iBuyPower Level 10

magine filling Thermaltake's Level 10 case with today's highest-performing components, setting up RAID config­ urations, and adding all the connectivity features you can think of. The result is iBuyPower's Level 10 dream PC submis­sion. iBuyPower tells us that the Level 10' s cooling capabilities allowed them to produce a system built for long-term reli­ability, stability, and quality. The compartmental design of the...

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iBuyPower Paladin XLC

  BuyPower tells us that the Paladin XLC is designed for performance-oriented buyers who are also focused on reliabili­ty, aesthetic design, and value. In short, it's more of an all-around performer than a pure gaming beast. The Paladin XLC sent to us featured Intel's six-core Core i7-970 overclocked to 4.04GHz, an OS volume created with two 64GB Kingston SSDNow V Series in RAID 0, and two Asus Matrix 5870 Platinums in...

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CyberPower Gamer Xtreme XT-K

  At a hair under $3,000 and the second-least expensive PC in our roundup, the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme XT-K is kind of a bargain, holding its own against the competition. CyberPower used the relatively pint­sized and light Xion Predator 970 case for the Gamer Xtreme XT-K. Like most of the Dream PC submissions this year, the case is plain-Jane black, but this one...

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Intel Core i7 –970

  Until very recently, if you wanted a six­core Intel desktop processor, you had only one speed bin and model to choose from: the pricey 3.33GHz Core i7-980X Extreme Edition. However, in the past couple of months, Intel decided to intro­duce a slightly more affordable six-core chip, the Core i7-970. This new hexa-core beast, like the 980X, is built on Intel's new 32nm process and clocks in not so far behind at...

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Asus ENGTX460 OirectCU TOP

The GeForce GTX 460 from Asus came in too late to make it into last month's roundup, but we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a closer look once we saw the angular heatsink shroud paint­ed blue with white pinstripes, evoking the iconic Shelby Cobra. Under the hood, Asus overclocked the GF104's core clock to 775MHz, which is a full 100MHz higher than the stock clock of the 1 GB GTX 460. The memory clock also got a...

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In Win Dragon 81ayer

Meet an mATX mini tower in the vein of Frank Frazetta. This Dragon Slayer is just an airbrushed side-panel mural away from total awesomeness. In Win says that the hexagonally per­forated steel motif is meant to evoke chain mail. We see in it ye olde hex pa­per, much beloved among turn-based gaming nostalgists. Breezy is the Dragon Slayer. Beyond its quartet of included fans, its perforated...

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Bigfoot Networks

    Bigfoot Networks may not be a household name among general PC consumers, but in hardcore gaming circles the company's gaming net­work cards have earned a solid reputation, including the company's latest effort, the Killer 2100. Unlike "dumb" NICs that cause "huge, unpredictable latency spikes" during gameplay, Bigfoot states that the Killer 2100 "has latency in microseconds" thanks to its NPU...

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The Mac Pro Upgrades

Apple's desktop workstation, the Mac Pro, now features up to 12 CPU cores for what Apple says is a 50 percent performance improvement on its predecessor. "In terms of the processor, we're adding Intel's latest generation Xeon technology, the Westmere generation of products," says David Moody, Apple vice president of worldwide Mac hardware marketing, referring to the Intel code name for the processor line. The new chips...

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