iBuypower's $5,500 Ultra Gaming System

The Inside

The case is spacious, and can house either an ATX or BTX configuration, with the back panel changed out as appropriate. For this system iBuyPower used the Asus Striker Extreme i680 motherboard and the ATX plate.

iBuyPower could have bundled the power connections to the graphics cards and a few loose connectors better, but overall it was clean inside. The system uses two reference GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cards. We say "reference" because they are not for public consumption - these cards are internal builds with an internal BIOS. They ran fine in the tests but with some limitations that we will discuss later.

The Thermaltake Armor chassis has a lot of space for 3.5" and 5.25" devices. There is even a removable cage for 3 additional hard drives at the top of the case. The power supply is mounted on its side, which makes it possible to mount a bracket for the additional drives.