I have been following Overclocking and Benchmarking for about 2 years now, I remember anyone with a ATI 9700Pro, XP2500+ or a Pentium 2.4C was pretty much all you needed for to have a chance for a top score on the ORB.

It would not have broken the bank too badly back then, well under 2,000$ including a 200$ custom built Watercooling setup.

There were a few crazy people out on the fringe that had LN-2, Dry Ice or a Vapo Chill back then, but not many...

Today, just to get in the game, you will need a 500$ ATI X-800 XT PE or NVIDIA 6800Ultra, along with a 850$ AMD-64 FX-55(2.6GHZ) or the 3.4GHZ Pentium 4 Extreme Edition that weighs in at a hefty 1000$.
(Oh, and also factor in the inflated prices for DDR2 if you are going Intel)

That is not including a big $$ handmade 3 Stage Cascade cooling system (-130C) and the electric bill to go along with it

Did I mention a pair of 74GB Western Digital Raptors in Raid configuration are also going to set you back another 350$?

So, if you want to get anywhere near the front page of the ORB today, better bring around 3 to 5,000$ just to get started.

Now..the fun part, What will it cost a year from now?

Well, right of the top, you can plan on 1000$ or more for a matched pair top of the line PCI Express graphics cards, once SLI Motherboards start shipping.
And I am sure there will also be a nice price premium for Dual Core CPU's and Motherboards, and the Intel fans will also want to change over to BTX cases, and Don't forget a 800Watt power supply to run it!

I can see next year you better plan on bringing a cool 5 to 7,000$ to the table..just to be in the game.

I began to notice a paralell here, back in the 1950's quarter mile drag racing was just gettin to be popular, people took whatever they had and raced, just for the fun of it.

A few guys, (Don Garlits being the most famous with his Swamp Rat series) took it to the extreme, they added SuperChargers, and used Nitromethane to fuel there "Racing" engines, and put them in a tube chassis to create the first Top Fuel Dragsters.

These were no longer just fast street machines, but dedicated single purpose racing machines, much like todays Cascade "ORB" machines.

Today, Don Garlits would not have a shot in TopFuel racing, it takes corporate sponsorship, a full time racing crew and a Semi Truck full of parts and equipmet to make it in the big leagues.

This is how I kind of see things going for the Benchmarking world today, the average guy with a reasonable budget under 2,000$ is not even going to register on the radar...

Does this mean I am going to give up? Should you?

Never! I just have a realistic "Personal" goal, to make a fast as hell budget racer, that may have shot in a certain "Class" just like a guy might spend 10-15 grand on a "Bracket Racer" for weekend fun at the dragstrip.

There is a way to sort your ORB or ARC results by type of graphics card and CPU, and while it's not much, I have just recently taken the top spot for the X-800 Pro/AMD64 on Aquamark!

I would love to see things broken down a bit more "Class" wise online, too bad they can't tell if you are aircooled, liquid cooled or "Other" (Super Cooled)

So take heart my fellow racing fans, the new toys around the corner are going to make some big numbers for sure, and make todays 'TopGuns" look like Mopeds.
But hey, Racing is not always about being the fastest in the world, as long as my "Moped" is faster than yours..I'll be happy

With the proper components and a few tricks, the slightly above average Joe does still have a shot for bragging rights. Or you could just be Zennzzo.

$solid$ GREAT POST!!!
man i totaly agree with you!!!! i just got HL2 today, and my machine runs it decently with stuff that was smoking back in the summer.....my 2500+ doesnt really come close to the 64's, my 9800pro-->9800xt flash is getting owned by regular 6800's....my stick of 512 pc2700 muskin is ancient.....people are running with 5200 ddr2 now. all this stuff is SO expensive!!! im a po' college student, its hard to get the money to make a bad ace gamin machine...im kinda disapointed in it running doom3 and HL2 i mean it does run it good but......just not as good as i want it....i am blessed to have a machine that is as decent as mine, some people out there are trying to run hl2 on the 64mb cards and FX5200's....yall all know how it goes, always want upgrades you can NEVER have to much power or space!!!
thanx again $solid$ good post
WDoG

nice one $SOLID$

we are definatly entering a period where the high end gear will eat a pretty penny time ten. Of course that's only if the top ORB spots are what you live and die by. Dont discount component comparison; there was a great thread on some forum where people took the cost of their components (CPU, mobo, ram, cooling, video) and divided it over their 3DMark 01SE score. It gavea measure of price to performance. The Cascade guys were around 25 marks per dollar. With my 2500+ and 9800np > XT on watercooling I was at 40 marks per dollar (current value of gear). That was an eye opener.

Benchmarking will definatly become FAR more segmented once SLI comes out for your aformentioned reasons. However then there will be the non-SLI'ers. Those scores will definatly be respected; look at the overclocking community. Those topping the orb definatly get the glory but the guys who are getting the best score with a GF 4 Ti4200 are still getting the nod simply because of the accomplishment. Hell, the orb lets us organize by system type.

WDoG; I hear ya (kinda) my setup was what you've got; nabbed a 6800 Ultra over the summer when I saw one for $500 (still an awesome deal) and a $300 CPU / mobo combo once OC'ed and I'll be able to play any game I want 16x12 with filtering except for FarCry with High-Def rendering (sooo amazing).

But your right homie, the future of overclocking will DEFINATLY create a bigger void between the 'haves' and 'have-not's'

it is nice to see that nVidia and ATI are caring for the budget users though, the 6600 GT and X700 XT are amazing cards for $200ish...

Quote: Originally Posted by BigAkita With the proper components and a few tricks, the slightly above average Joe does still have a shot for bragging rights. Or you could just be Zennzzo.

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yep...or you could just be Zennzzo....lucky Son-of-a-pimp . The 3200 winchester is my bet. I certainly dont have 3000 towave aorund on somthing that will in essence be forgotten in about 2 years time. Going for well sorta after cheap and efficient chips tho is somthing I thnk most people go for. Water cooling is getting there, and making your own water cooling is certainly not that difficult and savings can be made.

Phase changing will probably never be my league - risk run with somthing like that is not for me. Id prolly get my finger frozen to the block in complete stupidity.

Couldn't agree with you more $Solid$. The only good thing I can see from the newest technology and it's insane prices is lower prices for budget stuff. Regular old Joe will be able to get a basic computer dirt cheap and that is pretty much who will benefit from this. Most people here are extreme users in comparison to Joe there. We will always be spending more and more.

I'd just settle for an Athlon 64 939 pin CPU and mobo....... but then, it doesn't take a gaming machine to impress me as I am not the typical gamer (still love my racing and Janes Combat Simulation games though). The scalability is what I am after at this point.
Great post too!

Congrats on the making the top spot in class

As for the rest of the article: Amen, brother $SOLID$, preach it (and a hallelujah thrown in for good measure )