Posts Tagged ‘Gaming Desktops’

I was skimming through Wired.com’s Desktop Reviews this morning and came across a pretty interesting 7K gaming machine called the Maingear Shift. On the outlook it just looks like your normal gray tower case – the thing measures 21.5 x 8.5 x 24 inches, and weighs just over 40 pounds.

It’s CPU is the 3.3 GHz Intel Core i7-975 Extreme, with 6 GB of RAM. The GPU is 3 GPUS! Three ATI Radeon HD5870 graphics cards. Wired says that these babies averaged 65 to 70 frames per second inCrysis andCrysis Warhead (highest settings at1920 x 1200 resolution), and dropped to the mid to low 50s cities, complex scenes, and intense fighting.

Invest 7K in a desktop and you better expect high end hard drives! The Maingear shift has two 80-GB solid-state drives for using the operating system and games and it comes with a 2-TB spinning hard drive at 7,200 rpm. It also comes with a Blu-ray burner and a ton of ports: 10 USB ports, 2 Firewire, eSata, a multiformat card reader, and Coax and Digital SPDIF ports for 8-Channel surround-sound support. It’s got a 1,200-watt power supply which gives you a ton of power and plenty of space for upgrades.

Probably the most interesting thing about the Maingear Shift is the case: it’s bland on the outside but highly complex and beautiful on the inside. The first thing you’ll see is the immaculate wiring job: Cables are tied down but they’re within easy reach for disconnecting components and swapping new parts in. It has six drive bays, each can hold either a 3.5-inch drive or two 2.5-inch drives. That basically means that you can install six 2-TB drives or even 12 SSDs if you budget can afford it. Maingear really knows their stuff! Installing or removing a drive is as simple as unlocking and sliding out the plastic tray, dropping your new drive in, attaching the appropriate cables and sliding the tray back into place. No tools required! It’s got an improvement heat management system: the liquid cooled CPU is aided by 3 large slow fans that pull the outside air into the case and blow it out through the top.

Wired asks is the Shift is worth seven grand? The components price out at about $4,480 leaving $2,450 for labor! That’s a lot of cash for building a system. The case does have an interesting design which adds a lot of overall value to the package. the package. The improved heat management means greater longevity for your parts. The case allow easy access to core components which also means that future upgrades will be a breeze.

Video Review

One thing’s for sure: Alienware really knows how to make an upper end gaming rig. This Alienware Area 51 (A51-2443CSB) Desktop is a top of line gaming and rendering machine. It’s processor is the Intel Core i7-920 which is one of today’s fastest four core cpu running at 2.66GHz. It also has a ripping ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics card (1GB of memory), 6GB of (DDR3-1333) RAM, and a ginormous 1.2TB hard drive. Dave Dave Altavilla at HotHardware reviewed a similar Alienware desktop with just a slightly faster processor (3.33Ghz i7-980 X) and absolutely loved it. On DiRT2 the machine easily cranked out 133-135 fps at 1920×1200 with highest visuals enabled. Sweet.

Buying the Alienware 51 (A51-2443CSB) will cost you a lot of pretty pennies – about $2100 to be exact. You certainly get what you pay for though in terms of sheer power. It’s an outlet item which means that you’ll have to buy it online and have it shipped to the store. Read the rest of this entry »

And now on to an examination of Best Buy’s gaming laptops. The HP HPE-210y is their popular gaming desktop designed for the budget gamer. It’s got the AMD Phenom II quad-core processor humming along at 3.0GHz, 8GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM for excellent multitasking, and the ATI Radeon HD 5450 graphics card which adequately handles games at low resolutions. The huge 1TB hard drive and Blue-ray Disc-enable DVD±RW/CD-RW drive are nice touches. It comes with Windows 7 Home Edition (64-Bit), wireless N networking, 7 USB ports, and a 15-in-1 media reader (aren’t those becoming extinct?).

