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Battle Of The Boutique Behemoths: iBuyPower Vs. Maingear PC
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1. Less Work, More Play

Most enthusiasts prefer to build things on their own boxes, but the time involved can often be excessive, especially when overclocking and stability tests are (necessary) parts of the plan. If you’d rather spend your leisure time doing anything but banging your head against the desk (and don't mind paying a bit extra for that luxury), a boutique builder might be the best way to get exactly what you’re looking for in a PC. But whom should you choose?

Two leaders in configuration options, iBuyPower and Maingear PC, designed a pair of $4,200 systems specifically to meet high-end performance demands in gaming and general multi-tasking. Comparing these should answer some questions about which company provides the best build quality and/or value.

Custom-Built PC Specifications
System
iBuyPower Paladin

Maingear PC EPHEX

CPU

Intel Core i7 965 (3.20 GHz, 8.0 MB Cache)
Overclocked to 3.73 GHz (28x 133.3)

Intel Core i7 920 (2.66 GHz, 8.0 MB Cache)
Overclocked to 3.80 GHz (19x 200)

CPU Cooler

Asetek Low Cost Liquid Cooling (LCLC)
2x 120 mm Dual-Fan Radiator

Maingear Arctic X20 by CoolIT Systems
2x 120 mm Dual-Fan Radiator

Motherboard

Asus P6T Deluxe V2
Intel X58/ICH10R Chipset, LGA-1366

Asus P6T
Intel X58/ICH10R Chipset, LGA-1366

RAM

Corsair 6.0 GB
DDR3-1600 CAS 9-9-9-24 (2T)

Kingston 6.0 GB
DDR3-1600 CAS 8-8-8-20 (1T)

Graphics

2x XFX GeForce GTX 295 1.8 GB SLI
576/1,242MHz GPU/Shader, GDDR3-2484

3x EVGA GeForce GTX 285 1.0 GB, SLI
648/1,476MHz GPU/Shader, GDDR3-2484

System Hard Drive

Intel X25-M 80GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s SSD

Intel X25-M 80GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s SSD

Storage Hard Drive

Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B 1.0 TB
7,200 RPM, 16 MB Cache, SATA 3.0 Gb/s

Western Digital Caviar Black 1.0 TB
7,200 RPM, 32 MB Cache SATA 3.0 Gb/s

Sound

Integrated HD Audio

Integrated HD Audio

Network

Integrated Gigabit Networking

Integrated Gigabit Networking

Power

Corsair CMPSU-1000HX 1,000 W Modular
ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91, 80-Plus

Silverstone DA1000 1,000 W Modular
ATX 12V 2.2 / EPS 12V, Active PFC

Optical

LG GH22NP20 22X DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW
Panasonic SW-5584 2x BD-RE, 8x BD-R

Lite-On iHAS422-08 22X DVD±R, 8X DVD±RW

Removable

12-In-1 Internal Flash Card Reader/Writer

All-In-One USB 2.0 Flash Card Reader/Writer

Software

OS

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1

Windows Vista Home Premium x64 SP1

Productivity

None

None

Games

FarCry 2, Halo 2

None

Warranty and Price

Warranty Period

3-Year Warranty

14-months (3-year option add $199.99)

(Ed.: After this story was published, Maingear changed its warranty period to three years, standard, at no extra cost)

Price

$4,368 ($4,209 w/o Keyboard, Mouse, BRD)

$4,205 ($4,405 with 3-year Warranty)


iBuyPower skewed the price comparison a bit by including a keyboard, mouse, and BRD compared to Maingear system, but none of these will affect benchmark performance. Ignoring those parts puts these systems within $10 of each other, making the head-to-head extremely well-balanced.

2. iBuyPower Paladin

While the company has many cases from which to choose, the system we received used the mid-quality steel Cooler Master HAF-932 case. Sure to be a hit with many gamers, the image stands in stark contrast to iBuyPower's competitor.

