As its name suggests, though, the Velocity Micro Gamer's Edge DualX is a nearly unsurpassed gaming PC. The only system to beat it on our 3D tests was the Overdrive PC Torque SLI, due to that PC's more aggressive overclocking. Otherwise, the Gamer's Edge DualX is faster than the other high-end PCs by a significant margin, most notably in its Half-Life 2 1,024x768-resolution score, which at 112.5 frames per second (fps) is 16 percent faster than that of the next-closest PC. Since all our comparison systems use the same SLI GeForce 7800 GTX 3D-card configuration, we're inclined to pin the performance difference on Velocity Micro's overclocking and the DualX's AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 CPU. In any case, the Gamer's Edge DualX will devour whatever game you throw at it.
Along with Windows XP Professional, the Gamer's Edge DualX comes with a spare collection of software, including WordPerfect Office 11.0, CyberLink's PowerDVD 5.0 for watching DVDs, Nero's OEM suite of disk-burning software, and Ulead's Digital Creation Suite, with a variety of video- and photo-editing applications. A hardcover owner's portfolio contains generic user and quick-setup guides as well as user manuals for the motherboard and assorted components.
We commend Velocity Micro for its VelocityCare program, which provides a three-year parts-and-labor warranty and one year of onsite service and toll-free telephone support. No other vendor with a $3,500-plus PC, including Dell, offers a standard three-year warranty. Telephone support is available Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET. You can extend onsite and telephone support to two years for $129 or to three years for $199. VelocityCare also provides off-hour and holiday emergency support, promising a return phone call within 15 minutes. For an additional $99, you can purchase a Lifetime Upgrade Plan, which lets you return the system to the factory for additional fine-tuning and discounted component upgrades.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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BAPCo's SysMark 2004 rating | |
SysMark 2004 Internet-content-creation rating | |
SysMark 2004 office-productivity rating |
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Doom 3 1,600x1,200 4XAA 8XAF | |
Doom 3 1,024x768 4XAA 8XAF | |
Half-Life 2 1,600x1,200 4XAA 8XAF | |
Half-Life 2 1,024x768 4XAA 8XAF |
Find out more about how we test desktop systems.
System configurations:
ABS Ultimate X8
Windows XP Professional SP2; 3.2GHz Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840; Intel Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI Intel Edition chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz; 256MB (2) Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe SLI); two WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB SATA 10,000rpm; Hitachi HDS724040KLSA80 400GB SATA 7,200rpm; integrated Nvidia Nforce-4 Intel Edition SATA RAID Controller (RAID 0)
Alienware Aurora 7500
Windows XP Professional SP2; 2.4GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB (2) Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe SLI); two Hitachi HDS728080PLA380 80GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA; integrated Nvidia Nforce RAID-class controller (RAID 0)
Dell Dimension XPS 600
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 SP2; 3.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 670; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI Intel Edition chipset; 1,024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe SLI); two Hitachi HDS725050KLA360 500GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA; integrated Nvidia Nforce-4 Intel Edition SATA RAID Controller (RAID 0)
Overdrive PC Torque SLI
Windows XP Professional SP2; 2.8GHz AMD Athlon 64 FX-57; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB (2) Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe SLI); two WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB 10,000rpm SATA; one Seagate ST3200826AS 200GB 7,200rpm Serial ATA; integrated Nvidia Nforce RAID-class controller (RAID 0)
Velocity Micro Gamer's Edge DualX
Windows XP Professional SP2; 2.87GHz AMD Athlon 64 FX-57; Nvidia Nforce-4 SLI chipset; 1,024MB DDR SDRAM 400MHz; 256MB (2) Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX (PCIe SLI); two WDC WD740GD-00FLA2 74GB 10,000rpm SATA; one WDC WD250JD-00HBB0 250GB 7,200rpm SATA; integrated Silicon SiL3114 SoftRAID 5
What You'll Pay
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