Überclok Reactor: Balanced Performance
by Matt Campbell on October 10, 2008 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Problems
After a minor SATA reseating on arrival (and replacement of the defective video card), this system was extremely stable throughout the suite of benchmarking. Another item encountered was that the Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo drive was extremely loud; it sounded like a jet engine spinning up. The disks used had no covers or balance problems and we tried several disks with the same result. The other optical drive was quite normal, so we chalk this up to a drive anomaly.
Pricing
Überclok has made some minor changes to the Reactor offering since we took delivery of the review system, including bumping up to the Q9550 and some changes to the hard drive lineup, in addition to now offering ATI video cards as an option. The system closest to our review configuration is $3230 at the Überclok ordering website. The closest that we came at Newegg with a very similar configuration was about $2350. The margins here are clearly higher than they were on the Ion, but so are the build times and tweaking, and the price of warranty extension on an overclocked quad-core processor.
Final Thoughts
Once again, we find ourselves pleased with Überclok and their Reactor offering. It's in a different market segment than the Ion, and as expected the attention to detail, choices of components, and most of all the performance and stability of the Reactor are all consistent with a system in this price range - or even significantly above it. The warranty period and price premium is comparable with competitors, and the system binder and attention to detail are areas where Überclok excels. Überclok produces a great product, and if they can establish a good reputation for service and support, they should become a top choice among the sea of PC system providers.
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emilyek - Wednesday, October 15, 2008 - link
You could buy these parts on newegg for close to a third of that.Maybe I should start my own company. I wouldn't even need a wholesale license.
Why 1k watts? Because it's a Cooler Master PSU. You'll find lots of those in pre-builts on e-bay; they can be had cheap, and anyone foolish enough to buy that box will be totally impressed by the high number.
TheGoat Eater - Sunday, October 12, 2008 - link
as you can tell by the subject line that pictured HSF (http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/system/2008/ub...">http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/system/2008/ub... is not the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8...">http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a...tem=N82E... the Xigmatek HDT-S1283 has 3 heatpipes and the one pictured clearly has 6 heatpipes.Just a FYI...
Uberclok - Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - link
Quite correct - sorry for the confusion. We built this unit for Anandtech ove a month ago, when we were using the Thermalright Ultima-90 HSF. Not long after we shipped it, we switched to the Xigmatek. Both are heatpipe-based air coolers, not a liquid/air hybrid as a previous poster suggested.Matt Campbell - Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - link
Thanks for the catch!Zebo - Saturday, October 11, 2008 - link
Like any regular reader here is going to buy this overpriced computer.Whens Anandtech going to start reviewing the Bugatti Veyron or Caviar?
CEO Ballmer - Friday, October 10, 2008 - link
These people are suing us over the "Vista Ready" stickers, this could solve the problem. All we need to do is send one of these to all of those cheap PC owners!http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com">http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com
Stas - Friday, October 10, 2008 - link
so, aside from the fact that I can build the same system for almost half the price, the 1KW power supply is stupidity. The efficiency cannot be more than 75% even at max load. I would put a Corsair HX520 in it, maybe 600. Cheaper and more efficient. Probably hit 85% at max load, ~80 idle.Stas - Friday, October 10, 2008 - link
I guess it makes sense for the sake of marketing, as been said, that way customers could put 2xHD4870x2 in it. Which in my opinion is stupid, considering it comes with a $500 card already (just get another one of the same to match in SLI), but whatever. If it sells, it sells.GaryJohnson - Saturday, October 11, 2008 - link
I'm interested in how well it does sell. I really think these system reviews should be written from the 'here's what the competition is doing' perspective, as I think an AT reader is more likely to be selling pre-built systems than buying them.mgmason - Friday, October 10, 2008 - link
Is the CPU vCore really set to 1.44 volts as we see on the bios screen, or the more reasonable 1.37? Still seems a bit high, I'm getting a stable 3.2 Ghz out of my Q9450 using only 1.22 volts. I get CPU temps of about 60 degrees under load using air cooling with an Arctic Freezer Pro 7.