On Wednesday, CyberpowerPC’s Syber Gaming division launched its new M Series of mid-tower gaming desktops, designed for virtual reality. They’re compatible with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive despite the compact mid-tower form factor, and offer a starting price of just $800, which isn’t too shabby given they’re geared for VR gaming.
Like many other desktop boutiques, Syber Gaming provides four starting points for its new M Series lineup, allowing customers to upgrade components in the shopping cart if their wallet (and/or spouse) allows. The cheapest base “Core” model sports an Intel Core i5-6400 processor, an AMD Radeon RX 480 graphics card with 4GB of on-board memory, 8GB of DDR4 system memory, a 1TB hard drive (7,200RPM), and a 24x DVD burner.
That said, all four starting points provide the Asetek 550LC liquid cooling CPU cooler in the price. However, there are a number of CPU cooling options in the configuration tool as well, such as the Cooler Master MasterAir Marker 8 cooler ($83) if you don’t want liquid inside your gaming rig, or the NZXT Kraken X41 140mm liquid CPU cooler for an additional $60, among others.
“Ventilation surface area has been increased to allow for greater cooling potential,” the company states. “The Syber M Series case features front and top panel radiator mounting points. The front can mount 240mm, 280mm, and 360mm radiators. The top can mount up to 280mm push/pull configurations.”
If you don’t mind dumping $1,900 into a base configuration, the “Ultimate” model should catch your eye. The default components include a six-core Intel Core i7-6800K processor, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 with 8GB of on-board memory, 16GB of DDR4 system memory, a 512GB SSD, a 3TB hard drive, and a 14x Blu-ray burner. Additionally, the “Pro” model has a starting price of $1,130 and the “Elite” model has a starting price of $1,400.
For processor options with the “Ultimate” model, customers can choose to install the ten-core i7-6950X Extreme Edition for $1,320, the eight-core i7-6900K for $670, or the six-core i7-6850K for $210. The graphics card options are a bit overwhelming, but if you were willing to spend even more money on this configuration, there are variants of the GTX 1080 ranging between $22 and $164, the latter of which is the EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Hybrid.
Unfortunately, the company doesn’t make all the inputs and outputs visually apparent on the product pages, so we can’t list what’s available port-wise. However, one image shows two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a microphone jack, and a headphone jack parked next to the power button on the desktop’s upper front panel. Another image roughly shows the back of the desktop, revealing the audio output jacks, more USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports, PS2 ports for a mouse and keyboard, and so on.
Based on the configuration tool, the desktops include gigabit wired networking (Ethernet), high definition 7.1 audio, a 600-watt standard 80 Plus Certified power supply supporting SLI and Crossfire configurations, and Windows 10 Home. A CyberpowerPC gaming keyboard and a CyberpowerPC 4,000 DPI optical gaming mouse are also thrown into the mix.
To grab one of these new M Series gaming desktops built for VR, check out Syber Gaming’s listing here.
