First, a huge thanks to everyone at [H]ard|OCP, Intel, and iBuyPower, I cant thank you guys enough for the awesomeness you bestowed upon me!
So I go the computer last Monday, but due to work schedule, and real life in general, I have not had time to post pics until now.
The huge box it came in
A bag full of goodies: Manuals, Driver Disks, Extra Hard Drive rails and 5 ¼ mounting screws, a power cord, a DVI/VGA adapter and a CD Key for Dirt 2 included with the video card
It came rather well packed in my opinion.
The case right out of the box Note: my camera cannot do the graphics justice, the look much better in person, and the front is covered with a protective plastic.
The backplane. The big blue blob inside the case is an expanding foam packing material that iBuyPower used to keep the cards in place and keep the internals safe. It was quite wedged in and felt very secure. Its great idea in my opinion.
And of course the internals, See below for a description of everything included and some thoughts about the build quality
The front panel, the 2 bars to each side light up blue, and it has 2 fan controls. And of course the Blu-ray re writer I have yet to play with
So the initial specs were kind of vague on some spots, but here is exactly what it came with:
Case: iBuyPowers Chimera Inferno 2, its a NZXT Lexa s with a vinyl graphics wrap and a solid side panel.
Internal Expansion: [6-Port] NZXT Internal USB Expansion System + Bluetooth Module
Processor: Intel® Core i7 980X Gulftown
Processor Cooler: its an Asetek LCLC, Pretty much the OEM version of a Corsair H50
Memory: 6GB (2GB x 3) DDR3-1600 ADATA Ram
Video card: Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1 GB Reference card
Motherboard: Intel DX58SO
Add-on card: Asus U3S6 True USB3.0 card
Power Supply: Xion Gamer Series 1000W
SSD: Intel X25-M SSD
Data: 1TB Hitachi
Optical: LG Blu-RAY Re-Writer
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
This is actually the first desktop I have owned that I have not built myself since an old Pentium 90 I bought from Midwest Micro so many years ago. Overall I was very impressed with the build quality. I was also impressed to see that the cable management was used. Everything inside seemed to be built with care and no shortcuts were taken.
Cooling wise, Im thinking about getting another fan and setting up the radiator in a push pull configuration, but I might only need to do that when I start to overclock it. Honestly at stock speeds even after a few hours of heavy game play nothing seems to get warm at all. The system is extremely quiet too. I dont think the 5870s fan has ever ramped up at all yet!
Im amazed at how fast this machine is. Anything I load up from the SSD is near instantaneous. Its pretty fun to take any game I want, max out every setting at full res, and still have a very fast frame rate. Even in World of Warcaft in Dalaran with every setting maxed I still was above 50FPS. I still want to get in there and tweak some settings and try to eek out some more power. Granted, Ill admit, Im a bit rusty when it comes to tweaking a system out now a days. Its been a while since I have had a system worth doing it on.
Big thanks again to everyone here at [H], Intel and iBuyPower!
So I go the computer last Monday, but due to work schedule, and real life in general, I have not had time to post pics until now.
The huge box it came in
A bag full of goodies: Manuals, Driver Disks, Extra Hard Drive rails and 5 ¼ mounting screws, a power cord, a DVI/VGA adapter and a CD Key for Dirt 2 included with the video card
It came rather well packed in my opinion.
The case right out of the box Note: my camera cannot do the graphics justice, the look much better in person, and the front is covered with a protective plastic.
The backplane. The big blue blob inside the case is an expanding foam packing material that iBuyPower used to keep the cards in place and keep the internals safe. It was quite wedged in and felt very secure. Its great idea in my opinion.
And of course the internals, See below for a description of everything included and some thoughts about the build quality
The front panel, the 2 bars to each side light up blue, and it has 2 fan controls. And of course the Blu-ray re writer I have yet to play with
So the initial specs were kind of vague on some spots, but here is exactly what it came with:
Case: iBuyPowers Chimera Inferno 2, its a NZXT Lexa s with a vinyl graphics wrap and a solid side panel.
Internal Expansion: [6-Port] NZXT Internal USB Expansion System + Bluetooth Module
Processor: Intel® Core i7 980X Gulftown
Processor Cooler: its an Asetek LCLC, Pretty much the OEM version of a Corsair H50
Memory: 6GB (2GB x 3) DDR3-1600 ADATA Ram
Video card: Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1 GB Reference card
Motherboard: Intel DX58SO
Add-on card: Asus U3S6 True USB3.0 card
Power Supply: Xion Gamer Series 1000W
SSD: Intel X25-M SSD
Data: 1TB Hitachi
Optical: LG Blu-RAY Re-Writer
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
This is actually the first desktop I have owned that I have not built myself since an old Pentium 90 I bought from Midwest Micro so many years ago. Overall I was very impressed with the build quality. I was also impressed to see that the cable management was used. Everything inside seemed to be built with care and no shortcuts were taken.
Cooling wise, Im thinking about getting another fan and setting up the radiator in a push pull configuration, but I might only need to do that when I start to overclock it. Honestly at stock speeds even after a few hours of heavy game play nothing seems to get warm at all. The system is extremely quiet too. I dont think the 5870s fan has ever ramped up at all yet!
Im amazed at how fast this machine is. Anything I load up from the SSD is near instantaneous. Its pretty fun to take any game I want, max out every setting at full res, and still have a very fast frame rate. Even in World of Warcaft in Dalaran with every setting maxed I still was above 50FPS. I still want to get in there and tweak some settings and try to eek out some more power. Granted, Ill admit, Im a bit rusty when it comes to tweaking a system out now a days. Its been a while since I have had a system worth doing it on.
Big thanks again to everyone here at [H], Intel and iBuyPower!