PC Club Enpower Sabre Extreme: E6600 Made Easy
by Jarred Walton on August 29, 2006 4:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Features and Price
Prices on the Sabre Extreme start at around $800 and go up to over $3000. As with most vendors, you can configure your system differently, focusing on increasing storage capacity, faster or slower graphics, more memory, and various other options. Here are the specifications of the Sabre Extreme we received:
There are often drawbacks to purchasing a prebuilt system -- more limited BIOS options, potentially proprietary designs, slightly reduced performance in the name of stability, generic designs, etc. PC Club manages to separate their offerings from those of larger OEMs by going with off-the-shelf components. Rather than using a proprietary motherboard design, or even a standard motherboard but with a special BIOS that removes many of the extras, PC Club includes your garden-variety Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 motherboard. This may not be the absolute best motherboard for Core 2 Duo processors, but with the latest BIOS it runs very stable, and you even get access to the standard overclocking options.
Overclocking? On a midrange OEM system? Blasphemy! Naturally, all of the standard disclaimers with overclocking apply. PC Club does not condone overclocking, and assuming they can determine you overclocked your system and caused a component to fail, they will certainly void your warranty. Still, if you'd rather just get a system that's all ready to roll out of the box and perhaps do some mild overclocking on your own, we will take a look at what we can achieve. We won't be trying to set any performance records, but given the 68% (and higher) overclocks of Core 2 Duo processors floating around the Internet, it seemed a shame to let the E6600 continue to run a stock speeds.
As we like to do with our system reviews, we priced out a similar home built system for reference to see how much you're paying PC Club to assemble and test everything for you.
There are currently some added costs with some of the components, chiefly the E6600 processor. Taking that into account you're basically paying PC Club about $200 in order to build the system for you. That is definitely a reasonable offer. About the only drawback is that configuration choices are limited in some areas, so you can't for example select a different motherboard or memory type in the online configurator. That may matter for some people, but for the target market the features and options should be more than adequate. If you'd like to change any of the options, you can call PC Club and custom build a system to your needs, or you can go to a local store and do the same thing.
Speaking of changes, the components used in the Sabre Extreme we're reviewing are subject to change, and at present PC Club has decided to move to an MSI P965 motherboard instead of the Gigabyte DS3. Again, you can custom order a system using the DS3 if you'd like, and the overall features are still going to be similar. As long as the part you want is carried by PC Club, you can order whatever you'd like. Another change in parts is that instead of an MSI 7900GT GPU, the latest configuration uses an EVGA 7900GT card or an MSI 7900GT with HDCP support. The HDCP card costs an extra $20, but once Vista launches you might be glad to have the feature depending on how much you plan to use the system for watching movies.
Obviously, some concessions are made in order to keep costs low. Integrated audio is available on every motherboard these days for free, and while it is sufficient for most uses there is a qualitative difference between onboard and discrete solutions. The case and power supply are also on the lower end of the power and quality spectrum, but they should get the job done. If you are looking for something to compete with the supercharged computers of the world, you'll need to look elsewhere (or spend more money), but if you're just looking for a computer that offers reasonable performance and reliability, the Sabre Extreme is a good place to start. Now let's move on to some the finer details.
Prices on the Sabre Extreme start at around $800 and go up to over $3000. As with most vendors, you can configure your system differently, focusing on increasing storage capacity, faster or slower graphics, more memory, and various other options. Here are the specifications of the Sabre Extreme we received:
| PC Club Enpower Sabre Extrene EN-SE6 | |
| Case: | Apex customized Mid-Tower with 350W PSU |
| Motherboard: | Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 |
| Processor: | Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.40 GHz 4MB shared L2 cache) |
| Heatsink/Cooling: | Stock Intel CPU HSF 80mm front fan 80mm rear fan |
| RAM: | 2x512MB Transcend PC2-5300 JM367Q643A-6 5-5-5-13 Timings |
| Graphics: | MSI GeForce 7900 GT |
| Hard Drives: | 250GB Western Digital 16MB 7200 RPM |
| Optical Drives: | LiteOn 16X DVD+/-RW |
| Expansion Slots: | 1 x PCIe X16 3 x PCIe X1 3 x PCI |
| Expansion Bays: | 4 x 3.5" internal bays 2 x 3.5" external 4 x 5.25" external |
| Audio: | Realtek ALC883 7.1 HD Audio onboard |
| Power Suply: | Allied AL-C350-ATX 1 x 24-pin ATX; 1 x ATX12V 4 x 4-pin Molex 1 x 4-pin mini Molex 1 x SATA |
| Operating System: | Windows XP Home SP2 |
| Front Ports: | 2 X USB2.0 2 X 3.5mm Audio (Headphone and Microphone) |
| Rear Ports: | 1 x PS/2 Keyboard 1 x PS/2 Mouse 1 x Parallel 1 x Serial 1 x Audio I/O Panel (six jacks) 1 x Optical S/PDIF Out Port 1 x Coaxial S/PDIF Out Port 1 x RJ45 4 x USB2.0 |
| Monitor: | ViewSonic 19" Widescreen LCD Monitor - 5ms 500:1 VA1912WB |
There are often drawbacks to purchasing a prebuilt system -- more limited BIOS options, potentially proprietary designs, slightly reduced performance in the name of stability, generic designs, etc. PC Club manages to separate their offerings from those of larger OEMs by going with off-the-shelf components. Rather than using a proprietary motherboard design, or even a standard motherboard but with a special BIOS that removes many of the extras, PC Club includes your garden-variety Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 motherboard. This may not be the absolute best motherboard for Core 2 Duo processors, but with the latest BIOS it runs very stable, and you even get access to the standard overclocking options.
