Pricing And Conclusion
Not only did all three manufacturers have no problem coming in under our $2,500 price cap, but each of them managed to pack a lot of bells and whistles into their boxes. We appreciate the performance tuning that AVADirect and CyberPower performed on their offerings, and dig the liquid-cooling systems these two were able to squeeze into their budgets. Even if we hadn’t helped them along, Alienware’s size and influence typically enables it to be first in line when new components such as Nvidia’ GeForce GTX 295 are handed out.
The Thermaltake V9 enclosure that AVADirect chose is attractive enough, but the fact that it doesn’t accommodate a front FireWire port cost it several points because we figured downloading video from a digital camcorder to be a crucial application. And while you’ll never mistake an Alienware enclosure for any other manufacturer’s offering, we need more than just two USB ports in front. The CyberPower system not only included five front-mounted USB ports, but it boasted FireWire and eSATA, too. AVADirect and CyberPower also included media-card readers—another important feature for a multimedia-oriented rig; Alienware did not.
AVADirect and CyberPower bested Alienware in terms of storage, too. Both companies delivered machines with more than a terabyte, compared to the Alienware’s dual 500 GB drives in RAID 0. If you plan to use your computer for audio recording, video editing, 3D modeling, and similar applications, you’ll need as much storage as possible.
But when it comes to the bottom line, CyberPower did the best job of building a system that met all our requirements. Granted, their machine had the weakest videocard, but it also came with the fastest CPU, the fastest RAM, the best enclosure, and a Blu-ray player. We’d recommend spending a few extra bucks for a stronger power supply and a better videocard (if you’re interested in playing games), but it’s hard to argue with the rest of this configuration.
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Nice to see a comparison that doesn't put Alienware on top all the time. Yes, they have a fantastic reputation and some truly slick kit, but when it comes down to the meat and potatos of it, Alienware's insides always seem to be a little underpowered or overpriced (depending on your viewpoint).
Comparing an i7 920 to an i7 940 is a little redundant though considering they were both overclocked and therefore the clock speed difference was maintained.
What I'd like to see (and this is beyond the scope of this article) is a 920 or 940 clocked to 3.2GHz and run against a 965 Extreme at stock - goes the increased QPI transfer rate of the Extreme make any tangible difference in real-world conditions?
The question remains: who will be stupid enough to pay $1200+ for the upcoming i7 975 when you can overclock a $270 920 to 3.4+GHz anyways..
@starmate:
That's always been the question since overclocking has been viable and commonplace. And this is why I posed the question.
Both the 920 and the 940 have a QPI rate of 4.8GT/s so I won't bother with the 940 - I'll just get a 920 and overclock it to match the 940 and save about £200.
The same goes for the 965 and 975. As the 975 is Extreme too, I'd assume it also has a QPI rate of 6.4 GT/s like the 965. If so, get a 965 and overclock it to match the 975 and save about £200.
However, what I want to know is how much of a difference does the QPI rate make? Does an extra 1.6 GT/s make a difference in single-CPU set ups, and therefore is worth getting an Extreme for maximum performance? Or will we see benefit in dual-CPU set ups like Xeon boards and Skulltrail 2?
And is it just me, or does "Gigatransfers per second" sound like a total, 3am bullshit decision "yeah, we'll rate the QPI in Gigatransfers - that'll do!"
I agree. No point in the 940 or 965 if you're willing to overclock the 920. I've read that the 965 isn't at all stable beyond 4ghz, and the 920 has been known to overclock beyond this,so where is the dilemma? 920 oc'ed, 6 gigs of 1600 DDR3 and a decent vid card and heatsink and you are laughing.
That's the route I'm going matt77 unless X58 Skulltrail proves to be something significant, hence me whittering on about the Extreme's higher QPI rate.
Am I the only one who notices that despite all other articles disabling the PhysX acceleration for 3DMark this particular article didn't?
Omitted the Graphics Score from this test suite as well, whilst showing all the other parts of the score breakdown. I suspect that the reviewer was giving all he could to help Alienware not look uncompetitive.
I also dislike that the prices weren't mentioned. All under $2500 but BY HOW MUCH? Alienware probably cost the most.
I have heard that alienware take exception to bad reviews and stop handing out the benchmarking samples if they are made to look bad.