CyberPower: 4.0 GHz QX9770 and SLI GTX 280s
by Matt Campbell on August 22, 2008 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
CyberPower - Ordering Impressions
CyberPower's website comes up immediately from a web search, as we like to see. Their current Reseller Rating is 7.97 for the last six months and 7.43 lifetime. As has been mentioned before, many factors must be taken into consideration besides the raw score, but often the customer feedback is useful to read through. Many posters did comment that they bought based on price and selection, and CyberPower had responded to and resolved several of the complaints.
CyberPower's website is better organized than some, but still has a huge array of choices. There are a large number of base system configurations (32 Intel, 29 AMD!), many of which are only slightly different from one another, and a huge number of individual options for each one of those systems.
Oddly enough, their cheapest "base" Intel configuration is in the Midrange PC menu at $699 (Gamer Infinity 8000 Dream), or their "Mega Special III" at $635. In fact, they have High-Performance selections that are cheaper than their entry-level machines! Choice is great, but if you choose to segregate by performance, the line should be a little clearer. At the high end of the spectrum is the Gamer Extreme XI starting at $5079, which is the model under review today. Note that the Gamer Extreme XI comes with two PSUs, just to make sure you have enough power to run a small third-world country.
Common with many PC vendors, freebies such as T-shirts, USB drives, and games are available for many configurations, but some also come with higher priced items such as printers. As you scroll through the choices, a system summary follows you on the right hand side updating price and specs as you go, which is nice. The "Help me choose" options are somewhat helpful; they provide a short list of primary specifications, but don't provide simple comparisons in a way that lets the consumer made a tradeoff decision. We also found them to have some questionable hardware combinations since most upgrades are offered across the board - like a 128 GB SSD for a $600 PC. We won't ding them for this since they're giving choice to the consumer, but again a little more segregation among performance levels would declutter and simplify the ordering experience.
Their telephone support number was very easy to find ("Contact Us"), which we appreciate, and is listed as 24/7, in addition to the "Live Chat" feature available during business hours. Their shipping was very reasonable ($14 FedEx Ground cross-country for one entry-level system) and was very easy to use without requiring a login or personal information as some other websites do.
A brief list of Pros and Cons regarding the website layout and content is as follows:
Pros
Website easy to find
Huge array of choices
Generally competitive pricing
Prominent support information
Fair shipping rates and easy calculation
Cons
Huge array of choices can be confusing
"Help me Choose" could be better
Could remove extreme options from entry-level builds
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initialised - Saturday, August 30, 2008 - link
To get the most out of the Asetek LCLC we usually fit fans in push-pull. This took a Q9550 at 3.6GHz from 70-75 loaded to 55-60 Loaded. I'm surprised our American cousins hadn't thought to do this. I have a similar system to this under testing right now at 4.2GHz temps not really braking 65, Cosmos-S case though. Having said that, a system with a 4870x2 and 3.8GHz quad is not far behind it in terms of performance. For us Safe & Stable typically means knock the CPU FSB up a notch and XXX means go further on the CPU and OC the RAM and graphics where possible.bob4432 - Sunday, August 24, 2008 - link
w/ your comment - "CyberPower's website comes up immediately from a web search"what did you type into the search engine? and which engine?
2x 1KW....ridiculous as the norm lately....
JarredWalton - Sunday, August 24, 2008 - link
"CyberPower"... Google gives it the number one spot as do MSN and Yahoo. If you put a space in the name, the results aren't changed. Not sure what you would search for that wouldn't have a quick hit.bob4432 - Sunday, August 24, 2008 - link
it is pretty easy to get #1 when you know the name....you need to search w/ stuff other than a direct name, especially the domain name or nearly the domain name, that is a near 100% chance of it being #1. say you don't know the name and you just type in "buy custom online pc" - you get different results.because of this i really wouldn't give them any kudos on their website because a search engine gave them #1 when you typed in almost their domain directly and company name.
getting to #1 for them w/ the way you searched is extremely easy....
Matt Campbell - Sunday, August 24, 2008 - link
Perhaps it is easy, but more than one OEM we've evaluated has *not* come up with a direct web search of their name, which (as you can imagine) makes them quite difficult to locate if you don't know anything else about them.oralpain - Saturday, August 23, 2008 - link
I notice that, in this review, you have CoreTemp calibrated to a TJmax of 105C.According to Intel, the actual TJmax rating of the QX9770 is 85C. Since CoreTemp, and other programs like it, are only capable of measuring the delta to TJmax, proper calibration is critical to knowing actual (load) temperatures.
