based on a Lian Li frame, and the paint
job is about as good as it gets, with a
sparkling metallic black exterior that is
gratifyingly smooth to the touch and a
brilliant red interior. In the past, Falcon
Northwest’s paint jobs have generally
been regarded as the best in the biz, but
we think Voodoo is catching up. Other
cosmetic touches that impressed us: a
matching aluminum bezel for the 12x
Plextor drive, laser-cut side panels, and
rubber feet bearing the Voodoo symbol.
The F:2’s biggest weakness is that at
stock speeds it couldn’t top the
Alienware system’s performance.
While it did manage to pick up a few
gold medals in our rigorous suite of
Lab tests, it places behind the other
two water-cooled rigs. It is, however,
amazingly quiet.ZEUS TSUNAMI M-6
As the only PC here equipped with an ATI
Radeon X800 Pro (not even an X800 XT
Platinum Edition), Zeus PC’s Tsunami M-
6 is like a guy who walks into a gunfight
equipped with a spork. The fact that Zeus
PC also chose to forego the Athlon 64 FX
in favor of the budget buyer’s favorite, the
Athlon 64 3800+, doesn’t help.
In benchmarks you can probably
imagine where the Zeus’ hardware
ranked. And heck, you don’t even get a
soundcard with the Tsunami M-6. While
games such as Doom 3 don’t actually sup-
port any DirectSound3D sound accelera-
tion a la Creative Labs’ Audigy 2 series or
nVidia’s nForce chipset, we’d still like better
DACs than the Asus A8V’s 18-bit onboard
RealTek units.
So what’s positive about the Ultimate
M6? That depends on how you look
at it. If you’re expecting balls-out
gaming speed, you’re out
of luck. But if you think
of the Tsunami M-6 as a
“fixer-upper,” you might
be onto something,
because the Tsunami’s
price is a modest
$2,600. For the extra
cash you’d save by
not buying from
a boutique PC
maker such as
Falcon, Alienware, or Voodoo, you could
buy two 6800 cards, a new motherboard
that supports SLI, and even a better CPU. Of
course, this doesn’t really make a whole lot
of sense because you could just start with
those parts in the first place.
One other nice touch is the NEC ND-
2510A. Of the vendors here, only Zeus
and Falcon chose to include dual-layer,
dual-format burners. It’s not essential
in a gaming rig, but dual layers should
be a standard spec for today’s high-end
machines. We also continue to love
Cooler Master’s Wave Master case.
Furthermore, because the Tsunami isn’t
overclocked, it turned out to be the qui-
etest machine in the bunch.
Unfortunately, for the purposes of
this story, frame rates matter more
than anything else, and the Tsunami
just isn’t capable of running with the
big dogs. Coupled with the poor wiring
job—a loose cable was used to wrap the
main wiring trunk—and lack of decent
onboard or outboard audio, the Tsunami
needs a serious overhaul.6 is like a guy who walks into a gunfight
equipped with a spork. The fact that Zeus
PC also chose to forego the Athlon 64 FX
in favor of the budget buyer’s favorite, the
Athlon 64 3800+, doesn’t help.
In benchmarks you can probably
imagine where the Zeus’ hardware
ranked. And heck, you don’t even get a
soundcard with the Tsunami M-6. While
don’t actually sup-
port any DirectSound3D sound accelera-
tion a la Creative Labs’ Audigy 2 series or
nVidia’s nForce chipset, we’d still like better
DACs than the Asus A8V’s 18-bit onboardSo what’s positive about the Ultimate
M6? That depends on how you look
at it. If you’re expecting balls-out
gaming speed, you’re outThe Tsunami got washed away in a storm of
faster, albeit pricier, gaming rigs.VOODOO RAGE F:2 INTERCOOLEDMA XIMUMPC verdict ........ 6
$5,000, http://www.voodoopc.comZEUS TSUNAMI M-6MA XIMUMPC verdict ........ 5
$2,600, http://www.zeuspc.com