Build-A-Rig Round 1: The $1500 PCs and Interviews from Corsair and Zotac
by Ian Cutress on July 8, 2015 5:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Build-A-Rig
- Corsair
- ZOTAC
- Interview
What Happens Now
We have the components for both of these systems in house, ready to build, test and review. This will take a couple of weeks, and we’ve chosen a good array of benchmarks to suit most needs while still retaining the focus of the purpose of this round of Build-A-Rig: a $1500 single monitor gaming machine. Given the responses from both Corsair and Zotac, it is clear that Corsair sees 4K gaming as the future and has designed for it, whereas the Zotac build might struggle at 4K but do great at 1080p/1440p which is ultimately where most gamers are at right now. With features like dynamic scaling resolution coming into the mix, perhaps the resolution of the panel is not the be-all and end-all of gaming.
Dustin Sklavos (Corsair) against Chinny Chuang (Zotac)
We will write up each PC for a full individual review, as well as a build log describing the experience of how the parts fit together. These reviews will be released over the next couple of weeks. Obviously the first one out of the gate gets the top results, but this is only because someone has to be the first tested (anyone remember Harry Enfield in Top Gear S01E01?). We have different editors working on each build as well, so each perspective should shed some light into how building the systems is easy, difficult, or fun to do.
How to Enter
For Build-A-Rig, we are posting the survey link on each piece so users can enter at any time. The final entry date is listed in the survey, and will most likely be a few days after we post our final round-up later in the month.
For the purposes of the giveaways, we should state that standard AnandTech rules apply. The full set of rules will be given in the survey link, but the overriding implementation is that the giveaways are limited to United States of America (US50), excluding Rhode Island, and winners must be 18 years or older.
With apologies to our many loyal readers outside the US, restricting the giveaways to the US is due to the fact that AnandTech (and more specifically our publisher, Purch) is a US registered company and competition law outside the US is very specific for each nation, with some requiring fees or legal implementations to be valid with various consequences if rules aren’t followed. It’s kind of difficult for the rules of 190+ countries/nations worldwide to all be followed, especially if certain ones demand fees for even offering a contest or tax on prizes. We recognize that other online magazines and companies do offer unrestricted worldwide competitions, but there are specific rules everyone should be following in order to stay on the side of the law. That’s the reality of it, and unfortunately we cannot change on this front, even with the help of Purch.
The survey link is:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/2209797/AnandTech-Newegg-Build-A-Rig-Challenge-Sweepstakes-Q2-2015
Your Thoughts
Not everyone builds a system the same way in the same budget, and it’s all fine and well for us here at AnandTech to reel off a parts list but it seems to be great fun for everyone involved when the manufacturers of the components actually do it instead. Clearly there are disagreements to be had over which case to use, whether this SSD is better than that SSD and all sorts of things. In our initial Build-A-Rig introduction, one reader (gamer1000k) suggested a full build given the budget, focusing on mini-ITX:
User: gamer1000k
Name: Destroyer of Consoles
Case: Silverstone FTZ01B ITX $130
PSU: Silverstone SX600-G 600W $130
MB: ASRock Z97E-ITX $130
CPU: Intel Core-i5 4690K $240
RAM: G.SKILL Sniper 2x4GB DDR3-1866 $58
GPU: Zotac NVIDIA GTX 980ti AMP! $650
SSD: Crucial MX200 250GB $103
CPU Cooler: Corsair H55 $60
OS: SteamOS or Windows 10 Preview $0
Total: $1501Rationale: Recently I've become fascinated with ITX gaming systems, and Silverstone makes some amazing cases that allow for a tremendous amount of power in a console form factor. This build takes into account not only traditional GPU bound games, but also provides a very fast CPU with a lot of overclocking headroom (courtesy Corsair H55 and 600W PSU) for some of the newer indie games (like Kerbal Space Program) that are actually CPU bound. The potent combination of an overclocked i5 and 980ti should allow for 4K gaming at reasonably high settings. This system is designed to be used in conjunction with a NAS/media server due to the low internal storage, but if the budget were flexible this case has room for another 2.5" and 3.5" drive.
This actually aligns quite well with Corsair’s build, with the CPU and GPU, although takes the mini-ITX route with less memory but some wiggle room due to the use of a ‘free’ operating system. I’d also be wary of the DRAM and storage, as these are difficult things to budget around without dropping capacity significantly.
So do you prefer having two extreme items and upgrading over time, or having a general all-around system every few years? Thoughts and comments on the builds from Corsair or Zotac are highly recommended. If you would take a different build completely (perhaps AMD, or dual GPU), we might loop a group of them into a pipeline post to see how they compare, so any explanation for choosing some parts over others (such as how gamer1000k has above) would be interesting to read.
