Fall Extreme Gamer System Shootout Part 2: ABS M6

Specifications

The M6 is built around the AMD FX-57 on an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. With four sticks of 512 MB Corsair DDR PC3200XL, this is a foundation for today’s high-end systems. Because the system utilizes SLI, an Antec True 550w power supply was installed to ensure that sufficient power would be available at all times. And of course, no "real" gaming system would be complete without a high quality sound card : ABS includes a Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS.

ABS built our system in RAID-0 with 2x 74 GB Western Digital Raptors. For backup, there is a 7200rpm SATA Hitachi 400 GB drive. Let’s just say that storage is not an issue in this system.

Multiple media card slots are available on the front of the case for Compact Flash, Microdrive, SD, Smart Media and Memory Stick along with the floppy drive - all of which are running on USB2.0. Additionally, a DVD-ROM drive and a dual-layer DVD burner all in matching black from the case are included.

The memory set from ABS boot at 333 MHz instead of the 400 MHz it could start with. The RAID array had also been damaged during the shipping process. We contacted ABS support and were asked to leave a telephone number to be called back at. We rebuilt the array and used the disc with the restore image to fully repair the system. While waiting for our call back, we switched the system to 400 MHz to run all of our tests.