CyberPower Gamer Xtreme 8500: How Far Can SLI 450's Go?
by Dustin Sklavos on September 16, 2010 12:15 AM ESTBut is the Performance "Xtreme?"
CyberPower shipped our review unit with a large overclock on the very capable i7-875K CPU, but what will really be interesting is seeing how the "SuperClocked" GeForce GTS 450's fare. Since the review of the iBuyPower Paladin XLC we've streamlined our benchmarking suite for desktop machines so that moving forward we have a better reference point. Unfortunately, that means that we're starting fairly fresh. To help even the odds a bit I've also included the benchmark results from another system from a forthcoming review, AVADirect's Nano Gaming Cube. It's not particularly fair to the Cube: that unit is a Mini-ITX gaming machine running an i7-750S overclocked to 3GHz and a Sapphire Vapor-X Radeon HD 5870. That's a hell of a lot of power for a tiny machine (so stay tuned to learn more), but it's still competing with bigger systems with more aggressive configurations.
We'll start with the system-based benchmarks. There should be no huge surprises in how the 8500 places, but remember that the processor is faster than any of the other chips listed while the GeForce GTS 450 SLI configuration is still brand new.
Generally speaking, the 3.85GHz clock speed on the i7-875K leaves the competition in the dust. Remember that the iBuyPower's processor is only overclocked to 3.5GHz; the triple-channel memory configuration in that system just isn't enough to pick up the slack. The odd outlier is PCMark Vantage, where AVADirect's decision to use a Corsair Nova SSD seems to have paid off in spades. While all of these test units are using SSDs as their system drives, the Nova is the fastest (and most expensive) of the lot, and PCMark Vantage has historically skewed wildly towards fast SSD-based systems.
When we move on to 3DMark, the XLC with its GTX 470's in SLI should destroy the competition; what you're really going to want to look at is the difference between the GTS 450's in the CyberPower unit and the Radeon HD 5870 in the AVADirect machine. It does bear mentioning that 3DMark results can still skew towards higher CPU clocks, however.
As you can see, 3DMarks 05 and 06 both favor the increased clocks on the processor in the CyberPower machine, putting it ahead of even the SLI 470-based iBuyPower unit. In 3DMark Vantage, that ranking disappears, but the "slow" 3GHz i5 in the Cube can't pick up the slack and seems to be limiting the Radeon HD 5870 somewhat.
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Roland00 - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
I agree with your logic on the video cards, but factually... the sli gts 450s are almost exactly the same speed of a gtx 470 (in most benches within 5% of each other) if the games scale well with sli. Two 450s are faster than 1 460 even a 1gb version of 460 if the game scales well with sli.You could always OC the 460 1gb to get very close to the sli gts 450s/gtx 470; but at the same time there is nothing stopping you from OC the 450s or the 470.
Still I can't recommend the gts 450s for you can get better value from other video cards picks
adonn78 - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
The GTS 450 is like a 5750 that uses more electricity and costs more money. I'd get 2 5770's Crossfire , a single 5850 or GTS 470. For less money and better performance, great review. I am waiting for the AMD 6770 to come out in October before I buy a New PC. And i am considering getting a cyberpower sicne they have the Asetek liquid cooling and affordable prices. I personally could ahve configured a better computer for less mone but you guys wanted to test out the new mediocre geforce cards.AstroGuardian - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
If you are so much of a n expert then why don't you assemble the perfect computer for you? Why cyberpower?acooke - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Can you guys do me a favour and tell me if it's OK to take this kind of computer as carry-on (on Delta)? Can I carry a laptop too?The reason I ask is that I will be visiting the USA for a few months and am going to build my own machine in this form factor. But I need to be able to carry it back to Chile... Thanks!
acooke - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Sorry - see my other comment here - I thought this was smaller form factor system. I'll wait for the Cube review and ask again...softdrinkviking - Friday, September 17, 2010 - link
i have done a lot of traveling lately, and i experienced a bit of trouble with some of my baggage.I think that you should be prepared to check it, or picked up from a claim desk with a ticket or something.
You could probably take it carry on, but they might open it up and look around and waste your time in a major way, and they also might force you to check it so they can put it through their security devices.
i think it depends a lot on the temperament of the airline employees you deal with, and also on the constantly changing rules that get passed to the security people at the gates.
for example, i actually got a nail clipper taken from me once, and the next time i got on a plane, i realized i had a new clipper with me, and i offered it to the officer who promptly told me that the rules had changed and i could now take it with me!
so don't assume anything, pack it with foam inserts on the inside of the case, and have a good enclosure or box prepared.
personally, i would pack it up all crazy and mail it, but you can probably do a claim ticket for it so it won't get thrown down the luggage ramp.(for some xtra $)
Roland00 - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
A single gts 450 is going for 130 to 140 at the time of writing.The gtx 460 (768) is much faster and is currently going for 180 and higher
The gtx 470 is the speed of a sli gts450s and you can get this card for 249.99+tax at Frys(everyday not a sale price, it has been this price now for 3 weeks). If you don't have a Fry's nearby you can get a gtx 470 for 300 online. (If you do MIR it is cheaper than 300).
The gtx 470 is the speed of two gts 450s in sli if everything scales. If it doesn't scale then the 470 will clobber it. Also you don't have to worry about the little issues with sli such as microstutter and profiles and such. The 470 solution is either cheaper (if you get it for 250 such as the fry deal I mention), or if you get the parts online for 300 for the gtx 470, you will have ot spend the 40 dollars extra on a sli motherboard (since only the high end p55 or almost any x58 motherboards support sli, thus you are spending extra on the motherboard.)
If you must have sli, well the sli gtx 460s is much faster than the sli gts 450s, and is only 80 dollars more.
The only reason I can see you getting the sli 450s instead of a 470 is if you must have nvidia surround to do 3 displays. If you must have this, I would so recommend stepping up to the 460s or better for running 3 monitors at once is hard and you have already spent 400 at least on 3 monitors, and probably 1500ish on the computer, you should spend 80 more for surround.
jfelano - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
Too big a psu and too little video card. HD5850 performance and a 750w Corsair psu??flipmode - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
I swear I'm going to spam every system review with this. It's absurd that you've been doing all of these system reviews and there is no link to the systems category of articles.flipmode - Thursday, September 16, 2010 - link
7 articles in 2010, none of them accessible to anyone that doesn't know to manually type the URL.