There's no add-on sound card; the motherboard's integrated 7.1 sound chip supplies the system's audio, with the output going to a basic Logitech X-230 2.1 speaker setup. The X-230s aren't room-shaking by any means, but they don't sound bad for $50 speakers. The included ViewSonic Q7b 17-inch LCD monitor has a 12ms response rate--fast enough to prevent blurs in 3D shooters. Its resolution tops out at 1,280x1,024 pixels, which is as high a resolution as you'd want to use for gaming with the stock graphics card.
The minimal software bundle mainly consists of tools bundled with the various components, such as Nero Burning ROM and InterVideo WinDVD. You can choose from an à la carte software menu at checkout, however, adding an office suite and games for an extra cost.
Cyberpower offers an amazing level of configurability, far more than you get from a large company such as Dell or Sony and even more than with the Velocity Micros and the Hypersonics of the world. For instance, Cyberpower lets you choose from 15 different cases, 13 different power supplies, and 14 different motherboards on this model alone. About the only feature you're forced to accept with the Gamer Ultra 8500 SE is the AMD Athlon X2 3800+ chip, which is bizarre considering that you can surround it with such high-end parts as a pair of 512MB GeForce 7800 GTX cards. The sheer breadth of configuration options might not surprise you once you realize that Cyberpower offers 38 different named PCs.
Cyberpower's standard three-year warranty and lifetime support are impressive, considering that the Gamer Ultra 8500 SE is a budget system. Onsite service is available at minimal extra cost. For documentation, Cyberpower provides the bare basics: manuals for components such as the motherboard and monitor, but nothing specific to the system. Online support is negligible, with only a few links to driver downloads, some of which lead to dead Web pages. We'll also add that it's hard enough for vendors that sell 5 to 10 systems to provide reliable tech support. Considering how many parts and possible configurations Cyberpower has to deal with, we have to wonder about overall quality assurance and the comprehensiveness of the support coverage.
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BAPCo's SysMark 2004 rating | |
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SysMark 2004 office-productivity rating |
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Half-Life 2 1,024x768 4XAA 8XAF |
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Sorenson Squeeze 4.0 video-encoding test (in seconds) | |
Adobe Photoshop CS test (in seconds) | |
Apple iTunes 4.7.1.30 MP3-encoding test (in seconds) |
System configurations:
ABS Ultimate M5 Vortex
Windows XP Home SP2; 2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 3800+; Nvidia Nforce-4 chipset; 2,048MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT (PCIe); Seagate ST3200826AS 200GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
Cyberpower Gamer Ultra 8500 SE
Windows XP Home SP2; 2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 6600 (PCIe); Maxtor 6L200M0 200GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
Dell XPS 200
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2; 3.0GHz Intel Pentium D 830; Intel 945G chipset; 512MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 224MB (shared) integrated Intel 950G; Maxtor 6L160M0 160GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
Polywell MiniBox2 939NP
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2; 2.0GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+; Nvidia Nforce-430 chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB (shared) integrated Nvidia GeForce 6150; two WDC WD2500KS-00MJB0 250GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA; integrated Nvidia Nforce-4 RAID-class controller (RAID 0)
Sony VAIO VGC-VA11G
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2; 3.2GHz Intel P4 640; ATI Radeon RC410M chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 256MB ATI Radeon X700 (PCIe); two Maxtor 6L160M0 160GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA
What You'll Pay
- Set Price Alert
