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COOLER MASTER STORM ENFORCER
It’s always a delight to attempt to pack huge videocards inside of a mid-tower case. Not! But that’s the price I’m paying for sinking most of my budget into graphics. Cooler Master’s Storm Enforcer case presents a tight squeeze for parts and cable management, but its slick looks, side-panel window, and support for two USB 3.0 ports on the front of the case make it an appealing package for a sub-$100 chassis. Most of the parts and pieces you can stuff inside the chassis are screwless additions, except for your screw-dependent PCI devices—an unexpected omission by Cooler Master.
See the gaping hole in what would otherwise be a nice column of drive bays? The beauty of the Cooler Master Storm Enforcer case is its modularity: You can remove some of the drive bays in the chassis to give yourself more room for cards, cables, and delicious airflow. Good thing, too—I had to remove the case’s included 2.5-inch drive bays (originally attached between the 3.5-inch bays and the PSU mount), in order to get the power supply to fit. The next best solution is to attach the SSD to a 2.5-inch-to-3.5-inch converter kit, and then use the Cooler Master’s included drive rails to attach the contraption into one of the remaining 3.5-inch drive bays.
ANTEC HCG-750 PSU
What I gained in cost savings by picking Antec’s reasonably priced power supply, I lost in modularity. There’s no way to get rid of cables I otherwise don’t need on this power supply, which is a bit of a let-down given the already cramped confines of the Cooler Master Storm Enforcer case and the two huge graphics cards I’m packing into the rig. But that’s OK—I was able to stuff the PSU’s extra cords behind the right side panel.
GIGABYTE Z68X-UD3H-B3
Since this is a budget build (of sorts), Gigabyte's Z68X-UD3H-B3 motherboard delivers an appealing mix of features and affordability. I love the diversity of connections Gigabyte throws into the mix: four USB ports, two USB 3.0 ports, eSATA, FireWire, and HDMI and DisplayPort for all those times you won't be using your discrete videocard. Three SATA 3Gb/s connections meet four SATA 6Gb/s on the motherboard itself, and Gigabyte makes sure to wire up its PCI connections in such a way that populating them all doesn't disable any other connections on the mobo itself—a big problem with other inexpensive Z68 motherboards I considered.
One thing you should note: The Z68-UD3H-B3's SATA ports are color-coded to indicate which of the ports are which. The gray ports are 6Gb/s SATA, but they are on the integrated Marvell controller. The two white Intel chipset-based 6Gb/s SATA ports (hint: use these for best performance!) are next to the two black 3Gb/s ports. Careful—you can't mix-and-match RAIDs across controllers.
INTEL'S SMART RESPONSE TECHNOLOGY
Enabling Intel's Smart Response Technology is as easy as setting a single option within the system's BIOS, installing Windows onto a non-SSD hard drive, and flicking on SRT within a small Intel software utility.
My initial goal with this build was to get a $1,500 PC that could run Crysis 2 at maxed-out settings. So the cost is a little higher, and the frame rates are a little lower, but I’m confident that the PC I’ve fashioned best straddles the line between affordability and awesome gaming. And this is all without overclocking the system a single bit—I will leave the process of jacking up your CPU and GPU speeds to your capable hands. I just wanted to showcase the kind of out-of-the-box performance you can expect from such a rig.
Gaming-wise, you aren’t going to get much better than an ATI Radeon 6970 CrossFire setup unless you jump into the realm of tri-card packages or dual-GPU CrossFireX/quad-SLI configurations, and those don’t really bring the word “budget” to mind (which is also why I opted not to pack two Nvidia GTX 580 cards into this rig). While you might scoff at my decision to spend half this rig’s cost on its graphics, I think the benchmarks speak for themselves. It’s no small feat to max out the resolution and quality of the games I’ve picked, and my system delivered excellent frame rates on what I’d otherwise consider unthinkable playing situations.
For a smallish chassis, Cooler Master's Storm Enforcer easily fits everything we need to game on a 30-inch panel.
Why’s that? It’s simple: I ran benchmarks that cranked antialiasing as high as it would possibly go on each game, a practice that’s all but unnecessary when you’re playing at a 2560x1600 resolution. You just aren’t going to need to maximize the visual-smoothing feature during common gaming. And as soon as you’ve turned that setting down a bit, boom—time to enjoy Crysis 2 in its raw, speedy glory. Wave goodbye to the 40 frames per second as reported by our maxed-out benchmark settings (including DirectX 11 and the high-resolution texture pack add-on; I’m not kidding when I say I tried to melt faces with this game).