Overclocking? On a midrange OEM system? Blasphemy! Naturally, all of the standard disclaimers with overclocking apply. PC Club does not condone overclocking, and assuming they can determine you overclocked your system and caused a component to fail, they will certainly void your warranty. Still, if you'd rather just get a system that's all ready to roll out of the box and perhaps do some mild overclocking on your own, we will take a look at what we can achieve. We won't be trying to set any performance records, but given the 68% (and higher) overclocks of Core 2 Duo processors floating around the Internet, it seemed a shame to let the E6600 continue to run a stock speeds.
As we like to do with our system reviews, we priced out a similar home built system for reference to see how much you're paying PC Club to assemble and test everything for you.
| Component Price List | ||
| Case: | Apex customized Mid-Tower with 350W PSU | 63 |
| Motherboard: | Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 | 151 |
| Processor: | Core 2 Duo E6600 (2.40 GHz 4MB shared L2 cache) | 370 |
| Cooling: | Stock Intel CPU HSF 80mm front fan 80mm rear fan |
0 |
| RAM: | 2x512MB Transcend PC2-5300 JM367Q643A-6 5-5-5-13 Timings | 90 |
| Graphics: | MSI GeForce 7900 GT | 275 |
| Hard Drives: | 250GB Western Digital 16MB 7200 RPM | 84 |
| Optical Drive: | LiteOn 16X DVD+/-RW | 32 |
| Audio: | Realtek ALC883 7.1 HD Audio onboard | 0 |
| Monitor: | ViewSonic VA1912WB | 222 |
| Keyboard: | Logitech Internet Pro | 11 |
| Mouse: | Logitech RX1000 | 28 |
| Operating System: | Windows XP Home SP2 | 95 |
| Sub Total: | 1421 | |
There are currently some added costs with some of the components, chiefly the E6600 processor. Taking that into account you're basically paying PC Club about $200 in order to build the system for you. That is definitely a reasonable offer. About the only drawback is that configuration choices are limited in some areas, so you can't for example select a different motherboard or memory type in the online configurator. That may matter for some people, but for the target market the features and options should be more than adequate. If you'd like to change any of the options, you can call PC Club and custom build a system to your needs, or you can go to a local store and do the same thing.
Speaking of changes, the components used in the Sabre Extreme we're reviewing are subject to change, and at present PC Club has decided to move to an MSI P965 motherboard instead of the Gigabyte DS3. Again, you can custom order a system using the DS3 if you'd like, and the overall features are still going to be similar. As long as the part you want is carried by PC Club, you can order whatever you'd like. Another change in parts is that instead of an MSI 7900GT GPU, the latest configuration uses an EVGA 7900GT card or an MSI 7900GT with HDCP support. The HDCP card costs an extra $20, but once Vista launches you might be glad to have the feature depending on how much you plan to use the system for watching movies.
Obviously, some concessions are made in order to keep costs low. Integrated audio is available on every motherboard these days for free, and while it is sufficient for most uses there is a qualitative difference between onboard and discrete solutions. The case and power supply are also on the lower end of the power and quality spectrum, but they should get the job done. If you are looking for something to compete with the supercharged computers of the world, you'll need to look elsewhere (or spend more money), but if you're just looking for a computer that offers reasonable performance and reliability, the Sabre Extreme is a good place to start. Now let's move on to some the finer details.
