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Case: Cooler Master CM Stacker 830 Evo
The basics of ATX design were figured out many years ago with few improvements since. It's little wonder then that once a company determined the ideal design, we'd stick with it. Surviving to its fourth consecutive guide, the Cooler Master Stacker 830 still impresses with ideal ventilation, lightweight aluminum panels (stiffened through exquisite metal work), and a traditional layout that eases cable connections.
A clear plastic swing-away side fan cage supports up to four 120mm/140mm fans for optimal cooling of a wide variety of system components, ranging from a second graphics card at the bottom to the RAM and motherboard voltage regulators at the top. A 120mm front fan cools hard drives, while top and rear 120mm fans assist the power supply fan in ridding the case of all that excess heat.
Nine 5.25" bays support a wide variety of drives thanks to Cooler Master's inclusion of a 3x 5.25" to 4x 3.5" adapter cage, and lining the entire front panel with large bays opens the option of using alternative multi-drive racks.
Among other enclosures we considered is Cooler Master's own high-profile Cosmos case, but while this new model features trendy looks, it doesn't offer the superior cooling or easy cable routing of the classic Stacker 830. And while we're on the subject of alternative designs, it needs to be said that bottom-mounted power supplies don't pull air away from the hot parts of the case, which is the main reason ATX designs called for putting the power supply at the top. Other designs might seek to promote a "better mouse trap", but the original Stacker 830 continues to prove that good ideas stick around.
Power Supply: Ultra X3 1000W
Ultra Products isn't a brand one normally considers when seeking out the best of the best, but its X3 1000W unit continues to prove itself in many systems including one of our own test beds. We could have easily selected a lower-rated unit - possibly with similar actual output capabilities - for a similar price, but doing so would have caused us to lose many of the conveniences for which it was originally chosen in our previous guide. Conveniences such as a modular design using flat cables for easier cable management and a 135mm bottom-mounted intake fan that draws warm air away from the top of the motherboard.
A whopping 70 amps (840W) on its single 12V rail let the X3 divide its power across any devices, without encountering those annoying per-rail limits imposed by multi-rail designs. This is also far more power than this guide's system will actually need. Ultra rates its X3 at 85% peak efficiency, a number that becomes impressive considering the losses many modular power supplies take due to the slight added resistance on the extra connections.
Anyone who cannot appreciate the design advantages of the Ultra X3 1000W might want to consider a previous favorite from a better-known brand, PC Power & Cooling's Silencer 750 Quad.
PC Power & Cooling's Silencer 750 Quad delivers the same performance as it did when selected for our March Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide, and its price has fallen to around
Intel CPU: Core 2 Duo E6850 (3.00 GHz)
While Intel continues to push its latest four-core processor technologies into nearly every market sector except for "economy" systems, quad cores hold little to no advantage for today's games. What really accelerates games is more speed and processing power across two cores, and since this is an Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide, Intel's fastest dual-core, the Core 2 Duo E6850, gets the nod. This 3.0GHz gem comes at a no-nonsense price of under $300, while a quad-core at this same clock speed would cost over a grand.
Intel's latest FSB1333 provides greater bandwidth to the chipset's Northbridge and requires faster memory to achieve the 3:2 DRAM:FSB clock ratio. These also use Intel's top-overclocking G0 core revision, a performance enhancement that would also require faster RAM simply to meet its minimum-preferred 1:1 FSB:DRAM ratio, so we'll be sure to cover our bases in the memory selection.
Gamers who multitask might still want a quad-core processor, and our alternative would be a G0-stepping Core 2 Quad Q6600. This "slow" 2.4GHz part still has awesome overclocking capabilities beyond the E6750's stock 3.0GHz, but with a lower overclock ceiling than same-revision dual-cores. In addition, Q6600 buyers must shop carefully to receive this "top overclocking" G0 core revision.
