iBuyPower Intros LAN Warrior Gaming PC

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By Devin Connors
published

iBuyPower has unveiled a new Core i7-based small form factor gaming PC in the LAN Warrior.

If you're tired of lugging your full-sized gaming PC from LAN party to LAN party, then iBuyPower may have a solution for you.

iBuyPower has announced its latest gaming PC in the LAN Warrior, a Core i7-based powerhouse contained within a small form factor case. While the NZXT Rouge case used for the new machine isn't quite as small as a Shuttle PC, it does come in a lot smaller than your average mid or full-size ATX case.

The guts of the LAN Warrior are pretty standard fare for a new gaming rig. For $999, you can nab a new Asus Rampage II Gene motherboard, Intel Core i7 920 (2.66 GHz, 8 MB cache), 3 GB of DDR3-1600 memory, 500 GB hard drive, and an Nvidia 9500GT, all powered by a generic 600W power supply. The LAN Warrior also comes with Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) standard.

If a 9500GT and 500 GB hard drive just won't satiate your gaming appetite, there are plenty of upgrade options on every component. A paltry $4,478 will nab you an Core i7 965 Extreme Edition, 12 GB of Corsair DDR3-1600, two Nvidia GTX 295 video cards in SLI, dual 300 GB Velociraptor drives, a Blu-ray burner, and a 1000W power supply. On top of the upgrades, the hefty price tag will also score you a Fatal1ty edition Creative soundcard and a Killer M1 network card.

While the thought of a more portable pre-built gaming rig is sure to make some of our readers drool, it just isn't the same as cobbling your own machine together. Luckily, none of LAN Warriors components are iBuyPower-specific, including the case (here's the NewEgg link). Also, while there's no better feeling than gaming on a machine you put together yourself, nabbing a LAN Warrior from iBuyPower won't cost you much in terms of overhead. After looking around on a few different online retailers for parts, it became clear that a home-built rig with similar hardware would cost about as much as the above base model. However, iBuyPower includes Windows (which we did not in our quick and unscientific comparison) and a three year warranty, so the new LAN Warrior is not a bad buy by any means.

EDIT: It should be noted that because of the LAN Warrior's size and smaller motherboard, you can not add a sound card and/or network card when using two video cards in SLI or CrossFire configurations. Thanks to reader scook9 for pointing that out to us!

Devin Connors
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9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Platypus
    It seems to me the people who regularly go to LANs for gaming get half of their entertainment from seeing the custom cases and the different mods each person brings with them.

    Something like this would be equivalent to showing up with an HP pre-built, or maybe even an iMac, although I suspect you'd run into more hostility if it were indeed an iMac.

    So as the author already stated, it does take a lot of the fun away from building your own computer if you are someone who likes to attend LAN parties.
    Reply
  • the_one111
    platypusor maybe even an iMac, although I suspect you'd run into more hostility if it were indeed an iMac.Meaning they'd all team up on you during COD4 and then proceed to start uploading malware to the said iMac.

    At least, that's what I think would happen.


    But yeah, half the fun does seem to be from custom cases, which is kewl. It's like video-games and looking at cars all at oncce, you get to frag some people then drool over that sexy piece of metal you oh-so desire.
    Reply
  • scook9
    "On top of the upgrades, the hefty price tag will also score you a Fatal1ty edition Creative soundcard and a Killer M1 network card."

    If the referred to upgrades include the 2x GTX295, where exactly does one place these other 2 cards....curious since I have a Rampage II Gene and love it but can't do SLI on dual slot cards AND have my PhysX PCI card as well.
    Reply
  • dconnors
    scook9"On top of the upgrades, the hefty price tag will also score you a Fatal1ty edition Creative soundcard and a Killer M1 network card."If the referred to upgrades include the 2x GTX295, where exactly does one place these other 2 cards....curious since I have a Rampage II Gene and love it but can't do SLI on dual slot cards AND have my PhysX PCI card as well.
    Thanks for bringing that up! I went through the motions on the iBuyPower PC builder, and it never stopped me from adding the sound and network cards after adding the GPUs. You're absolutely right - two video cards means no other add-in cards.

    -Devin
    Reply
  • IronRyan21
    comes with 9500 gt? they can do better!
    Reply
  • Shadow703793
    all powered by a generic 600W power supply.
    That could be a problem when upgrading GPU.

    Also heat is going to be a problem.
    Reply
  • avericia
    "A paltry $4,478 will nab you an Core i7 965 Extreme Edition, 12 GB of Corsair DDR3-1600, two Nvidia GTX 295 video cards
    in SLI, dual 300 GB Velociraptor drives, a Blu-ray burner, and a 1000W power supply."

    These stats make me droooooool, i would build it from newegg with and oc i7 920 for half the price but still :P
    Reply
  • avericia"A paltry $4,478 will nab you an Core i7 965 Extreme Edition, 12 GB of Corsair DDR3-1600, two Nvidia GTX 295 video cardsin SLI, dual 300 GB Velociraptor drives, a Blu-ray burner, and a 1000W power supply."These stats make me droooooool, i would build it from newegg with and oc i7 920 for half the price but still
    Intel Extreme Edition CPUs are an extreme waste of money.
    Reply
  • RONNCALIF
    Paltry $4478...... Thants the system I have, I7 920, SLI 295, SSD drive, and two 1TB hard drives in raid zero.
    Reply