CyberPower Gamer Infinity 9900 Professional

If you want to keep your cool during a major frag fest, the CyberPower Gamer Infnity 9900 Pro's nine cooling fans may do the trick. Though the high-performance machine's 3.4-GHz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition CPU and ATI Radeon 9800XT 256MB graphics card certainly generate a lot of heat, they provide impressive results. Using 1GB of DDR400 SDRAM, the Gamer Infinity 9900 Pro delivered a speedy 135 in our PC WorldBench 4 tests, strong enough for most power-intensive tasks. Also, the 9900 Pro turned in some of the fastest scores we've seen in our graphics tests: In Return to Castle Wolfenstein at 1280 by 1024 resolution and 32-bit color, it produced 137 frames per second. With scores like that, the 9900 Pro would indeed be an excellent gaming machine.

The 9900 Pro's nine fans, enhanced by blue lights, generate a lot of noise, but they do keep the system cool. The PC includes three dials--two on the front and one on the back--that allow you to control fan noise and temperature. Two gauges in the front indicate hard-drive and CPU temperature. The left side of the PC is clear and sports a laser-cut CyberPower logo and one blue-lighted fan. You get six USB 2.0 ports (two in front) and two FireWire ports (one in the back). Two 120GB hard disk drives in a RAID 0 configuration should offer faster disk access and performance. With our test model, the high-quality ViewSonic VG800 18-inch LCD monitor produced bright images and fine text.

A large tower usually allows you to access the interior easily for upgrades, and the 9900 Pro is no exception. You can open the case without a screwdriver--you just remove two thumbscrews in the back of the case. You'll find 12 total bays; in our test system, four front-panel bays and three internal ones were open for extra optical and hard drives.

Our test unit came with a unique keyboard, the Ideazon Zboard Crossfire. You can swap the standard QWERTY keys--simply remove a clip on the right side--with a set of gaming-optimized keys bearing labels such as Run, Walk, and Reload. Other keys are customizable.

Audiophiles will appreciate the included Creative Inspire T7700 7.1 speaker system. While a typical surround system includes five speakers (one center, two front, and two rear), this set adds two more to the sides for even greater enveloping sound. Sadly, few DVDs or games take advantage of this setup.

Upshot: The Gamer Infinity 9900 Pro's terrific graphics performance and loads of expansion options should appeal to power users and gamers.

Roy Santos