34 | MAXIMUMPC | SEP 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
Speaker manufacturers have all but abandoned the PC market when
it comes to surround sound, but that’s not why we chose to pair Axiom
Audio’s Audiobyte self-powered speakers and EPZero passive sub-
woofer with this year’s Dream Machine.
This 2.1-channel system sounds absolutely divine with games,
movies, and music, delivering the
sonic clarity and high resolution
our ears crave. High-end audio
products are never cheap, but the
Audiobyte’s $530 price tag is fully
justified. Reviewed July 2008.High-performance storage has split along two distinct lines: speed
and size. On the one hand, there’s Western Digital’s Velocirap-
tor (reviewed on page 86). It’s the fastest drive we’ve ever
tested, but it off ers just 300GB of storage space. And then
there’s Samsung’s HD103UJ (reviewed May 2008),
which combines a terabyte of storage with top-of-
the-line performance for its size.
It breaks our hearts to have to choose be-
tween the two... so we picked both. We’re
running two Revision B Velociraptors
in a RAID 0 array. There’s our speed.
For our capacity needs, we’re go-
ing with three HD103UJ drives
in a RAID 5 setup. This gives
us two terabytes of combined
storage while off ering some
level of data protection should
one drive fail.speakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakers
storagestoragestoragestorage
Axiom Audio Audiobyte
Because audio is every bit as important as video
Speaker manufacturers have all but abandoned the PC market when
it comes to surround sound, but that’s not why we chose to pair Axiom
Audio’s Audiobyte self-powered speakers and EPZero passive sub-
woofer with this year’s Dream Machine.
This 2.1-channel system sounds absolutely divine with games,speakers
Axiom Audio Audiobyte
speakers
Axiom Audio Audiobyte
speakers
Because audio is every bit as important as video
High-performance storage has split along two distinct lines: speed
and size. On the one hand, there’s Western Digital’s Velocirap-
tor (reviewed on page 86). It’s the fastest drive we’ve ever
tested, but it off ers just 300GB of storage space. And then
there’s Samsung’s HD103UJ (reviewed May 2008),
which combines a terabyte of storage with top-of-It breaks our hearts to have to choose be-
tween the two... so we picked both. We’re
running two Revision B Velociraptorsspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakersspeakers
DREAM MACHINE ’08
Two Western Digital Velociraptors +
Three Samsung D103UJs
This is the ultimate combination of performance and capacity, period