As opposed to our last edition, this month's System Guide catches the market in a bit of a lull.
Next-generation GPUs and SSDs have yet to arrive, and the same story goes for CPUs from both AMD and Intel. While a few refreshed versions of existing products are floating around, most of the changes in this update are fairly minor. Even at the high end, things like 4K (3840×2160, aka "UltraHD" or UHD) monitors seem to be caught between major improvements at the moment.
Minor, of course, is relative. As always, much of system building is in the details—and some of those changes are worth paying attention to. So we'll continue to focus more on the tangible benefits for the System Guide: better overall performance and performance for your dollar (aka value) while trying to stay within the average enthusiast's budget for a new system.
System Guide fundamentals
For any new readers, the main Ars System Guide is a three-system affair, with the traditional Budget Box, Hot Rod, and God Box addressing three different price points in the market from modest to a little crazy. The main System Guide's boxes are general-purpose systems with a strong gaming focus, which results in fairly well-rounded machines suitable for most enthusiast use. They also make a solid starting point to spin off into a variety of configurations.
The low end of the scale, the Budget Box, is still a capable gaming machine despite its reasonable price tag ($600-$800). A few bucks toward a decent discrete video card give it some punch for gaming, while sufficient CPU power and memory ensure it's good for everything else. The Hot Rod represents what we think is a solid, higher-end, general-purpose computer that packs plenty of gaming performance. We've adjusted the price tag a few times in the past, from $1,400 to $1,600 down to $1,200 to $1,400... and most recently back up to the old point to reflect new capabilities and jumps in performance. The God Box remains a showcase for workstation builders or enthusiasts who believe in overkill with a capital "O." It may not do exactly what you want, but it should be an excellent starting point for anyone with a good idea of their truly high-end computing needs—be it gaming to excess after winning the lottery, taking advantage of GPU computing, or storing and editing tons of HD video.
For the short version: the Budget Box is for those who are seeking the most bang for their buck. The Hot Rod is for enthusiasts with a larger budget who still know that there's a sweet spot between performance and price. The God Box, as excessive as it is, always has a slight dose of moderation (as mentioned in previous guides, "God wouldn't be a glutton").
Each box has a full set of recommendations, down to the mouse, keyboard, and speakers. As these are general-purpose boxes, despite the gaming focus, we skip things like game controllers and $100 gaming mice (although the God Box does get something a bit nicer). We also discuss alternative configurations and upgrades.
Operating systems
For the typical System Guide user, this boils down to Windows or Linux, and Windows occupies the vast majority of desktop space. Standard Windows 8.1 does fine for most, while Windows 8.1 Professional includes additional features such as BitLocker, Remote Desktop Connection, and domain support that home users may not need. Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional also sport similar differences while remaining equally viable. Some find the Windows 8 UI changes intolerable and prefer Windows 7, but we don't have a strong preference either way.
God Box builders sticking with Windows will want at least Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8.1 Professional (for a desktop OS) due to memory and CPU socket limits on some versions of Windows. Windows Server 2012 (Standard, Datacenter, or Hyper-V) with its support for large amounts of memory is also preferable over other versions due to similar limits. Microsoft provides a detailed list of Windows memory limits.
Linux is a strong alternative, although support for many applications is limited. Gamers in particular are probably stuck with Windows for most mainstream titles. But if you do go the Linux route, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mageia, Debian, Arch Linux, and tons of other options are around.
We do not try to cover all operating systems or front-ends here. We don't begin to touch media center-biased ones (such as XMBC, MediaPortal, or Plex), storage-focused ones (such as FreeNAS), or many others outside the focus and scope of the main three-box System Guide. So poke and tinker away—there's a ton more we can't begin to cover.
Those trying to build hackintosh systems for OS X are also outside the scope of the main three-box System Guide; such a project is worth an entire System Guide (or heck, website) in itself. If that's your goal, you should give our own Mac Achaia a try as well as such well-known sites such as tonymacx86 and OSx86.
