Isys Elite in Computer Shopper Group Test

[system7]

November issue #249 of Computer Shopper has a 9 model group test of sub £500 all round PCs with Monitor, including the Foxconn M7VMX based E8400/8500GT Novatech Isys Elite (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/range.html?t=pc&c=all&r=ISE) with 17" HannsG HW173 Widescreen monitor at a quoted £498 including XP Home and delivery.

The Novatech came in a creditable 3rd. in general benchmarks and was noted to be quiet. Gaming performance was unsurprisingly poor compared to 9600GT and 9600GSO based models.

The overall winner was an Asrock P43Twins1600 based E8400/9600GSO model with an overclock to 3.8GHz and FSB1600. Knowing the sort of thing that Asrock often do to the PCIE bus speed when overclocking, I wonder if this would work with a 9600GT though. Interestingly, an AMD Phenom X4 9550 model also showed very well in office applications, particularly Video Editing.

Good to see Nova in the magazines, and not doing badly either. Ahead of Mesh, anyway. Perhaps like in Formula One racing, some tuning and tinkering is in order before the next race. BRMM! BRMM! :P

[matz]

if it was the 8series card that was holding them back compared to the others.. look here ! 9series are good novatech =d

[JDowdall]

4850 is even better! actually why am i even going there, nvidia pays novatech, we aint gonna get any other graphics cards

[matz]

exactly why i didnt say the 4850 :P

[system7]

Lol at squid. You gotta wonder... :P

There were a lot of PCs in the test with CPUs like E2180 overclocked and E4600 and E7200 to leave some cash for better graphics. It's hard to hit the £500 price point without some compromise if a monitor and OS is included.

But you do wonder if the Isys Elite "Gamer" would be feasable at the price. E5200 CPU or such (motherboard permitting), maybe a little OC and a 9600GT and a tidge better power supply. You gotta move fast with new cards and CPUs too. The competition does.

[Jonny2Bad]

Lol it dont take much to work it out does it, the 1 ati card system is not on the website, is with an amd cpu (which isnt that bad but the choice of an intel would be nice) and is not pushed at all, like i said before we'l :lol: l log on 1 day and it will be the nvidiatech forums lol.
The other thing has any1 else noticed the increase in prices (which isnt a huge problem, as everything is going up at the mo) but the severe lack of stock and choices, in some items.

[Coops]

4850 is even better! actually why am i even going there, nvidia pays novatech, we aint gonna get any other graphics cards

Yeah we wish, it would be nice if they did.

[Jonny2Bad]

Well we think it would be nice if you started mixing it up a bit, and im sure there is a lot of custom being missed, there isnt a mid range gamer, or even a high end apart from the skulltrail (but thats just crazy) why is nothing being changed John, we are struggling to suggest any of the range for gamers what with 9500's etc, we need a decent intel dualcore, intel chipset, 4850, for the midrange gamer.

[matz]

i can say some competitors have some nice systems at all ranges, put up a fight novatech!

[system7]

I don't think anyone should be bothered if Nova don't often win awards in these magazines, since the winner may have cut margins to such an extent that intangibles like service, reliability and even the long term prospects of the company concerned are then at risk.

The Isys Elite was certainly a top performing office machine. The motherboard benchmarked much better than I expected, so Kudos there. Of course the gaming forummers are looking for a slightly different mix with less CPU and more graphics and power supply, and the latest cards and CPUs to boot. Known good overclocking motherboards and DDR2-800 memory get extra points too. The NVidia optimised would win me over with a slightly updated CPU and a newer graphic card and some assurance about the power supply fitted.

And (How long, O Lord, how long? :P ) someone please sort out all the typos on the specifications, particularly with exact graphics cards fitted. The Icon Elite and the Isys Elite, for instance, are both muddled. The Rogue veers between AMD 9850 and 9950BE.

[Amy]

Hi All,

In response to the post regarding Ati Machines, we have been selling a new rogue machine for weeks with an Ati Card -

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... ml?PC-1198 (http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?PC-1198)

We build our computers in response to customers needs, feedback and requests - and due to this we will be launching a new configurator in a few weeks that will allow you to change lots of different aspecs of a pc (including the Gfx card!)

We have listed previous Ati machines before, but Nvidia has always outsold them...... But, because we always appreciate customer feedback and suggestions I have set up a new thread for people to suggest pc specs they would like to see on the novatech site.. who knows, we might even stock it!!! :D

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27041 (http://forum.novatech.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=27041)


Amy
Novatech Product Manager

[Jonny2Bad]

But that was when ati werent quite cutting it, now they are leading the pack with great performance and affordability, I think these are welcome changes and I for 1 am glad our voices are finally being heard.

[mattk]

i will say that the foxconn M7VMX is the best cheap mainboard i have ever had the pleasure of using. yeah it doesnt have all the nice features of the big boys and lacks SLI, but its design makes it extremely efficient. just disable the onboard sound and GFX, throw in a 9800+ or 4870 and a nice x-fi sound card and your well away.

[Jonny2Bad]

Foxconn have always produced great budget mobo's, i had an old 915 way back and it was great. And its nice to see them upping their game, with the blackops etc although a little overpriced for the market.

[system7]

i will say that the foxconn M7VMX is the best cheap mainboard i have ever had the pleasure of using. yeah it doesnt have all the nice features of the big boys and lacks SLI, but its design makes it extremely efficient. just disable the onboard sound and GFX, throw in a 9800+ or 4870 and a nice x-fi sound card and your well away.
Good overclocker too, by all accounts. Tell me Matt, do Nova generally supply that single channel foxconn M7VMX board with a single RAM stick to allow for easy memory upgrades?

[mattk]

i will say that the foxconn M7VMX is the best cheap mainboard i have ever had the pleasure of using. yeah it doesnt have all the nice features of the big boys and lacks SLI, but its design makes it extremely efficient. just disable the onboard sound and GFX, throw in a 9800+ or 4870 and a nice x-fi sound card and your well away.
Good overclocker too, by all accounts. Tell me Matt, do Nova generally supply that single channel foxconn M7VMX board with a single RAM stick to allow for easy memory upgrades?

unfortunately by the looks of it, all bundles with this mainboard conatain 2GB (2x1gb). Which, anyway i would say is the most efficient for a 32bit OS and is easier to O/C than (2x2gb).

[system7]

It would be interesting to benchmark that single channel motherboard with 2X 1GB and a single 2GB memory stick. I wouldn't like to predict the difference, if any. Dual-channel is evidently not a big deal, perhaps interleaving and stuff makes more real world difference. :P

It was a very unfair comparison to allow an Eclipse overclocked system into a group test. Of course it's going to "win", although they did creditably squeeze a better graphics card in at £500. I'm quite surprised computer shopper allowed it. In my view, the Eclipse failed the drug test. :lol: