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Last week we updated our Budget Badass to reflect the current price drops and made some improvements in hardware. This week we are shifting our focus to the power user. Shifting our focus also means shifting our cost up, but a higher budget means better hardware and faster performance. We've made a couple of adjustments to the video card and CPU as well as adding a second hard drive while taking your suggestions into consideration. While the final cost of this build exceeds a little past the $2500 mark, we believe the extra performance gain is well worth it. Keep in mind this is a Power User's PC, where our main focus is on utilizing the power of the processor through multitasking and multimedia programs. Read on to see our new setup for this Power User beast.
Videocard
Many felt the Radeon 4870 was a little weak for a power user rig, so we took your suggestions and doubled the GPU power to a Radeon 4870 X2. Running this card in our 2008 Dream Machine showed very impressive results and with the extra money we saved on the CPU (read below), we allocated some extra cash to boost GPU performance.
Intel's new P45 chipset gave us many reasons to love this board. Not only is it fast and full of new features, it also flaunts an exotic chipset heatsink design which makes it that much more cool!
You may be wondering why we downgraded from a Core 2 Extreme to Core 2 Quad. The truth is it's not much of a downgrade. Both chips are running at the same speed and cache with performance staying the same. The only difference is an unlocked multiplier which the Core 2 Quad lacks but when you are saving $400 that is something we can look past.
Not much explaining needed here. Memory is cheap and the more the better. With 64-bit Vista, 4GB is the minimum you'll need to become the power user you strive to become.
Comments are closed on this article
lil insn3
January 09, 2009 at 12:25am
Would it be possible I used a Q9550 instead of a Q9650?If so, why?
learning, please don't slander me with crap
brokenmoth08
October 19, 2008 at 10:26pm
No one jump me for asking, but why not go with this?
AMD Phenom9950 2.6GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Black Edition Processor-$184.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103291&Tpk=AMD%20Phenom%209950
ASUS M3A79-TDeluxe AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard-$188.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131339
brokenmoth08
December 16, 2008 at 1:11am
Can I get a responce that doesn't sound like it came from a twelve year old?
Devo85x
December 16, 2008 at 3:13pm
I have nothing against AMD (belive me, I have one of their CPUs) but AMD sucks for overclocking and the current Phenom can barely hit 3.0 Ghz... not to mention that most programs dont use four cores anyways so using a faster dual core will usually lead to better performance (not to mention, intel chips seem to get crazy overclocks)
tacogamer
October 14, 2008 at 6:04am
thats meeee ftw
AWESOMMEEEEE :D: :D :D :D
Someone give me $50 so i cant buy it plzzz >:(
Stephenh1984
October 11, 2008 at 10:28am
i am not an nvidia fanboy, but i think you should have used a gtx280(or 3), cause right now i have my computer has a 8800gt and i can run most games on its highest settings except for crysis and if read the DM issues you would see that the 4870 didnt do anything for crysis so an gtx280 would give you better support for most games and it is about $100 cheaper.
s3th
October 26, 2008 at 1:07am
Lol? If you had an Radeon 4870 x2 or just a plan 4870 for that matter, it owns any nvidia card, and no, nvidia doesnt support more games than ati at the moment, their 4850 and 4870 cards both support the new PhysX technology. So I have no idea where your getting your lies from
Danieldrum1
December 11, 2008 at 8:51am
Sure if your gonna run your games set in stone with MED settings go with what your talking about. ATI is getting mowed over with GTX200 series. Benchmarks arent even cutting it close there is a clear 30+ FPS on all games. This is a huge statement seeing as how ATI is always strong in First Person Shooters. Nvida is always great for your MMO's and RPG's. But after the release of gtx200 series dude, ATI just got left behind. As for PhysX technology..thats the biggest BS sales hype ever spit out. PhysX will flop within half a year watch!
Secondly, you cant judge the GTX280 by its benchmarks alone, unless you have Intel's new CPU which isnt out yet. Your processor will bottleneck the cards proformance. Thats right the actual GPU is slowed down by the CPU's settings. Now thats a Graphic Card!
bcweir
October 10, 2008 at 3:20pm
Somehow I doubt the WD raptor is available on Samsung's website. Perhaps you meant www.wd.com?
wk
October 10, 2008 at 12:54pm
in optical drive you choose LG GBW-H20L Blu-Ray Burner but the picture say otherwise (Samsung)!!!!
MPC is my home page
dreamreality
October 10, 2008 at 3:46pm
Good call on the mistakes. They have been corrected. Thanks!
