GeekLimit vs. Tom’s Hardware: $800 gaming machine
Posted by The Technocrat | Filed under Hardware
Ok ok! Yes, I am getting your emails, and I saw the article from Toms Hardware about their $720 gaming machine.
Yes, this is a lower price than my recent “GeekLimit vs. ExtremeTech: $800 Gaming Machine” article, but let’s do a comparison between the box I built and the latest one from Toms, shall we? (GeekLimit still is dominating, IMHO)
Processor: Intel Pentium D 805 2.66Ghz @ 3.6Ghz vs Intel Pentium D 805 2.66Ghz @ 4.0Ghz
They’ve chosen to max out the processor. In my article, I chose to limit the processor to 3.6Ghz so I’d have money for more memory and graphics performance. This enables me to get away with a $40 heatsink vs. $140 for Tom’s.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-8I945PL-G vs Asrock 775Twins-HDTV
Their motherboard is $4 cheaper than mine. It also has HDTV output, but offers 1.5Gb/sec SATA, while the Gigabyte offers 3.0Gb/sec. The Asrock is missing my Gigabit Ethernet and uses a Radeon Xpress 200 chipset, vs my Intel 945PL.
In my original article, I said I was going with Gigabyte because I was comfortable with the manufacturer. Now I’ll stay with them because 3Gb/sec SATA and Gigabit Ethernet is worth $4 to me, and I can’t see myself using an HDTV for a budget gaming machine. That, and the Asrock isn’t even available to North America!
Memory: pqi power series 2x1GB DDR2-533 vs Adata Vitesta 2x512MB DDR2-667
I’m going to have to take a bit of a detour here from my original box design. Tom’s didn’t include an operating system with their box, which saved them $142. I can take two approaches here – claim that Tom’s box actually costs $840, not the $720 they claim, or go ahead and drop the OS myself and put the extra cash towards components, like they did. This last choice is more interesting to read, and a more fair comparison, so we’ll do that.
This also means this is a new box, compared to my last one. Game on, Tom’s!
I’ll pick up 2GB of DDR2-533 RAM from PQI to counter their 1GB DDR2-667 RAM from Adata. Slower clock speed, but my quantity easily wins over their speed. It also costs me $130 vs their $140, and their CAS is at 5 versus mine at 4. Both not too fast, but hey, that’s DDR2 for you. If you’re keeping track at home, I’m $106 ahead at this point.
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM Maxtor w/ 16MB, 3GB/s SATA NCQ vs 2x160GB RAID0 7200RPM Samsung w/ 8MB, 3GB/s SATA NCQ
Hmm, good one. Not sure what to think about this one. I have the cache, but they have RAID. Their motherboard has 1.5GB/s SATA, so paying for that 3GB/s isn’t going to help much on their budget or the performance. The hard drive is going to determine those load times, but it’s a little close to call. 16MB cache @ 3GB/sec vs. 8MB cache @ 1.5GB/sec w/ RAID…I think they might have a slight advantage here, just because they can spool two drives at the same time. My drive is $88 vs their 2 for $133.
I’ll get 2 drives RAID0′ed @ 3GB/s and 16MB cache and blow theirs out of the water for $174. I’m still $65 ahead.
Optical Drive: DVD-ROM vs DVD burner
I said this before, but I fail to see the purpose of a burner in a gaming machine. Sure, it’s nice to make backup copies of your CD’s and DVD’s, but this is a gaming machine, not a multimedia machine. That’s why I don’t have card readers, etc on there too. I’ll pick up $17 by not making the expenditure.
Case and PSU: 400W Rosewill vs. 500W Broadway.com
Some people don’t mind the power supply that comes with the case. I do. I’ll stick with my case because it comes with a power supply from a company I know of for power supplies, and with my added fan is all-120mm, which should keep the noise down while giving some good airflow. Theirs comes with 500W and 2x80mm fans. I’ve sworn off power supplies I don’t know and 80mm noisemakers, so I’ll stick with mine, especially since 400W should be enough. I also save $13 over the broadway, probably because I bought a lower-rated power supply and bought my extra 120mm fans myself for $4 each.
Graphics Cards: Sapphire Radeon X850XT 256MB vs Asus Radeon X1300 128 MB
And here’s where it all comes down to the line. So far, my machine is costing me a measly $548. To reach their machine price of $720, I’ve got $172 to spend on a “budget” graphics card. They have a PCIe16, 128MB, 64-bit 450mhz card running its DDR memory at 500mhz over 4 pixel pipelines to a DVI or VGA connector. For $66.
Ouch. You’re joking, right? What is this, 2001? Very, very disappointing.
I’ll spend $150 on mine and get PCIe16, 256MB, 256-bit 520mhz card running its GDDR3 memory at 1.08Ghz over 16 pipelines to a DVI, VGA or S-Video connector. No contest.
Summary
All in all, the GeekLimit machine has a processor 400mhz slower, no HDTV output, 134mhz slower memory, no DVD-burning capability and minus 100W. It also has 3GB/sec SATA, 90GB more w/ 16MB cache, 2x 120mm fans, and the bloody slaughter in the graphics card area.
The GeekLimit machine also came in at $698, $22 less than the Tom’s machine. Ultimately, what seems to have happened is that the cooling systems required for a dual-core 4Ghz rig drew too much money out of their budget, and sacrifices had to be made in their motherboard, memory and graphics card. (I should note that Tom’s went on to correct these shortcomings and built an ok gaming machine based off of the 4Ghz-overclocked 805D…for $1223.)
So as the latest post in the “$800 Gaming Machine” wars, how do you think GeekLimit did?
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June 13, 2006 at 12:51 pm
I’d also like to note that TH got ripped-off big time by shopping locally. The cost of shipping when you order from a place like newegg.com is usually a LOT less than the markup and tax of buying locally.
June 14, 2006 at 2:22 pm
I agree completely. A gaming machine is all about the memory and video card, and that’s where they went cheap. Who cares about 1 second of load time when your are playing at 60fps vs 10fps?
Newegg.com is a great place to buy everything for a reasonable price.
June 14, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Not to mention reasonable and fast shipping, and good return policy.
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