AMD CPU: Athlon 64 X2 6400+ (3.20 GHz)
While AMD's only real competitor has long ago moved from 90nm to 65nm and will soon release 45nm cores, the green team is still stuck at 90nm for its highest-clocked parts. That could change soon, but we have seen projected launch dates come and go for over a year.
The Athlon 64 X2 6400+ barely competes with its high-speed Intel competition, but it is still tops in the AMD hierarchy, outperforming the 3.0GHz X2 6000+ that made it into our last few guides. Buying AM2 also maintains the hope that the same motherboard will support future AMD Phenom processors, whenever they appear.
CPU Heat Sink: Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme
Based on slight improvements to the company's legendary Ultra 120, Thermalright's Ultra 120 Extreme heat sink continues to impress us, and rates a second consecutive Extreme Gaming PC Buyers Guide appearance.
The Ultra 120 Extreme features the same size and fitment of the Ultra 120 that had graced earlier guides, but with additional heat-pipes for improved heat transfer from the sink's base to its fins. Another improvement is Thermalright's inclusion of a Socket AM2 mounting kit, in addition to the LGA775 hardware.
Cooling Fans: Three Scythe S-Flex SFF21E
Originally chosen for its moderate 49CFM airflow at a nearly-silent 20.1 decibels, the Scythe S-Flex SFF21E 1200RPM cooling fan remains our choice for "bare" Thermalright coolers. Two additional fans are added to our list to assist graphics card cooling, to be used in the lower two side panel locations of the Cooler Master Stacker 830 chassis. The extra airflow is especially useful to overclockers, but anyone not overclocking may wissh to forgo the additional $30
Intel Motherboard: ASUS Striker Extreme
It's a shame that Intel's much-hyped X38 Express chipset does not officially support SLI mode, but NVIDIA has to reserve at least some market share for itself. There isn't yet any new high-end LGA775 SLI chipsets, but the nForce 680i SLI chipset still has a lot going for it on its one-year birthday.
The ASUS Striker Extreme motherboard comes loaded with all the nForce 680i SLI benefits such as two PCI-Express x16 slots at their full x16 bandwidth and a third at x8 bandwidth, dual gigabit network support, and RAID support for up to six SATA and two PATA drives.
But ASUS doesn't stop there, giving the board its full "Republic of Gamers" treatment with an eight-phase capacitor-free VRM, a noise-reducing removable audio riser card, two additional eSATA ports, several lighted function buttons, and a rear panel LCD to display system status in English rather than code numbers.
AMD Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair
Another "Republic of Gamers" board from ASUS, the Crosshair comes with an elaborate chipset cooler, dual eSATA ports in addition to the six chipset-supported ports, an English-language rear panel system status display, eight-phase capacitor-free VRM, reduced-noise removable audio riser card, back panel system status display, and lighted power/reset buttons.
The nForce 590 SLI chipset features 46 PCI-Express lanes capable of supporting two graphics cards at full x16 bus width, more than enough for a pair of today's fastest graphics cards and even next-generation products. The only reservation we have in recommending an upscale AMD board is that compatible processors have moved far down market.
Those who prefer DFI or otherwise simply don't want to pay for the added features of a "Republic of Gamers" motherboard may prefer the DFI LANPARTY UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G. Similar features include the removable audio module, dual graphics/SLI via two x16 pathways from the nForce 590SLI chipset, and an x4 PCI-Express expansion card slot. DFI adds a PCI-Express x8 slot for server-sized cards and uses a Port 80 diagnostics code LED display topside, rather than the rear-panel verbose LCD found on the ASUS board.
System Memory: Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500 (DDR2-1066)
High-end DDR2 memory prices continue to drop, as mid-priced parts have gotten better. In fact, we could have just as easily gone with cheaper Ballistix PC2-6400 modules and still gotten Micron's top chips, but buying the better-rated parts insures our modules are pre-tested at a 1066MHz data rate.
