Mentioning the term "onboard graphics" to a gamer is like yelling four-letter words in holy places. You're free to do both, but the results are less than optimal. Until recently, onboard graphics were useful for games like Scrabble or perhaps Solitaire, if you really wanted to push the envelope. Intel's Sandy Bridge processor changed that a bit by pairing the beefy Core i3/i5/i7 processors with Intel HD 3000 and HD 2000 graphics. The result allowed you to turn on quite a few newer games and actually play older titles. Crysis was still a stretch, but Counter-Strike is rather doable. AMD is also hopping onto the let's-make-our-onboard-graphics-worth-looking-at bandwagon, albeit half a year later. The company recently released Brazos, meant for laptops, and is now following up with Lynx, AMD's newest desktop offering.

AMD Lynx

Lynx-based chips are essentially quad-core Phenom II X4 processors that have had a few changes made to them and have been paired with more than a few Radeon cores. The changes are enough to warrant an entirely new socket. Lynx chips will use motherboards with FM1 sockets and A55/A75 chipsets. The company will release four Lynx-based desktop parts: A8-3850, A8-3800, A6-3650, A6-3600. The A8-3850 will cost $135, while the A6-3650 will be $115. AMD doesn't have pricing for the other two, but we're going to guess it's up and down by a handful of bucks. The two with pricing will be available on July 3.

A8-3850
2.9GHz Quad-Core
Radeon HD 6550D GPU
100W TDP
4MB L2 Cache

A8-3800
2.4GHz Quad-Core (2.7GHz Turbo)
Radeon HD 6550D GPU
100W TDP
4MB L2 Cache

A6-3650
2.6GHz Quad-Core
Radeon HD 6530D GPU
65W TDP
4MB L2 Cache

A6-3600
2.1GHz Quad-Core (2.4GHz Turbo)
Radeon HD 6530D GPU
65W TDP
4MB L2 Cache

With such a low price point, the fastest Lynx quad-core A8-3850 lines up against Intel's dual-core Core i3-based processors. It might seem like an unfair fight, but AMD hasn't exactly been getting hearts racing with its processors during the past few years. As gamers, our primary preoccupation is with the GPU, though, and AMD's rather modestly priced CPUs get the job done in that respect.

Radeon HD 6550D
400 Cores
600MHz GPU Clock
480GFLOPS Peak Compute

Radeon HD 6530D
320 Cores
443MHz
284GLOPS Peak Compute

Lynx's DirectX11 built-in GPUs aren't anything that's normally worth gushing over, but they are impressive for onboard replacements. The Radeon HD 6550D features 400 Radeon cores running at 600MHz, and the Radeon HD 6530D has 320 of them at 443MHz. The A6's Radeon HD 6530D strikes us as rather neutered, especially considering the minuscule price differences.

Lynx features hybrid CrossFire, but the catch is that you have to purchase another Radeon GPU within a similar performance bracket. Hybrid CrossFire will let you run both the onboard and outboard Radeon GPUs together to get a bit of a boost. The big problem is that at the bottom, you have to spend $50 for a Radeon HD 6450 or about $100 for a Radeon HD 6670 at the top. Additionally, the gains will only be evident in DirectX10 and DirectX11 titles. We really don't recommend spending $50 on a GPU, the results simply aren't worth the effort. If you opt to spend $100, you might as well drop an extra $20 to get a Radeon HD 6770 to get better performance and none of the issues that generally come with dual-GPU setups.

AMD A8-3850 Performance

We had to pit the A8-3850 against a substantially more expensive and powerful Core i5 2500K because we didn't have a Core i3 with HD 3000 graphics on hand for testing. The A8-3850's onboard GPU does a phenomenal job of trouncing the Core i5's HD 3000, to the tune of fifty percent on some games. If we upgrade to a Radeon HD 6850, the A8-3850 still does well compared to a vastly more expensive Core i5 2500K, which also has a 600MHz Turbo Boost advantage over the Core i3-2105.

The A8-3850 measures up well if all you're looking for is a simple box to serve as a home theater PC that will perform light gaming duties. However, if you're prepping the system for upgrades and heavy gaming from the start, you're better off taking a different path. We'd opt for the cheaper Phenom II X4 840 (or a Core i3) and pour the savings into a faster GPU for better performance out the door.

Calibur 11 has partnered with Major League Gaming to create a unique case for the Xbox 360, using the league's typically eccentric tastes as a guide. The result is the MLG Vault, a case that features a custom camouflage chassis with its very own light-up apocalypse head.

