iBUYPOWER: 4.0GHz QX9650 and 3-way SLI 8800 Ultras
by Matt Campbell on April 10, 2008 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Introduction
There are quite a few manufacturers on the market selling "gaming" PCs. In our last system review, we looked at a midrange gaming option. This time, we are using a fully decked-out solution from iBUYPOWER. iBUYPOWER.com is a California based company that offers a large variety of systems, including notebooks and liquid-cooled desktops. Let's look at the company and the ordering experience first, and then we will examine one of the fastest systems they offer.
iBUYPOWER - Overview
We have reviewed iBUYPOWER systems in the past. They've been in business since 1996, and you can find their systems sold at third parties such as Newegg, Circuit City, and yes, even Wal-Mart. Their PR blurb is as follows:
iBUYPOWER is a growing force in the gaming system builder market and is dedicated to making the best systems for gamers and power users. In the year 2007 Intel awarded iBUYPOWER with the "Most Innovative Solution for Consumer of the year". Also in the spring of 2007, AMD announced iBUYPOWER as the "4X4 Launch Partner of the year". The biggest advantage iBUYPOWER has against the major OEMs is the balance of performance and value, our enormous amount of designs and customization also make our systems stand out in retail channels. Today, iBUYPOWER gaming computers are offered at Wal-mart.com, Newegg.com, Costco.com, and Microcenter stores.
iBUYPOWER states their advantage lies in a blend of performance and value, the amount of customization, and offerings geared towards gamers and power users. With those claims in mind, let's review the website and ordering process.
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m2super - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
I bet if you pull 2gb of ram from the system with all the cards in you wont get this error message!Do a google search of this annoying issue quite a few people with vista 64, 4gb of ram and an sli config. The fact nvidia/ms havent done anything to resolve it is bs imo.
kuraegomon - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
I run SLI-ed GTX's, with RAID and overclocked Q6600. The only reason for a setup like this is to game at 1920x1200 or above. I have a 30' monitor, and like to game at 2560x1600 whenever possible. I believe that triple-SLI only makes sense with 2560x1600 resolutions, and you'll need the extra GPU-to-GPU bandwidth/lower latency that the 790i will provide, to really examine this. Sorry to say for anyone who bought one, but the 780i is already obsolete. (Of course, my 680i Striker Extreme is even moreso).Matt Campbell - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
Higher resolutions are in the queue for our next high end rig.Maffer - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
You just run into very annoying problem which has been with 780i quite quite a long time now. Please see this thread:http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=256404&mpa...">http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=256404&mpa...
You can find lots of people with the same problems right there. Nvidia is doing nothing to solve this crap. Some folks have switched to 790i system and problems vanished. This cannot be the solution though. Please Anandtech, if you have any powers to do something about this...at least poke nVidia around with a large trout or something :/
67STANG - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
I think people that build these "uber" machines forget their target audience: "the enthusiast". What enthusiast buys a machine like this rather than building it themself?I don't know about anyone else, but part of the fun of a high end computer is building it (at least for me). I wouldn't want to spend $5k+ on a system that I probably could have built myself for much less...
Granted it gets very high scores on benchmarks, but it would be hard not to with what is in it... I believe something could be built that could beat this for hundreds less. Pass.
abhaxus - Sunday, April 13, 2008 - link
There are most definitely people out there that buy the fastest computer available but have no clue how they are built.To use a car analogy... you are arguing that everyone who buys an Impreza WRX is stupid because you could buy the RS and put a turbo on it and go just as fast. The WRX is pre-tuned, has a warranty, and has a badge that says it's fast. These are the same people that buy a Dell XPS or Alienware rig.
To a semi-knowledgeable but not guru-level person, saying "i have an alienware pc" is a lot easier than "I have an overclocked 3.2ghz quad core pc with 2 8800GTS's in SLI"
Noya - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
Exactly...you don't buy a review article on a hardware tech site.HOOfan 1 - Thursday, April 10, 2008 - link
If these are the problems that are going to crop up and you will have to troubleshoot them yourself (which seems the case from reading the reviews on resellerrating.com) then you may as well just build it yourself and save even more money.