In your load tests, the CPU only reached into the 70sC, not the 90s.
Source for the TJmax ratings: http://intel.wingateweb.com/US08/published/session...">http://intel.wingateweb.com/US08/publis...sessions...
Matt Campbell - Saturday, August 23, 2008 - link
Thanks for noting this. I did see Kris' update on Thursday as well, here: http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=47...">http://www.anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=47..., which finally gives us solidified TJmax numbers to work with. As this was just made public information on the 21st, however, the article had already been sent in for publication. I will re-run the test and post the results.brian_riendeau - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
"The cooling is sufficient I think, for everywhere except perhaps the CPU. I'd wager that an Ultra-120 eXtreme would beat it, but that's just a guess. As for the rest of the comments, while two PSUs is certainly overkill for this particular configuration, doubling the RAM will hardly have an impact on most things. I've got a 4GB system and a 2GB system (64-bit and 32-bit), with similar parts elsewhere. Unless I really open a LOT of applications (and 32-bit ones at that, since there are very few 64-bit apps), I couldn't tell them apart."and from the review...
"they took an extra step in integrating them into a solution with reasonable component choices that worked well together and provided a stable operating platform"
Fact is with Vista SuperFetch preloading commonly used files into RAM during idle times, the performance benefits of extra RAM really start to pay off even as you go over 4GB. With 8GB of RAM, it will cache up most of the games you typically play bringing launch times and level switch times down dramatically. This is the type of thing that has a huge difference in the real world feel, but rarely shows in benchmarking. Given the minimal cost of another 4GB of RAM and the system going over $5.5K in cost, I think its ridiculous for this system not to come with 8GB of RAM from the start.
JarredWalton - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
The problem is that most games are now well over 4GB, and the data they use is so variable (one level uses a certain 1GB, the next level uses a different 1GB, etc.) If you surf the web a lot, run your email app, Word, Excel, and play several different games, SuperFetch gets overwhelmed.But you know what? All that is beside the point! You want 4x2GB RAM? It's an option. You want a case with one PSU? They've got that too. That's why this is a review of both a specific PC (the Gamer Extreme XI) plus plenty of commentary on CyberPower as a whole. You want a different config? How about this, which is probably what I would go with for high-end right now:
Gamer Infinity 8900 Deluxe
--------------------------
CoolerMaster Centurion 590 RC-590 Mid-Tower Case
3 extra case fans
Thermaltake ToughPower 1,000W PSU
Core 2 Quad Q9550
Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX
GigaByte GA-EP45T-DS3R
4x2GB DDR3-1333 ("Major brand")
ATI Radeon HD 4870X2 (Feel free to add a second)
300GB Western Digital Raptor
1TB 32MB 7200RPM HDD
LG GGC-H20L BLU-RAY/HD-DVD Reader/DVD±R/±RW Writer
(Onboard audio and network)
Logitech Wave Keyboard
Razer Diamondback 3G Blue Mouse
12-in-1 Flash reader
Vista Ultimate 64-bit
3-year warranty
Total CyberPower cost: $3057 + shipping and tax
CoolerMaster Centurion 590 RC-590 $65
3 x 120mm case fans $12
Thermaltake ToughPower 1,000W PSU $310
Core 2 Quad Q9550 $330
Thermaltake Big Typhoon VX $53
GigaByte GA-EP45T-DS3R $160
4x2GB Patriot DDR3-1333 $358
PowerColor Radeon HD 4870X2 $560
300GB Western Digital Raptor $295
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB $150
LG GGC-H20L $150
Logitech Wave Keyboard $50
Razer Diamondback 3G Blue Mouse $50
12-in-1 Flash reader $20
Vista Ultimate 64-bit (OEM) $180
Warranty ???
Total for parts purchased at Newegg: $2,743
(Tax and shipping also missing.)
$300 for an extra 2-year warranty, plus assembly and testing, and shipping is likely to be less than the individual parts. Again, the comparison is quite favorable.
HanSolo71 - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
in your previous rig you said you had a Q6600 @ 3.3 Ghz and SLI 3870's how can you have SLI ATI cards?