The Reaktor

The Reaktor made its way across the Atlantic in a brown cardboard box with foam padding, but there was no damage to the system which bodes well for US based consumers with a much shorter shipping distance. Despite the problem free shipping we experienced, Uberclok have informed us that they are increasing protection by adding additional foam around the cpu cooler.

After un-boxing the system we find it wrapped in protective plastic and the case window still has the protective cover in place, a good initial sign. Those who are familiar with enthusiast cases will realise that this is the Antec 900 Gamer case. It is roomy inside for larger components such as the 8800 GTX/Ultra with some excellent fan configurations and easy to access ports on top. The case we received had two blue LED 12cm intake fans on the front, one 12cm exhaust fan at the back and a 20cm exhaust fan at the top/rear. Each features a switch for high, medium and low speeds. For anyone who wishes to improve cooling there is also a bracket on the case window for an additional 12cm fan.

The drive configuration of our review sample was a single 1.44mb floppy with memory card readers, a DVD-ROM drive and a DVD writer (Lite-on 20A1S). Having two optical drives when one is a writer/reader and the other is just a reader seems a bit pointless to us. The configuration tool when purchasing does not allow us to choose a single drive, however there is an option to build the system with a single HD-DVD player/ Blu-Ray burner or Blu-Ray Burner which is welcomed. We mentioned earlier that the Antec 900 case has easy to access ports and these can be seen on the top of the unit alongside the power and reset buttons. There are the usual audio sockets, a single firewire and two USB 2.0 ports. All are connected during the building of the system and therefore work out of the box. Behind these ports there is also a small tray, ideal for keeping keys, or random items in rather than on the desk (drinks?).

Shown above is the inside of the Reaktor as it arrived with us. Our overall first impression was that it featured a very tidy and professional wiring job. All of the cables are routed well, tied in place in key areas, additionally some are folded to keep them short and tidy. The use of a modular PSU greatly helps this aspect of the build and the model is a 1200w Thermaltake Toughpower, there are few better on the market. It is also possible to see in the pictures above that the optical drives are actually SATA models, as is the 500Gb Seagate hard drive ... there are no IDE devices at all in this system.

The graphics configuration we received was as good as it can get, two 8800 Ultras in SLI. While this is already an impressive configuration, further study shows they are actually two EVGA cards with enhanced clockspeeds of 675MHz core and 1150MHz memory. Sandwiched in-between the 8800’s is the soundcard, an X-Fi Xtreme Gamer, for games which support EAX this is a must have purchase and as gaming soundcards go, you really can't get any better.

Above these cards is the Tuniq Tower CPU cooler, this allows Uberclok to keep the E6850 CPU at very reasonable temperatures, even when running at 3.7GHz, the “stock” speed for a Reaktor.

As well as the CPU cooler we can see the memory, it is a set of two 1Gb Corsair Dominator modules. They are 800MHz 4-4-4-12 specification but run slightly over, due to the overclocked nature of the system. The final major component is the motherboard and once again it is an EVGA branded part, their 680I SLI. Nothing special has changed on this board and it features the standard EVGA BIOS and layout.

Looking at the rear of the system we see a well built enthusiast system. The fanspeed controller for the Tuniq tower is at the top slot and there is one noticeable change from a standard build and that is the inclusion of an air vent on the middle PCI bracket.