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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JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
Once you select and install a motherboard, upgrading it down the road is really a PITA. Motherboard choice determines many of your core features, and while performance rarely varies much between brands, quality and stability (as well as overclocking and memory support) really differentiate the boards. If you only want to run stock, an inexpensive ECS board will probably work fine. Then again, I've seen a lot of inexpensive boards die after a couple years of use, while higher quality boards can last 5+ years.If you want to upgrade the HDD, GPU, RAM, or DVD you can do so in a matter of minutes. (If you have to clone the HDD to another drive, it will take a lot longer, but mostly you're waiting to copy files from one drive to the other.) If you need to upgrade the motherboard, it's pretty much like building a system from scratch.
Phate-13 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
Ok, well yes, that's a fact, I forget that there are the really cheap brands. What I'm more interested in, usually when assembling a pc I go for the cheapest ATX motherboard from a decent brand (Gigabyte, Asus, ...) with a decent chipset. I've always thought that there is barely any difference between the motherboards within the same brand (Gigabyte f.e.) when looking at performance AND quality, and only in features. (Most people don't need the features of the 790GX f.e.)So example: Before the 880-chipset from AMD I would've went for the cheapest (f.e.) Gigabyte 785G motherboard when assembling an AMD system. (Only checking for crossfire possibilities if wanted and ofcourse if nothing was odd with it.)
Any comments on that way of selecting a motherboard? (I'm just hoping to learn from it. :) )
Thanks a lot for the information already. I hope I did not offend with my comments, their just my opinions. ;)
JarredWalton - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
Really, it depends on two things: how demanding you are... and luck. LOL. Sometimes you can get a cheap board that's absolutely rock solid, and other times you get a piece of crap that never seems to work quite right. Some boards have compatibility issues with some brands of RAM, USB peripherals, etc. The major brands (ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI...) tend to be safe, but even then there's the occasional lemon. Best way to avoid getting burned IMO is to not buy a board until it has been out at least 2-3 months, and then read a few reviews and see what users are saying. Few boards are perfect, so for instance anything at Newegg with a 4 or 5 rating is typically fine.michal1980 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
When are you anandtech Guru's going to get realistic with power supplies.from the grahpics card artile linked here, the system with thr 5850 peaked at ~ 310 Watts. Why do you recommend a PSU for 2x that load?
GullLars - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
+1, 500-550W is more than enough here. This is a third source freeing up money for an SSD, or even 2R0 SSD, wich will actually make a huge difference in user experience.bennyg - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
Because PSU wattage ratings are a totally fail way to judge themthe higher the capacity: the less utilised it is during operation, the cooler it stays during operation, the more efficient it is, the longer it will last, the more room to upgrade in the future you will have, the better class of components are used in its manufacture. In general.
Of course there's a huge problem with yumcha "750W" PSUs which have stupidly high 3.3V/5V rails but are sadly lacking where it's actually needed - the 12V rail. But they are not the price that's listed in this article.
But marketing-by-misleading-specifications seems to be well represented in all hardware component markets (GTX260M anyone...)
Phate-13 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
On the other hand, most pc's are idle or on low load for most of the time. Account for the fact that under 20% load the efficiency of a PSU drop dramaticly, your better of with a PSU of less watt. At 100% load a PSU is still very efficient. Look at the 80Plus bronze rating: 82% @ 20%, 85% @ 50% and 82% at 100%.Less utilized percentage wise, isn't per definition a good thing.
Also it will last just as long. I mean, nobody said you have to find a PSU that exactly matches your maximum load. If the 310Watt load is correct, then 750Watt is almost 2.5 times what is needed. Even with 500 Watts you have quite a huge reserve.
And you also totally contradict yourself. You state: "Because PSU wattage ratings are a totally fail way to judge them" and then you state why higher is supposably better. If you want the better quality, buy a 500Watt PSU at the same price of the average 700Watt PSU, than you'll have a quality one.
Jediron - Tuesday, May 18, 2010 - link
The 50% argument is just silly. I can imagine that all PSU builders, because they know alot of us speak that way,, are doing their best to keep their PSU's performing just like that. With a meager 2% better efficiency at te "sweet spot". Really, what a fuss about a meager 2% difference between 50 and 80% . Atleast, that's what you see with the better brands. Look at the number, Silentpcreviews. They say it all!Most good Quality PSU stay perfectly fine up and around 80% of their rated power. So a HX750 for example, can deliver 600watts (output) , at the wall that "would be around 700watt" (input). It gets a litte hotter and the fan is spinning a little harder then. So what ? That's exactly what a PSU is supposed to do!
That's exaclty what i expect from a "high quality" PSU, for which you payed a premium price.
I remember the day, i was running a fat setup, with a meager "soso quality" Aopen 350watt. Others would not believe me, it worked day and night, rock solid en never broke down on me. No, you know what it is ?
FEAR! Fear for the unknown. It's easy to make people scared when they know shit about PSU's.
Brands are guilty too, mostly the cheaper brands. With their overrated PSU's and poor quality.
When i buy a Seasonix X-750 you can bet i will make it swett. Not too much, but enough to give the feeling i didn't put a V8 engine on my bycicle.
michal1980 - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
where did I say to go with a crappy PSU. You could get a good quality PSU for less money then this with less wattage, that will for the overall system be far more efficent, and more importantly sufficent.Mid-Range PC's imho, are all about Bang for the buck. The 750W PSU used in this example fails that test.
mcnabney - Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - link
Ahm, you don't know how power supplies work, do you?They are by far most efficient operating around 3/4 load and are in fact DESIGNED to run at that constant load.