- Strong Dual Core Processor
- 64-bit Version of Vista
- Eight Gigabytes Memory Doesn't Improve Performance
- Case Design More Reflective of Mod Culture Several Years Ago
- Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Dual Core Processor
- 8GB PC2-6400 DDR2 Memory
- 500GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
- 20x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner
- NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT Graphics Card with 512MB Memory
- Intel HDA 7.1 Audio
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Six USB 2.0, FireWire
- Vista Home Premium 64-bit
8/5/08 - The CyberpowerPC Gamer Infinity 9510 is designed as an affordable PC gaming platform, and for the most part it succeeds in this goal. There are just a few design choices that CyberpowerPC could have made to make the system just a bit better for the intended customer.
One of the big selling points for the Gamer Infinity 9510 is the large amount of memory that comes with the system. While most companies are offering 4GB of memory now, this system doubles that to a total of 8GB of PC2-6400 DDR2. Of course, the system ships with the 64-bit version of Vista or else it wouldn't be able to use any of this extra memory. The problem is that most applications are still 32-bit in nature and don't really take advantage of memory beyond 4GB. As a result, these isn't much improvement in performance than if it had 4GB.
What CyberpowerPC should have done is equipped the system with 4GB and then use the cost savings from the reduced RAM to increase the graphics card, one of the most important pieces to PC gaming. The included GeForce 9600 GT does provide adequate performance for most gaming applications, but just a slightly more expensive 9800 series card or the new Radeon HD 4850 could have provided it with a big boost of performance over the competition.
One key decision that they did make that benefits games is the choice of using a higher clock speed dual core processor rather than a quad core processor. Most PC games can't utilize multiple cores and thus benefit from a high clock processor model than one with more cores running at a lower speed. This definitely gives it the edge in gaming applications over systems using the Core 2 Quad Q6600 or Q9300 model processors.
