CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme FTW: Performance at Any Cost
by Dustin Sklavos on June 1, 2011 1:05 PM ESTConclusion: Fastest Ever, But at a High Price
The performance conclusion is really a simple one: the CyberPowerPC Gamer Xtreme FTW is among the fastest consumer desktops you can buy. If that's all you're really concerned about, then godspeed. I'll be trying to get a system with dual Radeon HD 6990s in for review as a comparison point, but until then the GX FTW holds the crown. But there are some real concerns here.
My first experience with the Thermaltake Level 10 GT used for this build was somewhat fraught, but I'm going to hesitate to pass any kind of judgment until I've actually tested the case myself on its own terms. Credit where credit is due: it kept temperatures very low, and noise levels were kept in check as well. CyberPowerPC was also very smart in their choice of components for this review unit, especially the motherboard. Being able to separate the GTX 590s as well as they could undoubtedly contributed to the excellent thermal performance.
The overclock is a thorn in my side, though. Even ignoring for the moment the ridiculous power consumption and corresponding heat output that will come with running four high-end GPUs to begin with, the voltage on the i7-990X is unnervingly high, and worse, it never idles down. Accounting for Vdroop, sensors in Windows still read 1.42V going into that core. It's water-cooled, but in keeping with our review of the DigitalStorm Enix I again have to wonder what kind of long term effect this much voltage will have on the processor. It's true that Gulftown isn't the overclocker Sandy Bridge is and so more work is going to be involved in getting it to hit these speeds, but there's just no way of knowing if constantly running this thing at full bore will cause trouble down the line (e.g. electromigration), even with the high performance water-cooling solution.
Where I get really agitated is the fact that the voltage is another "set it and forget it" overclock. On a $5,000 desktop, that's inexcusable. This thing is as premium as it gets, but tuned with absolutely no regard for the kind of power it's going to pull out of the wall, and it's going to add up over time. Worse than that, it's just wasteful, dumping buckets of heat into the room even when it's not doing anything. It's really kind of a shame Intel priced Gulftown out of so many peoples' reach, because the chip is an impressive piece of engineering that's remarkably efficient given the six cores. But the fixed voltage in the BIOS along with the disabled Turbo Boost and SpeedStep result in a chip that can't really idle and power savings that aren't going to be realized.
Finally, let's talk pricing for a minute. $5000 is a lot of money for a gaming system, but there's usually an added cost to buying a pre-built system. CyberPowerPC is actually quite competitive on their pricing, however, even with that hefty sticker price. I did some shopping online to configure the same system, using the best prices from a variety of online vendors. The total cost for all of the hardware--never mind the time required to assemble and test the system--comes out to just over $4500. CyberPower also provides a 3-year warranty and factory overclocking, so an extra $500 (10%) is very reasonable. We still wouldn't recommend such a system--you can easily shave off $1000 with a few judicious changes--but if you want everything you see here, five grand is what you should expect to pay, whether you buy pre-built or go the DIY route.
CyberPowerPC very nearly had a great flagship boutique build going here, with smart component choices and a screaming fast graphics subsystem. The overclock on the processor is a costly fumble. I know they can do better than this, and I really want to see them try. And maybe we can get them to do just than when Sandy Bridge-E launches later this year. That's perhaps the biggest reason to pass on the current Gulftown CPUs: if you didn't jump on the hex-core bandwagon when Gulftown first showed up a year ago, at this point you should just wait for the LGA-2011 refresh before taking the plunge.
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CyberHD - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
Meshugge,To better assist us with getting your concerns addressed; please email cyberhd@cyberpowerpc.com with your Cyberpower PC customer id number and a direct return contact number. Once we have this; we will make every effort to contact you to your concerns address your concerns.
Regards
Cyberpower PC
Browngamer93 - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
Don't know too much about computers, but I wouldn't mind playing this impressive material with Crysis 2. Hope I'm the one to win if they have a giveaway.wolfman3k5 - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - link
This machine looks like it was put together with extreme superficiality, and with an obvious lack of passion. Custom built, boutique computer systems are supposed to be about mods and customizations. Just the cable management is horrendously impractical. If the tech at CyberPowerPC would spend 5 minutes at any Home Depot he could come up with a half way decent cable management solution. When it comes to custom built computer systems, and this price range, everything matters, every little detail. Specs don't matter as much as quality. And I'm addressing this to CyberPower: people don't buy a Ferrari or Lamborghini just for the specs, they also buy them for the status symbol that they get, for the quality and for the level of service. Otherwise everyone could buy a $20000 to $60000 sports car (like a Corvette) and be done with it. I'm not saying that a Corvette is a bad car, I'm just saying that it's not a Ferrari, just like a Alienware will never be a Falcon-NW.My point is that I will never spend this kind of money on a CyberPowerPC or any kind of half-assed-boutique computer system. For $5000 I can get a Mac Pro, an Apple monitor and have money left over for a Macbook. Or I can get a decent PC built by any number of manufacturers that will turn more heads and perform way better.
