Build-A-Rig Round 2: SilverStone and Crucial Interviews and $800 Back-To-School PCs
by Ian Cutress on October 13, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Build-A-Rig
- Crucial
- SilverStone
- 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: an $800 back-to-school system. Given the responses from both Silverstone and Crucial, it is clear that Silverstone sees gaming and portability as key factors whereas Crucial have spent more on processing power and fast storage which might be useful in more BTS scenarios. Both systems come with an NVIDIA graphics card, although there is some slight difference here which will also factor into the equation.
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. We have a new dedicated editor working on each build (Daniel Williams), so any bias coming from doing these interviews is null and void – the reviews will shed light into how building the systems is easy, difficult, or fun to do.
A full run down of both systems is as follows:
| Build-A-Rig Round 2 Comparison | |||
| Component | SilverStone's Mighty Milo |
Crucial's Ballistix Bantam |
|
| Processor (CPU) | Intel Pentium G3258 (2C/2T, 3.2 GHz) |
Intel Core i3-4170 (2C/4T, 3.7 GHz) |
|
| Motherboard | ASRock H97M-ITX/ac |
GIGABYTE B85N Phoenix-WiFi |
|
| Graphics Cards (GPU) | Zotac GeForce GTX 960 OC | EVGA GeForce GTX 950 | |
| Memory (DRAM) | Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 2x4GB DDR3-1600 C9 |
Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer 2x4GB DDR3-1600 C8 |
|
| Storage (SSD) | Crucial BX100 120GB | Crucial MX200 mSATA 250GB | |
| Storage (HDD) | Western Digital Blue 2.5-inch 1TB 5400RPM 8MB Cache |
Seagate Barracuda 3.5-inch 1TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache |
|
| Power Supply (PSU) | SilverStone ST45SF 450W Bronze SFF |
Thermaltake TR2 600W |
|
| Chassis | SilverStone Milo ML08B-H (with handle) |
Thermaltake Core V1 Extreme Cube |
|
| CPU Cooling | SilverStone Argon AR06 | None | |
| Operating System | Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM |
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit - OEM |
|
| Extras | None | LG USB 2.0 Portable DVDRW | |
| Total | $811.90 | $793.90 | |
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/s3/2382250/AnandTech-Newegg-Build-A-Rig-Challenge-Round-2-Sweepstakes
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.
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 SilverStone and Crucial are highly recommended. If you would take the $800 back-to-school focused build differently (perhaps AMD, or iGPU only, or a true mini-PC, or even just a UX305 laptop), explain why choosing some parts over others would be an important factor in your decision.
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quidpro - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link
Links for the Crucial system have url destinations swapped for PSU and Chassisgeniekid - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link
Very torn between these two builds!The processors are the most interesting aspect, IMHO. Both are two-core processors but one is Hyperthreading-enabled while the other is known to overlock well. Presumably an overclocked G3258 will be better for games and single threaded applications but I expect the numbers to be quite close. I'm very eager to see the benchmarks.
The GPU difference, on the other hand, is something I predict will be a significant difference. Mid-range GPUs like the 950 GTX and 960 GTX are situated on a steep section of the price-performance curve and spending a little extra here can go a long way. That said, the price difference between the two GPUs here is almost identical to the price difference between the two builds overall so any benefit of the Silverstone build should really be attributed to Milo's higher cost.
Regarding storage, 256 GB SSD on the Crucial is really nice. It wouldn't hold my entire games library but it would probably hold the games I play most often with occasional re-installs to manage the changing nature of "games I play most often".
In the end I think I'm in favor of Silverstone's Milo just because my inner geek is drawn to the G3258. The idea of a build whose value stems from its overclock-ability appeals to me and even more to college me.
CountDown_0 - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link
I'd go for the Crucial build, because the CPU is so much better and the SSD is twice as large. The GPU is not much slower, the optical drive still makes sense, Windows 10 would be better but the upgrade is free, so it's still ok.Anyway, I would like to say another thing. The PSUs are ridicolously overkill!!! Both of them! Not just Crucial's one!
The PC I'm using right now is based on Silverstone's RVZ01. I have an i5 4690k (still at stock frequencies), 16 GB of RAM, a 512 GB SSD, an optical drive, and a MSI GTX 960 Gaming G1. Compare these specs with the 2 builds proposed here: my consumption is certainly higher. Well, the PSU I have is Silverstone's 300W ST30SF, and it's even too much - I am playing The Witcher (1) and, thanks to a (admittedly cheap and thus probably not too precise) power meter I have seen a peak of 180W (at the wall! Which means that the DC power it delivers is even lower, let's say 15% less, then it's 153W!). Both these PSUs are REALLY overkill!!
Jumangi - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link
At only $800 budget it should be about the internal core complements like the gpu and cpu. The looks of a flashier case don't mean squat if your games run poorly. The crucial build spends way to much on the PSU and case. Can easily save money to get a much better CPU.janisgomez456465 - Wednesday, October 14, 2015 - link
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Can i have one suggestion as to the article? Is it possible to show the prices next to the items in the last page where you compare both systems? This will help to gauge where the money is being spent :).Stuka87 - Wednesday, October 14, 2015 - link
Really surprised they both went with nVidia GPUs, they could have both gotten AMDs that were quite a bit fast for that price, or gone with a same speed card with less money. In this price range price should be a very important factor. Both the 950 and 960 are badly over priced cards.Go with an AMD, and then get a better CPU with the residual money.
colonelclaw - Wednesday, October 14, 2015 - link
My take on this challenge would be to drop any gaming aspirations and go for raw computing power and more memory. An integrated CPU/GPU would allow for 16 or 32GB RAM and more/faster storage. The reason for this is interpreting the 'back to school' theme to mean a PC designed for work first and foremost, preferably math/science-based.I would then sneakily give the recipient of said machine a PS4 whilst their parents weren't looking, because downtime is important.
SUpstone - Wednesday, October 14, 2015 - link
Your idea of a budget is different to mine. If the build budget is $800 then that's all there is... you can't spend $812! I've read the rules and I see you allow 3% flex so Silverstone are within your rules... but Crucial could've addressed what seems to be the main criticism and chose a GTX 960 and been within your $824 limit. If you're really struggling to get the budget together, or you're building PCs as a business, then overspends are a no-go.In my experience the core i3 is a sound value for money choice for good productivity / media / games performance. An i5 is nice to have but not necessary. I agree with what many others have said: chose one 500GB SSD and lose the HDD. I'd keep the optical disk drive... for the student who wants to watch movies on the PC monitor pre-owned DVDs may be old skool but will be cheap and easy.