In the past two weeks I've tested six gaming systems. Some were extremely disappointing, while others were quite impressive, but nothing really blew me away until I tested the Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition ($6,999 direct, $7,498 with 26-inch widescreen monitor). Of the six gaming PCs, which included systems from Alienware, HP, Falcon Northwest, Polywell, and Vigor Gaming Computer, the Raptor was the fastest—and that's saying a lot considering this group. Its great features, smart cooling solutions, and relatively (for this class of system) reasonable price set it apart even more. The Editors' Choice–winning Raptor is the gaming system you want if you're looking to brag to your friends that you have "the fastest system."

The Raptor comes in Velocity Micro's familiar silver Signature case, so it looks like a quintessential gaming rig. Sure, the Alienware and Falcon systems are flashier, but the Raptor's understated demeanor belies the raging animal within. Like the Overdrive PCs that are part of Velocity Micro's stable, the Raptor has four huge, lit fans on the side, feeding air to the internals. The fans are blessedly quiet, so you won't have to deal with a white-noise tsunami if you're just Web surfing.

Inside, the Raptor has a quad-core QX9650 processor, overclocked all the way from 3.0 GHz to 4.4 GHz! This is one of the more impressive displays of tweaking that I've seen in a gaming system. The system uses a combination of Peltier (thermoelectric) cooling and sealed-liquid cooling to quell the raging heat and keep the Core 2 Extreme processor from hitting thermal overload and shutting down.

What does all this mean for the Raptor's gaming performance? Just sweet dominance and top scores on all the benchmark tests (save one). The Raptor smashes the 90-frame-per-second barrier, reaching 91 fps on the Crysis test at 1,280 by 1,024. Likewise, the system destroys World in Conflict barriers with 126 fps at 1,280 by 1,024 and 85 fps at 1,920 by 1,200. These scores reflect rock-steady playability that will have you staring in wonder at the lush 3D visuals in each game. Crysis isn't quite playable at 1,920 by 1,200, but the Raptor's 38-fps score on the game at this resolution is more than any of the other systems achieved (I won't consider the game playable until I see 60 fps).

The Raptor also beat out the other gaming systems on the multimedia benchmark tests, getting the highest CineBench score I've ever seen—17,710 points. The CineBench xCPU test hits the CPU and memory subsystems, so it's no wonder the extremely overclocked QX9650 won this test. The Raptor also got a "faster than fast" 14-second score on Photoshop CS3—about 30 seconds is the norm for quad-core speed demons. This system is so fast that it will complete your photo or video edit before you have a chance to think about what you want to do next, a dream come true for anyone accustomed to waiting for the spinning circle cursor to stop.

The only test in our current repertoire that the Raptor didn't place first on was the Windows Media Encoder test, where it finished in the middle of the pack behind the Falcon Northwest FragBox QX9650. I surmise that the reason for the Raptor's slower time was that the SSDs (solid-state drives) were just a smidge slower on this test or became less efficient when Windows Media Encoder wrote the transcoded video back to the drive Even then, the Raptor beat out high-end multimedia PCs like the Gateway DX4710-UB002A and VM's own Vector Z20, which averaged about 46 seconds on the same test.

The system uses a pair of 32GB SSDs for the C: drive that cost $247 each. You can upgrade the SSDs to 64GB ($351 each) or 128GB ($810 each), or VM can put in 10,000-rpm spinning hard drives if you're not sold on SSD yet. The 10K drives are cheaper and are available in higher capacities; on the other hand the SSDs are faster in day-to-day operations. Hard-core gamers tend to rebuild their C: drives whenever they get the chance, because if you install and uninstall games often, your system will get sluggish and unstable eventually, necessitating a rebuild. Rebuilding the C: drive is like rebuilding the engine in your car: Both will run like new afterward. If you rebuild your C: drive often, then the smallish capacity of the two 32GB drives shouldn't bother you. Even though it's barely enough space for a few dozen games, programs, and the operating system, you always have that 1-terabyte data drive available for all your music, photo, and video files. This is clearly a system with only one thing on its mind—speed.

The Falcon NW FragBox QX9650 also uses the same processor, overclocked to 3.8 GHz, and a single dual-GPU ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card. The FragBox is a lot cheaper, at about $4,000, but the current ATI drivers have problems with Crysis. Likewise, the Alienware Area-51 ALX (Radeon HD 4870 X2 CrossFireX) takes a newer QX9770 processor up to 4.0 GHz, at the astounding price of $7,866. But even with four GPUs, the ALX's ATI graphics are still less impressive than the nVidia GTX 280s in Triple SLI configuration. This may change after the next driver revision, but then again it may not.

So are there any drawbacks to this behemoth? There is arguably one piece of "crapware" on the desktop: an installer for BMW's M3 Challenge video game (it's not preinstalled like most crapware). It's a fun romp and test for the system's graphics and processor, but it's still an ad for BMW.

The Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition does have a close competitor in the Vigor Force Recon QXN (which is somewhat pricier at $7,499, though it costs much less than the Alienware system). But the Raptor with its midrange price and blowout performance is the unequivocal gaming champ. This is the one you'll want to brag about to your friends.

Check out the Velocity Micro Raptor Signature Edition's test scores.

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