iBuyPower Gamer Paladin 795-CX

iBuyPower Gamer Paladin 795-CX
A powerful gaming investment-for today only


IBUYPOWER'S GAMER PALADIN 795-CX is the first system we've tested that uses two dual-GPU ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 cards in a CrossFirex configuration, which means it's powered by the equivalent of four high-caliber graphics chips. We expexted it to be pretty terrific, but we weren't prepared for it to be quite so powerful-or be available for a refreshingly un-extreme price of $2,999.
iBuyPower has stuffed it with plenty of potent technologies: a 3GHz Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Intel Penryn processor (overcocked to 3.6GHz), 2GB of DDR2 RAM (which remains a must for Windows Vista Home Premium), a 150GB hard drive for programs, a 750GB drive for storage, a Bluray/HD DVD combo optical drive, and a more mundane DVDRW drive. Also included are an eight-channel sound card and a TV-tuner card.
The Gamer Paladin 795-CX returned record results in our DirectX 9 (DX9) 3dMark06 benchmark and excellent numbers in the newer, DX10 3DMark Vantage. Performance in actual games was likewise exceptional, particularly in DX9 titles, but lost ground with DX10 at high resolutions. This means the system isn't quite future-proof, so serious gamers might not be satisfied with its performance for long. Also, because the motherboard uses DDR2 RAM, there's no chance of the extra performance boost (and insurance again obsolescence) that newer, faster DDR3 RAM would provide.

source: Computer Shopper August, 2008.
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