I
f only Maximum PC put a lot of
stock in aesthetics, Gordon’s
machine might earn a more favor-
able review. But, alas, we’re all
about performance when it comes
to PCs. And Gordon’s rig functions
just a tad better than a graphing
calculator on the ol’ benchmarks.
Strangely, Gordon opted not to
overclock his machine in the slightest,
which comes as a wonder considering the
unholy combination of his slowest parts, a 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo
and a horrifi c 8500 Nvidia card. How bad does it get? If you want
to turn FEAR into a turn-based 12fps fi rst-person shooter, then
by all means, follow Gordon’s lead. Quake doesn’t fare much
better, offering a paltry 19fps.
The real deal-breakers for Gordon’s “rig” are the workhorse
CPU benchmarks—our Premiere and Nero tests. In the time it
took to run both benchmarks, I could have cooked and eaten
two frozen pizzas, consecutively. I could have watched a single
episode of 24. I even could have taken a nap. I suppose the
machine earns points for fi nishing the tests within the span of an
eight-hour workday; I had my doubts, but that’s hardly a consola-
tion for this horrifi cally slow machine.
I’ll be the fi rst to say that a crap machine is a crap machine.
But Gordon could have at least made a passing attempt to pull
as much performance as possible out of his little computer that
couldn’t. He didn’t, instead opting to throw this poor PC to the
wolves. I suppose we’ll never know how fast Gordon’s beyond-
lean machine could have been.T
hink of the most incredible, luxuri-
ous, badass system that you have ever
seen. Now think of the polar opposite and then jog another 200
yards past that and you get the Dave Murphy $500 Hobo Special.
Straight out of Bum Junction and perfectly suited for hopping a
hot-shot Santa Fe train, the only thing this cardboard wonder lacks
is the manual bundled up on the end of Dave’s bindle.
First, there’s no power or reset switch. Hell, there’s no frigging
front panel. To power up this abomination, you have to panhandle
a dime so you can short the power switch jumpers and boot the
ugly bastard. But be careful you don’t jiggle the GeForce 7600 GS
or you may blow up the whole contraption. In fact, don’t touch it at
all, lest the cardboard box burst into fl ames.
While the Hobo Special has the same HD, amount of RAM,
and CPU as my $500 beauty, it lacks upgrade options. Where are
the empty RAM slots to go beyond 1GB of memory? Where are
the DirectX 10 graphics? What about CrossFire or SLI support?
And a VIA chipset versus my Intel P965?! Pee on you, mister.
Its benchmarks are nothing to brag about either. We wouldn’t
boast about these scores to that crazy old guy who keeps talking
about how awesome the Amiga was. It’s best to just skulk away
and live in a Unabomber-style shed for the next 12 years. What’s
incredible, however, is the fact that a $500 hobo playpen is nearly
as fast as our once state-of-the-art Athlon 64 FX-60 box. How the
mighty have fallen.
Despite what Murphy might say, the only area in which
his “rig” bests my PC is gaming. Of course, even his “win-
ning” scores don’t really represent playable frame rates here.
And when DX10 catches on, that piddly frame-rate advantage
drops to zero, rookie.50 MAXIMUMPC OCTOBER 2007
Dave’s Rig
Tell us what you really think
about this PC, GordonMAXIMUMPC
CHALLENGEANOTHERThe Benchmarks
Best budget scores are bolded. Our current desktop test bed consists of a dual-core 2.6GHz Athlon 64 FX-60, 2GB
of Corsair DDR400 RAM on an Asus A8N32-SLI motherboard, two GeForce 7900 GTX cards in SLI, a Western Digital
4000KD drive, a Sound Blaster X-Fi soundcard, a PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 850, and WinXP SP2.DAVE’S
ZERO-POINT GORDON’S LOW-COST
SCORES BUDGET BOX CREATIONSYSMARK2004 SE 275 N/A N/APREMIERE PRO 2.0 (SEC) 3,000 3,000 3,024PHOTOSHOP CS2 (SEC) 295 319.3 324RECODE H.264 (SEC) 2,648 3,173 3,212FEAR 1.07 (FPS) 80 12 19QUAKE 4 (FPS) 110.5 19 23Gordon’s Rig
Dave weighs in on the merits of his competitor’s machine
I
machine might earn a more favor-calculator on the ol’ benchmarks.overclock his machine in the slightest,
which comes as a wonder considering theous, badass system that you have everREVIEWED
BY GORDOREVIEWED
BY DAVE