Velocity Micro Edge Z5 (Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 Overclocked) review: Velocity Micro Edge Z5 (Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 Overclocked)

Velocity Micro's $999 Edge Z5 is a worthy sub-$1,000 desktop, in particular for those looking for a capable--but affordable--gaming PC. Rather than relying on the off-the-shelf parts for this system, Velocity has applied its savvy as a performance PC vendor to this system, overclocking where appropriate and eschewing most nonessential components to keep the price reasonable. A recent system from Dell gives this Edge Z5 competition in certain kinds of programs, but it's a faster gaming box than anything we've seen in its price range.

8.0

Velocity Micro Edge Z5 (Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 Overclocked)

The Good

Best in-class gaming performance; strong day-to-day application performance; plenty of upgrade room; compact, attractive case.

The Bad

No Blu-ray drive option; outpaced on multithreaded applications and multitasking by a competing Dell of the same price.

The Bottom Line

By tweaking its internal components to achieve maximum 3D performance, Velocity Micro has made its $999 Edge Z5 one of the most impressive lower-end gaming desktops we've ever seen. As long as you don't mind sacrificing a bit of productivity speed to get it, we recommend this system to any PC gamer on a budget.

The Edge Z5 uses the smallest case in Velocity Micro's current lineup, the MicroATX MX-2W. Our review unit came in black, although you can opt for a silver version at no extra cost. Even though the case is compact, you still get plenty of room to upgrade. Our configuration had room for two more hard drives, two more memory sticks, a second optical drive, a PCI Express card, and a standard PCI card. Power users will appreciate all of that flexibility post purchase, and Velocity Micro also provides a fair number of options to add in before you buy, although interestingly there's no Blu-ray drive or TV tuner options. The Nvidia NForce 630i chipset is also not SLI or CrossFire compliant, so you're stuck with a single graphics card, although Velocity does offer a few dual-chip options if you're also willing to upgrade to an 850-watt power supply. Our review unit came with a 550-watt power supply, which is adequate for its current configuration.

Focusing on what you do get for your $999, you'll find that there's a lot to like about this Edge Z5. The Dell Studio XPS-122B provides a great side-by-side comparison for a few reasons. The prices are the same, but Dell also uses Intel's new Core i7 920 CPUs, where Velocity Micro relies on an overclocked Core 2 Quad Q9400 chip. Velocity Micro also has an overclocked graphics card. Dell uses the same Radeon HD 4850 as the Edge Z5, but running at stock speeds. We'll see the CPU and GPU differences play out on our performance tests. Otherwise, Velocity Micro gives you a larger hard drive then the Dell, but Dell has eSATA and FireWire jacks for more external storage and peripheral device flexibility. The Edge Z5 relies strictly on USB 2.0.

Cinebench test
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering Multiple CPUs

Rendering Single CPU

Dell Studio XPS-122B

15,920 

3,914 

Gateway FX6800-01e

14,380 

3,472 

Velocity Micro Edge Z5

12,931 

3,591 

HP Pavilion Elite m9515y

9,866 

2,550 

Apple iMac (20-inch)

5,864 

2,997 

The application scores provide an interesting side-by-side for the Velocity Micro and Dell systems, in particular in relation to their processors and memory architectures. Traditionally, Photoshop performance ties in closely with raw CPU speed and memory performance. The Edge Z5 has a faster CPU clock speed than the Dell, but that's only enough to bring it up to par with the Dell's faster, more advanced memory architecture on Photoshop. The Dell's memory can't make up for its slower CPU clock on iTunes, and in the long run, we suspect the Velocity Micro will deliver stronger single-core application performance. The Dell isn't far behind, though, and its better multitasking and Cinebench multicore scores suggest that if day-to-day productivity and digital media applications are your main concern, the Dell offers a better performance bet than the Velocity Micro.

Unreal Tournament 3 (in frames per second)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1,920x1,200

1,280x1,024

Velocity Micro Edge Z5

106 

163 

Gateway FX6800-01e

95 

146 

Dell Studio XPS-122B

93 

147 

HP Pavilion Elite m9515y

35 

56 

Far Cry 2 (in frames per second)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

1,920x1,200

1,440x900

Velocity Micro Edge Z5

41 

56 

Dell Studio XPS-122B

26 

46 

As a gaming desktop, however, the Dell offers no contest to the Edge Z5. Thanks to a special overclocked edition of the ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card, Velocity Micro edges out its competition on both our Unreal Tournament 3 and our Far Cry 2 tests. We're particularly impressed by the Velocity Micro's 41 frames per second score on our 1,920x1,200 Far Cry 2 benchmark. We'd normally like to see 60fps, but 41fps is a big leap over the Dell's 26fps. Although the Velocity Micro might not quite provide ideal performance on a 24-inch LCD, we expect for those of you with 22-inch or smaller LCDs you will find fewer systems at this price capable of such smooth gameplay.

While it's well suited for gaming, the Edge Z5 doesn't give you many options for other kinds of functionality, in particular the lack of a Blu-ray drive or a TV tuner. We don't really miss the TV tuner, but we don't think it will be too long before Blu-ray drives become so affordable that they replace DVD burners in PCs as the most common optical drive option. It also doesn't seem that hard to offer at least a Blu-ray option. Still, Velocity Micro does give you options to add both 802.11g wireless networking, as well as a Bluetooth receiver, both of which are welcome.

Velocity Micro boasts in-house business hour phone support (4 a.m. to 8 p.m. PT on weekdays, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays) as part of its standard warranty coverage of its desktops, which protects your purchase from a year of parts defects and labor charges as well. Velocity's Web site offers a variety of support services as well, including driver downloads, FAQs, and other help. You might also find various price rebates in play, depending on what Velocity Micro has on offer when you swing by its site.

Find out more about how we test desktop systems.

System configurations:
Velocity Micro Edge Z5
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (overclocked); 4GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card (overclocked); 750GB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive.

Apple iMac (20-inch, 2.66GHz, Winter 2009)
Apple OS X 10.5.6; 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 2GB 1,066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 256MB (shared) Nvidia GeForce 9400m integrated graphics chip; 320GB 7,200rpm hard. drive

Dell Studio XPS-122B
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.67GHz Intel Core i7 920; 4GB 1,066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card; 640GB 7,200rpm Samsung hard drive.

Gateway FX6800-01e
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.67GHz Intel Core i7 920; 3GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card; 750GB 7,200rpm Seagate hard drive.

HP Pavilion Elite m9515y
Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (64-bit); 2.5GHz AMD Phenom X4 9850; 8GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 768MB Nvidia GeForce 9600 GS graphics card; 750GB 7,200rpm Hitachi hard drive.