Hai der
mikeart03a
October 10, 2008 at 12:53pm
You don't always have to the greatest hardware to get a decent rig going. I have one built here that's just under 2g. I'm reusing my old keyboard, mouse & X-Fi card. It may not be a dream machine, but it'll handle all my stuff without an issue and I'll still be able to play games.
Note: Prices are Canadian dollars.
Component Type Manufact. Description Price/Unit Quant. Sub-Total Case Cooler Master Centurion 590, Mid-Tower, Steel Cons., Black $85.99 1 $85.99 External Drives - 3.5" x1/5.25" x8 Internal Drives - 3.5" x4 7x Expansion Slots, 6x 12cm Fan Ports (2 included) 2x Front USB, 1x Front FireWire, 1x Audio (Phone/Mic) Power Supply OCZ Stealth Xstream - 600W, 12cm Fan, SATA, PCI-E $97.99 1 $97.99 20+4 Pin Main x1, 8 Pin Main x1, P4 MB 4 Pin x1, SATA x3, Floppy x2, PCI-E x2, Molex/IDE x6 Motherboard ASUSTek P5QC Motherboard - Intel P45 Chipset $207.99 1 $207.99 Support for Intel Core 2 Duo/Extreme/Quad Series CPUs Intel Celeron D 400-series/Dual Core, Pentium D FSB ratings: 800/1066/1333/1600mhz Max Memory Supported: (Dual Chan) 4gb 32-bit/16gb 64-bit Memory Support: DDR2 @ 667/800/1066/1200mhz OB Audio: 8 channel Realtek ALC1200 1x IDE Port, 8x SATA, 6x Ext. USB 2.0, 1x Ext. FireWire 1x Gbit LAN, 3x (Dual Device) Int. USB, 3x PCI, 3x PCI-E x1 1x PCI-E x16, 1x PS2 Keyboard, 1x PS2 Mouse CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4ghz, 8mb cahe, 1066mhz FSB $256.99 1 $256.99 RAM Patriot Patriot Extreme 4gb Dual Chan. DDR2-800 Mem (2x2gb) $87.99 1 $87.99 Video Card Sapphire Radeon HD4850 - 512mb/2x DVI/HDTV/HDMI/VGA $213.99 1 $213.99 DVD Burner LG LG GH22NS30 SATA Dual-Layer $30.99 1 $30.99 Hard Drive WD Caviar 500gb SATA 7200rpm/8mb cache $79.99 2 $159.98 OS Microsoft Windows Vista OEM SP1 32bit $134.99 1 $134.99 LCD Acer X243Wbd 24" 5ms/3000:1 Contrast/1920x1200 res/DVI/VGA $354.99 1 $354.99 Sub-Total $1,631.89 Shipping $62.63 Tax $218.16 Total $1,912.70 Edit: didn't realiaze that excel tables could be posted. o.o;;
- mike_art03a
IT Technician
Gov't of Canada
SARGE
October 15, 2008 at 9:08pm
Here is a build close to what I am getting. It's all from Newegg.com and the prices are current from 10/15/08.
I think that this build gives you better gaming performance, but that is just me. I also am using my old keyboard and speakers.
Component
TypeManufact. Item
DescriptionPrice Quant. Mail in Rebates Sub - Total Case Cooler Master HAF 932, ATX Full -
Tower, Black Steel case$159.99 1 $159.99 6x 5.25" bay, 1x 3.5" bay
(inside 5.25" bay), 7x expansion slots3x 230mm (FxSxT), 1x 140mm (back)
fans2x Audio, 4x USB, 1x Firewire, 1x
eSata, Power + Hdd leds on Front panelPower Supply Pc Power & 750W Silencer SLI
& CrossFire Certified Power supply$144.99 1 $25.00 $119.99 Cooling 1x 20+4pin, 2x 6pin & 2x 6+2pin
PCI-e, 1x 12v (4pin), 1x 12v (8pin),8x Peripheral, 6x Sata, 1x Floppy
Connectors83% Efficiency, 80 Plus Certified,
60A 12v railMotherboard Asus M3A32 - MVP Deluxe
WiFi AM2+ 790FX 2600Mhz FSB motherboard$199.99 1 $199.99 8GB DDR2 Dual Channel 1066mhz ram,
"N" chip AMD 790FX, "S" chip AMD SB600,4x PCIe x16 w/ ATi CrossFireX
support, @ dual x16, triple x16 / x8 / x8, or quad x82x PCI slots,OB 8 Channel ADI AD1988
audio, 1000Mbps LAN,1x PS/2, 6x USB 2.0, 1x 1394a, 1x
eSata 3Gb/s, S/PDIF 1x Optical, 1x Coaxial,CPU AMD Phenom 9950 2.6GHz
Black Edition, AM2+, 4000Mhz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache$184.99 1 $184.99 Ram Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) Dominator
Dual Channel DDR2 1066Mhz ram, 5-5-5-15, (PC2 8500)$124.00 1 $40.00 $84.00 Video Card Diamond HD 4870, 1Gb 256-bit
