The Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme 9000 falls between two desktops, the Maingear F131 Super Stock($2,300 direct, 4 stars) and current Editors' Choice Digital Storm ODE Level 3 ($2,399 direct, 4.5 stars)—being that it's better than the former, but can't quite match the latter in gaming performance. But for those of us—make that most of us—who don't have the $2,399 to spare for a typical high-end gaming desktop, the Cyberpower's $1,799 (direct) price is an excellent substitution for those looking to some serious gaming without going broke.
Design and Features
The Gamer Xtreme 9000 uses a plain metal black case with a brushed aluminum front panel, so compared with the sleek white chassis on the ODE Level 3 there's not much to write home about. At first glance, the front panel looks to only have a vent, Blu-ray player/ DVD-R/W optical drive, and power button. The two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, audio and mic jack, and FireWire 400 port are all hidden behind a discrete door that clicks open and closed by pressing one of its corners. The top of the case has a hard drive slot that turns an internal 2.5-inch drive into an external storage drive—a cute recycling feature for those with extra hard drives lying about.
In the back there are a plethora of video inputs, including two mini-HDMI ports, four DVI-I, a DVI-D, HDMI, and VGA port. Audio connections include the standard audio and mic jacks as well as SPDIF-out for speakers. There are seven USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, and two USB 3.0 ports, but they are occupied by wires that snake through the chassis to provide you with USB 3.0 connectivity in the front. This pass-through solution is common, as cases don't commonly connect those ports to motherboard headers, but it's still awkward and unattractive. A wired Ethernet connection is also there, but there's no Wi-Fi—you'll have to install a card if you want to wirelessly log onto the Internet. A nice extra wireless feature is Bluetooth 2.1, which allows you to pair with numerous Bluetooth peripherals.
The side of the Gamer Xtreme 9000 has a clear window, so your friends, or perhaps a potential date, can marvel at your dual-SLI Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics cards and huge 850W power supply—sexy! The wiring on the inside is nicely organized, allowing proper airflow through the perforated vents on the front, back, and top of the chassis with the help of a few fans, of course. Cracking open the system is easy and requires no tools: Just push down on two levers on the Gamer Xtreme 9000's side panels. There are two DIMM slots open, out of four; the two currently occupied by 4GB each for a combined total of 8GB of DDR3 RAM.
The PCI and PCIe x16 slot will be hard to get to, as they are located in between the two Nvidia graphics cards, so anything extra will be a tight squeeze. The extra PCIe x1 slot has plenty of space for a card, so you won't have to pinch your fingers as with the PCI card to install something.
On the motherboard are two 6Gbps SATA ports and two 3Gbps SATA ports to connect an extra optical drive or hard drive depending on your needs. There are plenty of bays to hold three optical drives and four hard drives. Two of the hard drive bays are occupied by a 1TB 7,200rpm spinning drive and the other by a 28GB solid-state drive (SSD). Now, the SSD acts as a cache drive, which stores frequently used programs, like boot, Microsoft Word, Outlook, World of Warcraft, etc. This technology is enabled by Intel's Smart Response application and helps to improve launch times for applications and overall PC boot time—minimizing the time it takes to load the next level in Starcraft II or launch Portal 2. Just to be clear, if you were to go to Computer in Windows the drive would not appear, but from the Smart Response Technology the cache/SSD can be managed. This may be a lot to take in for the mainstream user, but there's no setup involved for you. However, the complexities when picking and choosing these components on the configuration page may put off certain users, especially if they aren't as well-read when it comes to PCs. That's why systems like the ODE Level 3, which I would recommend to mainstream consumers, gives you the system without the hassle of combing through each spec.
Performance
The Gamer Xtreme 9000 is meant for high-end gaming enthusiasts, which means it can play Crysis (DirectX 10) and Lost Planet 2 (DirectX 11) at High-quality settings—anti-aliasing, textures, the works. It achieved 60 frames per second (fps) on Crysis and 96fps on Lost Planet 2. These scores are right in between two of our pricier Editors' Choice gaming systems: The Maingear F131 (47fps Crysis, 72fps Lost Planet) and Digital Storm ODE (71fps Crysis, 121.7fps Lost Planet). So it's better than the Maingear, but still below the Digital Storm ODE in 3D performance. Admittedly, the Digital Storm ODE does have an advantage in its dual-SLI Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 graphics cards, whereas the Gamer Xtreme 9000 comes with two Nvidia GTX 560 graphics cards.
The 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-2600K processor combined with 8GB of RAM makes quick work of multimedia creation programs. The Gamer Xtreme 9000 moved through our Handbrake video encoding in 59 second and cycled through 12 of Photoshop CS5s most intensive image filters in 2 minutes 26 seconds. So on top of gaming, you'll be able to edit photos and create videos, perhaps post them on YouTube or that Let's Play section in the Something Awful forums.
The system comes with a 3 year limited warranty that includes free labor to replace any defect or upgrade any part. Cyberpower also provides free lifetime technical support through the phone and email.
The Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme 9000 is a solid gaming PC that will be able to play virtually any high-end 3D game on the best quality settings, and its $1,799 price tag certainly sweetens the deal. But the Digital Storm ODE Level 3 more powerful, and its SSD storage solution, and all-around purchasing system, is a little more comprehensible for the mainstream users who may not understand the complexities of picking and choosing parts and managing a cached storage solution. If you're more the tinkerer or hardcore user, and don't mind combing through several pages of picking and choosing the specs for your desktop PC, then the Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme 9000 is a great alternative to the Digital Storm ODE Level 3 if you're not willing to pay that $600 extra for the latter. But if you're looking to buy a PC and don't want to go through the process of configuring one piece by piece (a la build a bear) and don't want to pay $600 more, then check out the Acer Aspire Predator AG7750-U2222 (4 stars, $1,999)
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