We attached the case to our unsuspecting Xbox 360 to see how it looks. Check out our image gallery for the result.

Nintendo released the 3DS in Japan on February 26, and we promptly flew one back to the States for some tinkering. Nintendo traditionally makes its handheld consoles backward compatible with the previous generation. The original Nintendo DS was backward compatible with Game Boy Advance games, and the pattern continues with the Nintendo 3DS's ability to play Nintendo DS/DSi games.

GameSpot tested load times on the Nintendo 3DS and the Nintendo DS Lite with five DS titles. Time measurements began from the moment we launched the game in the console's menu until we could interact with the game menu. All tests were repeated three times and then averaged to the nearest whole number.

Nintendo 3DS Load Times

Surprisingly, the Nintendo 3DS loads games considerably more slowly than the Nintendo DS Lite. On average, the Nintendo 3DS took 35 percent longer than the Nintendo DS Lite to get to the in-game menu. Performance didn't seem to suffer once we started to play the games, though. Frame rates seemed normal across all the games we played.

The Nintendo 3DS has internals that outclass those of the original dual-screen handheld. However, outside of stating that the console contains a 200MHz PICA200 GPU, Nintendo has been silent on the details surrounding the CPU, but it's clear from the resolution jump on both screens that the 3DS needs to have more processing power. By comparison, the original Nintendo DS is powered by a 133MHz ARM9 and a 33MHz ARM7. We're guessing that the software emulation hoops the Nintendo 3DS needs to jump through to run DS games bog it down a bit. Nintendo hasn't yet responded to inquiries regarding the results.

Wireless routers are something of a commodity nowadays, given away freely with broadband packages or available at knockdown prices. This hasn't stopped manufacturers from making high-end models though, with many promising higher speeds, enhanced security, and better media streaming to entice a purchase from users. Some even claim to offer better speeds when gaming by prioritising traffic on your network, resulting in lower pings and less lag.

We've rounded up three top-of-the-range routers, each of which promises to improve gaming performance on your network: the Linksys E3000, Belkin Play Max, and D-Link DIR-815. Each was tested on a 50-megabit Internet connection, and for comparison's sake, we've included the results from the free low-end D-Link DIR-615 wireless N router that Virgin Media provides with its UK home broadband packages.

We ran three tests on the routers looking at the ping times in World of Warcraft, the results from pingtest.net, and file transfers between two computers on the network. WOW's built-in tools make it easy to monitor latency, and it should be noted that we opened up all the relevant ports before noting down the results. We also ran the test while downloading a large file and streaming a movie to see how well the routers prioritised network traffic.

Pingtest.net looked at two factors: ping and jitter. Ping measures how long it takes a packet of data to travel from your computer to a server on the Internet and back. The higher the number, the longer it takes information to get from your computer to the Internet. Jitter measures the variance in successive ping tests--that is, if there are any corruptions in the data sent back and forth to a server. The lower the number, the more stable your connection.

Our final test looked at file transfers across the network. We ran two tests: one for a large 2GB file and one for a set of small files totaling 200MB. The quicker the time taken, the faster the transfer speed over wireless. As well as wireless, we ran tests over Ethernet, but the variance in results proved to be so negligible that their inclusion was not worthwhile. Before we delve into the results, let's take a look at what the routers have to offer.

Features

Each router has a number of features not available in lesser models. They all feature dual-band support for wireless N across the 5GHz and 2.5GHz bands, which is useful if you've got other devices in your home, such as wireless telephones, that can interfere with the 2.5GHz spectrum. Plus, you get four gigabit Ethernet ports for wired devices. The Play Max and E3000 can also create a guest network that can be limited to just Internet access, so you can let visitors use your wireless connection without a password and not worry that they will access files on your network. All support the usual security standards, including WEP, WPA, and WPA2 at up to 128-bit encryption.

The Belkin Play Max.

The Play Max and E3000's special feature is a USB port for hooking up a hard drive to use as a network attached storage for SMB or DLNA file sharing. Sadly, NAS performance isn't great on either. While photos and MP3 files steam fine, videos tend to stutter, and file transfers take an age, making them no substitute for a dedicated NAS unit. This is made worse by the confusing configuration options on both. On the E3000, the NAS functionality can be configured only via the Web interface, while the guest network can be configured only by the Cisco Connect software. On the Play Max, NAS features can be configured and accessed only via the desktop software, meaning that you have to install it on each computer.

The Cisco E3000.

