CyberPower: 4.0 GHz QX9770 and SLI GTX 280s
by Matt Campbell on August 22, 2008 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Gaming/3D Performance
This section should first be prefaced with a nod to the Ridata SSDs used in this system. SSDs are the new rage, but unless a component like this can provide tangible performance benefits to the casual user, it's largely worthless. In this case, the load times for games and benchmarks (all installed on the SSD) were much faster than a traditional hard drive, tearing through loading and precaching screens. Bearing in mind that the solid state discs are space limited, however, you may need to select a few of your choice games and leave the 10GB+ installations (especially of games that don't rely as heavily on load times) to the data drives.
3DMark 2006
Once again we start things off with the classic synthetic 3D benchmark, run with default demo options only.
It's impressive that two GTX 280s are providing nearly enough power to match triple 8800 Ultras, but at the same time we're comparing the latest and greatest from NVIDIA to last generation hardware. Considering you can now purchase three 9800 GTX+ cards for $600 vs. $840 for two GTX 280 cards, and you might be tempted to stick with last-gen hardware. Of course, 3-way SLI isn't always as seamless as 2-way SLI.
3DMark Vantage
We gave some coverage to 3DMark Vantage when it first debuted. As a brief recap, Vantage runs on Windows Vista only, and has four different default test settings: Entry, Performance, High, and Xtreme. We promised more results in the preview, and today we have just that, comparing the Xtreme XI to our original test system. Vantage will be a new addition to our test suite, and though the new payment scheme is inconvenient, it is still user reproducible (once).
The CyberPower machine well and truly demolishes a respectable gaming machine (Q6600 @ 3.3GHz, SLI 3870s). We have a new bar to shoot for. Then again, the cost of the "old" Vantage test system comes out to a paltry $1200 or so. The disparity between the CPU and GPU score is quite a bit less on the CyberPower machine at Xtreme settings (1920x1200), a testament to the power of the GTX 280s.
Crysis
Crysis is punishing to even the most recent PC hardware. This demo also has two built-in benchmarks in the "bin32" folder, one "CPU" and the other "GPU". We ran several configurations to show the scalability of this game. We ran all benchmarks three times, discarding the first result and averaging the other two. We ran all tests at "High" quality unless otherwise specified. Per Derek's recent findings, Crysis benchmarks were run with VSync at default settings (i.e. not forced off in the driver).
Looking at opposite ends of the spectrum here, we see that the CPU benchmark runs very quickly, but remember that Crysis has a seemingly endless thirst for GPU power and is completely GPU bound at higher resolutions.
We see further evidence of the brick wall here; at the higher resolutions, frame rates consistently stick around the 45-50 mark at High quality. Raising the quality level to Very High at 4xAA yielded a 15 FPS result, so that's not really an option. Also, we noticed none of the "hitching" or jumpiness with this system that we did with our previous SLI system. As some of the comments from the last system article noted, it may be that the 790i platform resolves these issues.
World in Conflict
World in Conflict is a strategy war-game where the Cold War has erupted into a full-scale conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The demo has a built-in benchmark under Options->Graphics. Quality settings in the game also modify anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering; however, these were controlled independently while all other settings were left at the default for that quality.
We have very good results here with the CyberPower system. Also worth noting is that at 1680x1050 0xAA 4xAF, the frame rate never drops below 30 FPS, making game play enjoyable even during periods of large explosions (and even at 1920x1200, it only drops to 27). It's very impressive to see the SLI GTX system beat out the Tri-SLI 8800 Ultras here.
Metal Knight Zero Pre-Alpha Benchmark
NVIDIA recently released their "Force Within" Power Pack that included new Detonator drivers with PhysX acceleration for 8xxx, 9xxx, and GT200-class video cards. It also offers some demos, UT3 maps, a full game (Warmonger), and a trial version of Badaboom, among other things. We downloaded MKZ and gave the "High" (1920x1200) benchmark a whirl.
The game runs through a pre-recorded timedemo that is clearly aimed at showing off the PhysX capabilities. Banners blowing in the breeze while getting shot up with holes and ripping down, and vehicles exploding into little tiny bits is the norm.
