When considering purchasing a new system, you must ponder several factors, including of course, the price-to-performance ratio. The Cyberpower is significantly less expensive than the ALX, but the Cyberpower is also only a nominal number of fps slower than the ALX in UT2004 and Half Life 2. But there is no doubt that the ALX posts better scores across the board - due entirely to over-clocking.

If Cyberpower decided to start overclocking this system, the gap in benchmark results would rapidly close. However, that leads back to the other issue of overheating. Would this system, with the same tiny radiator, run without failing? Well, that is another question for an entirely different day, but it is one you might want to consider if you were trying to save a buck while packing a punch with the Cyberpower.

The real question is how much are you willing to spend? How much do you worry about the neatness and care that went into building your system? These are all entirely personal questions. But when we look upon our test bench, we see our humble test system posted some very respectable numbers, too. You make the choice.