BESTGAMINGPCS
THE WINNER—
BY A HAIR!
It’s funny how two completely different
CPUs, chipsets, and systems could pro-
duce such similar benchmark results. While
Alienware placed first in more catego-
ries—nine, to be exact—Falcon Northwest’s
system was really close behind. In fact, in
three tests— AquaMark’s GPU and CPU
tests, and Doom 3 at 1600 x 1200—the Mach
V out-muscled all the contenders, including
Alienware’s Aurora. Likewise, Voodoo’s Rage
F:2 managed to outscore the Falcon and
Alienware systems in three benchmarks—
Jedi Academy , Doom 3 at 1280x1024, and
Far Cry at 1280x1024. How is this possible?
We suspect it’s a function of the nForce3
Ultra chipset—or errors produced by theoverclocked videocards slowed the others
down just enough for the stock Voodoo to
breeze by.
Unfortunately, the Voodoo system’s ini-
tial stability issues dropped it to third place,
leaving it to either Alienware or Falcon to
claim victory.
At one point, Alienware’s Aurora looked
like the sure winner based on the merits of
its superior performance numbers across
multiple categories. But as we considered
its busted front door, flimsy side-panel
door, and the fact that its plastic case just
doesn’t feel as solid as the Mach V, we
began leaning toward the Falcon, despite
its second-place performance. But alas,
while we’re not like other magazines that
get overly concerned with price, the fact
that Falcon’s Mach V costs $2,300 more than
the Aurora while losing in nine benchmarks
ultimately hurt it.
Both machines are freaky-fast, but onlyone can be declared winner. So, at the end
of all our testing and judging, we deem
Alienware’s Aurora the superior PC and
winner of our 2004 Desktop Deathmatch,
with Falcon’s Mach V a very close second.FALCON NORTHWEST:
MR. CONGENIALITY
When we held our staff-wide secret ballot
to decide which of our six contestants was
easiest on the eyes, the results were close.
Initially, it was a three-way tie between
Falcon Northwest’s Mach V, Velocity Micro’s
Gamer’s Edge FX, and Voodoo’s Rage F:2.
After considerable debate and a contro-
versial run-off, the Mach V’s professional-
looking cherry-red custom paint, ghoulish
Khmer Rouge overtones, and back-lit laser-
cut front panel punched the majority of our
staff’s buttons. nMAKE ALIENWARE FALCON NORTHWEST ZEUS ABS VELOCITY MICRO VOODOO
MODEL Aurora ALX Mach V Tsunami M-6 Ultimate X6 Gamer’s Edge FX Rage F:2 Intercooled
CPU 2.6GHz Athlon 64 FX-53 4.28GHz Pentium 4E 2.4GHz Athlon 64 3800+ 3.41GHz Pentium 4EE 2.47GHz 2.46GHz
RATED CPU 2.4GHz Athlon 64 FX-53 3.8GHz Pentium 4E 2.4GHz Athlon 64 3800+ 3.4GHz Pentium 4EE 2.4GHz Athlon 64
FX-532.4GHz Athlon 64
FX-53
MOTHERBOARD ASUS A8V ASUS P5AD2 Premium ASUS A8V ASUS P5AD2 ASUS A8V MSI K8N Neo
CHIPSET VIA K8T800 Pro Intel 925X VIA K8T800 Pro Intel 925X VIA K8T800 Pro nForce3 Ultra
PSU PC Power TurboCool 510
DeluxeEnermax 550 Antec TruePower 550 Antec TruePower 480 Enermax 500 watt Voodoo Enermax 600
Noise Taker
RAM 1GB DDR400 2GB DDR2 / 533 1GB DDR400 1GB DDR2 / 533 1GB DDR400 1GB DDR400
GPU MAKE/MODEL GeForce 6800 Ultra GeForce 6800 Ultra Express ATI Radeon X800 Pro GeForce 6800 Ultra Express GeForce 6800 Ultra GeForce 6800 Ultra
GPU CLOCKS 450 / 1100 440 / 1100 547 / 1100 440 / 1100 440 / 1180 439 / 1100
HD 2 WD 740GD 2 WD 740GD
250GB WD SATA2 WD 740GD 2 WD 740GD
200GB Maxtor2 WD 740GD 2 WD 740GDHD CONFIGURATION RAID 0 RAID 0 RAID 0 RAID 0 RAID 0 RAID 0
OPTICAL 1 Plextor Premium CD-RW Sony DRU-700A Toshiba
M1712NEC ND-2510A JLMS-HD1665 Lite-On SOHC-5232K Plextor PX-712AOPTICAL 2 Plextor PX-712A — — Plextor PX-712A Lite-On SHOW-1213S —
AUDIO SYSTEM SB Audigy 2 ZS SB Audigy 2 ZS Onboard Onboard SB Audigy 2 ZS SB Audigy 2 ZS3DMARK 2003 13514 13429 11715 12104 13042 12736
3DMARK 2003 CPU 1176 1138 736 993 1067 1134
3DMARK 2003 (1600X1200, 4XAA) 5595 5434 4616 4969 5448 5161
AQUAMARK 3 GPU 10917 10782 8748 9642 10497 9978
AQUAMARK 3 CPU 11112 11622 9922 9973 10292 11468
AQUAMARK 3 OV 73209 73661 60723 65001 69527 69542
JEDI ACADEMY (1600X1200,
4XAA)143.3 140.1 113 118 89 143.5HALO 1.013 (1600X1200, 4XAA) 71.3 69.11 54.0 59.06 68.9 64.07
UT2003 FLY BY (1600X1200, 4XAA) 230 223 143 205 220 214
DOOM 3 (1280X1024) 83.4 86.3 57.8 77.1 86 87.3
DOOM 3 (1280X1024, 4XAA) 57.6 57.2 35.7 52.7 55.9 54.7
DOOM 3 (1600X1200) 72.0 72.2 44 65.3 70.6 70.0
DOOM 3 (1600X1200, 4XAA) 43.8 43.3 26.3 40.1 42.4 41.1
FAR CRY (1280X1024) 74.2 74.5 57 62.5 71.5 76
FAR CRY (1600X1200) 68.8 67.2 57.2 58 65.2 65
PRICE $5,000 $7,300 $2,600 $3,300 $3,655 $5,000Conclusions
and Benchmarks48 MA XIMUMPC OCTOBER 2004
*Winning scores are bolded