CyberPower Gamer Ultra XLC

The Gamer Ultra XLC's black aluminum case projects an attractively lean and clean appearance, and has a sturdy feel. Behind the thick aluminum door that covers the front of the case we found three 5.25-inch drive bays that hold a dual-layer DVD+/-RW drive, a DVD-ROM drive, and, in the top bay three glowing blue analog dials that look as though they belong on the dash of an old British sports car. The dials display the current fan voltage, the decibel level produced by the sound card, and the case temperature--very retro, very cool.

I found two minor annoyances: The two USB 2.0 ports, FireWire port, and headphone and microphone jacks usually found on the front of a case are located under a small door on the case's top, limiting its usefulness as a shelf for an external device. The power switch sits on the top of the case, too; and I accidentally bumped it twice, causing unwanted shutdowns.

The system's full complement of I\O ports includes four USB 2.0 ports, an external SATA port, analog audio ports to support 7.1-channel surround sound, coaxial and optical digital audio-out ports, and two ethernet ports. The first-rate Microsoft keyboard has great key action, multimedia controls, and nine programmable buttons.

The roomy case and neatly bundled cables permit easy access to the two open RAM sockets, one open PCI Express X1 slot, one open externally accessible drive bay, and one open internal hard drive bay; but removing the installed hard drives means removing at least one graphics card. Access to two PCI slots is impeded by the two SLI graphics cards.

Upshot: This full-featured, very fast PC will appeal to gamers looking for superlative performance at relatively low price.

Kirk Steers