Fortunately, most other features can be accessed via the Web interface, including the all-important port forwarding for games. The Web interface is speedy on all the routers, with the DIR-815 being the easiest to use, partly due to its smaller feature set. Despite the gaming credentials they all boast, none come with port forwarding presets for common titles such as World of Warcraft or Counter-Strike, which is disappointing. However, there is universal plug-and-play support, so if your game supports it, configuration can be done over the air.

Performance (lower numbers are better)

WOW Performance

Pingtest.net Tests

File Transfer Tests

Conclusion

All routers performed admirably, with no signal dropouts or stability issues. Compared to the stock router, though, performance gains in gaming are negligible. The biggest gain was eight milliseconds with the DIR-815, a figure so low as to make no difference.

Interestingly, the E3000 had the worst performance in WOW and in the pingtest.net tests, but again, only by a few milliseconds. Those figures actually went down when using the more crowded 2.5GHz frequency, suggesting problems with 5GHz optimisation. That said, the E3000 had the best file transfer performance on test, being a over a minute quicker than the DIR-615 when copying large files.

What's most telling about the results is how little is actually gained from switching to a higher-priced router. While additional features such as dual-band support, guest networks, and media streaming are useful, those looking only for a boost in gaming performance will have little to gain aside from a few milliseconds of less ping and an empty wallet.

High-end PC component manufacturer Corsair has been tentatively dipping its toes into consumer audio products of late. Its first product, the Dolby-powered HS1 headset, was very impressive. The design, build, and sound quality were head and shoulders above many of its competitors, despite a few bass response niggles.

Spurred on by the success of the HS1, Corsair is branching out further, this time into desktop speaker systems--a market heavily dominated by companies such as Creative and Logitech. It's kicking things off with the top-of-the-range SP2500, a gaming-focused 232-watt 2.1 system complete with bi-amplified satellites, a 4th order band-pass subwoofer, and a nifty LCD-equipped desktop controller, all costing a considerable $249.

The satellites and subwoofer have an understated look about them. You won't find any glossy plastic, shiny chrome, or oddly shaped housings to speak of. Instead, the look is functional, with the small satellites sporting mesh-covered 3-inch drivers and a silk domed tweeter in a plain black enclosure. They're reassuringly sturdy and weighty, though, and look and feel like they'll stand up to some abuse. The 120-watt subwoofer is similarly weighty and clad in black, with its size giving it a monolithic stature.

It's significantly larger than subwoofers from similar systems, almost reaching the size found in most home theatre setups, so you'll need plenty of room under your desk to house it. This is because it uses 4th order band-pass technology, which Corsair claims provides deeper and more accurate bass compared to the ported bass-reflex designs commonly offered by rivals. It also houses the power supply, a 3.5mm jack input, a standard phono line-in, a two-stage amplifier for the sub itself, and four Class D digital amplification circuits for the bi-amplified satellites,

Bi-amplification isn't something normally seen in desktop 2.1 systems and is instead featured in much more expensive hi-fi, home theatre, and studio monitor setups. What bi-amplification does is provide separate amplification to the mid-range driver and tweeter in each satellite through individual audio cables, rather than drive the entire satellite through one amplifier via a single cable. In theory, this should result in much better sound quality because each driver receives only the frequencies it's supposed to be reproducing, so there's much less chance of distortion. This does of course depend on how well the amplifier separates the low, mid, and high frequencies--commonly known as crossovers.

It's fortunate then that the SP2500 has some top-notch digital crossovers at its disposal. They're implemented using a digital signal processor (DSP), which means the crossover can be dynamically adjusted, so higher or lower frequencies can be sent to the sub and satellites on the fly. This can dramatically change the sound of the system and in conjunction with the DSP allows for special modes and environmental effects.

They're controlled using a supplied desktop controller, which features a colour LCD, a control dial, another 3.5mm jack input, a headphone output, and buttons for power, menu, volume, and subwoofer volume. The controller is very easy to use, with the control dial acting much like the iPod's clock wheel. You can scroll through lists of different EQ and environmental presets, adjust the volume, and change inputs with ease, and the bright LCD makes things easy to see late at night.

AMD released the mid-range Radeon HD 6800 GPUs in October. The high-end Radeon HD 6900 series was supposed to follow shortly after, but plans sometimes get derailed. The company barely made it for the holiday season, but it's finally ready to unveil the Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950. The new GPUs offer a few new features and a handy dose of nomenclature ambiguity to boot.

