April 23, 2009
Rich Brown

AVADirect Custom Gaming PC Review - CNET Desktops Reviews

A dirty secret of gaming PC reviews is that vendors frequently try to submit systems with aggressive overclocking that they won't actually sell because of poor reliability, but that will last long enough to score well on our benchmarks. Imagine our skepticism when this $2,900 AVADirect Custom Gaming PC showed up with a 2.66GHz Intel Core i7 920 chip overclocked to 3.88GHz, a roughly 50 percent boost. After hammering this system with our benchmarks as well as an added demanding stress test, we came away impressed. We don't suspect every system from AVADirect with a Core i7 920 chip will hit this clock setting, but we're confident that if you do order a system with these specifications from AVADirect, you'll get a fast, expertly built gaming PC for a great price.

CONFIGURATION

Hyper 212 EVO, 159mm Height, 150W TDP, Copper/Aluminum CPU Cooler
CPU Cooler
COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO, 159mm Height, 150W TDP, Copper/Aluminum CPU Cooler
Mild Overclocking, 5% or higher Performance Increase
Overclocking
Mild Overclocking, 5% or higher Performance Increase
1TB Barracuda ST1000DM003, 7200 RPM, SATA 6Gb/s, 64MB cache, 3.5-Inch HDD
Storage Drive
SEAGATE 1TB Barracuda ST1000DM003, 7200 RPM, SATA 6Gb/s, 64MB cache, 3.5-Inch HDD
Standard Wiring with Precision Cable Routing and Tie-Down
Wire Management Solution
Standard Wiring with Precision Cable Routing and Tie-Down
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM w/ Media
Operating System
MICROSOFT Windows 7 Professional 64-bit Edition w/ SP1, OEM w/ Media