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XFX nForce 680i Barebone with Pentium D, SLI and 2GB DDR2

Friday, November 9th, 2007 | Barebones Computer Reviews, Desktop Computer Reviews, Gaming Computer Reviews | View Comments

A stock clearance computer with a lot of decent parts, manages to provide a good spread of parts that by themselves can deliver well, but more importantly provide a good place to upgrade from.

The awe of SLI graphics has mostly died down. The benefits are still there, but hardly provide performance that can’t be achieved by a new graphics card. Not a complete computer, this set will require the addition of a CPU cooler to allow it to be used, and keyboard, mouse and monitor.

The basic kit includes the following:

• Ultra black case
• XFX nForce 680i SLI Socket 775 ATX motherboard
• Pentium D 925 3.0GHz Dual-core processor
• 2 x XFX GeForce 7300 GT 512MB PCIe video cards
• Maxtor 200GB hard drive
• Ultra 400W power supply
• 2 x Crucial 1GB PC5400 DDR2 memory modules

The Ultra black case is nothing special, it will hold your parts and just sit there like most cases should. The clear side will give a little thrill to those who really want to show off their computer’s internals, and lights can be added for a little extra glitz.

The motherboard is well featured with a firewire port, USB ports, 5.1 audio, Ethernet, 2 PCI slots, 2 PCIe x1 slots and SLI capable PCIe slots. Good all round. There are also RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capabilities that are built onto the motherboard, but the hard drive will need to be upgraded.

The Intel Pentium D processor is one of the first run of dual-core processors from Intel. They are fast and offer speed benefits over their single-core counterparts. But there are some things to note. These processors use a lot of power, up to 135W, which is ultra high compared to the 65W for the Dual Core2 series that is newer, clocked lower and processes faster overall. It is still quick and considering the price, still worth it.

SLI graphics cards bring good performance, especially in SLI mode. Newer graphics cards, namely the 8000 series GeForce cards are more than capable of outperforming these two, but the newer cards are still expensive. These two are GT versions, so they are the fastest of their generation, which works to their favor.

A 200GB IDE hard drive and 400W Ultra power supply round out the package.

The package if fine, and good if you are on a budget. However, considering that top-notch gaming is the realm of the newest components, great deals are always going to set you behind the times. This is fine, but be aware that as games increase in their need for powerful graphics cards and processors, this system will fall behind fairly quickly.

Gateway GT5220 Refurbished AMD Athlon 64 X2 Desktop Computer

Saturday, June 16th, 2007 | Desktop Computer Reviews | View Comments

This desktop computer review uncover a $400 cheap computer, and adding in a monitor would still not push the price far above the $500 mark. But will it perform for such a low price?

The AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ is about the cheapest in the X2 series from AMD. This is not a bad thing and still gives a fair amount of performance. It is based on the newer AM2 socket type, which means that you would not be stuck if you wanted to upgrade to a faster CPU at some stage.

The standard set of features is good, having all the necessary extras. A PCIe slot means you will be able to upgrade to a super-fast graphics card, or even a little faster if you wanted to. But I wouldn’t do that unless you are into games or run huge, or multiple monitors.

There is a DVD burner, which is always a plus. Other extras include a card reader that is built into one of the drive bays, a great convenience if you are taking photos and using memory cards a lot. All the other ports are at the front too, making them very accessible, these include 2 USB ports, a firewire port, microphone input and sound output.

The standard hard drive is 250GB and uses an IDE connection. This is fine, but SATA would be the best choice, but that only really applies if you are upgrading to a really fast hard drive.

The choice of Windows XP Media center Edition keeps the cost of the computer down. It doesn’t offer all the features of the professional edition, but should do for home use. Vista is all the rage, but this computer should handle it as it has 1GB or memory, which is about the least I recommend for Vista.

The price is right and the features are good, the case is very user friendly and gives easy access to all the ports you need. It is not the most powerful machine around, but will handle all office applications and general use applications. A good buy, especially considering the price.

