Wait a second -- are absurdly large, overdecorated gaming desktops making a comeback? With Acer's
Aspire Predator and ASUS'
ARES CG6155 lighting up eyes everywhere, we're beginning to think yes -- particularly when you take one glance at Packard Bell's elephantine ipower X2.0. Revealed at the Electronic Sports World Cup in Paris, this beast features a tremendously large, high-gloss chassis, a liquid cooling system, a dedicated lock to keep PCB snatchers at bay and a nice array of components including Intel's Core 2 Quad / Extreme processor, a Blu-ray optical drive, hybrid TV tuner, up to 3TB of storage, a NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2, a 21-in-1 card reader and a gaming keyboard / mouse. Somehow, Packard Bell is managing to offer this thing up for anywhere between £999 ($1,979) and £infinity, but don't count on securing one 'til Christmas. [Warning: PDF read link]
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Trusted Reviews]
posted Jul 7th 2008 8:31AM
With a case that big, you have to worry about a small animal finding its way inside and making a nice warm home.
or a little kid
don't worry, they will be instantly baked. like how you find dead small insects around your lamp. you just need to clean it up once a while.
You clearly don't remember this:
http://www.ocforums.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=27965&stc=1&d=1078562061
And the dead bugs thing is true, I used to have a nice big computer case howling with over a dozen fans...I had to clean up dead bugs quite often. On the other hand I've found big fat dead cockroaches inside cramped IBM office PCs.
Or get away from the computer for a while...clean up your home a bit and wow, what do you know... no bugs or animals.
But still...that's a big computer. Ha-ha
It doesn't look too ugly, but I don't understand why are they limiting it to the 9800GX2...
Also lol at wireless gaming mouse.
G9S DO NOT WORK THAT WAY
That ain't wifi they just photoshopped the cord it is a standard Logitech G15 (the newer but somehow crappier one) and a Logitech G9 (great laser but they could have just kept the G5 grip and I would have been thrilled).
Also it's Packard Bell I didn't know they still made commercial machines. The last Packard Bell I worked on was a Pentium.
Packard Bell!!! Long time no see! Remember in 95 when these guys were selling gobs of PC's? I'll point you to the article that shows they were top game at the time. Where the hell have these guys been? Now they bring this fugly desktop out? Packed full of specs yes, but Im not sure If I like a tank that looks like its straight out of Battlestar Galatica...wait no I do!!! Ah...mondays... :D
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1995/06/12/203837/index.htm
Packard Bell started making crappy computers right around when the first Pentium was introduced, after that it was all downhill as the company died a slow and painful death.
Why they're back now I have no idea.
My second computer was a 486 packard bell and it was horrible. So yeah they were making crappy computers way before pentiums. I didn't think they were still around, I haven't seen them in a store for years.
Ah, yes. Packard Hell I believe they were known as. I can't believe they didn't pick a new name. I want nothing to do with anything packard bell.
Meh, my experience with packard bell from 1999 to 2007 (we had a P2, P4, another P4, and a core 2 laptop from them) has always been terrible. Bad support, slightly overpriced, bad build quality, and come absolutely full to the brim with crap software you really don't want.
So i can imagine this would be the same :)
I do wonder why we kept buying them lol
Packard Bellends.
That's all I have to say about them.
Why did you buy FOUR OF THEM if they were so terrible?!
Probably because they were the cheapest option, which explains why it didn't fill the needs more expensive options are created for.
My parents were perfectly happy with their Packard Bell, become retired now but still runs and looks as ugly as it did when they first bought it.
@Pochi
Well until the last few years my parents would not really listen to me when it comes to buying a PC. So when the time came for a new PC they would always go to PC World (UK PC supermarket thing) and let the sales rep talk them into another Packard Bell LOL
Getting a new PC is exciting when your a young geek, but when the parents came home with another PB i just sighed xD
They weren't the cheap models either, i think all were bought at around £800 - £999 :)
Good thing you bought four of them to make sure their service was awful.