Asus’ P6T Deluxe V2 offers wide slot spacing for better ventilation of two GeForce GTX 295 graphics units. Less expensive options include the standard P6T, which supports three-way configurations with less-effective cooling.

iBuyPower also selected the same Corsair CMPSU-1000HX power unit that we would have picked for these graphics cards, even though it’s not on Nvidia’s very limited certification list.

CPU cooling comes from an Asetek LCLC (Low-Cost Liquid Cooling) maintenance-free system with a dual 120 mm fan radiator. Liquid cooling the CPU normally comes at the cost of increased VRM temperatures, so iBuyPower uses Asus’ VRM fan to supplement the case’s enormous 230 mm side-panel intake.

Decreased load times are courtesy of Intel’s X25-M 80 GB solid-state drive, while mass-storage is made more massive by adding a Hitachi 7K1000.B 1.0 TB hard drive. A lighted 230 mm fan blows across up to five drives in the HAF-932 cage.

The X25-M doesn’t show up on iBuyPower’s short configuration list, but clicking “edit configuration” prior to placing an order reveals additional options.

The standard drive iBuyPower includes with every system is a 22X Ultra ATA DVD burner. Using it requires that you leave an onboard controller enabled that most performance fanatics would prefer to disable. And then there’s the old-fashioned ribbon cable that is certain to earn the customer “a ribbing” at his or her next LAN party.

iBuyPower included a keyboard and mouse with our configuration, but we need to disregard these (along with the Blu-ray disk burner) to make its price comparable to the competing unit. The game Halo 2 is included free with Windows Vista, while FarCry 2 came with one of the graphics cards. Other accessories include two DVI-to-VGA adapters, a power cable, and Corsair’s modular cable pack.

3. Maingear PC EPHEX

Maingear selected the Silverstone TJ10 ATX tower to represent its brand, with a more refined look that typically suits mature aesthetic tastes. Maingear offers fewer case styles than its competitor, all of which are semi-monolithic, but adds a wider variety of custom finish options. Windowed enclosures are also offered as a $99 option that includes internal lighting.

Behind the TJ10 case’s extruded aluminum door are a single DVD burner and a multi-format flash card drive. Spring-loaded hinge pins allow the door to swing from either side.

Inside we find a somewhat surprising selection of components, beginning with an Asus P6T motherboard that supports 3-way SLI (but with only four PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 pathways on the third x16 slot). Maingear configures the system with a 3-way configuration of GeForce GTX 285 graphics cards, despite the reduced-bandwidth slot.

Another unusual choice is Silverstone’s DA1000 modular power supply, which is a unit we’ve been avoiding for supposed problems with its shared-connector PCIe leads. The GeForce GTX 285 is far more efficient than the card we’d previously considered for use with the DA1000, so Maingear's choice could be one we’ve simply overlooked.

Maingear's maintenance-free CPU cooler is custom produced by CoolIT Systems and shares several similar components with its Domino ALC (but has a larger radiator and no fancy LCD-equipped pump cover).

If Maingear is guilty of anything, it’s borderline overly-aggressive cable management. The DA1000 power supply’s spare cables are zipped together tightly (not a bad thing). And inside the case, the company used higher-quality latching SATA cables, even though the motherboard connectors don’t support the latches. Thus, the higher-quality cables don’t snap into the sockets as well as those supplied with the motherboard. Cable management putting form before function results in the optical drive cable getting pulled out of its socket during shipping, and the use of latching cables in an unlatched socket increases the likelihood of it popping out again.

Maingear supplies all its software and documentation in a custom-printed file folder. The EVGA graphics cards did not include free games, but at least we weren’t left wondering what happened to any second or third copies of those games.

4. Test Settings

Reducing the component list to benchmarked parts shows that the biggest difference between systems is the choice of 3-way GTX 285 or two-way GTX 295 SLI configurations.

However, both companies also offer the competitor’s graphics and motherboard configuration as an option, and everyone expects four GTX 275 graphics processors (two go into each dual-GPU GeForce GTX 295) to beat three GTX 285s. Is this even a fair fight?

