Date:
Tuesday , February 07, 2006
Author:
Abe Perez
Editor:
Chris Morley
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OverdrivePC Gemini.SLI

Overdrive PC sells viciously overclocked systems at great prices. Their Gemini.SLI model gaming computer is a tremendous performer. Let’s see how Overdrive PC is bringing the art of overclocking into the "mainstream."

continued...

Part I - Purchasing, Packaging, and Presentation

Overdrive PC Company History

Founded just over 6 years ago, Overdrive PC is a company geared towards gaming enthusiasts. Their history is summarized on their website:

Established in October of 1999, Overdrive PC™ has provided custom, high performance solutions for the ever growing multi-media world, not only for the general gamer but also for the demanding professional business environment. Overdrive PC™ was founded on the efforts and knowledge of avid gamers and hardware enthusiasts where the main concern and focus has always been unmatched performance and innovative techniques.

Under the same tab as the history, the companies bold mission statement can be found as well:

We are dedicated to driving professional level gaming and multi-media solutions to the limits of our imagination, and endeavor to never be matched by any other competitors in our arena. We insure the most efficient and viable solution for the individual and continue to put our efforts and resources into the actual product, performance and continued customer service.

Using this statement, our order is intended to test the validity of these claims.

The Website

Overdrive PC’s website is an efficient affair, with a clean and uncluttered silver, blue, and white color scheme. On the site, a potential customer has access to system and service reviews, a forum with almost 3,000 registered members to interact with, and a preconfigured system list.

Getting to the system customization menu can be accomplished by clicking on the “Products” button, selecting “All Systems,” and hitting the “Customize!” button underneath one of their standard packages. The resulting menu allows the user to customize every component installed within the system.

Overdrive PC does not have an online purchasing system, however. Once you configure a system you can submit it for evaluation by Overdrive PC. Customers are required to call in and order their system. While this can be a little inconvenient, this method adds an extra level of human interaction and allows an inexperienced buyer the opportunity to talk to Overdrive PC’s customer service in order to receive guidance on their potential system configuration.

Our System

We decided to call in and ask for assistance assembling a “gaming system that will play everything on the market now and what’s due to come out shortly”. We didn’t want to break the bank, but we also didn’t want to get shortchanged.

Calling under the guise of a non-technically minded gamer, I intended to see how much the person on the other end would help to find the system I was looking for. The representative who answered, Mario (Mario is the president of Overdrive PC -Ed.), wasted no time in helping me through the process of assembling my future system component by component. Taking his time with the call, he calmly explained the various options for each category in the hardware customization list on the website. Going over the pros and cons of each choice and how they related to my ultimate requirement for this computer, he also took the time to explain how each decision would impact my ability to upgrade the system in the future. While he had ample opportunity to take advantage of my ignorance and pad the order with unnecessary component purchases, he followed my request to build a no frills higher end gaming system.

We ended up altering his suggested profile slightly by switching out the suggested dual 7800GT SLI setup for a solo 7800GT, a dual Western Digital Raptor 36GB x2 Raid 0 array for a single WD Raptor 74GB (Mario was adamant about the necessity of a Raid 0 array for speed, however for our evaluation, it was unnecessary), and we removed the 250GB/7200RPM second hard drive. OverdrivePC left the second removable hard drive cage installed in case we wanted to install another drive at a later date.

While the system we ended up with was by no means cheap for a large amount of people, it also had just what it needed to fit the parameters I specified to Mario.

The Box

An unfortunate part of the ordering experience is the 30 day turnaround from ordering to shipping. This wait is explained as necessary due to the amount of work need for each system. However, once the PC was complete, it was sent with next-day shipping (Editor's Note: Shipping was actually 2-day air). It arrived in a nondescript large brown box, unharmed from the shipping process with no markings on it aside from the shipping labels.

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Opening the box, we found a 2-inch thick layer of foam lining around the interior of the box. Underneath, the boxes for the system and accessories rested, nestled in thick, layered bubble wrap that filled all of the empty spaces left inside the box. The system itself was repacked in its original chassis box with the original heavy plastic sheeting and foam inserts intact. With the multiple layers of foam, plastic and cardboard, our computer was well protected from the dangers of shipping and arrived with no dents, scrapes, dings or blemishes of any kind.

The accessories box originally held the Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard. A look inside the accessories box revealed a complete collection of component manuals; documentation for the motherboard, video card, processor, soundcard, power supply, and the removable hard drive tray were included. Also, the extra cables and components that had shipped with the motherboard were packed for good measure as well as a third hard drive tray.

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OverdrivePC also packed the installation discs for Windows XP Professional SP2, Power DVD 5.0, Norton AntiVirus, Norton Ghost, Nero Suite, a copy of the WinDVD multimedia suite (which was not yet installed on the system), the driver discs for the ASUS motherboard, the video card and soundcard, as well as a disk-image restore disc. An interesting thing to note is the fact that the restore disc was custom made for this specific system, and not a mass produced image disc meant for a “one size fits all” setting.

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Also, one thing that should be mentioned is the labeling on the Norton AntiVirus disc we received, which says: “For sale in the Middle East and Africa”. However, upon a test installation, the program started up in English, and not Arabic.