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LeonMoreno - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Sorry, but Zotac's build is complitely not thought-out, even nonsensical. Non-K, low clocked i5 with 970 is fine with me, only in an under $1K setup. Major flaws are: overpriced z97 board for non-K CPU, overpriced, overpowered PSU (bear in mind PSUs got a bracket when they hit their top efficiency), no point in non-K CPU watercooling when GPU stays aircooled (will be a weak point when gaming, my personal wish is to see one day GPUs with quiet, double 12cm fans for affordable price). RAM is also over the top, nice looking but You could find something cheaper, faster and still esthetic. Basically Zotac rig looks like designed by someone who never owned a PC, but rather works in funeral home. At least put some white or red or blue for contrast for Christ's sake?etamin - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
You sir sound like a typical inexperienced builder with an inflated ego. The Zotac build has many upsides and If you can't see them, of course you will favor the raw performance capabilities of the Corsair build.LeonMoreno - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Are You trolling Me or what? What exactly are those upsides, other than aesthetics? Where did I mention favoring Corsair rig? Actually havn't looked at Corsair design that much, just noticed that after lots of deliberation and for slightly over 1K, I managed to build a PC with 4690K and 970, I just would not justify nearly 500$ or 33% more for PCs looks. Yes, Corsair's choice is not optimal, but I was reffering to Zotac's build. It could be done better, also it will be too dark inside if You plan to show it off. And watercooling a 88W CPU is waste of money when GPU stays cooled with 10cm high speed fans in a gaming PC.Fiernaq - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
For a pure gaming rig at that cost I'd probably go a slightly different route but there's nothing terribly wrong with either Dustin's or Chinny's builds. I'll try to add an actual parts list in later but for now this is probably what I would look for in a $1500 gaming build:Case: Inexpensive but not rinky-dink. I'd probably want to spend between $80-$100 here.
MB: Socket 1150 for the CPU. There are a lot of things to consider here but most of them are desired rather than required. I'd put an upper limit of about $150 here but would hope to spend a bit less, maybe $120 or so.
CPU: Intel i5-4690K. No question. It hits the sweet spot for the price and desired use.
CPU Cooler: Air for sure; maybe a Cryorig R1? I'd rather not drop down to a 212+ but there's not a whole lot of good options in the $40-$60 range I'd like to be in for this build.
RAM: 2x4GB DDR3-1866 is actually a very good choice for this build although there are cheaper options even if you stay with Corsair. Expect about $60 for this.
GPU: GTX 980. A 970 is to low and a 980ti is too high for 1440p on mid/low or 1080p on high which is about where I'd expect to be in this price range and the cost difference is also about right with a decent 980 such as the ASUS Strix coming in at around $500.
SSD: Go with a 500GB one. Seriously. Steam. 'nuff said. If this wasn't a gaming computer then 256GB would be plenty. $200ish should do the trick.
PSU: 600W should be plenty but this is one area where I would definitely ask about expected upgrade plans as the addition of a second GTX 980 card a year later would probably demand a bigger PSU and I'd rather get that now instead of having to upgrade both components simultaneously.
Optical Drive: Get one. $20 for a regular DVD super-multi or splurge on a blu-ray if it's something important to you.
OS: Win7 OEM. Why bother with anything more?
A comment about the RAM since I know someone will ask - as a gamer with a recently built $2000+ computer who only put 2x4GB in it, I haven't needed more. A good chunk of my gaming is triple-A titles and I even keep a browser open on the second monitor sometimes with a few tabs open and not once has memory been an issue or even close to an issue for me. That said, I also work in IT and my laptop at work most assuredly has 12GB of RAM so I can run a VM with Win10 and at that point even 12GB is the minimum I'd want just to run one VM at a time. Likewise, if I streamed my gaming to Twitch or did other RAM intensive stuff I would probably want more than 8GB but the posted design specifications for this contest did not mention any of that kind of thing so for a pure gamer I think 8GB is fine.
Fiernaq - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
WTB an edit button for typos. Also an expandable comment box so I don't have to type everything up in Notepad and copy/paste.Fiernaq - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
And here's what I came up with. I've set everything to override to Newegg prices and everything else on the checklist should be good as well. One question I couldn't find a mention of is shippingPCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/4hWd23
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($239.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($93.04 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($134.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($52.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($161.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 980 4GB Twin Frozr Video Card ($519.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Titanium Grey) ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1512.95
Comments: The NH-D15 is probably overkill for the amount of overclocking most people making this computer would bother with but that also means you can run it at lower RPMs most of the time. A 550W PSU should be just about perfect for this build but if you're worried that overclocking will require more then you could bumpt up to the 650W version of the same PSU for just $10 more. If you're looking at the total cost and saying "It's over $1500", well, unlike some people, I included an optical drive and besides, it's still well within the 3% margin and you could build this for significantly less if you bought some items from other vendors such as NCIX. Or you could drop to the CoolerMaster 212 Evo CPU cooler if you're still worried about staying within budget.
Impulses - Tuesday, July 14, 2015 - link
The Thermalright TRUE Spirits have been around for a few years and are often overlooked, but for precisely $45-55 they perform much closer to the premium $70+ HSF units than a $30 212+.Fiernaq - Thursday, July 16, 2015 - link
I may give those a try at some point. Went over some reviews of them and as usual in the air cooling segment nobody can seem to agree on how good they actually are but at least nobody thinks they're terrible. Most of the reviews seemed to put it at least as good if not slightly better than the 212 Evo and some reviews were much better. Doyll from overclock recommended them which is usually a good sign.Stuka87 - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
I really like the idea of this contest.Wanted Chinny to win, but Dustin's choice of components is going to win from a performance standpoint. Although I think Chinny's will be the nicer looking of the two.
Uplink10 - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
My thoughts:-GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK is a mistake, $140 is too much for a motherboard, you can get similar for $90
-CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866, $84 is too much better to buy this kit "ADATA XPG V1.0 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 " for $43
Buying K processors and Z motherboards is also a mistake because that is the way today's customers are being cheated into paying more just so they have the option to raise the max frequency to an unspecified one. And that is not why people first started to overclock.