Test System Configuration

 

iBuyPower Paladin

Maingear PC EPHEX

CPU

Intel Core i7 965 (3.20 GHz, 8.0 MB Cache)
Overclocked to 3.73 GHz (28x 133.3)

Intel Core i7 920 (2.66 GHz, 8.0 MB Cache)
Overclocked to 3.80 GHz (19x 200)

Motherboard

Asus P6T Deluxe V2
Intel X58/ICH10R Chipset, LGA-1366

Asus P6T
Intel X58/ICH10R Chipset, LGA-1366

RAM

Corsair 6.0 GB
DDR3-1600 CAS 9-9-9-24 (2T)

Kingston 6.0 GB
DDR3-1600 CAS 8-8-8-20 (1T)

Graphics

2x XFX GeForce GTX 295 1.8 GB SLI
576 MHz/1,242 MHz GPU/Shader, GDDR3-2484

3x EVGA GeForce GTX 285 1.0 GB, SLI
648 MHz/1,476 MHz GPU/Shader, GDDR3-2484

Test Hard Drive

Intel X25-M 80 GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s SSD

Intel X25-M 80 GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s SSD

Sound

Integrated HD Audio

Integrated HD Audio

Network

Integrated Gigabit Networking

Integrated Gigabit Networking

Software

OS

Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1

Windows Vista Home Premium x64 SP1

Graphics

Nvidia GeForce 182.50

Nvidia GeForce 182.08

Chipset

Intel INF 9.1.0.1007

Intel INF 9.1.0.1007


iBuyPower also used a far more expensive processor, but its slightly lower overclock could tip the performance scale towards Maingear’s less-expensive part.

Benchmark Configuration

3D Games

Call of Duty: World at War

Patch 1.1, FRAPS/saved game
High Textures, No AA / No AF, vsync off
Ultra Textures, 4x AA / Max AF, vsync off

Crysis

Patch 1.2.1, DirectX 10, 64-bit executable, benchmark tool
Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA
Test Set 2: Very High Quality, 8x AA

Far Cry 2

DirectX 10, Steam Version, in-game benchmark
Test Set 1: High Quality, No AA
Test Set 2: Ultra High Quality, 8x AA

World in Conflict

Patch 1009, DirectX 10, timedemo
Test 1: High Details, No AA / No AF
Test 2: Very HighDetails 4x AA / 16x AF

Audio/Video Encoding

iTunes 8

Version: 8.1.0.52 (x64)
Audio CD ("Terminator II SE"), 53 min
Default format AAC

Lame MP3

Version: 3.98 64bits (07-04-2008)
Audio CD "Terminator II SE," 53 min
wave to MP3

TMPGEnc 4.6

Version: 4.6.3.268
Import File: Terminator 2 SE DVD (5 Minutes)
Resolution: 720x576 (PAL) 16:9

DivX 6.8.5

Encoding mode: Insane Quality
Enhanced multithreading enabled using SSE4
Quarter-pixel search

Xvid 1.2.1

Display encoding status = off

Mainconcept Reference 1.6

MPEG2 to MPEG2 (H.264), MainConcept H.264/AVC Codec, 28 sec HDTV 1920x1080 (MPEG2), Audio: MPEG2 (44.1 KHz, 2 Channel, 16-Bit, 224 Kb/s), Mode: PAL (25 FPS)

Productivity

Autodesk 3ds Max 2009

Version: 11.0, Rendering Dragon Image at 1920x1080 (HDTV)

Grisoft AVG Anti-Virus 8

Version: 8.0.134, Virus base: 270.4.5/1533, Benchmark: Scan 334 MB Folder of ZIP/RAR compressed files

WinRAR 3.80

Version 3.80, WinZIP Commandline Version 3.0, Compression = Best, Dictionary = 4,096 KB, Benchmark: THG-Workload (334 MB)

WinZip 12

Version 12.0, Compression = Best, Benchmark: THG-Workload (139 MB)

Sythetic Benchmarks and Settings

3DMark Vantage

Version: 1.02, GPU and CPU scores

PCMark Vantage

Version: 1.00, System, Memory, Hard Disk Drive benchmarks, Windows Media Player 10.00.00.3646

