Impact M6836 SLI

In my last article, Case Lighting, we saw how one could go about pimping their computer cases using different case lighting products. Modifying and customizing cases is generally enthusiast territory. Another kind of enthusiast is the overclocker. Overclockers push the components of a computer system like the processor, RAM and the graphics card to run at much higher speeds than they are supposed to, at default. There are some who purely do it for the numbers i.e. the benchmarks and others who overclock to extract as much horsepower as possible to get the maximum FPS (frames per second) in games. Whatever the case, it takes a fair bit of learning and experimenting with your hardware to achieve desirable results. As mentioned earlier, overclocking and modding is mostly enthusiast territory. Those who are passionate about it, will go ahead trying and experimenting and figuring their own way out. But there are quite a few who desire custom modified and overclocked systems but don’t have the time, inclination or the expertise to go about making one. And just for them we have India’s first commercial vendor that sells custom modified and overclocked systems, called ‘Exfinity’.

Exfinity has sent us their PC based on the ‘Spiderman’ theme that they had recently sent for a contest organized by Intel and Digit. Exfinity won the first prize for their entry. Please note that custom modified cases based on the ‘Spiderman’ theme are not available for sale, as Exfinity doesn’t possess the rights to the Spiderman brand name. They have used this theme only for the contest to showcase their case modding prowess. You can always get your own custom design made at Exfinity. Now that the legal stance has been made clear, let’s dissect the system to see what lies beneath.

__PAGEBREAK__

Design
The case used in this system is the Coolermaster Centurion 532 that itself costs around Rs. 3600. Mind you, the price is just for the case and not the power supply. Besides, Coolermaster is renowned for making quality cases. A good case ensures the basic pre-requisites of having both front and rear slots for 120 mm fans. 120mm fans are larger than conventional 80mm fans, popularly known as cabinet fans in the hardware stores. They move more air and are less noisy as compared to 80mm fans. Exfinity has provided two 120mm red LED fans. Though enthusiasts generally don’t mind it, the fans are a bit too loud for my taste. Upon speaking to Asif from Exfinity, we figured that they had a cap of Rs. 50,000 (cost price) to build the system for the contest. You can always ask to replace the fans with other 120 mm fans with lower decibel values, which of course will cost a little more. To illuminate the interior red, Exfinity has also fitted a red CCFL (the red tube at the bottom of the case)

If you look at the case in totality, there is great attention paid to detail. Right from the spider on the front bezel to the Spiderman’s eyes on the CD/DVD ROM bay and even the spider’s impression on the transparent sheet on the side panel, creativity is reflected.

My only gripe is the finishing of the side panel and the paint job. I would have liked to see some sort of molding on the cut edges of the side panel where the acrylic sheet is fitted. Besides, if the case was given an automotive quality glossy black paint job, it would have given it another dimension altogether. And lastly, I was looking for transparency in the side panel, so that the inner ‘muscleware’ could be shown off. Nevertheless, I am really happy with their effort and if the 50,000 cap wasn’t present, I am sure they would have done much better.

More from Reviews

Best phones under Rs 75,000 (March 2025): Apple iPhone 16, OnePlus 13 to Google Pixel 9 Apple iPhone 16e First Impressions: The budget gateway into Apple Intelligence

Cable Management is good facilitating better case ventilation. The reason why I lay so much emphasis on case ventilation is because computer components produce heat and overclocked components produced greater heat. A cooler system can help push components to a greater extent, as their temperature is directly dependent on the case temperature or the ambient temperature.

__PAGEBREAK__

Features and Performance
The choice of components is very good. Exfinity has chosen one of the most recent Core 2 Duo processor from Intel’s stable, the E6320, which is entry level but possesses formidable overclockability. The other core component, which facilitates overclocking, is the motherboard. The Asus P5N-E SLI is based on the Nvidia’s 650i chipset and is a very good performer. The board supports SLI, a feature to run two graphic cards in parallel. And availing the SLI feature, two 8600 GT cards from Galaxy have been used in SLI. Now this is an interesting decision. The 3Dmark 06 score of this setup is 8350 points. If an 8800GTS 320 MB is taken under consideration, its 3Dmark 06 score hovers around 8500 to 8900 points depending on the system. The two 8600 GT cards have cost Rs. 16,000 whereas a single 8800GTS 320MB card will cost around Rs. 20,000. According to the given situation of a Rs. 50,000 cap, its an intelligent decision as the performance is almost at par but at a saving of Rs. 4000. Otherwise I recommend using a single 8800GTS 320 MB card as it frees up a slot for an additional upgrade in the future and at the same time generates lesser heat as compared to two cards in action.

The system comes pre-overclocked with the CPU running at 2.33 GHz on air and at default frequencies as compared to its default speed of 1.86 GHz. The graphics card is also overclocked with the clock and the memory speeds increased. Interestingly, the mod is made at the firmware level. And lastly the memory timings are tightened for lower latency.

__PAGEBREAK__

Specification Table

| Components