The HP HPE-210Y is priced $899 at Best Buy. It’s a store item, not an outlet item. Yes! You can buy it at the local Best Buy store. Read the rest of this entry »

Our tour of TigerDirect’s recertified desktops is slowly winding down. Today we’re looking for an excellent deal on a desktop designed for productively and intense gaming power. Looking through these recertified systems we discover the Asus Essentio CG5290-BP009.

The Asus Essentio CG5290-BP009 is a great desktop PC for those needing hard-core multitasking productivity or today’s high-end gaming power. This machine comes with the impressive  Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz Processor, 9GB DDR3 of memory, and a 640GB (7,200RPM) hard drive. The (Nvidia GeForce GTX260 896MB) graphics card is powerful enough to handle intense programs like AutoCAD and Visual Studio as well as modern games like World of Warcraft, Grand Theft Auto 4, and Team Fortress 2. It’s got a SuperMulti DVD+-R/RW with Double Layer (burn DVD’s up to 9.6GB), ultra fast Gigabit LAN High Definition Audio, and a wired keyboard and mouse. On the top front of the box you’ll find access to all the sound controls, 4 USB ports, and various media card readers.

The Asus Essentio CG5290-BP009 is currently priced $899 at TigerDirect; brand new the machine cost was sold at Best Buy for about $200 more. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a great gaming desktop but don’t have $5,000 to spend? The Gateway FX6831-01 brings just enough power to the table to be a good gaming value. It only costs $1,299 – $1,599 depending on configuration. The machine comes outfitted with a powerful Intel i7-860 processor and a generous 8GB of DDR3 RAM. This Intel i7 is a very interesting CPU! It normally runs at 2.8GHz but has a Turbo Boost mode that can clock the machine up to 3.46GHz using multiple cores. The fewer cores being used, the closer the system is to 3.46GHz; the more cores, the nearer it is to 2.8GHz. Read the rest of this entry »

Velocity Micro has produced a highly capable mid range gaming desktop with their Micro Edge Z30. This $1,349 system has strong and stable performance and high build quality. The system features a Core i7 860 chip CPU overclocked at 3.2GHz, 8GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM, a 1TB 7,200 rpm hard drive, and a 896MB Nvidia GeForce GTX video card. The machine comes with a second graphics slot which isn’t standard at the $1,300 price range.

Checkout this CNET review. They love the compact profile case, the expansion options, and lower power consumption scores. The biggest surprise is that Z30′s CPU outpaces systems from Asus and Maingear in at the $1,349  price. The Nvidia video card has enough power - Far Cry 2 runs at 60fps. The bottom line with this system is that you get the power of a $6,500 Alienware system with a budget of less than $1,400.

One of the hottest desktops on Newegg right now is the CyberpowerPC Gamer Xtreme 1030. If it wasn’t for the medium end video card you’d almost think the Gamer Xtreme 1030 was totally high end. The fact remains that the NVIDIA GeForce 9500GT video card is older and just not “top of the line.” If you’re craving high end intense games you can easily upgrade the card to make the system high end. The Gamer Xtreme comes with a super fast CPU (Intel Core i5 750 CPU running at 2.66GHz) and 4GB of (DDR3 1333) RAM. The 500GB hard drive is a super fast piece of hardware: SATA-II running at 3.0Gb/s and spins 7200RPM.  The machine comes with Windows 7 Home Premium – 64bit version. You can find the Gamer Xtreme 1030 priced $749.99 at Newegg. Read the rest of this entry »

The Gateway FX6801-03 is a great mid range gaming rig for under $1,150. It has a fast 4 core CPU that can act as 8 cores, a mid range performing graphics card, and 9GB of RAM. All these components give you a 5.9 on the Windows system index and a great overall gaming desktop.

The FX6801-03 comes loaded with the Intel Core i7-920 quad-core processor which runs 2.66GHz. This I7-920 CPU supports Hyper-Threading which means that each core represents two virtual CPUs so compatible software will run as if there were eight cores.

The PC currently goes for $999 at Newegg. Here’s the FX6801-03 on Gateway’s website; all the specs are here. Read the rest of this entry »