REVIEWS / DESKTOPS / CORSAIR MEMORY INC

Corsair Ultimate Dream PC

06 Aug, 2011, 12:36 pm IST | by Roydon Cerejo | Desktops

Desktops

Offers very good tactile feedback

Offers very good tactile feedback
Added cooling for the hard drives
ssdsa
A sweet looking setup
The BX5a is one of the best sounding monitor speakers in the market
Corsair Ultimate Dream PC
All that's missing are some LED lights
Good cable management for better airflow

PRICE IN INDIA

250,000

TECH2 RATING

6.5

AVERAGE USER RATING

6.0

How we test

CONTACT

Corsair Memory Inc

 indiaservice@corsair.com

 1800 425 5464

 corsair.com

With Alienware being the only OEM distributor in India for high-end gaming desktops, Corsair decided to join the party and grab some of the market share from Dell. Back in February, the company launched their ‘Dream PC’ lineup, which included two pre-built, top of the line gaming rigs. The sytems start from a lakh and go all the way up to 2.5 lakhs, which is the one we’ll be reviewing today. These systems are obviously not meant for the faint-hearted and are targeted at someone who doesn't follow a budget when building a rig. This initiative comes from Corsair and will be distributed through Aditya Infotech, Inspan Infotech and Tirupati Enterprises across India. Let’s see what the ‘Ultimate Dream’ PC looks like, shall we. 

What does 2.5 lakh get you?
Since this is Corsair’s little pet project, you’ll notice they’ve used every component they manufacture in the PC, apart from the things like the motherboard, graphics card, CPU, etc. Let’s start with the main rig itself and work our way to the peripherals, because there's quite a bit to cover.

Good cable management for better airflow

Good cable management for better airflow

 


Starting with the cabinet, we have Corsair’s very own 800D full-tower cabinet that’s massive, to say the least. It’s certainly not the best looking case, and I would have preferred something from their Graphite series, personally. The full steel cabinet has good build quality and the brushed aluminum front plate gives it a very understated, yet classy look. Corsair has chosen Intel’s Core i7 2600 CPU, which runs at 3.4GHz. This is not the ‘K’ variant, so the multiplier is locked down. The stock cooler is replaced by the Corsair H70 Hydro water cooler. The motherboard used is an Asus P8P67- Deluxe B3 Revision, which is based on the P67 chipset. The motherboard features the new UEFI BIOS along with other Asus goodness like DIGI+ VRM, EPU, TPU and the lot.

All that's missing are some LED lights

All that's missing are some LED lights

 


The graphics prowess comes in the form of three ZOTAC GTX 570s in 3-way SLI. Since, there was a little problem with one of the 570’s in our review unit, Corsair sent two GTX 580’s instead. For the RAM, we have 12GB Corsair Dominator GTs in a 3x 4GB configuration, along with a cooler. The memory is rated at 2000Mhz, but since Corsair has used three sticks, you lose dual-channel mode. Storage is taken care of by a 1TB WD SATA II hard drive, while a 120GB Corsair Force SSD acts as the boot drive. The optical drive is a Sony Blu-ray writer allowing you to playback 3D Blu-rays, as well as backup large amounts of data. All this is powered by a Corsair 1200AX power supply. Finally, we have Windows 7 Professional 64-bit as the OS of choice. The rig looks pretty solid and should have no trouble handling games for the next five years easy. But where’s there rest of your money going? Lets check out the peripherals Corsair has chosen.

ssdsa

3D performance is quite good

 


The monitor is a Samsung 2233RZ, which supports Nvidia 3DVision. This was one of the first monitors to feature Nvidia’s 3DVision and while it may not have the standard Full HD resolution we see today on all 22-inch panels, it’s actually better when gaming in 3D and you’ll soon see why. the TN panel used here is actually quite good and is very similar to the 2233SW, which was a big hit some years back. You also get the Nvidia 3DVision kit of course, to go with the monitor.

 

I particularly like the choice of speakers Corsair has chosen. The M-Audio BX5A Deluxe are active monitor speakers with a total of 140W RMS power. The speakers use a 5-inch Kevlar driver for low frequencies and a 1-inch driver for high frequencies. To get the best out of these speakers, Corsair has thrown in the Delta 1010LT sound card, as well.

Offers very good tactile feedback

Offers very good tactile feedback

 


The keyboard and mouse is taken care of by Razer. The BlackWidow mechanical keyboard offers really good tactile response, which is great for those frantic deathmatches. The mouse used is the Razer Naga, which is best suited for MMOs actually and I’m not sure if everyone will be comfortable having twelve buttons near their thumb. The final two accessories are the Corsair HS1 gaming headset and the Logitech Force 3D Pro gaming joystick. Next, let's have a look at what this bad boy can do.

Page 1:

Introduction and Components


Tags:

PC , Gaming , Corsair Memory Inc , Corsair Dream PC , Ultimate Dream PC , Obsidian 800D , H70 , Intel , Sandy Bridge , Core i7 2600 , Asus P8P67- Deluxe , UEFI , ZOTAC , GTX 570 , GTX 580 , SLI , 3-way SLI , SSD , Nvidia 3DVision , Nvidia , Razer , BlackWidow , M-Audio , BX5A Deluxe , Naga , Corsair HS1 , Logitech Force 3D , Delta 1010LT

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Features
The features component of the score is rated based on the kind of features present on a particular product. Features are a big part of what people look for when they’re buying a new product such as a phone or a camera.

Performance
The performance score is derived from the benchmarks and tests run on the product. In case of the subjective scores, an average of the scores given by the group of reviewers is considered.

Build Quality
The build quality of a product is important so that it doesn’t fall apart after some use. The build quality scores from the way the product is designed and the kind of materials used in the product.

Value
Value for money comes from the fact that a cheap product is able to provide most of the performance of a higher priced product. Once again, value for money is judged by comparing pricing and performance of products in a particular price range or category. 

There are many other aspects of the product that are looked at such as the bundled software and accessories. All of these scores are aggregated together to form the final score.

What do the ratings mean?

Ratings are simple - higher the score, the better the product. A brief listing of the features and what they mean are given below.

1 - 3

The product is bad in almost every aspect. We strongly advise against purchasing this product.

4 - 6

An average product that isn't the best you can buy, but isn't the worst either.

7 - 8

Product with this rating is highly recommended because it's priced sensibly, has a good set of features and performs well.

9 - 10

Exceptionally excellent product with features and performance unlike any we've seen in the past. A must-have for everyone!

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We at Tech2 take product reviewing very seriously and every product is tested with the utmost care and level of objectivity. The end user who buys a particular product and uses it over an extended period of time has his own take on a product and there might be nuances that he or she can shed light on. The Average User Rating is present to help readers get the complete picture of how good or bad a product is. The Average User Rating is calculated by averaging the ratings by the thousands of readers visiting Tech2.com every single day. To record your own rating of a product, simply click on the user rating bar. If you disagree with our ratings or our community's product rating, please don't hesitate from voicing your opinion in the comments section below the review.

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