SiSoftware Sandra

Version 2008.5.14.24, CPU Test = CPU Arithmetic / Multimedia, Memory Test = Bandwidth Benchmark

5. Benchmark Results: 3D Games

Maingear breaks out of the gate with a big lead at lower resolutions for Call of Duty: World at War. However, the four-GPU configuration of iBuyPower’s dual GeForce GTX 295 graphics units powers through the tougher 2560x1600 tests. All of the results exceed monitor refresh rates, so gamers shouldn’t be able to see the difference with vsync enabled. Also notice that Maingear appears CPU-limited at low and medium resolutions, while iBuyPower's apparent CPU performance cap scales to the highest resolution.

At high details and without anti-aliasing (AA), iBuyPower’s GeForce GTX 295 configuration pushes more frames at the higher resolution while Maingear once again takes the lead at lower settings.

Even the most recent drivers are unable to resolve the long-standing performance problem of Quad SLI at 2560x1600 and 8x AA.

It’s a bad day for iBuyPower when 8x AA is enabled in FarCry 2. The 3-way GeForce GTX 285 graphics of Maingear’s system are still playable at the highest resolution and settings.

World in Conflict favors the Maingear PC, but we’re not certain this is a graphics limitation, as Maingear’s slightly higher CPU overclock appears similar to the performance difference.

6. Benchmark Results: Applications

Apple iTunes usually shows itself heavily biased toward CPU clock speed, yet it didn’t favor Maingear’s higher overclock.

Lame MP3 encoding reveals the expected performance difference for two differently-clocked processors.

TMPGEnc and Mainconcept again favor maingear’s higher CPU speed.

3ds Max 2009 proves no exception with the faster processor for faster rendering times.

AVG virus scan put the ball back in iBuyPower’s court, even with its slightly slower CPU clock, relaxed memory timings, and identical hard drive.

WinRAR and WinZip finish the overclocking proof-of-concept by favoring Maingear.

7. Benchmark Results: Applications

3DMark Vantage loves the extra GPU power of iBuyPower's GeForce GTX 295 pair.

PCMark Vantage gives iBuyPower the nod in hard drive performance, even though both systems used the same drive and chipset drivers.

Sandra prefers Maingear’s higher CPU speed and better memory timings.

8. Power and Efficiency

iBuyPower gets four GPUs of graphics power through two physical cards, while Maingear’s three graphics processors are divided across three boards. Which system consumes more power?

Under a simulated full GPU load, Maingear's system consumes 16% more power than iBuyPower's system does. Higher idle power leads to iBuyPower’s 4% higher wattage under the CPU load of eight Prime95 x64 threads.

Maingear’s 14% overall performance advantage in games falls short of its 16% greater energy use for a 2% lower efficiency rating. Also remember that many of Maingear’s wins came at lower resolutions that $4,200 system buyers won’t want to use.

Maingear’s approximate 2% performance lead in encoding and productivity puts its efficiency well above iBuyPower in non-gaming applications.

9. Editor's Note: Keeping The Industry Honest

System reviews are tricky business. Right from the get-go, when a builder knows they're going to be evaluated, they put on their Sunday best. It's good business, and exactly what I'd do given the same situation. But you can't wear your Sunday best every day of the week.

That's why I'm a fan of ordering systems blindly, as a customer would, and starting the review from the order process. Unfortunately, it's an expensive proposition, and not as easily executed as it might sound. I've spent time talking to Jason Wall, the former managing editor at H|OCP's consumer division about his experiences with that technique. I've watched Chris Morley (another former H|OCP guy) and CNET's Rich Brown, both knowledgeable guys intent on "getting it right," go back and forth on Facebook about the system review process (leading to this blog post). And now I find that Tom's Hardware is faced with its own little system review conundrum. 

