.
Furuno - Thursday, May 13, 2010 - link
First, I agree it is a midrange from performance perspective, as high end should at least have a "reasonable" i7 and "sane" CF/SLI setup. But please (again) consider that AnandTech is an international website, a midrange system should be (relatively) affordable by most people. Most people in my country even think my $1000 system is "crazy". I know we're might be the minority, but please consider this. Maybe using price range instead of Low/Mid/High moniker...Since most of the people that read AT is tech enthusiast and usually buld their own system. I'd like more "roundups" with (if possible) every component available for each category. For example, roundups of every motherboard with 890GX chipset, not just a "select" model.
Oh and, why you never metion about "other" SSD that exist beside Intel/Indilinx/Crucial/SandForce? What about those Imation/A-Data/Sandisk/etc SSD? Is they're any good?
Best Regards,
Furuno
GullLars - Thursday, May 13, 2010 - link
I'm guessing you mean SSD controllers. Imitation uses Mtron controllers, they are older generation and use SLC only. I have 2 of these Mtron Pro SSDs in RAID from back in 2008 before Intel were avalible. They work well, but they behave a bit different from the new SSDs. For one, Mtron SSD don't support NCQ, they have really low read latency, but fairly low random write (roughly 200-250 IOPS, about the same as a 15K SAS HDD whitout NCQ or shortstroke). In everyday use, they are comparable to Indilinx drives, but are more expensive. The pluss is they have no performance degradation whatsoever. Mine perform just as new after soon 2 years in RAID-0 as a much used system drive.
SanDisk SSDs i don't know a lot about, i haven't seen any info outside marketing campaings. The "vRPM" scheme is a farce. Their netbook replacement drives are likely a bit better than the ones they come with, but nothing like Intel or SandForce.
You also have Adtron SSDs, but i don't know if those are on the market anymore.
JMicron is a controller producer you didn't mention. Their early controllers had major issues with random writes. The new generation, JMF612/618(aka thosiba) have gotten it under controll, but are still limited by not using NCQ. They can be considered low-end. WD has made custom firmware for a line using JMF612 focusing on realiability.
Memoright are also a controller producer, but as far as i know, they only made one model. It was the best consumer SSD out there before Intel, but cost the double of Mtron, wich weren't cheap either (I gave about $1500 for my 2x 32GB Mtrons...).
Samsung has made SSD controllers. They have been OK at sequential performance, but sub-par on random performance. The last controller thay made came out about the same time as Indilinx Barefoot, over a year ago. Indilinx clearly beat it at performance. I haven't heard anything about new controllers from them, but they have invested in (not bought) Fusion-IO, wich makes the most powerfull flash SSD controllers i know of.
The other SSD controllers i know of are exclusively used in the enterprise, like STec, BitMicro, Foremay, TMS, Fusion-IO, etc.