Ballistics Report

CyberPower

Pros

Value: Our CyberPower unit was the only system with dual video cards. To top that off, it had the same 3870 cards the other two machines had, not two lower-spec cards. Why the other companies didn’t include them, or how CyberPower managed to fit that in under $1000 is beyond us, but we don’t mind one bit.

Performance: This ties in with the above somewhat. With the two HD3870 cards, the CyberPower machine smoked the competition in games except for Call of Juarez, where even the latest drivers didn’t seem to show Crossfire’s benefit.

Cons

Quality Control: Our unit’s heatsink fell out when we unboxed it. Now we understand that can happen by accident. However, the other two units came on the same truck, and heatsinks naturally are mounted extremely tight. The wiring job wasn’t that great either, but that’s not too big of a deal.

Hardware Configuration: While a CrossFire setup is awesome, the 2.2GHz CPU, albeit quad core, isn’t a good match for the video cards. For much cheaper, an X2 6400+ could have been included. That would have alleviated the CPU bottleneck. (Look at the Crysis results).

iBuyPower

Pros

Quality: iBuyPower used very high quality components in our test machine. The ASUS motherboard was high end, along with a relatively expensive case and quality power supply. Cabling was also done well.
Power – While in no way did the iBuyPower unit set any benchmarking records. It did have the second fastest quad core CPU AMD has to offer. For multitasking application like Cinebench, which is a very good example of a rendering application, or other non GPU intensive tasks, the iBuyPower won easily.

Upgradeability: You’ve got a big hard drive, a fast CPU, and a good single video card. The iBuyPower unit gives you room to add more in the future.

Bundle: Not much of an advantage, but it was the best of all three machines’ bundles.

Cons

Value: Aside from the nice quad core CPU, the iBuyPower was matched often by the much lower spec Maingear machine. CyberPower managed to fit in two cards under $1000, and a quad core CPU.

Maingear

Pros

Build Quality: It was simply the most attention to detail we’ve ever seen from a company built machine. There was a log of the entire build which had writing from the tech themselves. There was his signature and contact information. There was detailed information on many components used. Cabling was done incredibly cleanly, especially for such a tiny case.

Components: Since the unit was inevitably a single card setup, Maingear could have used any board. But they used arguably the best AMD microATX board available. They topped that off with a top quality Silverstone case and power supply.

Size: Such a small unit is easy to put anywhere. Plus it weighs less than half of the other units. For some people it isn’t a concern, but it never hurts to have quite a bit more desk/floor space.

Cons

Value: This unit has the lowest parts value of any system. Not only is the CPU only a dual core, but a very low end one as well. Hard disk capacity is half of the other units.

Performance: Niether the Maingear or iBuyPower units were competition for the CyberPower in gaming tests. However, the Maingear lost to the iBuyPower in most gaming benchmarks. While overall performance was good, it’s a definite negative if you’re at the bottom.

Upgradeability: Not only is this unit single card only, but longer cards than the included HD 3870 can’t fit. Plus you wouldn’t want to take that kind of nice wiring job and mess up the airflow and neatness.