Topic: [Frontpage News]iBUYPOWER Chimera 901 Evaluation

[Zeus]

iBUYPOWER Chimera 901 Evaluation

We have just taken a look at the iBUYPOWER Chimera 901 Gaming System.  This is an X58 gaming system that is geared for the enthusiast gamer.  As configured, our unit came to about $2177 and provided great performance with 12GB of DDR3, a Core i7 960 CPU and a GTX 570 Graphics card.  It's not cheap, but the custom paint and lifetime technical support are a nice touch that cost a few extra dollars.  Please check out our review for all the details.

First you remove the left side panel; being very careful not to unplug any fan wiring or damage the custom paint.  Then you pull out the packing material very carefully.  After that I inspected all components to make sure they were still installed correctly.  During my inspection I did find one area of concern - two of the DDR3 ram modules were not locked in on one end. This was a simple fix.  I removed them and inspected them for damage, then carefully re-installed them. . .

Please post your comments and questions for Cottonmouth right here.

[EDIT]

As part of a system evaluation, Cottonmouth called in a support issue to see how their customer service performed.

I called their customer support and went through a typical automated menu.  After a few minutes, I was talking with a service rep.  I informed him that I had a problem with the system getting sound to work.  The service rep (wished I would have wrote down his name) asked me a few questions starting with what system i was using.  I had to give him model and serial number.  He informed me where to find the serial number, which is located on rear of case.  After that it only took him a minute or two to find the system I was using.  Then he ask what sound setup i was using ( 5.1 surround).  He then walked me through how to find the proper sound settings and ensure that 5.1 was selected. 

I had a little trouble following the route he used, but everyone does things differently and everyone knows Windows 7 has several way to do or access everything.  Once we established that my settings were correct, we moved on to checking all my sound connections.

He walked me through checking every connection, making sure that all speaker connections were right.  My sound still didn't work.  After we eliminated any connection problems, he went back to sound setting.  He had me check all the settings and re-apply them.  It must have been a glitch in windows or the audio software, because after re-applying the settings the sound started working.  Weird!  Then the service rep ask me if there was anything more he could help me with.

The service rep was very polite and helpful.  I have called customer support many times over the years and iBUYPOWER's customer support was by far the best I have ever called.  I usually get the new guy or gal that doesn't know or speak English well.  As an American calling an American company, this is very frustrating to me.  This was not the case with iBUYPOWER.  I could tell the person on the other end of the phone was not a native English speaker, but I had no problem understanding him at all.  So many times in the past, I had to ask for someone else to talk with - which I hate to do.

Overall, I found iBUYPOWER's customer support to be very knowledgeable.  The overall experience was very positive.

[/EDIT]

[Onion-Or]

sounds like you had a great time testing and it does look like a nice box but i agree the price looks a little steep

[Fujitsu]

Sounds like Cotton is going to miss this system when he has to ship it back...

Price is a bit steep, but lifetime support and basically no hassle whatsoever for a top-end gaming system makes this system justifiable for the guy who doesn't want to screw around with their gaming system. We've seen other machines with similar specs for more than the MSRP on this system.

[Cottonmouth]

To say the least...   I will miss it!