All of the latest Crucial Ballistix modules feature EPP (Enhanced Performance Profiles), which supplements regular SPD entries with information about overclocked voltage, speed, and timings. EPP is recognized by current NVIDIA chipset motherboards, and can be enabled in BIOS by turning on "SLI Memory" mode and selecting the appropriate profile. This can be a huge asset to neophytes, though experienced users should find even better optimizations through individual timing and voltage
Hard Drives: Four Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB SATA 3.0Gb/s
Seagate's little 320GB drives were chosen as a balance between performance and capacity. Gaming doesn't require a huge amount of storage, but the scant 150GB available in the Western Digital Raptor drives still doesn't seem like much, so we'd probably need two in a RAID controller's JBOD or Level 0 mode, just to get 300GB. For around the same price, four Seagate Barracudas in Level 0 will provide over four times the capacity at nearly twice the peak transfer rate. The tradeoff is slightly longer response times, but using four Raptors would have eaten too deeply into the budget.
The use of four drives also opens up the possibility of RAID 0+1 for anyone who wants both performance and redundancy, again at a slight performance penalty but still faster than a single drive. How valuable are your game saves? Seagate OEM hard drives also come with a lengthy 5-year warranty.
Optical Drive: Samsung 20x DVD+RW/-RW SH-203N SATA
A few things happened between our July Extreme Gaming PC buyer's guide and this month's edition. First, Samsung's SH-203B started setting burn speed records all over the web, and then the company introduced a new version with LightScribe capability, the SH-S203N.
When manufacturers claim write speeds of 20x, these are usually the peak speeds at the fastest part of the disk, so it's no surprise that real-world speeds vary between models. The SH-203N claims 20x for both DVD+R and DVD-R media, 16x for dual-layer +R, 12x for DVD-R dual-layer, 8x for DVD+RW, and 6x for DVD-RW.
People who still use older media formats will be pleased with CD-R and RW speeds of 48X and 32X, and DVD-RAM users will find it also supports the classic media at 12X speeds.
Floppy Disk Drive: Major Brand Black 1.44MB 3.5" floppy disk drive
Nobody likes floppy drives, but loading Windows XP RAID drivers at the F6 prompt still requires these. Most builders would rather use an old drive just to meet "F6" driver prompt demands and remove it immediately once Windows is installed, but those few users who don't already have one can find these in black for $7. Major brand labels include Mitsumi, Panasonic, Samsung, Sony, and
Video Card: Two GeForce 8800GTX 768MB graphics cards in SLI
With little activity at ATI's high-end, NVIDIA must be very confident and feel no need to lower prices on its GeForce 8800 series of graphics cards. That's a shame, because we were really hoping at least to upgrade our system to dual GeForce 8800 Ultra's in SLI. Still, the GeForce 8800 GTX does the job well, even if its value is falling behind advancements in other hardware.
The standard-speed GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB is set at 575 MHz core, 1.35 GHz shader, and 1.8 GHz memory default clock speeds, which translates into a fillrate of 36.8 Gtexels/s and a memory bandwidth of 86.4 GB/s. This creates a nice gap between the two GeForce 8800 GTS models, and provides a lot of gaming power in a SLI configuration.
If you're looking for something a bit faster without additional expense, a few lesser-known brands are even offering overclocked versions for the same base price.
LCD Display: Westinghouse L2410NM
Nothing shows off a performance system's internal components better than a great monitor, but many gamers now want higher resolutions than those found on our former 21" selection. When it comes to LCD displays, pixel count is usually a function of size, and reaching for 1200 vertical pixels in a widescreen display forced us to consider 24" models. But with so much money dedicated to internal components, our budget was definitely feeling the squeeze.
The Westinghouse L2410NM is a low-cost 24" LCD, but with far greater performance than many buyers would expect at this price range. A true 8-bit MVA panel provides 8ms response times and 176 viewing angle in both horizontal and vertical directions. These attributes closely approximate the performance levels of higher-cost competitors, and our own experience with the L2410NM shows very few flaws that would otherwise prevent its use in high-end gaming environments.
