System Builder Marathon, Sept. '09: $650 Gaming PC

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3D Games: Crysis And Far Cry 2

3D Games: Crysis and Far Cry 2

While the $600 portable PC needed to be overclocked to achieve a playable level of performance, the $650 gaming dragon handles Crysis high details in all three of our typical SBM resolutions.

Thanks again to the pair of Radeon HD 4850s, this month’s $650 PC steps up and offers the most playable Crysis experience at Very High settings to date for a budget SBM build. Of course, this is Crysis and we are still limited to lower resolutions.

We see mostly CPU-limited results here in Far Cry 2, although the Radeon HD 4850 CrossFire configuration  and graphics drivers likely impact the comparison to last month’s SBM. While the 2.5 GHz Pentium E5200 could use a bit of overclocking to maintain smoother frame rates, this month’s Phenom II X2 550 does just fine at its stock 3.1 GHz speed.

The $650 PC’s domination comes to an end, as the picture significantly changes when cranking details and adding 4x anti-aliasing (AA) to the mix. While the pair of 512MB Radeon HD 4850s start with a lead at low resolution, their performance quickly drops off as the resolution is raised. Looking at the results carried over from the past SBM, we still see mainly CPU-limited results as the GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 used in the $600 PC runs strong through each tested resolution. We can’t help but think how different this situation may have looked if a pair of 1GB Radeon HD 4850s had fit within this month’s budget.

Paul Henningsen
94 Comments Comment from the forums
  • dirtmountain
    A nicely done build, great work with overclocking on a stock cooler and an impeccable write up. Thanks for the great article Mr. Henningsen. AMD did a good job for a budget build, especially at stock clocks.
    Reply
  • one-shot
    Great article! It's crazy to see all of that packed into a case for only ~$650.
    Reply
  • I usually love reading these, but this time I just went directly to the comment section. There's no point in building or owning an amd box, they are too weak compared to modern Intel/Nvidia based systems.
    Reply
  • anamaniac
    Wonderful. =D

    What about the new $100 quad core athlon with no L3?
    I know I like extra cores. Wonderful choice regardless.

    I wonder what the quad core athlon with a 512MB 5850 (which would increase the budget though) will be like. Both cheap yet highend parts. =D

    Nice to see what only a pocketful of cash can get you.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    i know it wasn't available at the time but what about that 100 dollar quad core the athlon II x4?
    Reply
  • rdawise
    Good article. I know you stated you were leaving the "unlocking" of the other cores to the winner of the contest, but were you guys able to unlock? If so, could you re-run those benchmarks? Again great article.
    Reply
  • stray_gator
    While "forcing" all AMD builds for a single marathon is a good idea, the timing is somewhat unfortunate.
    An article which explores the performance and value of a complete Lynnfield build is something I (and many others, i'd dare to guess) would like to see but haven't yet, and this month's SBM is a missed opportunity in that regard.
    Reply
  • jj463rd
    That's a bitchin budget gamer system especially looking at the gaming benchmarks.Just this month I was thinking about building a similar type of system with the Phenom II X2 550BE.I was going to go with gigabytes 785G type board (just one graphics card slot) though however I may reconsider that especially with what you presented here although I was shooting for a much cheaper budget build (about $180 less than what you have),Newegg did have a gigabyte 785G board with the Phenom II X2 and $20 off in a combo deal until the end of this month.
    I think that your choices were better than mine (more powerful).
    Reply
  • gkay09
    Another alternate mobo - 785G ...they are availbale in AM3/AM2+ flavours and have SB 710, which can allow core unlocking -http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394
    But not sure about their o/c potential though...
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    Nice to see a cheap system still using a quality motherboard.
    Reply