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agliboyph - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
for this kind of money, gat a maingear and live happily ever afterbill3 - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
They get a lot of crap online, but I think people just like to whine. My brother bought a rig from them a while back and it's been nothing but great, and the price was great too, practically cheaper than you can build it yourself. And saves you the hassle, which as I age becomes a bigger factor, I dont really enjoy building my own PC's anymore, installing windows and all that crap.The customizability is what sets them apart, from buying a crap Dell or a PC from Best Buy or something imo. And the fact you can hand pick name brand quality components. The main downside imo is the 2 week build/ship time (newegg can have you parts to you in 2-3 days if you're building your own, and I like instant gratification).
But anyway, now on to my comments about this rig and away from general comments about cyberpower..my main complaint is for a 5k rig, this isn't nearly as extreme specced as you'd think it should be. Terabyte HDD's are rapidly nearing $99 nowdays, so you should get at least two of those imo (hell for 5 k, if not 3 or 4!). The fact you only get Vista Premium? Should get Ultimate befitting this monster rig. And then the RAM, I was browsing PC's in Best Buy the other day and noticed a "budget" $600 PC with 6GB RAM already! Granted it may be an overclocking thing or something, but this rig should come with 16GB RAM or something like that you'd think (8GB at the very least). Cant really argue with the video cards/PSU's though.
badputter - Sunday, August 24, 2008 - link
It isn't always folks that "just like to whine," I tried to buy what looked like a great deal on system from them about 8 years ago that turned me off of them completely.
This was back when the PIII was just moving to on-die cache...(back in the good old Slot 1 days...) Ordered a system with the on-die cache... system comes with the older version with external, half speed cache, that was about $40 cheaper to buy...
Call Customer service... generally took 30+ minutes to get through to anyone in their call center... system had other problems as well... just not stable... problem with the motherboard... could not work with anyone in customer service going up the chain. Finally ended up disputing the charge with Discover... Cyberpower never responded to Discover's dispute of the charge. Eventually they sent a prepaid shipping label to me to send the system back.
Had the system worked fine, I would have been a happy customer like your brother. I figured they could put it together for less than I could buy all the components... then they didn't ship me what I ordered... then they had lousy customer service and tech support...
They may have gotten better... or they may have found that the go for the cheap customer and hope for the best is more profitable...
Calin - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
They use two 1000W PSU for a system that uses less than 600W from the wall outlet? A single 1000W PSU should have been enough.HOOfan 1 - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
If you look at some of their in magazine ads, they will often show a configuration like the system above with only a single 420W generic PSU.HOOfan 1 - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
Also to add, this system doesn't even use 600W in their test. They measure AC draw from the wall outlet. Assuming these Thermaltakes can be 83% at those lower loads. 5798 * .83 ~ 481 So the system isn't pulling any more than 500 Watts of DC in their tests. Considering PSUs are rated on DC output and not AC input, this system is only drawing ~25% of the theoretical power available to it.Christoph Katzer - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
Wasty, They could have gone with two much smaller PSUs to keep load and therefore noise low on both. The two 1k units are not necessary and waste a lot of budget for the system. Too bad these companies have no idea how to choose sufficient power..bill3 - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
Oh and I forgot to mention one thing that amazed and made me envious of my brothers cyberpower..he got a windowed case and the cabling/routing they did was incredibly clean and minimal. I mean, no clutter whatsoever, just perfect. I'm just sloppy and stupid, but I hated staring at my cable clutter in my windowed PC for years (why I didn't buy a windowed case this time hehe)HotdogIT - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
Remember the HardOCP reviews, where they tested the technical support? Yeah, I loved those, and miss those. Obviously it ended up killing their H-Consumer line, as it cost a lot of advertising dollars, but it was so unique, and special, and cool.You guys should do that. That's what I'm cleverly hinting at with my reminiscing.
Rev1 - Friday, August 22, 2008 - link
Yea that was great, it actually swayed me to purchase a comp from cyberpower because they had a few decent reviews on there.