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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
4.5 stars
"killer gaming rig out of the box"
Pros: it does everything
Cons: the cost is representitive of the fact that it does everything
Summary: simply put this is a great pc. runs all my games at full 1680x1050 resolutions quite nicely. only company of heroes doesn't like having all the settings turned to max, but that game at those settings is a system killer without an sli setup. the one thing velocity micro left for me to nitpick is the fact that they used the ddr2 800 speed ram instead of the faster pc2-8500. i'd love to have that 1150mhz fsb, but i guess it'll have to wait for upgrade. under normal circumstances i'd consider this pc waaay overpriced, but since i bought it at a bestbuy with their service plans + velocity micros own warranties it makes the price palatable. not great but i've learned to live with it.
some differences worth noting: for some reason my e2240 comes with a different case. instead of having the front door there is simply a flat front bezel. this actually looks quite nice because the 3.5 drive bays have spring loaded flip down brushed metal covers, so regardless of your drives colors they won't disrupt the aesthetic appearance of your case. beneath the optical drives, instead of a solid front bezel, there are machined fins which allow for amazing airflow. the velocity micro "play" logo is still there and still lighting up a pleasing blue, but i must say the airflow is truly awesome. placing your hand within a few inches of the front bezel you can feel the suction of the two huge fans they placed up front. placing your hand near the back exhaust fan is equally surprising as the sheer volume of air being emitted is astounding. even under load this machine stays nice and frosty.
while this machine is crazy overclockable i like to run mine at stock speeds. some would consider this a wasted investment, but i'm really looking at longevity as opposed to temporary gains. but keep in mind, this is easily the best fan cooled system i've seen, so overclocking ram/cup/graphics card probably isn't all that dangerous.
note that while vista supports 8gb of ram this has windows vista ultimate 32-bit installed, which means you will still be limited to the 4gb ceiling. i was a little miffed at this decision at first, but after talking with a few buddies who had retail versions of ultimate, they all decided to do a 32-bit install. simply put, there's a lack of necessary 64-bit software, mainly adequate antivirus apps, to make running a 64-bit environment enjoyable.
all in all a great machine, i've give it a 10/10 if it had the latest ram installed, because for the price that just makes sense. a great machine, if you can find one, buy one.Updated
since my original post some notable things have changed. first, the picture on cnet was updated so my lengthy description of the case is now unnecessary. as for performance today?
the mouse is unusable, it works just fine but is so uncomfortably-shaped that gaming with it is simply inhumane. a few of the keys on the keyboard have begun to smudge away(wsad and space), revealing the translucent keys beneath.
all things considered i would've like to have seen more durable components bundled with this pc. after all it is marketed to a gaming audience and should be able to withstand ordinary wear and tear. granted, the keyboard and mouse still work, but out of the box gaming was an uncomfortable experience with that odd mouse. for the record though the keyboard works really well and with the blue lights off looks dead sexy.
other problems?
re-installing vista
it happens. every now and then for some reason we need to reinstall an OS, and life is no different with this velocity micro pc. fortunately the process is relatively painless. in approx 20 minutes i had windows up and running again. it takes considerably longer to install all of the updates (49 total) and turn off all of vistas wackier security features. afterwards though it's that "brand new" feeling all over again. things running smooth as ever with all of the updates installed from the beginning.
final thoughts:
since my first review i have overclocked my q6600 to 2.7ghz. i've seen noticeable improvements in certain environments without running any hard benchmarks, and temps stay around 31C idle 37C load. that's pretty remarkable as this overclock was performed only at the ram end. i've upped the speed to 1200mghz without changing ram or cpu voltages. the thing i've realised is that this system is crazy overclockable. i've pushed the cpu to 2.87ghz without changing any voltages, and temps low enough to make 3.0ghz+ easily attainable with a little patience. it's clear from a little quick tampering that this system was built with overclocking in mind. the asus bios is, as always, top-notch and makes changing and backing up profiles painless (i recommend a usb stick for bios upgrades). a great purchase that justifies itself every day.
Updated on Oct 14, 2009Update update. I've long since upgraded to 6gb of ram and Vista x64. Things run much better with more ram, as is always the case, but the jump from 2gb to 6gb is just ridiculous. I don't really see how I could have survived with only 2 in the past. Hindsight being what it is, and prices dropping as they do, VM really should have splurged a little and given buyers 6-8gb of ram from the get go, as well as the significantly better-performing 8800gts 512mb card. That card is beginning to show it's age, but it still performs very well in every game I play, but come on ... with the stock card in there WoW, TF2, Company of heroes and pretty much anything else I threw at it would make the card struggle. Oh yeah, I also moved up to a 1920x1200 monitor, so that hit card performance a bit. Well anyway, with the new(er) model of the 8800gts things run quite well. I anticipate one more video card upgrade in the future, but after that it's time for a new machine.
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