We’re acknowledged hardware snobs, so we readily admit it takes something special to make us take a step back and say, “Wow.” We’ll also admit that Hypersonic’s luscious Cyclone OCX Limited Edition made us do just that.

Though Hypersonic has always sent impressive systems for review, the company has upped its game this time around.

Special touches abound, from the glossy leopard-print paint job to the rubber-coated door hinges (for silent operation) to the mirrored case interior, everything about the Cyclone is elegant, fancy, and dare we say, swank.

Looks aren’t everything, though; the hardware is what really matters. Thankfully, the Cyclone doesn’t fall short in this respect either. Even though we saw most of these parts debut last month in Monarch’s Nemesis—including the Athlon FX-57 CPU and GeForce 7800s in SLI—it’s a payload that churns through games like a Pentagon supercomputer running nuclear war simulations. Adding a bit more bite to its bark is the fact that Hypersonic “TurboClocked” this bad boy, taking the CPU from 2.8GHz to 2.88GHz, the graphics core clock from 430MHz to 490MHz, and the graphics memory from 600MHz to 649MHz. The MSI motherboard sports a quaint gig of DDR400 memory (rated for 550MHz operation), and storage duties are handled by two 74GB Raptors and a 400GB Barracuda.

We expected the Cyclone to rock our benchmarks, and rock them it did. Its score of 233 in SYSmark 20004 is quite respectable and just six points shy of the score achieved by El Jefe Supremo—Dream Machine 10. That pitter-patter you hear is the golf clap for Hypersonic’s PC. (The record is still held by the insanely overclocked Falcon Northwest P4 box we reviewed back in May, which scored 247.)

The Cyclone also scored well in our other application tests, besting last month’s FX-57-based Monarch in Premiere Pro. The Cyclone did lose to the Monarch in Photoshop CS, however. Photoshop loves RAM and the Monarch’s 2GB likely gives it the edge over the Cyclone’s 1GB.
Thanks to a pair of oh-so-sweet GeForce 7800 GTX cards (in SLI, of course), we finally broke the 100fps barrier in Doom 3, with the Cyclone clocking an average 102.1fps. That gives the Cyclone the record in that benchmark. The Cyclone also ripped apart the Game 3 benchmark in 3DMark05, scoring 90 percent faster than our 6800 Ultras-in-SLI zero-point rig.

Like the calm before a storm, Hypersonic’s Cyclone is whisper-quiet despite all the power raging under its hood. This can be attributed to its HydroX liquid-cooling system, which is a customized version of Cooler Master’s Aquagate Mini 120. Hypersonic blinged-out the Mini’s boring black tubing with silver sheathing and added a custom shroud to the radiator for improved performance.

Like a mean, green hot rod, the Cyclone is certainly a force to be reckoned with. It’s a take-no-prisoners system that’ll leave the faint of heart (and wallet) blowing in the wind.
—CLAUDE McIVER

+ LEOPARD: Fast as hell, top-of-the-line components, and a sexy paint job.
- DEF LEPPARD: Only 1GB RAM, no DDR2, and a hefty price tag.

VERDICT: 9 Kick Ass
URL: www.hypersonic-pc.com

COMMENTS:

0

TAGS: 

Comments Print Email