Specifications

74 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007
the Polywell P3503, the lone system with only one nVidia
GeForce 8800 Ultra card, still returned smooth, stutter-free
results at 2,560-by-1,600 resolution on both Prey and Company
of Heroes gaming tests. This is the raison d’etre for gaming PCs:
You pay major bank for smooth game play, even with all the eye
candy turned on.
Another new technology we saw was DDR3 SDSRAM. The
ABS Ultimate X Magnum and the Polywell P3503 are the fi rst
systems we’ve tested that have it. Both were the fastest or
among the fastest on the memory-intensive Windows Media
Encoder and Photoshop tests. Theoretically, DDR3-1,600 MHz
has a peak transfer rate of 12.8 gigabytes per second versus
6.4 GBps for DDR2-800 MHz. This extra bandwidth translates
into class-leading performance, and it allowed the ABS and
Polywell systems to outperform PCs with higher-clocked pro-
cessors. The gap isn’t huge—only a couple of seconds on a test
that these machines fi nish in less than 30 seconds—but it is still
signifi cant, since DDR3 is forward-looking technology. Main-
stream systems and budget systems will take from 1 minute to
as many as 5 minutes on the same Photoshop test.
So we see that quad-core rules the game grid, along with
dual-card graphics. But you can certainly get a system with mul-
timedia performance in the mainstream $1,000-to-$2,000 space,
and if you choose wisely, even in the $500 space. It’s all a matter
of how much coin you want to trade for your time waiting for
things to happen on your PC.—JSD
tests and was competitive on the others.
I just wish its dozen-plus fans weren’t so
loud. This is the one you want if you’re
looking to win the benchmark drag races.
Specs: 3-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 pro-
cessor (overclocked to 4 GHz); 2GB, 800-MHz
DDR2 SDRAM; 150GB, 10,000-rpm SATA hard
drive, 750GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive; two
768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics
cards (SLI); Windows Vista Home Premium.
Polywell P3503
$4,559 direct
llhmm
The Polywell P3503 is the one system here
that runs the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850
CPU at its normal 3.0-GHz clock speed.
Although it came in fi rst on the Windows
Encoder test (finishing in 40 seconds), it
was last on many of our benchmark tests,
and it didn’t even fi nish the SYSmark 2007
Preview tests. It had problems, including
crashes. The P3503’s so-so build quality
didn’t help its overall score. While its price
tag is low for a high-end gaming box, alas,
in the high-tech gaming stratosphere, you
get what you pay for.
Specs: 3-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 pro-
cessor; 4GB, 1,600-MHz DDR3 SDRAM; two
74GB, 10,000-rpm SATA hard drives (RAID 0),
two 500GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard drives (RAID
0); 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics
card; Windows Vista Ultimate.
Velocity Micro Gamers’ Edge PCX
$5,126 direct
llllm
The Gamers’ Edge capitalizes on the
bang-for-the-buck quotient. It’s not the
fastest here, though it comes close on
several benchmark tests. It’s not the pret-
tiest, though it is attractive, with a full
complement of internal lights to show
off the neat wiring inside. It’s not the best
equipped, but it is loaded. It offers two
DVD burners, 10 USB 2.0 ports, and Cre-
ative Labs’ X-Fi Extreme Gamer’s card
and 5.1 surround speakers. And its price is
among the more manageable (that is, for
the $5K+ club). The Velocity Micro Gam-
ers’ Edge PCX makes its case as a high-
performing gaming desktop with great
value for the money.
Specs: 3-GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850
processor (overclocked to 3.67 GHz); 2GB, 800-
MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 150GB, 10,000-rpm SATA
hard drive, 750GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive;
two 768MB nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX graph-
ics cards (SLI) confi guration; Windows Vista
Home Premium.
SYSMARK 2007 PREVIEW L 3D L GAMING (FPS) L MULTIMEDIA M
L
High scores are best.
M Low scores are best.
Bold type denotes fi rst place.
INTEL CORE
2 EXTREME
QX6850
PROCESSOR GRAPHICS CHIPSET ELECTRONIC LEARNING VIDEO CREATION OFFICE PRODUCTIVITY 3D MODELING OVERALL
3DMARK06 PREY
COMPANY
OF HEROES
WINDOWS MEDIA ENCODER min:sec PHOTOSHOP CS2 ACTION SET min:sec
RESOLUTION
2,560 x 1,600 2,560 x 1,600 2,560 x 1,600
AA/AF* 0X/8X High 0X/0X
ABS Ultimate X
Magnum
3.0 GHz @
3.33 GHz
1GB A
TI Radeon HD
2900 XT (CrossFire)
194
249
230 209
220
10,907 100 83
0:40 0:22
Dell XPS 720 H2C
3.0 GHz @
3.67 GHz
768MB nVidia GeForce
8800 Ultra (SLI)
185 229 220 202 208
14,979
109 118 0:42 0:25
Falcon Northwest Mach
V (8800 Ul
tra SLI)
3.0 GHz @
3.9 GHz
768MB nVidia GeForce
8800 Ul
tra (SLI)
217
235 200
225
219 14,273
133
126 0:42 0:25
HP Blackbird 002
3.0 GHz @
3.67 GHz
1GB ATI Radeon HD
2900 XT (CrossFire)
187 159 52 209 134 11,303 115 92 0:42 0:30
Overdrive PC Core2.SLI
3.0 GHz @
4.0 GHz
768MB nVidia GeForce
8800 Ultra (SLI)
209 188
254
210 214 13,635 127
156
0:46 0:31
Polywell P3503
3.0 GHz
768MB nVidia GeForce
8800 Ultra
N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 8,745 74 65
0:40
0:25
Velocity Micro Gamer's
E
dge
3.0 GHz @
3.67 GHz
786MB nVidia GeForce
8800 GTX (SLI)
198
213 234 208 208 13,452 109 137 0:43 0:28
RED denotes Editors' Choice. * Anti-aliasing/anisotropic fi ltering. N/A—Not applicable: The product could not complete the test.
GAMING TESTS