Bottom line: put some soul in your computers for Christ Sake do some real custom work on them, otherwise your computer systems are just expensive hunks of junks. Most people can twist cables and install boards these days.
EpsilonZero - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
For $5000 they really should have managed all of those cables.It looks like they just through the cables in and loosely zip tied them together.
A quality build would have cut and spliced those cables to exact lengths, added sleaves, and changed the plugs to a build enhancing color scheme.
Theres absolutely nothing custom about this build. Everything is stock parts that a customer could very easily purchase from Newegg and as Anand pointed out they could probably save $500 by doing so.
CyberPower you got a long way to go.
ironmb1 - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
I love how people on this site cry about how overpriced this rig is, how the hardware is so outdated.. yet they would take it in a heartbeat. All you budget gamers need not apply. Anyways, anyone with this much money willing to spend on a rig with this much hardware... should NEVER EVER buy from CyberpowerPC or Ibuypower. These two companies have HORRIBLE reviews, just go read their forums. There are way better boutique builders than cyberpowerpc, and ibuypower.I love how my password never works more than once. I'm sick of registering to post comments.
MilwaukeeMike - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Anyone else think it was interesting that every hot new SSD is a 240 GB, yet they put 120's in this monster? If anyone could justify 240's it'd be this, right?Or maybe there really isn't anyone who thinks a big SSD is worth the $$$.
GullLars - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
Actually, it wouldn't matter much for performance, given the Marvel controller.You would get a lot more bang for buck for this rigg if you got a decent RAID card (like LSI 92xx or Areca 1680/1880) and put up 4-8x 64GB or 128GB SSDs in RAID-0. Your PCmark vantage scores would easily hit 30-35K, IOPS would pass 100K, and bandwidth around 1500-2000MB/s. If you got one of the Arecas with 4GB RAM, the read-ahead and intelligent cache would also make a visible dent in loading times and burst speed.
I would go for a decent RAID card with good SSDs over SLI 590 any day. If you're not going ultra details with 3 27/30" monitors you don't need it anyway.
Single 580 or SLI 560/570 sounds better. I'd also get a water block for the GPU(s) and add another 240/480 radiator (depending on 1 or 2 GPUs), outside the case if needed.
GullLars - Thursday, June 2, 2011 - link
The PCmark Vantage score is way below what you'd expect for a $5K system in Q2 2011.In 2008, Nizzen scored 24740 (just 700 points below this) on a system costing about the same, which was his main system on it's 24/7 clock. This time last year he was in the mid 30K's with a build refresh with 980x also at 24/7 clock.
I suspect the reason for the underperforming score is the Marvel RAID controller used on the motherboard for the SSD RAID, and intel 510 SSDs being used.
I would love to see full PCMark Vantage HDD suite scores to confirm or rule out this.
RAM clock also seems bad, unless running really tight timings.
Gonemad - Friday, June 3, 2011 - link
...for a i7-2600K, (changing all compatible parts accordingly) drop the 590s (quad-core, right?) and try something close to 3-slot SLI /CF models/setup, with unencumbered multipliers on the graphics cards and on the CPU, add more water cooling, drop more fans, and see what happens to bang-for-buck and idling power. Most oldish games still enjoy poor coding and like faster cores instead of MORE cores, like SC2.And really, for that dosh all the cabling should be custom-fit.
7Enigma - Monday, June 13, 2011 - link
What the heck does this mean:"Now admittedly I was running the Gamer Xtreme FTW with the sliding glass door open when the outside weather was less than 60F, but we can probably all agree these are excellent thermals, especially when you take into account the reason why I tested this tower with that door open."
So you tested with the sliding glass open because your ambient temp was cool. How does that have any resemblance to normal operating conditions? All the dust, increased noise, not to mention very likely giving a VERY rosy picture to the thermals. It doesn't matter if the problem is the Thermaltake Level 10 GT as you allude to without giving specifics, Cyberpower CHOSE this case for this build. If they made the wrong case choice, that IS on them.
Dustin, I normally like your reviews and writing style, but this one smacks of bias or poor decision making.