As part of its enthusiast allure, Maingear offers a service called "Redline," where the company overclocks your base configuration to a "safe" spot determined by a number of different stress tests (what it uses isn't mentioned on the Web site; we'd like to see Maingear add that information), but does include Prime95 and Memtest runs. No matter, the build is covered by a 14 month warranty, so if it turned out that there was a stability issue, it's at least reassuring to know that the tuned hardware is protected. A longer "standard" warranty would actually be preferred, but Thomas will get into that in his conclusion. A 3.8 GHz overclock on a Core i7 920 is fairly reasonable though, and I'm overall comfortable that the system shipped by Maingear is representative of a for-sale configuration. The only criteria we can't evaluate, given the fact Maingear knew we were going to review their rig, is the support process a customer would have to endure in the event of an issue.

On the other hand, the iBuyPower Paladin, with its Core i7 965 Extreme processor, is only offered at the stock 3.2 GHz on the company's Web site. Nowhere is the option to have iBuyPower overclock the machine. Thus, the configuration that was shipped, running at 3.73 GHz, represents an aftermarket overclock. Now, I'm fine with running the 965 Extreme at 3.73 GHz. It's not a particularly taxing setting, and any power user worth his salt should be able to bump the chip's multiplier to 28x. But that doesn't change the fact you can't buy this system as shipped/as tested. 

Let's go a step farther here. Take condition two from the company's warranty:

  • This warranty covers only normal use of the computer. iBuyPower shall not be liable under this warranty if any damage or defect results from (i) misuse, abuse, neglect, improper shipping or installation; (ii) disasters such as fire, flood, lightning or improper electric current; or (iii) service or alteration by anyone other than an authorized iBuyPower representative.

We expressed our concern to iBuyPower, which let us know that overclocking will not necessarily void the Paladin's warranty. Rather, "damage caused by improper overclocking settings, or caused by failure to ensure proper cooling requirements during overclocking, may void the warranty.” This is still a little grey to us, as it gives iBuyPower the last word on whether or not you're covered.

As you saw, we let the benchmark numbers stand, since iBuyPower was still outperformed by Maingear and this indiscretion was caught just before going to press. While we'd certainly rather spend our time evaluating the build quality, makeup, and performance of custom machines, future system stories will undoubtedly devote more text to validating the legitimacy of submitted configurations in the interest of keeping the system builder industry more honest.

10. Conclusion

Maingear won today’s performance shootout with its meticulously-crafted and tuned creation, averaging 6% better performance than the similarly-priced system from iBuyPower sporting an unsanctioned overclock.

iBuyPower, on the other hand, included a more expensive motherboard and processor. But rather than tweak its system’s overclocking capability to the max, its builders instead settled for increasing CPU multipliers, while leaving nearly everything else at BIOS defaults. In other words, Maingear put more effort into its system, and that’s something buyers of ultra-expensive equipment should be able to appreciate.

But both companies offer many of the same parts. We were curious to see what would happen if we configured the iBuyPower PC with Maingear’s motherboard, processor, graphics, and lack of Blu-ray disk burner. So, we plugged these options into iBuyPower’s Web site and found that we could have saved over $1,000 by selecting the less detail-oriented build. That difference is hard to justify simply by looking at Maingear’s high-end case, which isn’t available from iBuyPower.

Another problem is that getting Maingear performance from an iBuyPower PC will cost the buyer time, since iBuyPower doesn’t optimize system tuning (and doing so on your own is not explicitly covered under the company's warranty). If you’re willing to spend time tuning a system to save $1,000, you’ve probably already built your own.

It’s easy for us to recommend Maingear to anyone who wants the fastest possible system and is willing to pay for it, but iBuyPower appears to be a better-value company for less discriminating buyers who simply don’t want to handle the components themselves. iBuyPower’s value is further enhanced with a three-year warranty period that Maingear buyers must purchase as a $200 option (Ed.: be aware that this pro evaporates if you tune the system yourself).

Note to Maingear: buyers at this market level are often willing to pay more for higher-level craftsmanship, but out-of-pocket warranty options diminish the purchase experience. The extra coverage is expected, should be representative of build-quality, and should reflect confidence that the overclocked settings you've chosen still offer longevity (Ed.: After this review was published, Maingear changed its warranty period to three years, standard, at no additional cost).