GDDR5 OB ram, PCIe 2.0, 2x DVI, 1x HDTV, HDMI via adapter$299.99 1 $299.99 DVD Burner Asus Asus 20x DVD+/-R/RW,
DL, Sata Burner with LightScribe$34.99 1 $34.99 Hard Drive Seagate Seagate
640Gb, 7200rpm, Sata, 32MB Cache, 3.5" Hard Drive$79.99 1 $79.99 OS Microsoft Windows Vista Premium
OEM SP1 64bit$99.99 1 $99.99 LCD Acer P243WAid 24",
2ms(GTG) 3000:1 Contrast, 1920x1200, HDMI$349.99 1 $349.99 Mouse Logitech G9 Gaming Mouse, 5
button, Tilt wheel, USB Wired Laser Mouse, 3200 DPI$89.99 1 $89.99 Sub - Total $1,778.90 Shipping $40.43 Total $1,819.33
$199.99 1 $199.99 $184.99 1 $184.99 $124.00 1 $40.00 $84.00 $299.99 1 $299.99 $34.99 1 $34.99 $79.99 1 $79.99 $99.99 1 $99.99 $349.99 1 $349.99 $89.99 1 $89.99 Sub - Total $1,778.90 Shipping $40.43 Total $1,819.33
guest001
October 12, 2008 at 7:40pm
Some of these pricings are quite expensive. You could probably knock off a few hundred dollars if you bought it from newegg, plus I don't think there would be tax. The canadian website is newegg.ca
Devo85x
October 12, 2008 at 11:59am
Good parts but most of your parts are underpowered compaired to what they could be... the ram is slower the cpu can be overclocked so i wont talk about that (i dont know how far that ram can be overclocked) and the graphics card is nothing compaired to what they chose... not only that but vista 32 bit???
mikeart03a
October 16, 2008 at 10:02pm
Regarding under-powered parts and Vista 32-bit. I was aiming for a more middle-of-the-road type system. I made some sacrifices in order maintain cost-effectiveness. I'm not too concerned about speeds either, I just want a decent workhorse system that I can use to run VMs, deal with my graphic work, etc. Gamres are not really a high priority for me, so I can afford to clock back on the RAM and Videocard a bit. As for Vista 32bit, have you tried running some older electronic circuit design software (my younger brother is an electronics course in college, so he needs to use some specialized software for his assignments and my PC can handle it better) on a 64bit OS? Ain't gonna happen.
- mike_art03a
IT Technician
Gov't of Canada
madc0w
October 10, 2008 at 11:48am
What I just built with a $2500 budget was:
Proc: Core2Quad Q9550 2.83GHz (saved $200 for 200MHz that I can easily OC to regain)
Mobo: eVGA nforce 790i FTW Edition
Ram: Patriot Viper 4GB DDR3 1333
Vid: 2x (SLI) Zotac Gefore GTX260 650MHz
Storage: 150GB Velociraptor & 1 TB Western Digital Caviar Black
Case: Zalman Professional GS-1000-TT (cus I wanted a REAL case w/ lots of room and
real features instead of bells and whistles)
Power: XCLIO Greatpower 1200WVista Prem x64, Blue-ray and MPC's picks for mouse and keyboard also were included in
that $2500 budget.All through NEWEGG who got it to me from California in under 4 days
uncleck
October 10, 2008 at 11:13am
What about the screwdriver, which is clearly shown on top of the rig in the first picture? After all, you did an entire article on them without naming one the "Best of the Best".
uncleck
October 10, 2008 at 3:11pm
I don't recall any Craftsman mentioned in the review. Perhaps there wasn't a Sears nearby?
Paul_Lilly
October 10, 2008 at 3:59pm
Craftsman was represented with its Auto Loading Multi Bit unit. It was the very first screwdriver in the roundup.
uncleck
October 12, 2008 at 10:04am
"I don't recall. . ." (As you get older, you have more of those kind of moments.)
sinan
October 10, 2008 at 10:54am
it also flaunts an exotic chipset heatsink design which makes it that much more cooler!
Much more cooler!!? :)