Radeon HD 6970

The Specs:
Radeon HD 6970
$369
880MHz Core Clock
1536 Stream Processors
2GB GDDR5 RAM
1375 MHz Memory Clock

Radeon HD 6950
$299
800MHz Core Clock
1408 Stream Processors
2GB GDDR5
1250MHz Memory Clock

AMD's Radeon HD 6970 will go toe-to-toe with the GeForce GTX 570, and the Radeon HD 6950 spars with the GeForce GTX 470, as well as replaces the Radeon HD 5870. The mid-range Radeon HD 6870 replaces the Radeon HD 5850, and the HD 6850 boots out the Radeon HD 5830. As far as AMD is concerned, the Radeon HD 5800 series has now been discontinued. The HD 5700-based parts will continue to be manufactured, as will the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970. The Radeon HD 6970 doesn't come close to displacing the Radeon HD 5970, so for that, we'll have to wait a little bit longer for the Radeon HD 6990.

Radeon HD 6950

The recently released 6800 GPUs were basically architecturally refined 5000 series GPUs. The 6900 series takes all those refinements and adds onto them. They feature dual graphics engines that provide triple the tessellation performance of the Radeon HD 5870. The new GPUs also contain second-generation DirectX 11 optimizations, accelerate Blu-ray 3D, and have new antialiasing and ansiotropic filtering modes to improve image quality.

Morphological antialiasing provides full-scene antialiasing via a post-processing technique. Traditional AA modes are applied when the scene is being rendered; morphological AA is done after the frame has been generated. The new AA mode is compatible with any DirectX 9/10/11 game.

EQAA, or enhanced quality antialiasing, uses up to 16 subsamples to improve image quality. It can be enabled on top of existing antialiasing modes, although it does take a little bite out of performance.

On the back end of the Radeon HD 6970 and HD 6950, you can find two dual-link DVI ports, an HDMI 1.4a port, and two mini-DisplayPort 1.2 connectors. HDMI 1.4a allows the video card to output 3D Blu-ray. DisplayPort 1.2 makes a whole new set of features available. The connector now allows you to daisy chain displays together, and with the use of a splitter/hub, you can also support up to six DisplayPort 1.2 displays through two connectors. We don't have pricing information on these hubs, but AMD indicates that they should be fairly inexpensive. Active DisplayPort 1.1 adapters used to cost $100, but now they're about $20, so we're inclined to think that the hubs won't be all that pricey.

The Radeon HD 6970 consumes 250W at peak power, and the Radeon HD 6950 consumes 200W. Both idle at 20W. On the power connector front, the Radeon HD 6970 requires 1x8-pin and 1x6-pin plug, and the Radeon HD 6950 uses 2x6-pin plugs.

The Competitive Landscape
$260 - GeForce GTX 470
$290 - Radeon HD 5870
$300 - Radeon HD 6950
$350 - GeForce GTX 570
$370 - Radeon HD 6970
$450 - GeForce GTX 480
$530 - GeForce GTX 580

Radeon HD 6900 Performance Tests

The Radeon HD 6950 proves to be a solid value at its $300 spot. It bests the slightly cheaper GeForce GTX 470 handily in everything but Lost Planet 2. The Radeon HD 6950 also outguns the Radeon HD 5870 quite easily and gets very close to catching up with the more expensive GeForce GTX 570.

AMD's new single GPU flagship Radeon HD 6970 also performs well. It takes out the GeForce GTX 570 in everything but Lost Planet 2, but it likely won't catch up to the GeForce GTX 580 (We don't it have for testing, and it's hardly in stock anywhere, which probably explains why we don't have one.)

AMD's new GPUs didn't win the single-GPU crown, but the combination of performance and pricing make them more than competitive. The 6900 feature set is also very future proof. DisplayPort 1.2 isn't all too common yet, but with the low price of active DisplayPort adapters, rolling with three monitors (and even six) has never been easier. Also, be on the lookout for cheaper 1GB variants of the Radeon HD 6970 and Radeon HD 6950.

Test System: Core i7 980x, Asus Rampage III Extreme, 6GB OCZ DDR3, Seagate 750GB 7200.11, Windows 7 64-bit. Video card drivers - Catalyst 10.12beta, Forceware 263.09.

Released back in 2008, PlayTV allowed PlayStation owners to turn their consoles into a free-to-air PVR. Sony's latest update for the software, available for download through the PlayStation Network, promises to make watching television a social activity.

Building on PlayTV’s current features--which allow owners of the little black box to watch, pause, rewind and record live television--the new update will add a live chat, community recommendations, a premium programme guide, and series link recording.