Does it come with one of those dual purpose modem/sound ISA cards?Oh man, do I hate those things.
@Frun
Nope they are sound/modem/firewire/wifi cards, but atleast they are PCI now instead of ISA.
Man oh man i remember having one of those systems back in the day geesh time flies when your having fun
My first PC 1995 was a 486 dx2-66 Packard Bell which wasn't powerful enough to run the stuff that came preloaded on it like megarace.
What about PushOver, the domino game with the kangaroo?
Or SkiFree anyone?
Wow, it's been so long that I had to Wikipedia Megarace and then I finally remembered. Good times.
Europe only. UK mainly.
They never really left the uk or europe, just the US. They do ok and most of their pc and laptops are sold in europe. So you americans shouldn't care that much because chances are you won't see them for a long time.
Don't forget Australia!
They were and are sold down here too...
Packard Bell? Really? What grave was that nameplate ripped from?
Don't they know that in previous lives Packard Smell sold cheap, underpowered, non-upgradeable machines not too long ago?
Some say at least the non-upgradable monikor could now go to Apple. Yes you can get new parts, but whoops, gotta get them from Apple. If you cant order your own parts, a la newegg, then it is a dead PC to me.
Man, I need to write a paper on the Jobs Corollary to Godwin's Law. The longer a computer, mp3 player, or cell phone discussion continues, the higher the probability of Apple being dragged into it.
Fool me once, shame on you
Fool me twice, shame on me.....
*Is* there a line for three, four or five times?
GROSS.
£999 NO! its €999 guys. :)
I know you can use a numpad combination to make special characters, but did you copy and paste that Euro mark, or what? Just curious thats all...
Dang.. that thing is HUGE.. and ugly.. yikes
I really like it. Isn't this cheaper than the Predator (and better)?
ALSO, what's so bad about the graphics card?
I'm really glad that Packard Bell have brought out a gaming PC, because most of their stuff is sold via PC world etc to customers who don't have a clue what the specs mean. At least this way, they can be fooled into buying something that DOES meet their needs (if they want to game)
a few months ago I was round a friends house and I saw his dad's new pc. It had a sticker saying 8500gt and the game Crysis lying next to it. I cried. I can just imagine it now "Sure, look it has nvidia dedicated graphics, so it can play all modern games!!". Hate PC world/Dixons/Curry's . They are all one company and it has a stranglehold on the UK high street PC market.
The G15 keyboard is so fugly, I'll never get over that, it sticks out like a sore thumb with its ugly grey/silver metallic design, looks so dinky and cheap.
That's one of the ugliest PC's I've seen in awhile! I thought the Acer Aspire Predator was bad. But, this Packard Bell just takes the cake!
They must be designing these things for teenagers and twentysomethings, because I don't know of any 35+ adult that would go near them.
Ah, well. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, as they say. But, right now, my eyes are bleeding.
i don't mind that thing at all. to me, a desktop's tower case size has always been irrelevent since it's a stationary box it should be fine as long as you have space in your house. for a rig like this my main concern is that it was designed to keep itself cool and with liquid cooling it sounds like that's covered. i dunno, it looks like some random cubic object youd kick across the floor in half life, albeit a visually pleasing object.
Packard Bell are awefull they ship their own crippled windows version, you have to create your own backup discs, which quite often doesn't work. If that happens to you they make you buy the discs priced at 55euro / 37pound. their helpdesk is even worse, especially if you're in the UK because then you're stuck in with "the Techguys" (1 pound 50 (!) a minute) because pb doesn't support UK systems. Also what used to be reasonable opening times for a helpdesk 0900 to 2100 (europe) 0900 -2000 (UK) has changed to 0900 - 1800 eu / 0900 - 1700 uk. Luckily they've been bought by Acer. Don't know what that's going to bring but i'm pretty sure it can't get worse.