14 DAY TRIAL // Most users that decide to replace their older machines with new computers are going to some dedicated system integrator and choose from a wider or narrower selection of products that, when it comes to price and performance, may range from low end systems that are available for petty change to state of the art gaming machines that will quickly eat all your savings.
For hardcore gamers that are looking for a new machine and are not squeamish to spend some serious money to get it, a new desktop computer maker, Uberclock, is now offering two very configurable systems. The Ion, Uberclock's lower end gaming machine, starts at around $1,500 and it comes with an Intel E4500 central processing unit which runs at a standard 3.4GHz clock speed and a motherboard based on the Nvidia 650i Ultra chipset. 2GB of DDR2 Wintec AMPX random access memory is the norm on the Ion platform, but users may upgrade to a total of 8GB of DDR2 memory running at 800MHz when they choose a 64-bit operating system.
As any respectable gaming machine, the Ion comes with a high end graphics card, based on the Nvidia 8800GTS graphics processing chip, which is available in two variants: one with only 320MB of video memory and another that comes with 640MB of memory. On the hardware department, a standard offering includes a single 250GB hard disk drive based on a Serial ATA II interface, while upgrading to two 500GB drive is also possible and recommended.
The high-end gaming machine from Uberclock is named Reaktor and it pushes further the performance level that can be reached, but also the price tag. The Reaktor is based on the Intel E6850 processor and it runs at 3.7GHz, while the mainboard is built around the Nvidia 680i LT chipset which supports SLI. On the random access memory department, the Reaktor comes with 2GB of DDR2 800MHz Corsair XMS2 Dominator memories that can be upgraded to reach 8GB.
Graphics cards are the strong point of the Reaketor gaming machine as the standard offering is based on the Nvidia 8800GTs chip, while users really in need of the ultimate gaming performance may go as high as a SLI solution composed of two 8800 Ultra cards. The storage department is well represented too, since the maximum storage capacity that a user can get is 4TB and it is made up of four 1TB hard disk drives in a RAID configuration. Among the operating systems available, there's a rich selection of Microsoft Windows versions, including Windows XP Pro and Vista Ultimate.
Optical drives are apparently identical on both Uberclock gaming machines, as they start with a standard DVD burner and go as high as a HD-DVD player integrated into a Blu-ray burner which will cost $1,000 more. While the Ion gaming system starts at ''only'' $1,500 and tops at around $3,000, the Reaktor starts with a price tag of $2,500 and does not stop until $6,790.