Build-A-Rig Round 2, SilverStone vs. Crucial: The $800 PC Showdown
by Daniel Williams on November 12, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Build-A-Rig
- Systems
- Crucial
- SilverStone
Build-A-Rig Round 2: The Conclusion
As we wrap up the second round of the Build-a-Rig contest, both SilverStone and Crucial's back-to-school computers gave us significantly different configurations. With a budget of $800 we have builds that more people may be able to relate to, and with both machines happening to be Mini-ITX builds both are much more portable than a traditional machine which will be much more convenient for the college lifestyle theme that these were designed around.
We got to see from our performance numbers that while SilverStone's Mighty Milo can pull a substantial lead in graphics heavy games, in other cases where the CPU is the bottleneck there’s a definite difference between the Pentium in that system and Cruicial’s choice of a more powerful AVX and Hyper-Threading capable Core i3. That said, thanks to its ability to overclock, Milo can close much of this gap in more lightly threaded or single threaded workloads, falling behind on any remaining HT-sensitive workloads.
On the other hand, Crucial's Ballistix Bantam maintains itself as a more balanced machine and does a better job of keeping its GPU fed and happy. Aside from performance other factors such as a larger Boot SSD and faster WiFi will make the Bantam a nicer machine to use day to day when browsing the web and doing work.
With performance covered we found that the Ballistix Bantam pulled more power thanks to a less-efficient PSU, and that Mighty Milo was quieter at stock thanks to its larger aftermarket CPU cooler. When overclocked Milo does give up that noise advantage though, so as performance equalizes so does noise.
Finally, in the grab bag category we have a lot revolving around the cases themselves. The Mighty Milo uses a fairly narrow case with a handle on top, which is great for actually toting the system around. On the other hand the Ballistix Bantam uses a wider cubic case, but it manages to work in a window so that it can show off just what it’s made of.
And with that, we wrap up the second round of the Build-A-Rig Challenge. The systems have been speced, built, and tested, and now all that remains is for many of you what will be the most fun part of this series, the giveaway. Today is the final day to enter the Build-A-Rig Round 2 giveaway, so be sure to submit your entry before midnight tonight in order to earn a chance to win either Mighty Milo or Ballistix Bantam.
Lastly thanks go out to SilverStone and Crucial for participating in this giveaway and configuring these builds for us. And of course additional thanks go to Newegg for providing parts for these systems.
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zeeBomb - Thursday, November 12, 2015 - link
Building a rig all day long, building a rig when I sing this song.Billie Boyd - Friday, November 27, 2015 - link
This are pretty expensive rig. I recommend seeing CybertronPC Patriot for a hardcore gamer. It highly rated but half the price of both rigs. (seen at http://www.consumerrunner.com/top-10-best-desktops...HollyDOL - Thursday, November 12, 2015 - link
Not a bad result, for both machines. Alas I am not sure whether machines of this form should ever be overclocked... If you build something like that, likely you are not after the holy frame per second, but rather look for quiet mode at comfortable temperature to keep the lifespan on max.tipoo - Thursday, November 12, 2015 - link
There's usually some level of "free" extra performance to be had with negligible heat and noise changes as chips are built with some safety buffer in mind.HollyDOL - Thursday, November 12, 2015 - link
True, though personally I'd use that buffer for undervolting in this target setup. It's not a number-crunching machine nor gaming machine, the chances you'd be excessively using it for intensive tasks is quite slim. I'd be talking otherwise if this was some i7-6700 with GTX 980Ti where you can expect heavy loads in bigger volume, but here? Dunno...Scootiep7 - Friday, November 13, 2015 - link
While it's a bit of a niche market, I disagree with you somewhat. Having a small, powerful, and relatively portable gaming rig for LAN parties can be very fun.tammlam - Thursday, November 12, 2015 - link
ITX builds are fun.Der2 - Thursday, November 12, 2015 - link
Its like reading a fun build for a prize fight!shmuck - Thursday, November 12, 2015 - link
I almost entered the sweepstakes, I really need something like this, but it's some third party sweepstakes manager who wants my real name to attach to my real phone number and email address? And there isn't any clear indication what they intend to do with that information? Or how long they intend to keep it?I'm disappointed Anandtech. You can handle this better.
Ian Cutress - Thursday, November 12, 2015 - link
That data is used for contacting the winners. Sometimes emails bounce, or get spam filtered, hence the phone number requirement. The data is only used for contacting winners, nothing else. All T&C are in the link, and SurveyGizmo is used as they already have a secure system and database in place rather than building our own. We've run numerous competitions and giveaways through this system in the past. If you have specific issues you want addressed, email me (ian at anandtech) and I'll forward you to someone who can answer them.