CyberPower Gamer Xtreme 8500: How Far Can SLI 450's Go?
by Dustin Sklavos on September 16, 2010 12:15 AM ESTThe CyberPower 8500 Experience
When handling reviews of notebook systems, we usually walk you around the unit first. Those machines are very different from desktop PCs, where build quality and design play a much larger role. A desktop tower is going to be isolated from the screen, mouse, keyboard, and speakers, and when dealing with boutique builders we're generally talking about machines that are made from off-the-shelf parts. These builds are then lovingly assembled, tweaked, and tuned, then sent to you. Sometimes with a t-shirt and notebook case, as with the Xtreme 8500.
Aesthetics don't play quite as large a role with a desktop unit, particularly when buyers can choose from among 10 or more cases: what we're looking for is a balanced configuration with a low noise profile. When I say balanced, I mean that there don't appear to be corners cut, and that the processor and graphics subsystems are appropriately matched. If this were from one of the big OEMs like Dell or Acer, then the unique case might be an issue, but boutique builders generally let you choose your case.
That said, build quality is still an issue, and in that respect the 8500 is a bit unusual. The insides of the unit are clean and well-assembled, and the ASUS P7P55D-E Pro board was a fantastic choice. The tradeoff for the P55 chipset was getting an unlocked multiplier on an affordable processor while losing eight lanes of connectivity off of each graphics card slot, but there was another tradeoff made. A reasonably priced board from ASUS or Gigabyte on the X58 chipset actually results in the two PCIe x16 slots being in close proximity, exacerbating the heat issues that stem from a multi-GPU setup. The P7P55D-E Pro doesn't have this issue: the PCIe x16 slots are two slots apart instead of one, drastically improving airflow between the two cards.
Of course, that i7-875K processor is also a huge boon to the 8500. A 3.85GHz i7 is nothing to sneeze at, and it made its presence known on our CPU benchmarks. The balanced approach—raising both the BClk and multiplier—is a good one, but just like iBuyPower, CyberPower left efficiency on the table. All of the voltages are set to "Auto" in the BIOS, and motherboards left to their own devices tend to pump the hardware full of more voltage than it may actually need. Worse, just like iBuyPower, CyberPower opts to set the voltage to "Manual" instead of "Offset," which would have allowed the chip to produce much better power consumption and temperature characteristics when idle. SpeedStep was left disabled, too.
The GPU configuration is interesting, and it makes sense in practice. If you want the performance of a single Radeon HD 5870 or GeForce GTX 470, you can generally get it from a pair of GTS 450s for less than the cost of either. The 450s don't generate much noise under load either; the 8500 was fairly quiet during testing, and noise levels didn't increase appreciably from idle. With the recent price drop on the GTX 460, though, we're liable to draw the same conclusion here that we drew for the iBuyPower Paladin XLC: a pair of 460s in SLI is going to be the right call to maximize performance for your gaming dollar while keeping heat and noise down.
But I did say the 8500's build is unusual, didn't I? Here's a situation where all of the insides are solid, name-brand components (the 750-watt Corsair power supply deserves special mention), but the case is a bizarre choice. The XION Predator case used is an odd bird: it's an inexpensive case that has hot-swap hard drive bays on the front and space for the watercooling rig in the top, but it's also a bit chintzy and feels cheap. It's somewhat smaller than the behemoths we're used to seeing for big gaming systems, and the four 5.25" drive bays are already used the moment you take it out of the box. There's no external 3.5" bay for the media card reader, so it takes up an entire bay by itself. The touch-sensitive fan controls take up two. You're left with just one optical drive bay, and while that's fine for most people, anyone who's used a system with two optical drives can tell you there's a lot of convenience to be had.
And what about that fan controller? The Aerocool Touch 2000 is frankly strange to use. It does its job and does it well, but it's a little confusing and not terribly user-friendly. The screen is bright and flashy, too. This is a situation where a more mundane approach—or at least a single-bay touch-based controller—might have been more prudent. And naturally, if you go with CyberPower or another system vendor, you can tweak the configuration as you see fit.
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Roland00 - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
I agree with your logic on the video cards, but factually... the sli gts 450s are almost exactly the same speed of a gtx 470 (in most benches within 5% of each other) if the games scale well with sli. Two 450s are faster than 1 460 even a 1gb version of 460 if the game scales well with sli.You could always OC the 460 1gb to get very close to the sli gts 450s/gtx 470; but at the same time there is nothing stopping you from OC the 450s or the 470.
Still I can't recommend the gts 450s for you can get better value from other video cards picks
adonn78 - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
The GTS 450 is like a 5750 that uses more electricity and costs more money. I'd get 2 5770's Crossfire , a single 5850 or GTS 470. For less money and better performance, great review. I am waiting for the AMD 6770 to come out in October before I buy a New PC. And i am considering getting a cyberpower sicne they have the Asetek liquid cooling and affordable prices. I personally could ahve configured a better computer for less mone but you guys wanted to test out the new mediocre geforce cards.AstroGuardian - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
If you are so much of a n expert then why don't you assemble the perfect computer for you? Why cyberpower?acooke - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Can you guys do me a favour and tell me if it's OK to take this kind of computer as carry-on (on Delta)? Can I carry a laptop too?The reason I ask is that I will be visiting the USA for a few months and am going to build my own machine in this form factor. But I need to be able to carry it back to Chile... Thanks!
acooke - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Sorry - see my other comment here - I thought this was smaller form factor system. I'll wait for the Cube review and ask again...softdrinkviking - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
i have done a lot of traveling lately, and i experienced a bit of trouble with some of my baggage.I think that you should be prepared to check it, or picked up from a claim desk with a ticket or something.
You could probably take it carry on, but they might open it up and look around and waste your time in a major way, and they also might force you to check it so they can put it through their security devices.
i think it depends a lot on the temperament of the airline employees you deal with, and also on the constantly changing rules that get passed to the security people at the gates.
for example, i actually got a nail clipper taken from me once, and the next time i got on a plane, i realized i had a new clipper with me, and i offered it to the officer who promptly told me that the rules had changed and i could now take it with me!
so don't assume anything, pack it with foam inserts on the inside of the case, and have a good enclosure or box prepared.
personally, i would pack it up all crazy and mail it, but you can probably do a claim ticket for it so it won't get thrown down the luggage ramp.(for some xtra $)
Roland00 - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
A single gts 450 is going for 130 to 140 at the time of writing.The gtx 460 (768) is much faster and is currently going for 180 and higher
The gtx 470 is the speed of a sli gts450s and you can get this card for 249.99+tax at Frys(everyday not a sale price, it has been this price now for 3 weeks). If you don't have a Fry's nearby you can get a gtx 470 for 300 online. (If you do MIR it is cheaper than 300).
The gtx 470 is the speed of two gts 450s in sli if everything scales. If it doesn't scale then the 470 will clobber it. Also you don't have to worry about the little issues with sli such as microstutter and profiles and such. The 470 solution is either cheaper (if you get it for 250 such as the fry deal I mention), or if you get the parts online for 300 for the gtx 470, you will have ot spend the 40 dollars extra on a sli motherboard (since only the high end p55 or almost any x58 motherboards support sli, thus you are spending extra on the motherboard.)
If you must have sli, well the sli gtx 460s is much faster than the sli gts 450s, and is only 80 dollars more.
The only reason I can see you getting the sli 450s instead of a 470 is if you must have nvidia surround to do 3 displays. If you must have this, I would so recommend stepping up to the 460s or better for running 3 monitors at once is hard and you have already spent 400 at least on 3 monitors, and probably 1500ish on the computer, you should spend 80 more for surround.
jfelano - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Too big a psu and too little video card. HD5850 performance and a 750w Corsair psu??flipmode - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
I swear I'm going to spam every system review with this. It's absurd that you've been doing all of these system reviews and there is no link to the systems category of articles.flipmode - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
7 articles in 2010, none of them accessible to anyone that doesn't know to manually type the URL.