Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First of all, the machine showed up on time which was nice. It was well packed with a sturdy box and the foam inside cradled the machine well. With such a fragile and expensive item, Microtel has their shipping down and it arrived safe and sound.
The reason I am giving this machine four stars instead of five is that the item was not totally true to it's description. When purchasing a machine for gaming, it is very important to know all of the specifications since it will eventually need to be upgraded.
The motherboard is a micro ATX (I believe BIOSTAR TA785G3) which fits nicely into the case, but with the two unit sized video card, there is only one PCI slot of the two PCI slots available for use. There is only one PCI express slot open, so don't plan on using crossfire or SLI. I had to decide weather my soundblaster sound card or my wireless card was more important, and the wireless card won since I need to be connected to the internet. The on-board sound is pretty good, so not a huge problem that I couldn't add the Soundblaster. The Phenom II x4 3.2 GHz CPU is a great processor. Intel makes great processors too, but I think they're overpriced. AMD's top of the line processor is only $300 and Intel's is $999. Do the math.
The case itself is pretty and the blue light is fun to look at, but there really isn't much space on the inside of the machine. This was to be expected, but when putting another hard drive in the machine, I had to disconnect all of the SATA and power cables and the video card to put the new hard drive in. It was a battle just getting in a second hard drive.
The power supply is 500W which is nice, but it was not included in the description of the machine. 500W is pretty good, but if you want to upgrade to an Nvidia GTX 560 or higher graphics card, you will most likely have to upgrade the power supply. Not a big deal since it already comes with an MSI (brand) Nvidia GTS 450 card, but I will definitely want to upgrade eventually.
The 4GB of RAM is decent, but will eventually need to be upgraded as well. It is very difficult to find a machine in the 700-900 dollar range with 8GB+ of RAM, so this was to be expected. RAM is really cheap now, so I am going to put 8GB more in so that I will have 12 GB. Also not mentioned is that this machine can support up to 16GB of RAM which is sweet. Most machines in this price range are only expandable up to 8GB of RAM.
The machine is pretty quiet until you are playing games. There are a total of five fans- one on the PSU, one on the CPU, one on the side of the case, one on the video card, and one on the front of the case at the bottom. This should provide adequate cooling unless you are pushing the machine to the max (or overclocked) under high temperature conditions in an area that is already warm. Make sure to leave enough space around the case to allow it to cool. The fans definitely get loud when playing graphics-intense games, but most gaming computers do this unless they have specific sound dampening materials inside the case.
The CD/DVD ROM is SATA, which wasn't mentioned but is a nice feature. SATA is much faster than IDE and has a much smaller cable to mess around with in the case. I have some old IDE CD/DVD ROM drives in my previous machine that I plan on putting in this new machine, but it will be a tight fit.
And for the important part- this machine RIPS while playing games. Starcraft II at Ultra settings and 1920x1080 resolution has no lag at all. Battlefiled Bad Company 2 on High settings and 1920x1080 resolution only hangs a bit during large explosions or lots of blowing snow and particles. I haven't tried the "Advanced Settings" on Battlefield Bad Company 2 yet, but I think the issues with lag are more caused by this game's graphics engine rather than the machine itself. The same goes for Crysis on ultra settings and 1920x1080 resolution. This machine was made/designed more than three years after the release of this game and the framerate is STILL slow on cinematics during the game. I believe this is due to Crysis' graphics engine rather than the machine. When Crysis originally came out in 2007, I remember someone who reviewed it saying that you needed a computer only NASA or Pixar could put together to play this game on ultra settings at max resolution. I think that still applies today unless you have a $3,000 gaming rig. After using an Intel CoreDuo 2.4 GHz Gateway with an Nvidia GT 9800 with 4GB of RAM, this is a HUGE step up.
I have received one BSOD (blue screen of death) while word processing and browsing the web. It's ironic that I received this during very benign tasks rather than playing a game, but what are you going to do? It hasn't happened again, but I have only had the machine for less than a week. I am guessing it is probably due to the RAM. If it continues to be a problem, I will contact Microtel to receive a replacement.
I estimated the price of the separate components using newegg.com, and I wouldn't have been able to build the machine cheaper myself. The components came to around $600 (overestimate), and Windows 7 Home Premium (new copy, not upgrade) is $199.99.
All in all I am very pleased. Once again the four stars review is because I haven't had much time to play with it and they could have provided a more thorough explanation of what you're actually getting. The fans are a little loud, but not distracting. There isn't much space to work with inside the case, but this was to be expected. The biggest issue is only having one PCI slot that is usable and there is only one PCI express slot available. I will try to write a follow up review after I have had the machine for a while and put some highly anticipated games from this year on it (Dead Space 2, Diablo III (hopefully will come out this year!) WOW Cataclysm, and Dungeon Seige 3).
If you need a great gaming machine and don't have a lot of money to spend, this is a great choice. If you do have more money (and time) to spend, building your own machine might be worth it (but don't forget that Windows is $199.99). Nice work Microtel.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Titanium Gamer AMTI9025 Gaming Computer with 3.2GHz AMD Phenom II x4 955 Quad-Core processor, 4GB DDR3/1333, 1TB SATAII, 24X DVD-RW, NVIDIA GeForce HD N450 GTS 1GB GDDR5 Video Card, Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full Version CD - 64 bit. MONITOR NOT INCLUDED.
When your work is done and you want to play, don't let dropped frames or lag get in the way! This system is designed for the part-time gamer or gamer on a budget who doesn't want to miss out on the hottest titles.
AMD Phenom II X4 955 Quad-Core (3.2GHz, 6MB L3 Cache, AM3)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full Version CD - 64 bit
880 Chipset Motherboard
4 GB 1333Mhz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory, expandable to 8GB
1TB SATA-II Hard Drive
24x DVD/CD-Writer combo drive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)
NVIDIA GeForce HD N450 GTS 1GB GDDR5 Video Card
10/100 Network LAN
6 Channel 3D Premium Surround Sound
Available drive bays left: External four 5.25, one 3.5; Internal two 3.5
Available Slots: Two-PCI, 1 PCI Express X16 slot
Six USB 2.0 Ports (2 front-mounted)
USB Multimedia Keyboard
USB Optical Mouse w/wheel
Audio Port (Line-in, Line-out, Mic-in)
Steel Case with see-through window
Additional software includes OpenOffice Suite for word processing, spreadsheet calculations, creating presentations, drawing and image processing. OpenOffice Suite is compatible with most Microsoft Word, Excel & PowerPoint documents
Customer Service Toll Free 888-508-8898
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