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nah - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Good work, as always. How about an update on the CPU?GPU guides ?modo - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Just went over to ibuypower.com and configured a Core 2 duo E6600 with the MSI 965 mobo, 500W PSU, 1 gig ram, 250 gig HD, 7900Gt 256mb, dvd burner, with a mini-liquid cooler for the cpu for $1245 (without monitor). Enter 'ibuypower' code when you order and you get 5% off, taking the total down to less than $1200.Better system for $200 less?
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Add in the OS and monitor, and the total comes to $1522 with the discount. ($1361 without $229 LCD = $1293 with discount.) You need a 16MB cache HDD and a DVDRW with LightScribe if you want to make things "equal" on components. You can also add some extras that may or may not be available elsewhere. Anyway, it's still slightly cheaper; is it worth considering? Sure - it comes with a 3 year warranty. How's the support? I don't know. As stated in the conclusion, PC Club has some reasonable offers people might want to look at - especially if you live near a local store and would like that sort of support. There are a ton of competing system vendors out there.yyrkoon - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
MSI . . . I can not speak for everyone else, but I've had less than good results using MSI products. They may work fine for a period of time, but can not really be comparred to someone like ABIT, or Gigabyte. Who makes the PSU ? Why do you need a 'mini-liquid cooler' ?I've personally configured (but not bought) a simular C2D budget system, but using a E6400, and a 7600GT, and overall cost was around $800usd. Of course, I had planned on migrating a PSU (Antec), and HDDs from an older system. This is why I almost always suggest quality parts, as quality parts often last for years, and can be reused (in the case of a PSU, and HDDs here). You can go even cheaper if you use something along the lines of the Asrock 775Dual-VSTA motherboard, and migrate memory, and video from current system. *shrug* My personal experience with Asrock however, is that usually they are very solid boards (for the price), but are often less than top tier stable, and more often then not, are fairly quirky, and missing Features such as offering a SATAII controller, but disabling (or not including) command queuing(which is part of the SATAII spec, unless I'm mistaken).
QueBert - Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - link
funny, while I don't really care for MSI, never had a problem with them. Now Gigabyte UGH, on my 3rd board right now for this 939. And my last Gigabyte board (Athlon XP) gave me problems from day one. It's crazy how one person can never have a problem with a brand, and the guy next to him has nothing but problems. I think MSI has gotten a lot better then they were in the past. I live 2 blocks from a PC Club, and i can tell you this, whatever prebuilt systems they sell, they've done A LOT of component testing. As I've never heard somebody complain about an Enpower system, besides those who screw things up themselves with viruses and such. I only shop at PC Club, unless it's something they don't carry. They cost a bit more then Newegg, but the service is great. I walk in, they know me by name. They sold me a MB + Memory, I was dumb and didn't check, the MB was DDR2 and the memory was DDR1, I wanted DDR1, so they took the open MB back, no hassle.bob4432 - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Nice article and seems like a decent system for the $$$$. One question - where can we get the bf2 1.3 benchmark you are using?thanks,
bob :)
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
Sure, http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/benchmarks/bf2...">have at it. Standard "this is beta" disclaimers apply. If you don't know how to tweak a batch file, you're on your own. :)--Jarred Walton
bob4432 - Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - link
thanks, i had the 1.22 but lost it, then 1.3 came out.regnez - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
why is that in the feature list the graphics card is a 7900gt and in the benchmark setup it is a 7900gtx? is this a typo or was the graphics card switched out for the benchmark setup?also, it does not seem as if a 350 watt psu is enough to power that graphics card...
and one more thing: this system is called a mid-range system in the review, and I quite disagree. a mid range system would be something in the price range of $700-$900. this is a high end system, and it would not take much ($400 ish more) to bring it up to enthusiast level.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, August 29, 2006 - link
It was a typo; the system (as configured and tested) uses the 7900 GT. In terms of power, look at the power tests on page 9. Even with a 25% overclock and maximum load, the system draws 213W of power. That's not even accounting for PSU efficiency; remember that the PSU rating is what can be output, not the total wall power draw. Say it's 75% efficient; that means the system is using about 160W of power at maximum load. I've got a few generic 350W PSUs running similar configurations, and none of them have ever had issues.Finally, there is always debate about where market segments overlap price ranges. We consider budget to be $750 or less (maybe a bit more for budget gaming). Midrange is a huge segment that goes from around $1000 to $1500. At ~$1600, this is close enough, though it's definitely at the top of the midrange ladder. High-end starts at $2000 and can go way up from there. It's just a term anyway, and if you think $1500 is too high you're welcome to that opinion. The base configuration of the EN-SE5 comes with an E6300, 7300GS TurboCache, 160GB HDD, and costs $800 (including the OS). It's not longer really gaming worthy, but it will do everything else very well.