Visually, the only noteworthy problem is that its default contrast ratio may obscure certain dark objects, but this can be compensated by increasing software gamma settings. Ergonomically, the stand is not height or side-to-side tilt-adjustable, and it is bouncy enough to require a sturdy, heavy desk. These small sacrifices are necessary to get a 1920x1200 screen with gaming-level performance, and then fit it into the budget we had left after configuring all the performance components.
Thanks to a lower "area per diagonal measure" ratio, widescreen monitors cost less to produce than conventional 4:3 versions. Widescreen buyers get less "real estate" for the "diagonal size" but in turn pay less, a fact that monitor manufacturers have used to promote the so-called "better value" of widescreens. Unfortunately, this has eventually ended production of most 4:3 displays, and as supplies dwindle, we couldn't find a 4:3 LCD that had the right combination of price, performance and screen real estate. For example, the SyncMaster 214T, a former-favorite, has gone up in price by around $200 since our last Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide.
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series
Creative Labs continues to be a major player in the discrete soundcard market, blocking or buying the creative efforts of other sound chip developers. This brings up the question of what could possibly replace the X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty FPS of our last four guides. Not really anything, as the X-Fi Platinum Fatal1ty Champion Series is nothing other than the same technology under a new model name. Buyers still get a theoretical performance boost from 64MB of "X-RAM" for caching sounds, and the re-labeled model still features an ultra-high 109db signal-to-noise ratio enhanced by EAX 5.0 audio effects.
Still missing is real-time multi-channel digital encoding to a single output, via Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect. Also, like all of Creative's high-end cards since the SB Live, the lack of a case-standard front panel audio connector necessitates the use of a "Live-Drive" equipped model to enable front-panel headphone/microphone port access. An alternative X-Fi model from Auzentech will support all of these features, whenever this third-party manufacturer gets its drivers and software figured out.
Speakers: Logitech Z-5500
Our chosen soundcard lacks DDL or DTS Connect and thus requires analog connections for multi-channel game audio. But loudspeaker technology hasn't changed much since before the PC era, and high-end PC speakers had already been developed long ago. One product that still stands out as the pinnacle of classic technology, Logitech's Z-5500 has survived our guide through eight revisions.
We have yet to find a 7.1-channel analog speaker system that can surpass the quality of Logitech's 5.1-channel Z-5500, and games are typically encoded for 5.1 channels anyway. Those who believe they have a better plan are welcome to send feedback, but until then we'll continue to go with the time-proven quality of Logitech's top analog
Mouse: Logitech G5 Laser Mouse
We considered a wide range of corded mice this month. Contenders included the Logitech's G9, as well as various Microsoft and Razor models, and we still haven't found a good reason to move away from Logitech's earlier G5 version. With its incredibly fine 2000 dpi laser sensor, low-friction PFTE mouse feet, on-the-fly sensitivity switching, and adjustable weights, the G5 Laser Mouse is as good a mouse now as it was when we first picked it.
Keyboard: Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
Most of us would settle for a nice solid keyboard with good actuation "feel", but Logitech's G15 goes a few steps farther. Starting with a flip-up LCD panel capable of displaying a variety of things, from system statistics to player status and communications (depending on the applet employed), it goes on to offer backlit keys for playing in dark rooms, 18 added programmable keys, media player and volume controls, and a built-in USB hub for convenient connection of a mouse and game controller.
The G15 has been at the top of our list for four consecutive guides, and we're always looking for the next improvement that can meet the needs of most gamers. As usual, we're open to suggestions.
Game Controller: Saitek P3000 Wireless Pad & Docking Station
Some games are just easier to play with a handheld controller or joystick, such as racing and several sports games, so it's a good idea to have one around even if rarely play these types of games. One might even consider that complicated keyboard controls are one reason why so many PC owners game on consoles.
