Final Words
Most users that email questions about building a computer system are planning to build a midrange computer system. With a broad price range of $1000 to $2000, this covers a huge number of potential choices. With the launch of Phenom II just a few days ago, all of our thinking about systems in this price range was rearranged. Hopefully you are the beneficiary of the refresh in our system thinking.
Prior to Phenom II we had prepared a Value Midrange AMD system using our favorite AMD 9950 Black Edition. We did not really have an AMD system to present at the $2000 Performance Midrange price point because AMD had no offerings that competed well in that arena. However, we now have a complete Phenom II 940 system at the $2000 price point that will give the competing Intel Core i7 920 a real run for the money - even when overclocked. At the $1500 price point the AMD Phenom II system based on the Phenom II 920 will likely be the performance winner, since Intel has no real Core i7 offering that is cheap enough for a complete balanced system at $1500. At least that is true this week.
As those involved in this industry quickly learn, things can change very fast in the computer business. AMD is competitive again and we are happy to see Phenom II competing so well. Of course, Intel's 45nm Penryn quad-core chips also compete quite well with Phenom II, so the final choice can really go any of three directions.
The current world economic woes are having their impact on the computer industry as well as many other industries. As often happens in economic times such as these, some players will cease to exist. As also happens, price competition often becomes fierce and the large and strong are more able to play within these guidelines. It would be a mistake to read these economic comments as doom and gloom because there is a huge silver lining to this story. Today you can get more for your money than ever in a computer system. The contrarians among you will buy now for the value and be rewarded with terrific performance for their investment.
As you saw in the tables, our AMD and Intel Value Midrange systems came in closer to $1400 than to $1500. Both are complete systems and include a fast Core 2 Duo 3.16GHz CPU based on 45nm technology or a fast AMD Phenom II 2.8GHz quad-core based on 45nm technology. Both systems feature AMD 4870 1GB graphics, 4GB DDR2-1066 memory, a 1TB hard drive, audio card, powered speakers, a custom case, and quality 80 Plus certified 650W power supply, a Blu-ray/HD player/DVD burner, Vista OS, keyboard/mouse, and a 1080p LCD monitor. That is a lot of value and performance for the price. For those that already have the OS, speakers, keyboard/mouse, and monitor you are talking base component costs of less than $1100 for these very competitive systems.
There is no doubt that our $2000 complete systems easily occupy what would have been considered high-end just a short time ago. The Intel Performance Midrange is powered by a Core i7 920 that overclocks extremely well if that is your choice. 4.0GHz is a very doable and stable overclock. The AMD Performance Midrange is similarly powered by the top Phenom II 940, a 3.0GHz quad-core that reached 3.9GHz in limited OC testing for the AnandTech launch article. Both performance systems feature upgrades to almost all of the capable components in the Value Midrange offerings. This includes a 24" monitor, an upgraded case/700W power supply, and 4870X2 graphics or NVIDIA SuperClocked 280GTX graphics,
The point of all these component selections should be very clear. Now is a great time to build a Value Midrange or Performance Midrange system, with either an Intel or AMD core. The bang for the buck is as good as we have ever seen in computer space. You can build the latest Intel Core i7 or AMD Phenom II computer system for less than $2000 - with some systems costing less than $1500. If you already have a monitor and keyboard/mouse/speakers you can build a balanced base i7 system for less than $1600, or a Phenom II for less than $1100. And those are some pretty good silver linings.
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Wesley Fink - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
We have revised the comment to more accurately reflect what we were trying to convey. We don't want to leave the wrong impression on this. Core i7 is definitely the fastest current CPU, but Phenom II competes with i7 much better than Phenom. Phenom II also has a cheaper $235 CPU that offers terrific performance for the price7Enigma - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
Thank you for the revision. I did not want it to seem that I thought you were being biased towards the Phenom II, just that it was a bit misleading in its original form. While architecturally it is closer to the Core i7, performance-wise it's closer to the Q9300/Q9400.I think for a mid-grade build the Phenom II is probably in a sweet spot as current high pricing for DDR3 ram and the motherboard (not to mention questionable mobo stability) make total system costs much higher for an i7 build.
