Posted 11/17/09 at 04:08:12 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Intel has drawn a lot of flak from various quarters for delaying the adoption of USB 3.0 and SATA-III. But lesser known players seem far more eager to make the leap to these new standards. CyberPower has decided to include USB 3.0 and SATA-III in all the upcoming models in its Gamer Xtreme range of desktops. 

“CyberPower customers can configure and order a Gamer Xtreme system with the super speed USB 3.0/SATA III interface today. With Intel's latest i5/i7 processors and P55/X58 chipsets, you'll enjoy maximum performance today and be ready for tomorrow. Both USB 3.0 and SATA III are backward compatible to assure users their current peripherals will not become obsolete,” the company said in a laconic press release. The Gamer Xtreme range starts at $749.

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Posted 10/26/09 at 11:45:40 AM by Gordon Mah Ung

Even we have to admit that in this economy, you have to be thankful if you’re not still driving a Pentium 4 rig. Still, for budget buyers today, the choice usually doesn’t get much better than a dual-core machine that takes overnight to encode video and a GPU that can’t push pixels downhill.

Fortunately, it’s no Pentium Dual-Core or Celeron that CyberPower opts to stick you with. Instead, CyberPower reached into its parts bin for Intel’s brand-new, budget badass: the $200 2.66GHz Core i5-750. This chip is like Chuck Norris in a bar fight: It not only wipes the floor with Phenom II X4, it commits a little fratricide against its Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Duo siblings, too.

To this Two-Buck Chuck, CyberPower adds what is definitely not a budget part: Nvidia’s fastest videocard in the form of EVGA’s GeForce GTX 295. At the foundation is Gigabyte’s new GA-P55-UD5 and 4GB of Kingston DDR3/1600. Storage is left to a 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda and a Samsung 22x DVD burner. A Cooler Master V8 cooler and Scout case complete the package.

Read the rest of this review after the jump!

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Posted 09/04/09 at 12:50:40 PM by Paul Lilly

One way to intimidate your opponents right off the bat is to show up at your next LAN party lugging around a water-cooled rig, but in a SFF enclosure.

Now you can do that, thanks to CyberPower's new LAN Mini H20. Measuring just 11.25 (L) x 8.75 (W) x 7 (H) inches and weighing about 10 pounds, the OEM managed to cram an Asetek water cooling solution into the cramped confines of a Silverstone SST-SG05 Mini-ITX enclosure that integrates both the CPU and GPU into a closed loop.

Also included in the sub-$1000 base configuration is an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (2.83GHz, 1333MHz FSB, 12MB L2 cache), Zotac GeForce 9300-ITX motherboard, 4GB of DDR2-800 memory, Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 videocard, 8X DVD burner, and Windows Home Premium 64-bit.

The customizable LAN Mini H20 is available now.

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Posted 07/10/09 at 07:45:22 PM by Katherine Stevenson

 At $2,300, CyberPower’s Extreme M1 17-inch gaming notebook is the antithesis of the budget Gateway P-7811 FX we’ve been raving about for months. The most obvious extravagance you get for the higher price is dual-GPU graphics in the form of two ATI Radeon HD 3870 cards in CrossFireX. The Extreme M1’s 2.53GHz T9400 Core 2 Duo CPU is also 270MHz faster and features twice the cache as the Gateway’s proc, its 320GB hard drive is more than 50 percent bigger, and its optical drive supports Blu-ray playback.

The question is, how do these extras translate in performance? Compared with our zero-point notebook, the Extreme M1 excelled in all the benchmarks to varying degrees—not surprising, given the zero-point’s age. Against the Gateway P-7811 FX, there was a little more give and take. For example, in the ProShow Producer and MainConcept benchmarks, CyberPower’s rig had gains hovering around 10 percent, which is proportionate to the M1’s clock-speed advantage over the Gateway’s 2.26GHz CPU. But in our Photoshop benchmark, the Extreme M1 was actually around 7 percent slower than Gateway’s P-7811 FX.

 Read more about this product after the jump.