Tags: Desktop Computer Reviews

Systemax Tigershark Intel Pentium D Dual Core Based Nvidia SLI ready Gaming Computer

Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006 | Desktop Computer Reviews, Reviews | View Comments

Systemax have become a large producer of computer systems, proudly boasted as being assembled and supported in the USA, they have a good choice of computer components to round out their systems.

The TigerShark is a computer system based on the Intel Pentium D Dual Core processor, and ready for SLI gaming.

The case is fairly functional with the see through side panel that so many people associate with gaming computers. The front panels open up to reveal the optical drives and the USB ports are at the side of the front panel.

By packaging the standard model with the Pentium 805, they have managed to keep the price down. The 805 however is only cool for those who like to overclock as the standard speeds are not that impressive, especially seeing how much this computer system costs. You can upgrade to faster options if you want, which will only cost you a little more, and are probably worth it.

The Asus P5ND2-SLI nForce motherboard is a good choice and cannot be changed anyway. You have the choice between the 7900GT and GTX from BFG for the graphics card and you can opt for two cards for SLI.

Hard drive options are numerous, but keeping with speed, many of them offer the Raptor series from Western Digital. There are also options for RAID arrays, bigger drives, and apart from the main setup, room for extra drives so you can have a fast operating sytem drive and a big, second drive for all those DVDs and home movies on you computer.

The rest of the computer components are quite standard and many of them you might want to choose something besides the standard options. If you do order something else, you will have to do the installation yourself, so if you really don’t like to put in computer components by yourself, go for the standard ones.

Finally, if you really want a fast computer, but are don’t want to get down and dirty building your own system, this one will do nicely. Those who want ultimate customization will likely need to choose parts individually.

Tags: Desktop Computer Reviews, Gaming Computer Reviews

What is a silent computer?

Friday, September 22nd, 2006 | Desktop Computer Reviews, News | View Comments

The folks over at Silent PC Review have taken a close look at what actually constitutes a noiseless PC. Notably there was a time when computer manufacturers referred to their computers as noise free, but were actually not.

The take a close look at the difference between a computer that makes enough noise for us to hear, and one which is quiet enough for us to not notice. Noise issues like the regularity of sound are taken into account. For example a irregular sound that goes up and down is much more annoying and noticeable than perhaps a “louder” sound that stays constant, allowing us to block it out.

An apt article from a site dedicated to quiet computers.

Read it here: What is a Silent computer

Your own 4GHz Dual Core computer for only $720

Wednesday, June 14th, 2006 | Desktop Computer Reviews, News | View Comments

With the recent interest in the Dual Core D805 from Intel and its ability to be overclocked very far due to its lower front bus speed, Tomshardware have put together a “gaming computer” using this processor at it’s core.

Setting up a case with a water cooling solution and installing appropriate parts, they show that you really can make a very good computer from this budget chip. Although there is some argument as to whether they made the best choices on the parts, the point is that it is fairly simple to achieve these high speeds for a very low price.

The dual core D805 is in essence the same chip as its bigger brothers. In order to keep costs down, manufacturers make an entire series using exactly the same chips and then change the multipliers in order to get the different models in the range, with appropriate pricing to match.

Water cooling is essential if you want to hit 4GHz with the processor. Unfortunately heat increases very quickly as clock speeds are increased and can become a worry when overclocking so far beyond specifications. However, as noted in their forums, there isn’t really too much of a worry. If you compare it to the others in the range, it is not really being pushed so far as the silicone used is exectly the same. Heat still needs to be kept down though.

Nearly any old case will do, get a decent LGA775 motherboard which allows good overclocking and you’re set.

Every now and again these little gems pop up, there are people who jump no the bandwagon and those who think its just silly and express all sorts of doubts. Well, if you are thinking of upgrading and you do fancy putting together your own computer that will probably beat any pre-built computer hands down, then this might be your best bet.

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