Updating the software is simple; once PlayTV is on your PlayStation 3, you need to go to the PlayStation Network Store and download the key that unlocks the update. The key costs €7.99 (£6.29) for regular PlayStation users and €5.57 (£4.72) for PlayStation Plus subscribers. Then, to activate it, you go back into the PlayTV interface and perform a software update. Our download and installation took about five minutes. The update worked pretty much immediately; only the recommendation feature required further setup.

Recommending shows to friends on PSN was easy. All we had to do was go into the channel listings, go to the show we wanted to recommend, and select "recommend" from the options menu. In order to post recommendations onto Facebook walls, you first have to link your Facebook account to your PSN account. Once done, recommending shows on Facebook was just as simple as for the PSN.

The new live chat feature let us create or join a chat room on each channel. Each chat room can reportedly host up to 64 users--though we rarely saw more than 40 at once, even in the public rooms. Outside of the fact that writing with the DualShock 3 is laborious (remedied by plugging in a USB keyboard), the only problem we encountered was when we used the chat feature in its full-screen setting; the text and usernames could occasionally get muddled into what was playing onscreen behind it. With a quick press of the select button, though, the view can be changed into the chat window mode, placing the text on a uniform, flat background; thus fixing the problem.

The Community Favourites feature allowed us to see what our PSN friends and the general public had been watching and choose from a list of recommendations. Those nervous about other people seeing what they’ve been watching will be pleased to hear it is possible to block the Community Favourites section from keeping tabs on you. All you have to do to ensure your privacy is turn off the tracking mode.

The new Community Favourites feature lets you know what's hot and what's not with your friends.

As promised, the new programme guide allowed us to search programmes and plan our viewing seven days in advance, and the new series record option allowed us to set PlayTV to record every episode within a series.

PlayTV’s latest update retains the intuitive interface of its original release, adding a whole host of options to what was originally a digital tuner and recorder designed for the PS3. Though you have to pay a premium for these new features, they just about warrant the price of upgrade.

So far on Greatest Gaming Rig we've been running our machine naked on a test bench, and while that's all well and good for some benchmarking, it's not practical for use as an everyday PC. This week, we set ourselves the task of sticking the entire rig into a case, which, as we discovered, was not an easy task. Not only did we have to try to track down a case big enough to house the gargantuan SR-2 motherboard, but we also needed something that could easily house two power supplies, along with four graphics cards.

Thankfully, we managed to find such a case with the DangerDen Tower 29. Standing at a massive 29 inches tall, 20 inches deep, and eight inches wide, the case is large enough to house all our hardware, as well as a load of additional cooling fans. However, in its stock state, it has space for only one PSU. Fortunately, most cases at DangerDen can be custom ordered, and once we'd sent our requirements across, they customised the tower for us.

The case arrived at GameSpot UK HQ flat-packed requiring assembly. All those years of assembling IKEA furniture were about to pay off--or so we thought. Opening the box revealed a large pile of acrylic pieces and a bag containing an astonishing 275 screws. On top of that, the instructions were very long and differed slightly from our case because of its customisation. Thankfully though, all the screws were in individually numbered bags, corresponding to codes in the instructions. It took us the better part of a day to build the case, including having to rebuild some sections due to misinterpreting the instructions.

So many screws.

While the assembly wasn't easy, we were extremely impressed with the finished product. Each of the acrylic pieces was covered in brown paper to protect them during transit, which meant that when assembled, they were incredibly glossy and shiny. Putting in the components was also a tricky process, as the instructions detail only case assembly. If you're planning to use one of these cases, you'll need some prior experience with PC building. We also found some of the screws were very difficult to get into place, as none of the screw holes were threaded, so it took quite an amount of force to get them in. Others were at weird angles, which made the process even trickier.

Still some cable management to do.

Once we'd installed our core components, we set about putting in cooling, where we encountered a number of issues. On the front of our case there are mounts for four 120mm fans. We planned to use one of these to install our Corsair H70 cooler, along with three fans. However, because of the acrylic construction, we found the walls of the case were much thicker than standard metal ones, so the stock screws weren't long enough. To counter this we bought an additional set of longer screws with bolts, which allowed us to mount the fans and cooler securely.

Thanks to space at the back of the case, we hide unsightly SATA cables.

