System Builder Marathon, June 2011: The Articles

Here are links to each of the five articles in this month’s System Builder Marathon (we’ll update them as each story is published). And remember, these systems are all being given away at the end of the marathon.

To enter the giveaway, please fill out this Google form, and be sure to read the complete rules before entering!

Day 1: The $2000 Performance PC
Day 2: The $1000 Enthusiast PC
Day 3: The $500 Gaming PC
Day 4: Performance And Value, Dissected
Day 5: Tom's Hand-Picked SuperCombo

Introduction

This quarter we’re staying close to the formula we used to put together our previous $1000 system, with one major change: dual graphics cards instead of a single Radeon HD 6950. It will be interesting to see how a couple of mid-range cards operating in tandem stand up to our last effort, considering we were able to unlock that board's artificially-disabled APUs and overclock it to specifications almost identical to a real Radeon HD 6970.

Of course two mid-range boards are more expensive than a single high-end card, so we have to choose a few components that don’t cost as much as the ones we used last time in order to keep the price close to the $1000 target.

Here’s our shopping list: