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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alephxero - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Umm.... top of the page, directly above the headline. Unless you mean as part of the menu buttons common to all pages on the site. But really, is it that hard to bookmark http://www.anandtech.com/tag/systems ?flipmode - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
Yes, I meant as part of the standard menu buttons.You want me to bookmark it? I have a bookmark for Anandtech already.
Even if I did want to bookmark it, what about all the people that come here that don't know there is a "System" section or don't know how to find it? Some people just remember seeing a real cool article on Anandtech about a Dell computer that Anandtech says they were impressed with. Since the "Search" feature of Anandtech sucks crusty balls, that's of little help.
Drewoid13 - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
While its nice to see anandtech reviewing a working rig, the one I bought from them I've had to get the mobo replaced three times, and now its randomly dropping HDDs on my newest one.I can't recommend this company.
Schrodinger's Lolcat - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Given the horror stories I've read about this company, I have to wonder why anyone would risk buying from these guys. Is the price premium worth it if they still botch your system and you have to pay for repairs?http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/dctag/maki...
Toms83 - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
1700 dollars for 4GB of system memory? did i read that right? my system from gateway has 8GB of system ram and it cost me just under a grand minus the monitor and the frame rates are comparable to those seen in this systems graphics tests.JarredWalton - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
You know you can actually spend an extra $100 to get another 2x2GB in the system if that's what you're after. Anyway, more RAM isn't inherently better, but it's not bad either... it might make overclocking a bit more difficult at worst.Pricing all the components used in this system on Newegg, I came up with a total of $1500, and another $90 or so to find the Asetek 570LX (not at Newegg). So, even at $1700 for this system it would be a very good deal, and $1499 would be a steal. Except we're not at all sold on the dual GTS 450 setup.
Does your $1000 Gateway have a CPU anywhere near the speed of a 3.83GHz i7-875K? Does it have graphics power anywhere near the dual 450 SLI setup? The best $1000 Gateway FX that I can see right now is the FX6840-01e, which comes with:
Core i7-860
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
8GB DDR3-1333
1TB 7200RPM SATA hard drive
ATI Radeon HD5570 1GB
16X DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti Drive
500W Power Supply
If that's your system, your claim that "frame rates are comparable to those seen in this system's graphics tests" is downright laughable. A single GTS 450 is already slightly faster than the HD 5750, and that GPU has 720 stream processors clocked at 700MHz with 73.6GB/s of bandwidth. Your HD 5570 on the other hand comes with a stellar 400 SPs at 650MHz and 25.6GB/s of bandwidth. So roughly half the performance of a single 5750, which a single GTS 450 already surpasses. The only area where it comes out ahead is RAM, which is as I mentioned a $100 upgrade.
quibbs - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
I ordered a Black Mamba system from CP. It should arrive this coming Monday. Liquid cooled gtx 480 sli gpu(s) and liquid cooled cpu. The case I chose was the Xion 970. It seemed from the video (released by CP) and the Xion's website to be well laid out and spacious for a mid-tower (which I require since my box sits in a built-in cubby hole in my desk). Looked comparable to the CM 690 II.Curious to see if the Xion will be a let down or not. For anyone interested in the Xion 970 I'll post my thoughts in this thread when once my pc arrives.
sulu1977 - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
I've got a radical idea: how about developing a fast pc that's totally quiet and doesn't act like an electric room heater! You think that's too much to ask for? You think we have the technology and intellectual genius to accomplish such a feat? Could it be done within 5 years? ... or perhaps 10?Ninjahedge - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
You mean you are asking for something that can play all the games at excellent detail levels, a constant and humanly perceptable framerate, and is PRACTICAL in terms of space, power and noise levels?C'maaaahn! ;)
Seriously though, I agree with you. There are many out there that would like to find that $1000 rig that would be able to do these things and not worry about gettingthe fastest test results. As many may claim this, few can see the difference between a 60fps and a 120fps performance (if both are kept constant and you experience no tearing or artifacts.).
Getting a rig that can play on a Sony JumboTron at 300FPS while in a mass explosion level on "Where's my Shorts III" isn't exactly the bet thing to keep constantly, well, shooting for.
Dustin Sklavos - Saturday, September 18, 2010 - link
Easy: Get an Antec P183. Put an i7-870 and a Radeon HD 5850 in it, and put a halfway decent air cooler on the processor.My desktop's actually pretty quiet. I'm using an Antec P182, and I have five hard disks and an SSD, a Radeon HD 5870, a GeForce GTS 450, and an i7 930 OC'ed and undervolted to 3.6GHz cooled with a Xigmatek Dark Knight.
Sure, it's big and heavy, but it's damn quiet.