As it is, I'll be building a very inexpensive system based off your $1500 Intel dual-core system as I game on a 19" LCD and do very little work that requires/is enhanced by a quad core. It's going to be a hold over system for a year or two and so I thank you for the 775 mobo and ram recommendation.
7Enigma - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
*speaking of the 920, not the 940.7Enigma - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
*PhenomTo add from Anand's own 920/940 review:
"Looking through the performance results, it's also worthwhile to recognize just how fast Intel's Core i7 is. Across the board Core i7 is the fastest thing out there. If the motherboard guys could get X58 board pricing down below $200 and DDR3 memory was available at the same price as DDR2, then the i7-920 would be the clear recommendation. The entry-level Core i7 is pretty much faster than the-top end Core 2 Extreme or the Phenom II."
and
"We must not forget that Phenom II is competitive with a 45nm derivative of a 2+ year old architecture."
Again I'm not bashing AMD's Phenom II chips, just that it is very misleading to say the performance is more in line with the i7.
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
All of your comments add to the perspective on Phenom II. I believe I made it very clear that at $2000 the entry i7 was likely faster than the Phenom II. I also said on p.4 "Phenom II performance is more in line with Intel’s latest Core i7" and that is certainly true. The L3 cache of Phenom II is definitely more like i7 than the cache design of the Phenom CPU.However, Anand also points out the real advantage in the CPU/Board price enjoyed by the entry Phenom II 920. As I also said Intel's cheapest i7 is $300. There is no $235 i7 and cheap but capable motherboard as there is for Phenom II.
The article was crystal clear that Intel still owns the top, and that is i7, but AMD is competitive now in the mid-range to lower high end, where it was not before. This is not being a fan-boi as I personally run i7, but if I've given AMD a little more slack in this article I will not apologize. AMD has been trailing Intel for a long time, and in fairness Phenom II performance and overclocking came as something of a surprise to reviewers. Most did not expect the chip to be as comnpetitive as it is. AMD deserves a little credit here. I will probably use a Phenom II in my next build, as competition is good for all of us.
strikeback03 - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
I was wondering about that as well. Anand's launch review of Phenom II seems to show that outside of gaming the i7 920 typically holds 10-20% better performance, with occasional tests showing even more. So at the $2000 price point that would likely make the AMD system the better gaming system due to the video card, but the i7 system likely faster in most other applications.Are any of the ~$200 X58 motherboards going to offer 6 RAM slots? 12GB would be even more expensive with only 4 slots.
As the PCIe X1 slots are often lost in an SLI/Crossfire setup, do any of these boards have trouble using a X1 sound card in an X16 slot? IIRC someone reported previously that some boards didn't like running X16 slots slower than X4.
Jaramin - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
Somehow, this doesn't feel very midrange to me. It's as if the class was defined by the price instead of the performance.The value midrange aught to be performance midrange, and performance midrange is clearly high end, because one bumb ahead leads us to ultra-high end, you know, the machines we dream to have but would never buy?
Wesley Fink - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
We did not use the term Midrange to start an argument, although a discusiion of the definition of Midrange is always interesting. Since we described our Bargain Systems as Under $1000 I have changed the title description to $1000 to $2000. I hope that removes any confusion about what is covered in the guide.Wesley Fink - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
From the Introduction:"Midrange can start as low as $1000 and extend all the way up to around $2000, which gives a lot of flexibility in terms of choosing components. In this era of declining prices and increasing value, the midrange also covers a wider area than in the past - just as we saw in the under $1000 segment. Our budget systems near $1000 were really representative of what we might have called midrange in the past. Similarly, our $2000 system is closer to what may have been defined as high-end in earlier guides.
It's fair to ask, then, why we haven't tossed the price classes for our guides and defined new ones. That option was considered, but the fact remains that high-end prices have not declined like midrange and entry prices. New architectures have also been recently introduced at the high-end, so the definition of high and mid are shifting as the Intel Core i7 and Phenom II move into our computing space. We are already seeing a few X58 boards that will be selling for around $200, which would allow a decent Core i7 build at around $2000. Similarly, you can build a very capable Phenom II box for that same $2000."
AntiM - Monday, January 12, 2009 - link
I consider midrange to be in the $600 to $800 price range.