ABOUT BENCH FORUMS PODCAST LOGIN REGISTER
PC Components
Smartphones & tablets
Systems
ENTERPRISE & IT
GUIDES

System Review – PC-Club Silencer

 by Jarred Walton on March 28, 2005 12:05 AM EST
22 Comments | Add A Comment
22 Comments

Gaming Performance

Gaming performance will be interesting on the Pentium M. The large L2 cache helps out quite a bit. Although, we expect the 3800+ to still win by a decent margin.

Doom 3 Performance

Doom 3 Performance

Half-life 2 Performance

Half-Life 2 Performance

Half-life 2 Performance

Half-life 2 Performance

3DMark 2003

3DMark 2003

With the 6800GT, the Silencer tends to outperform the SN25P by a small amount in Doom 3, and the gap becomes a gulf when we enable 4xAA. This is typical of Doom 3, of course. While Doom 3 is more GPU limited, Half-Life 2 is clearly running into a CPU limitation. The City 17 map in particular hammers the CPU, and the SN25P comes out ahead by as much as 35%. In all of the tests, the use of CL2 RAM had a very minor impact on performance – around 3%, and sometimes even less. At present, then, there's not much reason to fault PC-Club's decision to use cheaper CL2.5 RAM.

We threw in 3DMark03 scores just for fun. We use 3DMark03 in a looping mode for our stress test, so we figured that we might as well give you the numbers. It's not a surprise that the 6800GT comes out faster than the X800Pro, particularly since it's running with the 6800Ultra clock speed on the GPU. What is interesting is that the CPU scores also show a large advantage with the 6800GT configuration. CPU benchmarks don't generally depend on the graphics card in our experience, which is why we don't put too much stock in the 3DMark results.

General Performance and Encoding Noise Levels
PRINT THIS ARTICLE
Comments Locked

22 Comments

View All Comments

  • WooDaddy - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    Geez, Jarod... You sound like you absolutely hated the system. I think there was a little bias there... Most people who buy a full-blown system aren't as picky. I do agree with the LCD alarm issue. I had the same athenatech case and it would drive me nutz especially with the fact that sometimes my CPU fan would shutdown and the temperature alarm would go off.

    Also, I agree with #10 about the build cost. $100 is nothing to guarantee you have a working system. Also, the tax issue is moot as you'll have to pay shipping charges separately since those component prices listed aren't all at the same vendor.

    I think you're doing a diservice to those who want a cool looking yet powerful system that isn't your typical Dell, Emachines system. They would be pretty satified with this.

    Admit it. The system is good and the price is great considering it's prebuilt and tested. ADMIT IT, DAMMIT!!!

  • LoneWolf15 - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    Off topic, but I love my Fuji FinePix S5000 and disagree with the reviewers' assessment. Also, for web images you can set to ISO 800 (limited to 1MP resolution) if you need it, however at 200 and 400 film speeds I've had no issues with the quality of my pictures.

  • michael2k - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    The conclusion was a tad baffling, regarding paying taxes.

    PC Club may charge you $175 in taxes, but if you bought the items yourself you can avoid paying $166 in taxes?

    Anyway, $100 for assembling and testing is actually quite low; considering it is less than taxes, it's roughly 5% of the total cost.

    On the other hand, you CAN get quieter and cheaper systems, if you are willing to trade off things here or there; perhaps a slower processor, in exchange for a better video card, or a smaller hard drive in exchange for a quieter one, etc.

  • EPAstor - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    I thought I should point out an inaccuracy - although quiet systems are generally not the focus of this site, 35dB for a fast system is far from unheard of, though it does take significant effort. Another review site, www.silentpcreview.com, focuses primarily on silence. Following some of the techniques there, it is certainly possible to achieve 35dB levels or lower, even while using a higher-end CPU such as an Athlon 64 and improving the cooling on the GPU.

  • JarredWalton - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    AtaStrumf - did you like my "camera mini review"? I even purchased a few halogen lamps to see if increased light would help with the graininess. It didn't help at all. :(

    I'm working on getting a new camera, but first I need to take care of taxes. (I'm one of the "lucky" ones that will be paying the gov't rather than getting a return.)

  • AtaStrumf - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    Jarred you REALLY need a new digital camera because the ones in this and your previous articles are of extremely appalling quality. I can't believe that it is even possible for a camera like that to produce such low quality images.

    May I suggest you go for a Canon A510. I have one and I think it offers great quality and unbeatable features for a surprisingly low price. A520 is NOT worth the extra $$$!

  • Avalon - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    In Soviet Russia, AGP 8x owns you!

  • JarredWalton - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    #4 - Right you are! And anyone that tries to convince you that AGP 8X is substantially faster than AGP 4X should take a look at these benchmarks. AGP 8X offers more theoretical bandwidth, but it's almost never used.

  • RadeonGuy - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    on the second page where it lists the specs
    shouldnt the AGP be 4x not 8x since its the 855g
    shipset

  • flatblastard - Monday, March 28, 2005 - link

    damn second posters... :)
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.
BENCH
TOPICS
FOLLOW
ABOUT

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now