The Clarkdale Experiment

Postmortem: Success at What Cost?

I was a little worried about CPU idle temps, since installing the CPU cooler had been a somewhat uncertain process. As it turns out, idle temps were around 34C, so no worries.

So far, the system has met all the goals I set out for it. As noted earlier, it idles at under 70W, yet can generate a pretty substantial 3DMark Vantage score. I plan on following up in about a month with additional performance numbers, as well as data on real world gaming experience.

It’s also amazingly quiet. Even with the case side panel open, the system is whisper quiet after the initial boot noise. Even the noise of the Radeon HD 5850 is pretty low, until you fire up a demanding game.

Still, at over $2,100, it’s an expensive little system. What would a budget version of this rig look like? I’d like to suggest some possibilities for saving money:

• Use a 500GB, 7,200RPM SATA drive. $800 less.
• Build the system into a Antec Sonata III, which ships with a 500W PSU. That saves $148
• Use a DVD+/-RW drive instead of the Blu-ray combo drive; that’s another $70.
• Instead of a Radeon HD 5850, go with a 5770. You’ll still get pretty good performance, and knock another $130 off

The system wouldn’t be quite as fast nor as quiet, and certainly less portable. Its power utilization would be nearly the same – maybe lower at full throttle, since the 5770 is less power hungry than the 5850. That system would cost less than half – about $960. As usual, pushing for better performance means the cost can rise quite rapidly.

So far, I very much like this little system, but I’ll see how it fares in the next few weeks. Will I still think it’s the bee’s knees after hammering it with some real games? I’ll let you know.