Home | Forums | Article Search | Subscribe & Shop | Contact Us | Log Out War Machine M1 Elite Email This Print This View My Personal Library Heavy Gear February 2008 • Vol.8 Issue 2 Page(s) 26 in print issue Add To My Personal Library War Machine M1 Elite M1 Elite $5,032 (as tested) War Machine www.projectwarmachine.com CPU Rating: 3.5 Specs: CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 @ 3.66GHz; Motherboard: Evga 122-CK-NF68-A1; RAM: 2GB G.Skill PC2-6400; HDD: 150GB Western Digital Raptor X (2x; RAID 0), 750GB Seagate ST3750640AS; Graphics: 768MB Evga GeForce 8800 Ultra Superclocked (SLI); Integrated Gigabit; Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech G15/G9; Vista Ultimate 32-bit War Machine’s M1 Elite is one intimidating desktop PC. The hulking system has a simple but appropriately sinister skulls-and-gears theme that ought to un-nerve your neighbors when you show up to the next LAN party. More importantly, it has the performance to back up its ’tude. The case itself is a Cooler Master Stacker 832 that features laser-cut gear images and silkscreen skulls. War Machine tells me that it has Cooler Master anodize the interior of the case so that it’s black inside and out. I like that touch, particularly because War Machine puts extra effort into creating the sort of system interior you don’t mind showing to curious LAN-goers. The cables have mesh or loom sheathing, and cable ties keep extra cable length out of sight. War Machine does itself and its customers a big favor by securing both of the Evga GeForce 8800 Ultra Superclocked graphics cards with Cardkeeper CK99-1224s. The Cardkeepers keep those heavy cards safe during transit to you and protect them when you put the M1 Elite in the backseat and head for a LAN party. My M1 Elite had an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6850 that sits under an Asetek OEM liquid cooler. (The radiator and its 120mm fan sit at the back of the system, exhausting warm air.) War Machine overclocked my system to 3.66GHz but says it will likely offer the PC to users at 3.5GHz as it’s getting better performance at that speed. Even so, my system was stable and ready to play: It hit 18203 in 3DMark06, completed Cinebench 10’s multi-GPU test in a speedy 1:08 (minutes:seconds), and handled my game benchmarks well. These days, most luxury systems (including top-shelf gaming rigs) are nearly silent. Not so with the M1 Elite. You’ll notice the system’s fans as soon as you power the PC on and, although it isn’t loud enough to drown out your game, it’s a little distracting. An easy-to-reach fan controller would go a long way towards solving the noise issue, as it would let you tone the noise down a bit when you’re not running the M1 Elite at full throttle. I also have a beef with the accessories War Machine chose not to include. The attention to detail that made for such a great interior wasn’t applied to the system’s binder, which is accompanied by a T-shirt and a mousepad. Most boutique builders pack their systems with a binder that features Windows and driver discs, tech support phone numbers, troubleshooting hints, and warranty information. Biohazard PC, for example, has particularly info-packed binders that often answer some of my questions before I contact the builder. The M1 Elite’s binder offers only the driver and Windows discs, Evga’s mobo manual, a few stickers, and dog tags. If you need tech support, you won’t find the number—(888) 927- 2927—in the binder. With the M1 Elite, War Machine delivers a gamer that covers some important bases. It delivers real graphics power; it’s physically tough enough to withstand regular LAN party trips; and it has a smart aesthetic theme. That said, the M1 isn’t quite as polished as a luxury gamer should be, thanks to the computer’s noisiness and its lackluster binder. War Machine seems to have the technical know-how and the creativity to put together a solid PC. Now it needs to work on the details that separate the gamers from the gAm3rz. by Joshua Gulick Benchmark Numbers 3DMark06 Overall 18203 SM2.0 7532 HDR/SM3.0 8327 CPU 4976 PCMark05 Overall 10392 CPU 11685 Memory 4895 Graphics 13190 HDD 8765 Dr. DivX* 2:52 WinRAR* 3.7 Beta 2:29 3.71 2:27 Cinebench 10* Single-threaded 3:55 Multithreaded 1:08 POV-Ray 3.7 Beta** 3189 Crysis (4XAA) 6fps Company of Heroes (4XAA) 37fps World in Conflict (4XAA, 16XAF) 27fps S.T.A.L.K.E.R 74fps * minutes:seconds ** pixels per second *** Games tested at 2,560 x 1,600  User Reviews Be the first to write a review of this product Want more information about a topic you found of interest while reading this article? 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