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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Silesius - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Loved the article. IMO while performance wise Dustin's build is great, I think the days where computers are an ugly beast should be over. So I'm more aligned with Chinny's philosophy of building, even if it could use some improvement.Since the Fury launch I been wondering how small can you go with that kind of performance on Mini-ITX. Is a build like this possible?
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qsvkrH
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qsvkrH/by_merchant/
CPU: Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($234.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake Water 3.0 Pro 99.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI Z97I AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($127.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-2400 Memory ($104.99 @ Micro Center)
Storage: Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($179.99 @ Adorama)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R9 Fury X 4GB Video Card ($676.93 @ Amazon)
Case: Thermaltake Core V1 Mini ITX Tower Case ($37.99 @ Micro Center)
Power Supply: Corsair CSM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($87.47 @ Amazon)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1537.33
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-09 18:27 EDT-0400
I know that the Thermaltake Core V1 can accomodate Fury's water pump mounting it on the front instead of the 200mm fan. This would make a sweet looking machine and silent as well.
BrokenCrayons - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
I've been interested in ITX form factors since VIA had acquired Cyrix and the IDT Winchip teams to sell their low-power C3 processors on Epia motherboards. They were sort of leading the charge for "adequate performing" low heat/noise/power computing in the first half of the last decade. Since the Atom came around, I used a Zotac motherboard with the ION chipset and an Atom 330. It was a fun little bite-sized system that I loved for how well it worked as a carryable system for LAN parties. While I think the Fury X isn't quite there yet because it requires you find space someplace for the watercooler which ultimate makes the card about the same total size as any other modern, high-end GPU, I'm excited to see what HBM can do to help more practical, cost-effective GPUs that are smaller, half-height cards cooled with a small HSF or can run with just a passive heatsink.Ryan Smith - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
I have removed some inappropriate and overall completely sad posts from the article. This is not Tinder; if you wish to continue being able to post comments, please behave like an adult.Southrncomfortjm - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
I like mine: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Ys7qMptheMillen - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
BAM! 1496 after rebate (1554 before rebates) covers the essentials, but i believe with an i7 after dx12 becomes more prevelant, the extra threads may be more useful in a gaming capacity. 8gb of well reviewed ddr3 1600, 250gb 850 evo also well reviewed, but better yet, a non-reference 980 ti (and one of the best out right now)! the only downside is that you will have to use windows 10 tech insider for the forseable future (or until find a sale to move to retail license) but since m$ is being ms and letting you beta test past RTM there isn't a huge issue, as ive been testing mine on a rig only a little beefier than the one here with no issues well BEFORE RTM... and here you go! http://pcpartpicker.com/p/g6sfZL (oh did i forget to mention the sexy new design r5 is in there :-p along with an h100i to keep you i7 nice and cool while oc'd ;))ruthan - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
Hmm, only 2 competitors in the race, this is boring, its like soccer league with 2 teams.About rigs im very disappointed - i would not recommend such build to my friends, Dustin build - is strongly crippled by only 240 GB disk=> whole machine for real user is joke, sorry but gaming computer in 2015 with 240 GB storage- you could have installed up to 5 games - great experience.
Other build is very boring without any interesting idea with lots gimmicks included and as icing is there noisy Zotac G970..
Half of readers would do better job.
BrokenCrayons - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
There should be more competition later in other budget brackets in the same format if I understand how things are supposed to be setup, but comparing more than two computers from two different companies might get pretty complicated to keep track of from a reader perspective and tougher to present in a single article. Besides, this isn't supposed to be an out-for-blood competition. It's more just for fun and a great way to stage a hardware giveaway so try not to take it too seriously.Besides that, I really like how both Corsair and Zotac are able to reach out to their customers through this competition. Lots of us aren't surprised to see Dustin interacting in the comments section given his history with Anandtech in the past, but it's great to know other companies like Zotac are willing to interact with and listen to potential buyers on a personal level that goes beyond just marketing material, RMA support, and the stuff written on the outside of a product box.
Sushisamurai - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
Nice! Zotac's build is actually pretty close to a new budget system I was thinking of building. I differ only in power supply, SSD/HDD, GPU (AMD).chittychitty - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
I vote for Dustin's build.coconutboy - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
Was really looking forward to these series of contests, and not just for the giveaway either. Ya'll didn't disappoint. The interview segment is great and really humanizes what would otherwise be a more sterile affair; keep this up! major kudos to Anandtech, Zotac and Corsair. I'm honestly really excited about these competitions, woo hoo!As far as crowning a champ, a lot of people posting in these comments are taking a very narrow view of what constitutes a "winner". I really appreciate that Dustin and Chinny/Buu took different approaches and both had portions of their builds that I would incorporate, and other parts that I would never touch. Specifically:
- I treat my computer chassis much like monitors, so I keep them for ~7-10 years and they sit ON my desk. This also means I am extremely concerned with noise and will not tolerate 50dB, much less the annoying whine & whoosh of blower reference gpus. With that in mind, no way would I ever buy the low-end cases recommended here. If Chinny or Dustin went that route, they'd get crucified in the comments by people favoring a different case so of course they went cheap. However, I'll bet a lot of us Anandtech readers spend over $100 on our cases. It might cost more the first time out, but it saves dollars the next time around when we don't need to upgrade our cheap-o POS. Similarly, I liked Chinny's cabling upgrades to keep things nice 'n' neat because that's something I'd do with my build (even though I'm not too fond of windows which, combined, probably causes conflict with some folk's sensibilities). Her choice of mobo & 750w PSU is major overkill tho, and wastes ~$70-90 that coulda gone elsewhere.
- I wouldn't consider building a 4k system for another 2-3 years because, for my tastes, it's currently too expensive versus the enjoyment I'd get out of spending that money on an overseas vacation or one of the upcoming VR headsets. This is the same reason I never built a 3-monitor or 3d gaming setup. Early adopters pay top $$ and often get burned. But that's just my opinon, and with 4k becoming more and more affordable, it's great to see Dustin tapping into the new Triplehead/Eyefinity/3d Surround.
- I really like gamer100k's build as a different approach, but it's horribly deficient for my noise-sensitive tastes. I LOVE the case, but a gtx 980ti in that thing is gonna be a jet engine. The tiny ssd and 8GB of RAM are also deal-breakers.
Without digging through newegg, if it was my rig, I wouldn't need a case or PSU so I'd save right there. I'd also settle for nothing less than:
- 16GB RAM
- gtx 970 (great for now, saves money for a huge upgrade when something new hits in 2016-17)
- 500GB ssd
- 2TB hdd (local storage trumps NAS/media server, which I'd still have anyhow)
- closed-loop cpu cooler