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5.0 stars
"Just got this...WOW!!"
Pros: Awesome gaming, beats 8 grand comps
Cons: still a tad expensive
Summary: The Velocity Micro Raptor 64 DualX ($5,429 direct; without monitor, $4,999) is one bird that can really fly. The first gaming system we've seen with the new AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 processor, the Raptor has soared to the head of the flock in gaming performance. And though the price tag is not for the weak of heart or slender of wallet, it is less than that of many gaming systems we've seen in roundups past (with lower-end components).
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The Raptor is housed in the familiar Velocity Micro Signature case (although this model is silver), with a window to show off all the neat hardware. The liquid cooling system is clearly visible, as is the larger heat exchanger over the CPU. Both are quite necessary: Two overclocked processor cores produce a lot of heat when under stress. We like that the liquid cooling system's radiator is now mounted unobtrusively on the inside back of the case. (The previously reviewed Velocity Micro ProMagix DCX had the liquid cooler inconveniently mounted on the case door.) Velocity Micro's techs also did a nice job of routing the power and data cables in the Raptor 64, showing off all the expensive stuff inside.
* Gaming Systems Gone Wild
The Raptor's FX-60 dual-core processor is overclocked to 2.9 GHz (the stock configuration is 2.6 GHz). This makes it more than a match for FX-57 systems, which have a single core and a 2.8-GHz stock configuration speed. "Dual" is the operative word with this system, which includes not just a dual-core processor but also dual 500GB hard drives (1TB total) in a RAID 0 array, dual 512MB eVGA nVidia GeForce 7800GTX graphics cards in a SLI configuration, and dual DVD±RW drives (which is probably overkill). Although we're not happy about all but one of the PCIe slots being filled with the double-size graphics cards and the Creative Labs X-Fi sound card (meaning you'll have to remove one to upgrade), you won't need to upgrade anytime soon.
Such Herculean components led the Raptor to the best gaming scores we've seen yet. All of the Raptor's Doom 3 and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory benchmark test scores were well above 100 frames per second at all resolutions, ensuring that you'll have a smooth gaming experience with today's games. This is the system with which you'll want to play Doom 3 and future games built on the Doom 3 engine. One thing to note is that since the Raptor uses 512MB graphics cards, the score difference between playing at Doom 3's High quality (132 fps) and Ultra quality (130 fps) settings is negligible. The Raptor's 3DMark05 scores were also the highest we've seen: 10,455 at 1,600-by-1,200 resolution. And it returned the highest scores we've seen on SYSmark Internet Content Creation (385) and CineBench (770). On our new Windows Media encoding test, the Raptor performed the encode task in a blazing 5:35. (A value PC we recently tested took 14 minutes to do the same encode.)
Yes, it's another high-end gaming system from Velocity Micro. Though this time, being first out of the gate is a plus, since the Raptor 64 DualX crushes the competition we saw just a couple of months ago.And yes, it still is pricey, but Velocity Micro manages to beat the former champs for a price far below the $5,500 to $7,000 prices of those systems. It's inevitable that newer, faster computers will come out later in 2006, but for now the Velocity Micro Raptor 64 DualX is the price/performance champ.
