SFF.Network SFF Build Challenge Voting - What to do for #2?

The next SFF Build Challenge is a mere two weeks away, and we're in need of the build that us four J's will construct next!

All builds are chosen by the community, and as such, we give the forum a full week to make suggestions and (eventually) vote for their favorite one. There are only three rules to suggesting a build:

1. There has to be a price ceiling (though this can be as high as you'd like)
2. The build has to be possible (no "quad-SLI within 2L for under $75", please)
3. The build can't be identical or really similar to something we've done recently

Whatever build is selected, the four J's will have to independently build, and then defend, during the last Low Volume podcast of the month.

So what shall we build, friends? Our fate is in your hands...

 

[Ceros_X]

Sub-10L
Premade case a must
$1000 budget
No OS, peripherals, monitor, etc included in budget.
TFlops/Liter performance winner?

 

[MrTiny]

Lowest TDP per Tflop. 1.2k budget. OS included in budget. Mitx a must. The smaller the case, the better.

 

[confusis]

Tflop for doing what though - that makes OS choice important!

 

[Phuncz]

I was too soon with my suggestion, but here goes:

I have a suggestion for the next challenge:

Performance per Liter Gaming PC

Limitations:
- budget, excluding OS: 1000$
- a closed, commercially available case (no test benches or other funny business eh James )

Goes without saying: functional PC gaming build, not a retail PC, size limitation is 19L, excluding various costs like shipping and tax.

Metrics:
- CPU performance per liter (rough PassMark ratings for instance)
- GPU performance per liter (rough 3DMark ratings for instance)
- Storage, RAM and noise are secondary but still important metrics
- will it be able to play Hearthstone, League of Legends, Fallout 4 or GTA 5 at 1080p ~60fps ?

Motivations:
- basically anything from a NUC to an Jonsbo V4 / Cooltek Coolcube Maxi
- anything from a SoC to the maximum cores you can stuff in (don't forget perf/MHz !)
- out of the box thinking is very much encouraged
- no "Intel is better than AMD" cheapshots, those APUs are vicious

 

[EdZ]

Budget: $1k
Limitations:
- All watercooled (AIO or single loop)
- No case-fans
- No component fans other than the PSU (because finding a non-custom water-coolable PSU is not really possible today)
Target: performance/litre

Will be interesting to see if deals on bulkier but cheaper AIO GPUs will swap the balance over a more space-efficient single-loop design.

 

[Soul_Est]

Budget: $1,000 CAD
Target: Highest performance per litre for 3D rendering
Case: < 20 l in volume
Rebates: Yes
Sales: Yes
Bundles: Yes

 

[Ceros_X]

Budget: $1,000 CAD
Target: Highest performance per litre for 3D rendering
Case: < 20 l in volume
Rebates: No
Sales: No
Bundles: No

I like this idea, but I don't think you should exclude rebates/sales/bundles - if I weas putting together I a PC today I would definitely utilize all three. I would also look on eBay, etc. What about OS? Case?

 

[confusis]

We're trying to limit it to new parts from a couple retailers only - or else it'd just be a huge task to compile systems and then compare

 

[Soul_Est]

I like this idea, but I don't think you should exclude rebates/sales/bundles - if I weas putting together I a PC today I would definitely utilize all three. I would also look on eBay, etc. What about OS? Case?

Good point. I'll remove those restrictions. The case and OS (free or paid) are up to the builders.

 

[iFreilicht]

Performance per liter is a nice idea. If that's done I want the volume of the power brick to be included, though!

 

[K888D]

Performance per liter is a nice idea. If that's done I want the volume of the power brick to be included, though!

I agree with this, but with a maximum volume, for example 10Litres.

 

[CC Ricers]

Tflop for doing what though - that makes OS choice important!

Maybe we should keep it simple. Target build: gaming rig. Measuring gaming performance as highest FPS at 1080p per watt, or per liter.

CAD rendering performance is an interesting idea too, especially if it's wholly CPU dependent.

 

[PlayfulPhoenix]

Keep the suggestions coming, all! I'll make a poll on Wednesday aggregating the proposed ideas, and we'll end voting a few days thereafter.

Also, I just want to mention that "measuring performance" of our builds in any way will be tough, given that we aren't actually building them. So for a gaming rig, what makes it the "best" isn't going to be what benches the best, even if we tried to re-construct benchmark data from elsewhere and compared that way.

After all, maybe the best gaming rig for a given budget sacrifices some graphics horsepower for faster or larger storage. Or maybe it should be really compact like a console. Or maybe it should be scalable and expandable. What about lighting? Noise? Sound? Oh, and don't forget about a handle, right?...

...Basically, what makes any build the "best" is highly subjective, even when armed with objective benchmark data, and that's why we let the community decide as one voice through voting. Otherwise, we could just pull out calculators and pick the winner based on arbitrary criteria, which isn't nearly as helpful or fun

 

[danielbatmanj]

$300 or under
no graphics card
mitx
15L or under
AND IT NEEDS A CASE

 

[iFreilicht]

I mean if there's no graphics card it's hard to make a build above 10L, right?

 

[danielbatmanj]

I mean if there's no graphics card it's hard to make a build above 10L, right?

yeah i guess...

 

[danielbatmanj]

I mean if there's no graphics card it's hard to make a build above 10L, right?

but i meen my rig has no graphics card and its about 45L

 

[PlayfulPhoenix]

I mean if there's no graphics card it's hard to make a build above 10L, right?

I think the vast majority of GPU-less builds are over 10L

 

[iFreilicht]

I think the vast majority of GPU-less builds are over 10L

I wouldn't count prebuilt PCs as "builds", though.

but i meen my rig has no graphics card and its about 45L

You've certainly got some downsizing to do