{"id":2995,"date":"2013-07-22T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2013-07-22T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=2995"},"modified":"2013-07-22T12:30:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T16:30:00","slug":"ars-technica-system-guide-july-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/07\/22\/ars-technica-system-guide-july-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Ars Technica System Guide: July 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ars<\/a><\/p>\n

Compared to the massive, across the board shakeups seen in some updates, this iteration of the System Guide looks pretty straightforward. The new System Guide accounts for a significant jump in graphics performance and the continuing evolution of faster CPUs, but the effects are limited.
\nSmall but significant product changes add up, though, and enough of them mean an updated System Guide. It’s hard to ignore shiny new CPUs and graphics cards\u2014especially when the new shiny is cheaper, faster, or both!
\nNew shiny
\nIntel’s new 4th generation Core i-series processors, codenamed Haswell, bring nice improvements in performance and platform power consumption, but the Haswell processors available at launch are really only suitable for the Hot Rod. Haswell-E for Xeon processors won’t be out until deep into 2014, and cheaper dual-core Haswell parts in the Budget Box price range won’t hit until the second wave of Haswell processors later this year.
\nOverclockers have not been terribly happy overclocking Intel’s 22nm processors (Ivy Bridge and Haswell), but in general, the IPC (instructions per clock) improvement and reduced power consumption have made Haswell a nice update all around. In the Hot Rod and God Box, AMD’s current processors (based on Piledriver) lagged behind Ivy Bridge and fare worse against Haswell, but to AMD’s credit, the very modest tweaks in its latest codenamed Richland APUs keep them very relevant in cheaper systems such as the Budget Box.
\nVideo cards are a little easier. AMD’s lineup changes are minor, but Nvidia’s GK110 and GK104 GPUs get refreshed products with new price points; making the new Geforce GTX 700-series and (not so new) GTX Titan graphics cards strong candidates for the Hot Rod and God Box. This also knocks down prices on older GPUs that are relevant to the Budget Box, although the price drops aren’t huge. It’s not as exciting as an entirely new generation of GPUs, but the added performance is always nice.
\nOther areas are a little duller; incremental improvements in solid-state disks (SSDs) hit around the previous update, and shiny new 4K monitors now trickling into consumer hands are unfortunately extremely expensive. It’s far out of typical System Guide builder range at the moment.
\nWe continue to focus more on the tangible benefits for the System Guide: better overall performance and performance for your dollar (aka value) while trying to stay within the average enthusiast’s budget for a new system.
\nFull Story: Ars Technica System Guide: July 2013 | Ars Technica<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Compared to the massive, across the board shakeups seen in some updates, this iteration of the System Guide looks pretty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[61,529,760],"class_list":["post-2995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hardware","category-technology","tag-amd","tag-intel","tag-nvidia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-Mj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3006,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/07\/24\/long-life-no-cooling-fans-intels-4-5w-core-processors-could-blur-the-pctablet-line\/","url_meta":{"origin":2995,"position":0},"title":"Long life, no cooling fans: Intel's 4.5W Core processors could blur the PC\/tablet line","author":"NCCT","date":"July 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Windows tablets hold within them an implicit promise: To deliver the full Windows 8 experience in a svelte tablet form factor. 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