Ultimate gaming computer

Making Sense of Ultimate Gaming Machines

Considering our rather precarious start, the Ultimate Gaming Machine 2005 contest turned into a rather stirring competition. VoodooPC once again displayed its championship caliber, with Maingear and Vicious PC nipping at its heels. After putting seven machines through their paces with both synthetic and 3D GameGauge real-world gaming benchmarks, as well as assessing stability issues, style points, ergonomics, upgradeability, and warranty and support services, we landed on VoodooPC with its top-performing SLI-capable PCI Express NForce4 chipset and FX-55 processor as the winner. Even though Maingear and Vicious PC performed extremely well, and Velocity Micro and Hypersonic’s top-notch systems made a decent showing, the ultimate gaming rig honors went to the Rage SLI from VoodooPC for all the right reasons. And VoodooPC’s exemplary service and support offerings are icing on the cake, making it even more deserving of praise.

In the end, systems like the IBuyPower and CyberPower with Intel-based guts just couldn’t compete with the faster AMD Athlon 64 FX-55-based systems and their awesome benchmark scores. Most of the UGM entries also went with LCD monitors as their preferred choice for gaming. Only the winner, the Rage SLI, used a CRT, and the quality and performance of its NEC MultiSync monitor showed.

Even though picking an Ultimate Gaming Machine winner can be a stressful exercise, it also turned out to be a kick. Having a detailed set of parameters really helped eliminate some of the uncertainty of picking past UGM winners. No matter how crazy things got, I would do this contest as often as the technology of computer gaming expands, bringing us each new performance nugget. Things move quickly, but gaming on the fastest system possible is a goal worth pursuing.