Since every Build It invariably generates its share of “I could do that for cheaper” comments, here are some of the downgrades I’d consider if I really wanted to stick to a $1,500 price point. First off, there’s the case: You can always find a cheaper (albeit lamer) case, but it’s going to be a journey worthy of Indiana Jones to find an inexpensive one with USB 3.0 support that doesn’t stink. I might also drop down to ATI Radeon 6950 cards sprinkled with an overclock or a third-party firmware update that unlocks the cards’ shaders. If worse comes to worst, I could always drop the SSD and SRT. But that’s not very Maximum PC now, is it? Especially when all you’re left with is a fairly average, non-eye-popping hard drive.
For a tad over $1,500, you now have a system that’s capable of rocking out on a monitor that costs just as much, if not more, than the system itself. God speed, gamer.
| CrossFire ATI Radeon HD 6970 Rig |
Nvidia GTX 590 Rig |
|
|---|---|---|
| Batman Arkham Asylum | ||
| MSAA 16XQ, PhysX | n/a | 72 |
| No MSAA, No PhysX | 206 | 192 |
| AA and AF maxed, no PhysX | 124 | n/a |
| Dirt 3 | 75.6 | 68.3 |
| Total War: Shogun 2 | 124.5 | 110.8 |
| Metro 2033 | ||
| PhysX Enabled | n/a | 29 |
| PhysX Disabled | 40.5 | 30.1 |
| Crysis 2 | 42.3 |
41.9 |
Best scores are bolded. All benchmarks run at maximum/ultra-quality mode across both setups, DirectX 11 mode used when appropriate. Crysis 2 benchmarks incorporate DirectX 11 patch and high-resolution texture patch. All benchmarks run four times, with frame rates recorded for second, third, and fourth runs.
Comments are closed on this article
Vic
February 02, 2012 at 12:34pm
Is there a match up with this system and the BF3 system for around the same price $1,600 point? I would also like to see how the duel 6970s compair to the single 6970 on the BF3 machine with a better motherboard and faster memory.
Vic
January 31, 2012 at 10:05pm
Does this board support both GPU's at x16 or do they go down to x8? Is there a budget MOB board that supports the full x16 for both GPU's? I know it can be done on some AMD MOB's.
lazygirl
January 16, 2012 at 12:36pm
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Turbo Charge
October 19, 2011 at 10:45am
Asrock Z68Extreme 3 Gen 3 $124.99 SH $7.87 - CPU $209.99 - PS OCZ7softy 80 plus bronze moduler $99.99 Free SH and rebate74.99 - Corsair Vengeance 8 GB ddr3 1600 $49.99 Free SH - Lite on 24x dvd burner W lightscribe $19.99 SH .99 -SSD OCZ Vertex Plus 60GB $68.99 w Rebate $58.99 Free SH - Graphic Cards MSI N570GTX $319.99 w Rebate $289.99 - Case Thermaltake V9 Black Ed w Docking Stations $74.99 Free SH $49.99 rebate - OS Windows 7 Pro Sp1 64bit $139.99 - Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 rpm SATA 6 $59.99 sh 7.28 All of this is from newegg and you get more options and with out a doubt better performance or choose a better MB, but hey to each there own besides prices can very from day to day but you do come out with a cheaper price and save some moola and you can take that to the bank.
LatiosXT
October 18, 2011 at 12:29pm
MPC, you should do an article about one thing that will more than likely destroy the SDD, in both writing and taking up space: Moving the user folder off the SSD. There's some stuff floating on the web, one of them is doing it through symlinks.
40GB is smallish for an OS plus the user folder, especially when things start to pile up in it that you can't exactly get rid of (Like say for instance, save games and browser stuff that look in that folder and will go batcrap if it isn't there).
JBaz
October 18, 2011 at 6:20pm
They did... like months ago. Look at Steam Mover, it works for non-steam programs now as well.
Also, did you not read the article? The 40GB SSD is for the SRT drive feature, not as the MBR for the OS. The 1TB is the MBR while the SSD is the cache drive. A very expensive cache drive.
Adam Wolfe
October 18, 2011 at 11:39am
Everyone seems to be forgetting about tax, which will definitely break the bank.
