WarFactory Sentinel: Gaming on a Grand
by Dustin Sklavos on June 8, 2011 12:01 AM ESTConclusion: A Smart Buy
WarFactory had to have been feeling pretty good about themselves when they sent the Sentinel along, because this is the kind of build I really like to see: performance, price, and value all line up beautifully. Noise is nonexistent, power consumption is low, and there are virtually no cut corners.
If we sit down and really analyze the component choices, there are very few changes I'd personally make to the build. I think the 650-watt power supply is a bit overkill and there's a strong tendency in both enthusiasts and the industry to put vastly more powerful power supplies into systems than are really needed even for long term use. The fact is, though, quality power supplies under 400 or even 500 watts are actually fairly rarefied. For future-proofing I'd probably go with a 500 watt myself, but we're splitting hairs here. The other changes I'd make are the RAM and the hard drive, but again, these are minor quibbles and almost boil down to personal preference.
From a pure financial standpoint, it would cost the end user about $250 less to build the same machine themselves using off the shelf parts. If we assume WarFactory is getting decent deals from vendors, they're maybe making about $300 at most per build. That's not offensive, and in exchange you get personalized customer support for the lifetime of the computer or the boutique. I think that's a very fair deal, and one I'd personally go for before buying an extended warranty from Best Buy.
Between the reasonably smart component choices, the solid build quality, and the generally good value, I see no reason not to give the WarFactory Sentinel our recommendation. If you don't need need the warranty, you could save some money (or upgrade a few components), but looking at find similar systems from other vendors won't save you much—iBUYPOWER for instance came to around $1142 while CyberPowerPC checks in at $1110 (with minor differences in component choices).
While this is a solid offering, Llano is just over the horizon and is likely worth waiting another month to see how things shake out. We'll also see if the other vendors can equal or surpass the Sentinel. There are two main reasons we're withholding an Editors' Choice award. The first is that WarFactory just hasn't been around long enough for us to know they'll be here in five or ten years; they have a decent looking site and mission statement, but they're only two years old. The other reason is that while pricing is competitive, when you can assemble the same system for $849 from Newegg you're looking at a 25% markup. It's a reasonable deal considering the warranty, but you might also consider pre-configured systems like this, this, or this—in other words, you can get similar or better performance at lower prices and still have money left for a decent SSD (or a 2-year extended warranty).
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korle - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Why does this case look so similir to the two year older Antect 300...kuzzia - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Why not Sandy Bridge? Just look at this link from Techspot that shows that when a game is CPU bound (Starcraft II, Civ V), the Sandy Bridge architecture are much superior to the aging AMD architecture.http://www.techspot.com/review/353-intel-sandy-bri...
Buying a Core i5 2300 or 2400 would suffice for the non-overclocker, and the small increase in price is definitely worth the increase of performance. A decent H67-board should also be comparatively priced to a similar AMD mo-bo. The change to Intel could be financed by a 500-600W PSU. Also bya modern one, the Corsair is three years old now!
Otherwise, a great system for its price range!
MKEGameDesign - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
I just built something very similar to this PC, except I went with the HAF 922 and a Radeon card. Using ATI here would make a lot more sense, because the mobo in this build is CrossfireX only, not SLI. Getting an NVIDIA card cramps future upgrades.Also, while they're nice for the money, the HAF cases are dust magnets.
casteve - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Most of the baseline 80% efficient PSUs tend to start ramping their fans up at the 50% load point. The Corsair TX650 follows this. So, you spec for a PSU that is twice your expected load in order to avoid PSU noise - or you buy an 80+ Gold or Platinum supply than has a lot less waste heat.http://www.silentpcreview.com/files/images/corsair...
Guspaz - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Higher-spec PSUs tend to have better cooling (they need to, more heat to remove). This often means that the more wattage a PSU supports, the quieter it gets at a fixed power level. A 500w PSU at 400w is probably going to be rather loud, but an 850w PSU at 400w is probably going to be pretty quiet.cknobman - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Sorry but for a grand I was expecting more however I thoroughly appreciate these articles/reivews from Anandtech because its a constant reminder of how much better and cheaper it is to build your own rig.Nfarce - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
I had the same thought exactly. But, you have to remember, we home builders are well in the minority when it comes to overall desktop PC ownership figures. There are vastly more people out there who don't want to be bothered with building their own rig from scratch - and probably others who don't even know they can. But I have to agree with the others: this should have been a Sandy Bridge/i5 build along with a stronger video card like a 560 or 5850. Not sure what this company's profit margins are on builds, but I have built rigs for friends and relatives for just $100-150 above cost. My business model would be to lower the price (or increase the quality) and potentially sell more at a lower margin.frozentundra123456 - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
I have seen a Dell with a 2600 Sandy bridge CPU and a 5770 for less than 1100.00. And if you watch carefully you might even get a monitor for that price too. And I think you could get a similar system to this one for cheaper on iBuyPower or CyberPower.Phenom II X4 = fail in my opinion, except for super budget system.
frozentundra123456 - Wednesday, June 8, 2011 - link
Wanted to make another comment too. Seems like an odd choice to put an SSD on a budget system like this. Personally, I would prefer to put the money towards a better CPU or GPU.TrackSmart - Thursday, June 9, 2011 - link
SSD's are getting cheap enough, and they make enough of a difference in how fast a system responds, that I think it's a reasonable part of a $1000 system. That said, if you strictly want the best gaming experience for your buck, I agree that a beefier video card would be the better choice...