Unlike the stock Tower 29 case where the PSU mounts at the top, our case had the PSU at the bottom, mounted sideways. This allows it to hold two PSUs adjacent to each other. While this is a good utilisation of space, it did present us with a few cable management issues. The SATA power cables wouldn't reach to the top of the case, at least not without running the cables over the top of the motherboard, so we had to buy extenders. The same applied to the SATA data cables, and we had to buy some extra one-meter-long leads. One nice feature of the case is that it gives you room to route cables behind the motherboard tray, which we found extremely useful for getting rid of cable clutter. However, it's not quite enough space to route power cables, unless your PSU uses particularly thin ones.

You can never have too many LEDs.

With everything assembled, we were extremely pleased with the look of the case. Thanks to the space inside, we were able to keep the build relatively clean, though we will certainly do a little bit more cable management to get things looking even cleaner. The service from DangerDen was second to none, and they happily customised a case to our exact specifications. Building it isn't for the fainthearted, but for the enthusiasts who are likely to buy this case, it won't be a problem. We were also impressed with Akasa's white LED fans, which were noticeably quieter than the stock Corsair fans, and a tad prettier too. The rig is actually quiet in operation, at least until the graphics card fans kick in. We'll be doing some accurate noise measurements in the next part of the feature, as well as overclocking and messing around with 3D vision surround. Don't forget that we're giving you the chance to win the entire rig*, complete with accessories! Just head over here to find out more.

* To enter you have to be over 13 and a UK resident; the competition is subject to our normal terms and conditions.

This week, it's the moment we've all been waiting for on Greatest Gaming Rig as we benchmark our system for the first time. On the motherboard, we've got all our amazing components plugged in and wired up to our two Corsair power supplies, and we've borrowed a watt-measuring multimeter from our chums at ZDNet UK to measure power consumption. For testing, we used a number of synthetic tests, including 3D Mark Vantage, Cinebench, and Unigine Heaven, as well as more real-word results in games like Crysis, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Modern Warfare 2. All tests are run at stock speeds and at a 1920x1080 resolution.

The rig was set up as follows:

2 x Intel Xeon X5680 @ 3.33Ghz

3 x GTX 480 1.5GB 3-Way Sli

1 x GTX 460 for PhysX

24GB of DD3 RAM

Corsair Force 120GB SSD

1 x Corsair AX1200 PSU

1 x Corsair AX850 PSU

First up are 3DMark Vantage's CPU tests. The first runs an AI test, which features a number of high-intensity cooperative manoeuvering and pathfinding artificial intelligence calculations. The second runs a physics test, which features smoke collision and various cloth and soft-body obstacles. The Xeon X5680 is the fastest CPU that Intel currently produces, and with its six cores and workstation credentials, we expected some fantastic results. As the graph shows, our system easily came out on top, almost doubling the score of the Core i7-980x.

Next we fired up Cinebench. It's based on Axon's Cinema 4D, which is a piece of software used by production houses to create 3D content for movies. The benchmark renders a 3D scene with approximately 2,000 objects, more than 300,000 polygons, reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, and antialiasing. Cinebench is a great test for the X5680 because it's fully multi-threaded. This means it uses all 24 cores, taxing the CPU to the extreme. With all those cores, our CPU easily bested the i7s and made an absolute mockery of the aging Core 2 Duo.

Kicking off the graphics benchmarks is Unigine's Heaven. It uses a number of graphical techniques designed to tax the most hardened of GPUs, including dynamic lighting, physics calculations, and hardware tessellation, a feature unique to DirectX 11. Scores were taken with all settings maxed out and hardware tessellation enabled. Interestingly, though the three GTX 480s easily beat out the single cards, it's not by as large a margin as we predicted. With some tweaking and overclocking we should be able to eke a much better performance out of them.

Synthetic benchmarks are one thing, but what's really important is how the system handles actual games. We tested Crysis, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and Modern Warfare 2 all on maximum settings, getting great results. Of note was Batman: Arkham Asylum, which didn't run all that well in the video. After we restarted the machine, though, the game ran flawlessly, and we haven't been able to replicate that slowdown since.

During our tests we monitored the power consumption of the rig; the results were not exactly eco-friendly. Power usage peaked at a massive 950 watts during the 3D Mark Vantage tests, and averaged around the 650-850 mark when playing games. This is likely to go much higher once we start overclocking the system, meaning a higher electricity bill for us, and sadness for baby seals the world over.

Check back next week when we'll be building the rig into a custom-made acrylic DangerDen case. Don't forget that we're giving you the chance to win the entire rig*, complete with accessories! Just head over here to find out more.

* To enter you have to be over 13 and a UK resident; the competition is subject to our normal terms and conditions.