JBaz
October 18, 2011 at 6:22pm
Tax is still YMMV for online retailers, but still most of us are still able to escape it. Slowing dying though.
praack
October 18, 2011 at 10:15am
now this is a build!
good enough to get the job done right - and the job is gaming!
great work
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January 16, 2012 at 12:35pm
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Turbo Charge
October 18, 2011 at 4:17am
I've Been reading and bought Maximum PC since the very first issue I was walikng down a lane in a store with the computer and hardhat together and it caught my Eye, Ford don't make crappy cars they have some that are just not ok but they have some that will kick a ferrari's Ass like the Ford GT, Now I have join this online web sight I just come here and read every day for the future of tech news but this pissed me off putting down ford, Kid I have been driving fords longer then you been Alive and they have not let me down don't make a comparison like that again for a company that supply's butt load of jobs for Americans that buy Maximum Pc Mags!
ABouman
October 18, 2011 at 10:27am
Hey, at least two of the Maximum PC editors (me and Nathan) drive Fords - and I love my Ranger! To be fair though, pretty much every auto manufacturer had hit a few sour notes here and there, and I'm sure what Murph meant was "the one crappy Ford that could be found" ; )
Turbo Charge
October 18, 2011 at 11:38am
Hey I must say that I myself have made the same anology comparing computers to automobiles but in the publics eye you must choose your words carefully and the comparison should have been a pinto because lets face it that was bomb ready to explode and also ferrari has made some crap vehicles, and if I had the money to buy a exported car it would have to be a bugatti or Lamborghini and not that other italian crap. Also Fords is the backbone of american history of automobiles and lets not forget that when the economy to a dump fords did not accept a bail out from our goverment and instead choose to handle there own financial problems, when you use the words fords and crap together it just don't mix, also I used to have a ranger too and let me tell you it kicked some serious boooty and now it's a explorer sport and simply love it.
JBaz
October 18, 2011 at 6:24pm
And what's the meaning of FORD? you know... the joke...
Fix or Repair Daily...
Although, their crap has gotten pretty damn good in the past decade.
iceman08
October 18, 2011 at 4:36am
Perhaps he meant dropping a Ferrari Testarossa engine into a Ford Pinto or perhaps a 1st gen Ford Focus. Both those Fords were very crappy, and disrespect to the engine. Remember he didn't specify which model of Ferrari either; 1980 Ferrari Mondial 8, anyone?
thetechchild
October 17, 2011 at 10:59pm
Around $1600 *isn't* breaking the bank? And what's with the dual-GPU?
ABouman
October 18, 2011 at 10:31am
Fair enough, it was just that our original headline Build It A Gaming Rig That Cost As Much As Your 30" Monitor And Geez How Many of You Is That Really At This Point didn't fit in the headline fields.
JBaz
October 18, 2011 at 7:09pm
Because two gpu's in a cardboard box would literally set it on fire. I mean you can fry an egg on those gpu's.
shommy2002
October 17, 2011 at 7:27pm
isn't the correct resolution 1680x1050? I never heard of 1650 x 1080...
yakmayar
October 17, 2011 at 6:36pm
I bought a 30" Apple Cinema Display for $1400 around 5/6 years ago. It still works fantastic and at this point I plan on upgrading to a new build. While I currently have a PSU and Tower that will work great for the new build...
- Why not better memory for a very minimal price difference?
- I would go with 2 570's or 1 580 over the 590 or the 2x ATI cards
- I would get a decent heatsink and overclock the CPU since it will make a difference in certain games
- I would spend a little more on a bigger SSD and install the OS there at least.
I would imagine people would already have an OS/Optical drive from previous builds which would save the money you would be spending on the additional upgrades I mentioned.
JBaz
October 17, 2011 at 7:50pm
I never liked the 30" Apple's, not because they sucked or over priced, but because for the same price, you could get a 30" monitor from Dell or HP that actually has 3 axis of control and go potrait mode... Now why can't Apple do that? oh wait, they want to spend $70 on that god aweful solid aluminim stand piece because it looks good...
Personally, the 570's price per performance value is pretty shity at the current 300-350 market price. If you can find them for 250-280 then that's the sweet spot. I personally have two of them in SLI and they fly at stock speeds, but be warned, these cards don't liked to be OC by a lot as the VRM is pretty crappy. Disable the voltage safety features and risk frying your cards at or above 1.05v-1.1v.
It's beyond me why they didn't add the cheap Cooler Master 212+ to this build. Its 26 bucks... and they should have nixxed the ssd. $85-100 for 40gb is way too much, specially for only sataII ssd.
DU00
October 17, 2011 at 5:53pm
Why not go with the GTX570 in SLI instead of the 590? They seem to get better performance at a slightly lower cost. Also the 2 570s come in cheaper than the two AMD cards at $680 for the pair on newegg.