Saitek surprised us recently by releasing a couple of wired PC game controllers, but none of the new models was really too impressive. As the product line had been allowed to languish for quite some time, the high-end P3000 is currently only available as a "new-old stock" model from various venders. Wireless freedom and the inclusion of two rechargeable batteries with charging base differentiate this "obsolete" part from currently produced models of similar design: Get one before they're
Networking: Integrated Dual Gigabit
Both of our recommended motherboards include excellent Dual Gigabit Networking support, making discrete controllers a waste of money and space for most buyers. But those who need more ports might consider an Intel PRO/1000 PT Server Adapter. Intel's long and glorious history in network controllers has all but displaced competitors at this market level, and the PRO/1000 PT is available in single, dual, and quad port designs.
The single port card uses a PCI-Express x1 slot for better flexibility in placement, while multiport cards use an x4 slot. The newer slot standard was chosen because legacy 32-bit PCI can only support gigabit transfers in one direction at a time, while each PCI-Express lane is both twice as fast in each direction and bi-directional. Anyone who can't spare a PCI-Express slot can substitute a 64-bit PCI PRO/1000 MT in 32-bit mode, since these are cross-compatible, but with an obvious loss in performance.
Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2 OEM
Windows XP still performs better than Windows Vista, is supported by a greater variety of software products, continues to handle a wider range of hardware and peripherals, and lacks some of the digital content restrictions that have caused so many professionals to scorn Microsoft's so-called "upgrade". This is especially true in the gaming community, where many enthusiasts have shunned Microsoft's latest operating system.
So many users have rejected Vista that Microsoft was forced to extend Windows XP availability into 2008. The good news for XP users is that current CD's have several additional updates wrapped in.
UPS: OPTI-UPS Enhanced Series ES1000C
A UPS can be cheap insurance against both power surges (spikes) and brownouts (droops), and even prevent data loss in the event of a complete power failure. The value of this security should never be underestimated for any system, but increases with the cost of internal hardware.
Rated at 1000VA with an exceptional 700W load capacity, the OPTI-UPS Enhanced Series 1000C was previously chosen to support upgrades to SLI graphics and quad core processing, and with dual GeForce 8800 GTX cards, we're already halfway there. Its already moderate price drops another $10 and sets it apart from similarly-rated units, while enough user feedback exists to assure us of the quality in our selection.
OPTI-UPS goes a step beyond similarly priced competitors in both wattage and disclosure. A "typical runtime load" of 45-55 minutes sounds similar to what competing products cite, but OPTI also provides the actual runtime capabilities most others won't mention. Specifically, this unit is rated at 3 minutes full load capacity (700W) and ten minutes half-load capacity. The load time numbers may look small compared to the estimated run time, but one must wonder what competitors are trying to hide by not publishing their load times.
Our configurations are expected to "pull" around 500W of actual power during gaming, so users powering both the system and the LCD display should have at least three minutes to save their game and power down if ever their local power grid does go offline. Running less strenuous tasks whenever the grid goes down could bring your "typical runttime" in line with the company's
Closing Remarks
We were hoping that price cuts would at least allow us to step our system up to dual GeForce 8800 Ultra cards this time, but ATI's failure to challenge at the top end has left NVIDIA with no incentive to lower prices. The opposite has happened in the CPU world, where Intel continues to hammer prices down on its fastest processors in an effort to punish ATI's parent company, AMD.
From an enthusiast standpoint, there's never been a better time to build, but the majority of attention must go to the Intel configuration. AMD definitely has some competitive parts for mainstream users, but at the ultra high-end system configurations, Intel continues to hold all the cards.
We continue to hope that AMD puts its house in order before our next Extreme Gaming PC Buyer's Guide, but we've been holding out hopes for a long time. We keep hearing good news about near-term products, but like tomorrow, these are always a day away.
* Please note that prices do not include variable charges like taxes or shipping. The prices in our guide reflect market availability - generally the second or third lowest we found - in an attempt to minimize the financial burden associated with choosing multiple vendors.
Author: Thomas Soderstrom
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