The Clarkdale Experiment
I’ve been waiting for Intel’s 32nm CPUs to arrive on the scene, because I’ve been wanting to build a small, but relatively potent, gaming system. Now, Anand wasn’t all that impressed with the price/performance ratio of the Intel Core i5 661, suggesting that Intel had priced the CPU too high relative to the competition.
Interestingly, Anand also found the power consumption to be a little iffy, noting that his system idled at around 110W (though he did suggest it was high partly due to the particular Asus motherboard he used in the CPU review.)
I saw an opportunity with Clarkdale to do a little experimenting. I wanted to build a small gaming system with low idle power, but capable of running high end games at high frame rates. The $205 Core i5 661 looked to be just the CPU for that – two cores, two more virtual cores seemed like a good fit for even modern game titles. All you need is a better GPU… and maybe a few other things.
For example, I’d need a good discrete graphics card. Storage was relatively important, but I could get by without dropping in a terabyte drive. This system wasn’t intended to be a repository for digital video. Even though modern PC games take up a lot of space, there even a 250 or 320GB drive is ample enough to hold quite a number of games. For example, I probably have a dozen current generation games installed using Steam, and my Steam folder is just 131GB.
So in my mind, Clarkdale can enable a different class of system. Right now, I’ve got a system running a different Asus motherboard (the P7H55D-M EVO). It’s also got a discrete graphics card in it. After I build a system, I always run 3DMark Vantage as a kind of sanity check to see if it's all working properly. This little monster generates a 3DMark Vantage score of 12,738.
Did I mention that it idles at just under 70W?
Let’s see exactly how I built this thing.
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pakotlar - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
Right, because being informed is such clearly a waste of time. Glad I just bout $120 Monster Cables, and spent $2100 on a dual core PC in 2010. Thank Loyd, and thank you dear poster for re-enforcing my favorite slogan (I tattooed it on my face): Ignorance is bliss (at 20 an hour).xenor - Saturday, January 30, 2010 - link
Being OVER informed is what leads to baldness, strokes, heart attacks and early death.Shhhh..if we didn't have people spending way too much money on kit, then innovation and experimentation would signifcantly decrease.
A lot of research time on a car I'm going to drop $25k on(and another $10k maintaining) and own for 10 years makes sense. Stressing out about $500 I may or may not have spent in the best manner over a system which will lose my interest within 6 months.....yeah not so much.
One might question getting a slogan tattooed on your face though. Unless, of course, you're getting paid to market something...
pakotlar - Saturday, January 30, 2010 - link
I was going to market to GOP representatives :)xeopherith - Thursday, January 28, 2010 - link
I understand that this is the 6th page of comments and my opinions have already been stated in the previous.I do at least want to +bump these opinions though.
Did any intelligent thought go into picking these components?
Why is this article posted?
It isn't pushing some micro PC boundary or some other extreme...
I work as a system admin and when people ask me what I think about x product or how they would like to build a computer I point them to this site. I certainly wouldn't if it was full of these articles.
This is certainly blog quality and doesn't really deserve to be put anywhere on the front page.
notty22 - Thursday, January 28, 2010 - link
This is one , I don't get either. A third of the article telling us, yes these are crazy choices, but I chose them. Then a 1/3 telling us in depth what a bitch it was putting it together, yawn!So you had to put the hsf on before m/b installation, NO WAY. Then we held our breath with anticipation as you slipped in the video card, power connectors already in place, NICE, lol. I enjoy the ride of spending the money with you, but if there were 10 builds with various combination s, users would vote this rig last without even seeing the other selections.
Deosneos - Thursday, January 28, 2010 - link
I understand not having benched this build yet, but what I don't understand is just starting off a build with goals, a list of components and just start building.Why these components? Why this case, why not a cheaper, smaller SSD, why not another brand of graphics card with a quieter cooler?
Right now it just feels like buying the most expensive components and sticking them on a small mb in a small case et voila, money spent, job done.
AstroGuardian - Thursday, January 28, 2010 - link
What the hell are you asking that for? Why why why? Why not?The choice of hardware was only a sample and a suggestion. The purpose was a gaming rig! Why i7 when it can be i5?
And why the hell do you need benchmarks? Would the score be any different if it wasn't for the small form factor, the short cooler etc? No they wouldn't. So why are you asking for benchmarks? Don't you all seen the i5, 5850, SSD benchmarked?
Of course you have all seen it.
So stop ****** around and thank the man for showing the idea of great gaming machine in a small case.
Great post Loyd
AstroGuardian - Thursday, January 28, 2010 - link
What the hell are you asking that for? Why why why? Why not?The choice of hardware was only a sample and a suggestion. The purpose was a gaming rig! Why i7 when it can be i5?
And why the hell do you need benchmarks? Would the score be any different if it wasn't for the small form factor, the short cooler etc? No they wouldn't. So why are you asking for benchmarks? Don't you all seen the i5, 5850, SSD benchmarked?
Of course you have all seen it.
So stop ****** around and thank the man for showing the idea of great gaming machine in a small case.
Great post Loyd
Deosneos - Friday, January 29, 2010 - link
No thank you. I'm asking for information that in my eyes would make this article, you know, informative.No need to take this tone, I clearly don't stand alone in this opinion.
A smaller case does make a huge difference for overclocking, cooling etc, so yes, some info on those would have helped. Or, as the case is meant to be a quiet gaming rig, how about some noise figures?
Anandtech is hardly a showcase for rigs is it?
Teefs - Thursday, January 28, 2010 - link
I've been thinking about trying to do something similar. A few things I would do different:1. Use Antec p180 mini case (since it can fit a more powerful radeon 5870)
2. Use a Sapphire Radeon 5870 Vapor-X (it should have same idle power usage as a 5850 and the Vapor-x cooler should be quieter.)
3. Use an 80 plus gold rated power supply
4. Use a Corsair p256 SSD instead (it is cheaper, smaller and has slightly lower idle power usage)