Budget Box
- AMD Athlon X4 760K = $84.74
- Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H = $64.99
- Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x 4GB) DDR3-1600 1.35v = $76.99
- MSI Radeon R7 265 OC 2GB = $149.99
- Crucial MX100 128GB = $74.99
- Fractal Design Core 1000 = $39.99
- Corsair CX430 430W = $44.99 (plus $20 MIR)
- Asus VE228H 21.5" = $139.99 (plus $10 MIR)
- Logitech MK120 Wired Desktop = $14.99
- Logitech X-140 2.0 = $26.99
- Total = $718.65 ($688.65 after rebates)
As a solid foundation for an affordable gaming box that is also suitable for all-around use, the Budget Box is full of compromises that we believe are reasonable. Keeping the box more modestly priced than some previous updates involves a few trade-offs, but decent performance at 1920×1080 in modern games, 8GB of memory, and an SSD are all still easily affordable.
Individual builders can adjust components to better fit their specific needs. In particular, removing the video card would make the Budget Box a nice starting point for an office or HTPC machine, or a video card downgrade could better fit a user with more modest performance requirements.
CPU, motherboard, and memory
AMD Athlon X4 760K
The Budget Box is the only box in the guide that gets an interesting CPU choice this time around.
The previous AMD Athlon X4 760K retains its place, although it is a close thing with the updated X4 860K on the way. A slight performance bump and power consumption improvement in the updated Kaveri-based X4 860K is expected vs. the older Richland-based X4 760K. The chip that makes things interesting in this update is Intel's newly released Pentium G3258, aka Pentium Anniversary Edition.
At stock clocks, the Pentium G3258 looks very similar to its G3420 brother, a dual-core Haswell for the budget market, missing several features that the higher-end parts have (e.g. hyperthreading, Turbo Boost, AVX/AES, etc. in Core i3 CPUs). The difference is the fact that the G3258 allows overclocking, and as sites such as TechReport and Anandtech show, a dual-core Haswell at 4.7ghz is a formidable competitor in this price range, even when put up against an overclocked X4 760K.
The X4 760K still looks like a more reasonable choice, especially since there are no guarantees in overclocking and we no longer consider overclocking to be a mandatory part of the System Guide. Budget Box builders who are willing to overclock should give the G3258 serious consideration, while at stock clock speeds the X4 760K looks to offer marginally more performance.
With the Budget Box's performance requirements necessitating a discrete graphics card, AMD's APUs (such as the recently released A6-7400K and A10-7800) are not a particularly good fit, although potential Budget Box builders with lower 3D graphics requirements may find the A8-7600 to be particularly suitable in terms of both price and performance.
With a heatsink, make sure to pick up a retail boxed CPU, as the included heatsink/fan is more than adequate. Overclockers can look at heatsinks such as the Cooler Master Hyper 212+ without worrying too much about cost.
Motherboard and memory
Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H
Crucial 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 1.35v memory
Motherboards are a bit trickier. Affordable boards exist for both Intel and AMD builds, but the key questions are how much to pay and for what features. Items such as a PCI-e x16 slot, SATA 6Gbps, and USB 3.0 are non-negotiable. Four versus two memory slots is also an additional cost, one that we feel is worthwhile, although that could be an area to save a few more dollars.
ASRock, Asus, MSI, and a host of other companies have suitable boards. We find the Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H works well, with its micro ATX form factor, three video outputs (VGA, DVI, HDMI), two USB 3.0 ports (and headers for two more), four USB 2.0 ports (headers for four more), gigabit Ethernet, Realtek ALC887 7.1 channel audio, eight SATA 6Gbps ports, one PCI-e 3.0 x16 slot, two more PCI-e 2.0 slots (one x16 [x4 electrical] and one x1), and one PCI slot.
For Budget Box builders willing to splurge a little, an Intel Core i3-4150, a suitable H97 motherboard such as the Asus H97M-E, and 8GB of memory are worth the stretch.
Memory is easy—two 4GB DDR3-1600 CL9 1.35V or 1.5V sticks. A few bucks more for DDR3-1866 CL9 1.5V modules might be worth it, but the difference is small. Budget Boxes sometimes involve tough choices, and paying for even faster memory seems to be a very poor value.
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