iBuyPower Gamer Paladin F970 System Evaluation

Let’s face it; buying a gaming machine with today’s latest components is anything but inexpensive. iBuyPower’s Gamer Paladin F970, which is designed to make the most of its powerful Core i7 processor and other high-end components, is proof of that fact. When the Gamer Paladin F970 was first released, the standard configuration initially had a price tag of $3,799. Recently, iBuyPower dropped the price on the standard configuration of the Gamer Paladin F970 to $3,395. Even at that price, however, the Gamer Paladin F970 is still considerably more than its less expensive cousin, the F950, which has an MSRP of $2,319. Of course, the Gamer Paladin F950 also uses lower-end components throughout.

What’s important is that you get what you pay for--which is the overall value proposition of any product. With the iBuyPower Gamer Paladin F970, you’ll get a 3.2GHz Intel Core-i7 965 Extreme processor, 12GB of DDR3-1333 memory, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295, a 128GB RiDATA SATA MLC SSD, and a 1TB SATA-II 7,200-rpm hard drive. If you’ve ever configured a system on iBuyPower's website, you know the company generally offers a boatload of configuration options which can increase or decrease the price accordingly. And this holds true with the Gamer Paladin F970, so you’re free to customize the system to your heart’s content. In the pages ahead, we’ll take a closer look at the iBuyPower Gamer Paladin F970’s features and performance so you can be the judge of what this high-end system has to offer...

Marco Chiappetta

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com