Systemax Insomnia 6017 review

DEMONIC SPEED

From the moment we heaved the Systemax from its box we could tell it meant business. It's absolutely huge and you just know there's something special thrumming beneath its impressively large bonnet.

With few exceptions, 3D games are the most demanding pieces of software you can ask a PC to run, putting strain and stress on the processor, memory, graphics card and hard disk. And all these components must play their part if they are to keep from reducing your favourite games to an ugly, jerky, unplayable mess. Just a quick peek inside the aptly titled Insomnia proved that Systemax is well aware of this fact as it has chosen to use one of the fastest Athlon processors available, the Athlon 64 4000+. An excellent choice for a gaming machine.

This speed demon is wisely partnered with a gigabyte of 400MHz DDR RAM, an ample 160GB hard disk and a nippy nVidia GeForce 6800LE card. The GeForce 6800LE may not be the fastest card in nVidia's range, but as a cut-down version of its stonkingly quick 6800 Ultra card, it offers superb performance without costing the Earth. Should you want to upgrade the card at a later date you can be sure that the Athlon 64 4000+ will squeeze the very best out of whatever you give it.

ERGONOMICS and DESIGN

The only strange choice is partnering such a powerful system with a 17in TFT monitor. The CTX S762G isn't a bad TFT monitor - far from it.It won a Top 50 award in our May 2004 issue. But its response time of 16ms isn't ideal for a speedy gaming system.

Playing through a few levels of Doom 3 proved that the Systemax was capable of running the game smoothly, even with its high detail setting enabled and with a crisp 1,280x1,024 resolution. However, when the action really hotted up, the CTX monitor's response time caused the image to appear slightly blurred. Not ideal when you're being backed into a corner by a horde of angry zombies. Swapping the CTX for a good quality 19in CRT would be a better choice if you have the space, and it will save you money too.

Systemax obviously wants the performance of the Insomnia to be reflected by the extravagant size of its case - far too big for its own good. However, once you crack the case open things start to look up. With all those speedy components toiling away you want to be sure they're kept nice and cool during your long gaming sessions. Two large 120mm fans in the front and rear pull air through the neat interior of the case, and as they are set to rotate at a slow speed, they are able to shift lots of air while hardly making any noise. For a system of this size and power, its silence is quite an achievement.

THUMPING BASS

Not that you'll be able to hear the Insomnia's fans over the racket produced by Creative's Inspire T7900 speakers. These are a 7.1 set, consisting of seven unremarkable-looking satellite speakers and a subwoofer. But load up Doom 3, crank up the volume, and you'll be jumping out of your chair as ghoulish screams and deafening explosions all around you.

Subtlety is not the T7900's forte. Feed them gentle music and they sound pretty horrible, but for thump, thwack and excitement they're spot on.

So, it looks the part, and certainly sounds the part, but does the Insomnia have the performance to match? Well, it ate up our 2D benchmarks to earn a whopping score of 1748, one of the highest scores we've ever seen. This is a beast of a machine ready to take any punishment you can give it. 3D performance was - not surprisingly - top-notch, with the Insomnia racking up 48.7fps in our strenuous Doom 3 test. Excellent stuff.