iBuypower Chimera AM3 SE

Review
Reviewed by: Bill O’Brien
Review Date: August 2009




ComputerShopper-In the world of PC enclosures, black has become the new beige. It’s getting increasingly difficult to distinguish one somber desktop-PC box from another—unless, of course, you’re a company like iBuypower. It has packaged its Chimera AM3 gaming PC in a black NZXT Guardian 921 case, featuring slits and slots to allow blue light to seep out from the inside. Furthermore, it has redubbed the case "Guardian Inferno," after applying enough yellow and orange flames to make a 1950s hot rodder green with envy. And those flames, though perhaps a cliché, are no exaggeration. This is one hot gaming system.



The right-opening cover might be a problem if you position your PC to your left. Likewise, the "front-mounted" ports are actually side-mounted and will be tricky to reach.


The base model in the Chimera series starts life at $999; our test version (dubbed the "Chimera AM3 SE") tipped the scales at $400 more: $1,399. The added dollars brought us a 3.2GHz AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition processor with an Asetek liquid cooling system on a Gigabyte GA-MA790XT-UD4P motherboard. (That’s well above the base model's Phenom II X4 910 chip and its air-cooled heatsink.) Though 4GB of Corsair DDR3 memory comes standard-issue on both models, our test unit came with faster 1,600MHz memory, as opposed to the 1,333MHz variety in the base model. We also got a 50-watt bump up from the base 700-watt power supply, plus an upgrade from a 500GB hard drive to a 1TB drive. The real power upgrade, however, was the substitution of the standard 512MB video card (an ATI Radeon HD 4870) for a pair of 1GB Radeon HD 4890 cards configured in a CrossFireX dual-card arrangement. (For reference, you can read a review of a recent graphics card we tested based on the Radeon HD 4890 graphics processor, the Asus EAH4890.)

Sounds like a potent gaming platform? It sure is. While the Chimera’s 64-bit PCMark Vantage score (6,788) wasn’t quite up to the 7,200 mark set by the super-value Gateway FX6801-03 we recently tested, it's still among the top performers we've seen on that test, period. (The PCMark Vantage test measures general PC-application performance.) Another interesting set of results: On our 3DMark Vantage test, which measures 3D-graphics performance, the Chimera rang up an impressive score of 13,965 at 1,280x1,024 resolution, but the numbers that really amazed us were its scores running at 1,680x1,050 (10,885) and 1,920x1,200 (8,234). Those numbers are simply exceptional for a system in this price range.

In our real-world gaming tests, the Chimera proved itself more than able. In our testing with the game Company of Heroes, the Chimera consistently scored above 50 frames per second (fps), even at a sky-high screen resolution of 2,560x1,600. That’s a rarity since the advent of DirectX 10. It also posted scores in excess of 50fps, under both DirectX 9 and 10 and at all tested resolutions, in our tests with the much more recent (and demanding) game Far Cry 2. Considering that we tested Far Cry 2 at resolutions all the way up to 2,560x1,600, you'll have to try pretty hard (with the help of a very big monitor) make the Chimera break a sweat with most recent games.


The Chimera packs a full complement of FireWire and USB ports on its back panel.


Clearly, this Chimera has gaming well in hand for most mainstream gamers. It's also well-equipped for entertainment use. A 22x DVD burner comes in the base model, but iBuypower bumped our test unit's optical drive up to an LG GGC-H20L Super-Multi Blu-ray Drive that reads both Blu-ray and (now-obsolete) HD DVD discs, and writes to everything else. Officially, LG Electronics lists this particular drive as discontinued, but iBuypower assured us that it has a quantity on hand. Regardless, several Blu-ray-reader alternatives (as well as pricier Blu-ray burners) are available via iBuypower's Web-site configurator. None, however, is a Blu-ray/HD DVD combo unit like this one.

Naturally, the Blu-ray experience would be diminished without quality audio to back it up. To handle that, the motherboard supports eight-channel audio through both analog and the usual digital connections. (iBuypower can supply you with an HD-capable LCD monitor and a multichannel speaker set to complete the package, but neither came standard with our test unit.) The Chimera also has a 12-format card reader, so you can easily transfer your digital-camera photos onto the system (or do quick offline backups to flash cards, now that their prices have plummeted).

As tested (and even in its $999 base configuration, for that matter), the Chimera AM3 is a well-stocked system. If you think you'll need to augment the hardware down the line, though, you certainly can. You'll find room inside for three more front-facing drives (via two 5.25-inch bays and one 3.5-inch bay), as well as an additional internal hard drive. No internal card expansion is possible, though, due to the wide loads of the two Radeon HD 4890 graphics cards. Two memory sockets are open, and, in total, the motherboard supports up to 16GB of DDR3. Also, between what you’ll find on the side of the front panel and the rear of the case, you have 10 USB ports, three FireWire ports, and a pair of external Serial ATA (eSATA) ports for external expansion. That mix should cover most reasonable eventualities.



iBuypower has done a clean build inside the Chimera. Slot access is nil due to the dual graphics cards, but drive-bay and memory-socket expansion is available.



But wait—we did find one flaw! Most computer cases we've seen that sport front doors open from right to left. (That’s because most of us park our PCs on the left side of our desks.) The Guardian Inferno case bucks the trend by opening from left to right. Also, the front-panel ports are distributed along the left edge of the front panel, not on the front face itself. If you do typically stash your PC on your left, those ports will be out of sight and a bit tricky to access.

We can’t attest that the Chimera AM3 SE is an utterly extreme gaming platform—it’s not quite that. But for most mainstream and moderately serious gamers who aren't blasting away at stratospheric resolutions on a 30-inch monitor, it will do the job very nicely at a price nowhere near that of yesterday's $4,000 megasystems. And if you think of this PC in terms of iBuypower’s now-almost-unheard-of warranty (the company covers the system for three full years), it’s one of the best all-around desktops you’re likely to find for $466 per annum.
Price (at time of review): $1,399 (direct, as tested)

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Pros
Superb gaming performance for the price; more-than-ample external expansion; three-year warrantyKey Specs
Processor: 3.2GHz AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition
Memory: 4GB DDR3
Storage: 1TB hard drive
Optical Drive: Blu-ray/HD DVD reader/DVD±RW burner combo
Monitor: None
Graphics: Two ATI Radeon HD 4890 cards (1GB each, CrossFireX)
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)


Cons
No PCI Express- or PCI-slot expansion possible; awkward to access side-mounted ports

Editors' Take
The Chimera’s case may be sheer eye candy, but its gaming performance lives up to the flames. All but the most extreme gamers will find superior value in this PC.