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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timslin101 - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
I like your build. I think the 970 is a great GPU for the price and I love that case. I'd probably build something smaller with an ITX build though.Something like below:
Processor: 4690K
Motherboard: Maximus VII Impact
GPU: Asus GTX970 Mini Direct Cu
RAM: Vengence Pro 2x8GB
Storage: SM951 256GB
PSU: Silverstone ST50F-P
Case: Silverstone SG13B
CPU cooling: Corsair H90
OS: Windows 8.1 64bit OEM
Extras: Noctua NF-A14
Cost 1490 total, the PP05-e cables be nice also, but you would go a little over.
Get Wifi, ridiculously fast SSD, decent CPU and GPU, all in a very small and quiet package. I have a very large and loud PC built in 08. I am tired of that and value small and quiet very highly.
Drumsticks - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
I like your build! As others have said, looks matter, and yours wins out there. I think I agree with a few of the points said by some - the power supply is certainly good enough for a 4460/970 config, perhaps overly so, and 16GB could be nice (although I personally fall under the "8GB really is fine for gaming" camp but I could be wrong :P). But overall, I like clean and quiet, personally.Mr. Beige - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
I like the concept of your build better than the other one - it's far more balanced all around, and more forward-looking rather than just getting the absolute best CPU/GPU you can get right now and leaving the other parts with the leftover budget.That said, the choice of CPU/Cooler/Motherboard doesn't seem to mesh well together. If you're going with a non-overclocked CPU, why not save some money and get a non-overclocking motherboard and a cheaper cooler?
hulu - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
With a Z97 motherboard you can upgrade the computer to a GTX 970 SLI setup. The power supply seems to be selected with this in mind as well.Stuka87 - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
Your system is certainly the better looking of the two, and its well balanced for the average person. Both systems are great, just pointed to slightly different audiences.Sushisamurai - Friday, July 10, 2015 - link
It's a good build Chinny!losergamer04 - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
I actually prefer Chinny's. I think it's the one I would rather build. Though, I would swap down to a 120mm cooler and go to a K CPU along with an AMD card because it, too, is liquid cooled. That way it's still quiet and can OC.fokka - Thursday, July 9, 2015 - link
with a k CPU and a liquid cooled fury x you would have a quite similar build to dustin's though.etamin - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
Am I the only one here who genuinely prefers the Zotac build?I'm a an infrequent gamer, but I've built many systems for all kinds of purposes including heavy gaming. Here are the issues I have with the Corsair build:
- Pairing a 980 Ti with a Corsair CS PSU isn't a configuration I'd feel comfortable delivering to a client, since the majority of them expect 6+ years of use on the non-GPU core components.
- From my experience, the single radiator AIO coolers have underperformed cheaper air coolers (I've used the H50/H70/H80/H100) without reducing noise, since the bundled fans aren't great. So it's dual rads or none for me...Zotac got this right with the H100i.
- Then there's the chassis...it makes no sense to me why a case for a $1500 build, whatever the end purpose, does not have removable dust filters in the front! These cases are an instant pass whenever I check vendor inventories because they are unusably annoying to maintain. Another point for Zotac here.
- And now the biggest, most glaring flaw of the Corsair build...who in their right mind would pick that particular Gigabyte board for an overclocked system? Look at the dinky power delivery on it and tell me that's safe to OC for hours of 4K gaming on end! I would think Dustin would know better than that. Then again, these systems were built to be given away, not for the builders' long term personal use, so I can see why this "detail" was overlooked.
In the other corner, Zotac considered aesthetics, which I can really relate to as someone who builds for others. The client is ALWAYS impressed if the system looks presentable no matter the components, so I take this decision by Zotac a good move for sweepstakes purposes.
Now before anyone calls me a Zotac fanboy or a Corsair hater, I'd like to add that I have never seen a Zotac part in person, let alone used one. However, I have used quite a few Corsair products but can only praise a few...namely the Dominators, AX/AXi PSUs, and Obsidian cases.
My criticisms of the Zotac build mainly lie with the choice of RAM, not so much the amount of RAM, since I still think 8GB is enough for 95% of users including gamers. Dominators are awesome, but they're a luxury product and I wouldn't consider them for budgets under $2500. I would also have swapped the Crucial BX for a Intel 730 SSD of half the capacity only because the 730 is an older, proven reliable design.
etamin - Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - link
And now to enter the giveaway hoping I get the Zotac to use as a secondary PC, or the Corsair as a part-out for cash >:D