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Posted 06/16/09 at 10:30:06 AM by Paul Lilly

Intel might officially scoff at the thought of OEMs shoving Core i7 processors and X58 chipets into full fledged desktop replacement notebooks, but that hasn't stopped a handful of system builders from doing so anyway. The latest to enter the 'mobile' Core i7 fray is CyberPower, which today introduced its Xtreme S1 notebook.

Available in a variety of configurations, the base model includes an Intel Core i7 920 (2.66GHz) processor, Intel's X58 chipset, 6GB of DDR3-1066 memory, Nvidia GeForce GTX 280M graphics with a 1GB frame buffer, 320GB hard drive sputtering along at 5400RPM (7200RPM and SSD options available), and 8X DVD burner all wrapped in a 17-inch package with a 1920x1200 resolution LCD display.

The Xtreme S1 is available now starting at $2,335 (Protip: Enter coupon code 'INSTANT' for 5 percent off).

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Posted 06/04/09 at 09:22:16 AM by Paul Lilly

CyberPower this week announced a new line of high-end gaming PCs under its also new Fang series nomenclature, which it says has been co-developed with Intel and "other leading manufacturers." The company kicks off the new line with the flagship Black Mamba Venom and Cobra Venom, both of which come overclocked and sport a customized BIOS, as designated by the Venom tag.

"The Fang series with Venom incorporates a special BIOS to allow for higher overclocking," CyberPower stated in a press release. "The BIOS supports real-time readings of CPU speed and additional options for QPI signal and CPU Clock Skew features, all of which improve overclocking capability."

On the higher end, the configurable Black Mamba Venom comes standard with Intel's just-released Core i7 975 Extreme Edition processor factory overclocked to 4GHz, and EVGA X58 Classified or Gigabyte X58 Extreme motherboard, 6GB of tri-channel DDR3 memory, a pair of 300GB Velociraptors in a RAID 0 array with a 1TB hard drive for storage duties, two Nvidia GTX 285 videocards in SLI, and a 6X Blu-ray writer all housed in Cooler Master's Storm Sniper chassis.

The slightly lower end Cobra Venom sports the same processor along with X58 motherboard options, while dropping down to a single 1TB hard drive, a single GTX 285 videocard, and a combo Blu-ray/HD-DVD player housed in Azza's Solano 1000 case.

The Black Mamba and Cobra Venom will start at $4,000 and $2,400 respectively. No word yet on availability.

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Posted 05/08/09 at 03:02:05 PM by Paul Lilly

Summer's fast approaching, and that means (hopefully) more free time for gaming (who needs sunshine?). To help you do that, CyberPower today announces the LAN Party Commander, a new system built around the Core i7 platform and housed in Cooler Master's recently released Scout enclosure.

"CyberPower offers a true LAN party solution that combines gaming performance quality and style," CyberPower wrote in a press release. "This all-around LAN Party case embodies CM’s 'Storm Tactics' approach to extreme gaming systems that gives you Strength, Security, and Control."

We were half expecting CyberPower to throw an 'Army Strong' quote somewhere in the press release, but marketing eccentricities asides, the self-proclaimed "Perfect LAN Party Rig" seeks to get you gaming on the go with an Intel Core i7 920 processor, Gigabyte X58 motherboard, 6GB of DDR3-1333 tri-channel memory, AMD's ATI HD4870 videocard, 1TB hard drive, DVD burner, 680W power supply, and Windows Vista 64-bit. Several upgrades are available, each of which will add to the base configuration's $1,130 price tag.

For security duties, CyberPower says the Commander's StormGuard security solution will allow you to lock down peripherals from mischievous passerbys.

The Commander is available now starting at the aforementioned $1,130 price point, though you can knock 5 percent off with coupon code "Instant."

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Posted 06/18/08 at 05:39:51 PM by Gordon Mah Ung

For all those readers who have added up the price of the parts in an OEM box and screamed into the night air: “Hell, I can build it cheaper than that!” CyberPower has a retort: Beat this one, sucker! While you might think you’re up to the challenge, we suspect the price-to-performance ratio of the CyberPower Gamer Ultimate SLI Quad is impossible to match—unless you’re using boosted parts. In fact, we’re not sure how CyberPower is making a profit off this stacked and packed rig.

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