JBaz
October 18, 2011 at 7:07pm
Specially considering their prices are going down lately. You could pick up an nice EVGA for $300-320. I picked up the MSi reference boards for 250 each new. The only down side is that they suck for OC, mostly due to the horrible VRM; specially when people disable the voltage warning and safety features to up the voltage manually and get greedy. People frining their boards at 1.05 or 1.1v+
Even stock speeds, two is pretty fast.
DU00
October 18, 2011 at 8:21pm
$250 each??? Where exactly did you find them that cheap? And yeah I read abou the VRM issues, but I can't speak from experience (2xHD5850s).
West996
October 17, 2011 at 3:01pm
I notice that your price doesn't include the monitor. Its one thing to build a rig that can play at those resolutions but if you don't have a monitor capable of it its kind of a waste.
What does that add to the total? Around $700?
JBaz
October 17, 2011 at 7:43pm
personally, I'd look at the new HP ZR 27" LED backlit IPS monitors that came out this month that has a 2560x1440 res. Dell has yet to revamps their 27" model. Also, you can technically still find some older gen used 30" monitors for 800 or less.
Kodess
October 17, 2011 at 3:47pm
700 wont cut it, they're talking about 30 inch and 2550x1600.
Dell has a 27 inch with that resolution for that price.
level1paladin
October 17, 2011 at 3:14pm
Yeah, I'd have to agree. Since the point of the article is to show how cheap you can go at that resolution, you should really have included the price of a monitor.
stingray5001
October 17, 2011 at 6:03pm
newegg.com has 3, this is the cheapest
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176177
West996
October 17, 2011 at 6:06pm
Wow so we are actually talking about adding over $1000 to the total price of this build.
That breaks my bank. :(
MastaGuy
October 17, 2011 at 2:58pm
I could do the same build with AMD processor and get it much cheaper
But thanks though
yu119995
October 17, 2011 at 3:28pm
I tend to agree with you. You could get a decent 890GX mobo and PII 955 combo for about $170 less. That $170 could be allocated elsewhere.
JBaz
October 18, 2011 at 7:03pm
Umm... even the i3 2100 beats the 955 in gaming for $120. Even then, you can find the i5 2500k for $150-180 on sale. Shit if you have a microcenter, you could get it for $110 if you buy a mobo.
yu119995
October 18, 2011 at 10:23pm
Two things. 1. No it doesn't and 2. I think the GPU is probably the deciding factor here.
mikeyfree
October 17, 2011 at 2:57pm
At a time when just about every big city in the USA,is in protest against big banking, and try to retrieve their money and deposit it else where...Maximumpc thinks a $1,600.00 built is not breaking the bank. Anyway, why did ya go for the ddr3/1333 g2 series? That mb can handle ddr3-1600/1866/2133 type memory. In head to head reviews you seem to use the ddr3/1600. There is only a small price difference if any from the ddr3/1333 to the ddr3/1600 for 8 gbs of it.
JBaz
October 17, 2011 at 7:54pm
Its $1600 budget machine that can pump out 2560x1600 res in modern games at high frame rates. What's not to get? You can keep your economy is blah blah blah or china is blah blah blah out of this, thx.
And yes, I agree, who the f*** puts 1333 cheap ram, specially 1.65v, in a good gaming rig like this? You can find 1600 speed modules for the same price or less than $10 more.
maddingo
October 18, 2011 at 1:04pm
ddr3 1600 / 1866 etc don't do basically f*** all for sandy bridge it just doesn't matterr.
now with some of AMDs stuff it does (llano for example) but 1333 is basically fine and near enough makes no difference for sandy.
JBaz
October 18, 2011 at 6:58pm
Granted, we are only talking about 1-2% difference in applications that is heavy on ram, but since the cost of 1600 cas9 1.5v is $40, the same cost they priced for slower 1333 1.65v, why not get the faster and lower voltage ram? This is MaxPC...
anonymousperson
October 17, 2011 at 2:40pm
" I’ll let the benchmarks (see page 68)"
I would love to see the benchmarks on page 68, except for the fact that there is only 2 pages...
DanScharff
October 17, 2011 at 2:48pm
Well, you could also look it up on page 68 of the November issue of the mag, if you're so inclined. But yeah, of course it's referring to the benchmark table at the end of the article on page 2. Thanks for pointing it out—fixed!
elo231
October 17, 2011 at 2:35pm
Nice review, but I'll change the graphics to a pair of HD6950, grab a Samsung SpinPoint F3, and grab
this motherboard. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157271
