CyberPowerPC ZEUS Thunder 2500 SE Review

By Nathan Kirsch

The Zeus Thunder 2500 SE

In April 2012 CyberPowerPC released the Zeus Thunder series, which use the Intel Z77 Express chipset and Intel Ivy Bridge or Sandy Bridge processors. The Zeus Thunder series consists of nine PC models with starting prices ranging from $1125 to $3735. The nine available Zeus Thunder models are the 1000, 1500, 2000, 2500, 2500 SE, 3000, 3000 SE, 4000 and Max. CyberPowerPC sent over the Zeus Thunder 2500 SE for us to review today. This model was selected as it is right smack dab in the middle of series and can be had for $1799. This system has the flagship Intel Core i7-3770K ‘Ivy Bridge’ processor, 16GB of DDR3 1600MHz memory, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 ‘Kepler’ video card and both an SSD and HDD. With performance specifications like that, you can clearly see that this system is aimed at power users, gamers and enthusiasts. This is also the same crowd that lives by the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mentality.

CyberPowerPC Zeus 2500 SE

In case you were not aware pretty much all CyberpowerPC gaming systems can be fully customized with different hardware components. This means you can pick from different water cooling kits, Solid State Drives, Hard Disk Drives, Blu-ray drives, cases, power supplies, video cards, performance memory kits, gaming peripherals, and more. One of the best things about buying a full system from CyberPowerPC is that they build tens of thousands of computers a month. This means that they buy a ton of hardware at discounted volume pricing and they can usually build and sell an entire system for less than what you can do it for. Yes, even if you go through e-tailers like Newegg and get rebates. Years ago you used to be able to build your own PC for less than a system builder like CyberPowerPC, but those days are done unless you wanted something special.

CyberPowerPC Zeus 2500 SE Inside

Our CyberPowerPC Zeus Thunder 2500SE Features:

  • Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Ivy Bridge CPU
  • Asetek 570LX 240mm CPU Water Cooler
  • Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H Motherboard
  • 16GB DDR3 1600 (4 x 4GB) Memory w/ CL9 Timings
  • 1TB SATA III 6.0Gb/s 7200RPM Hard Drive
  • 120GB Corsair Force GT SATA III 6Gb/s Solid-State Drive
  • LG 12x Blu-Ray Player & 24x DVD-R/-RW Dual Layer Optical Drive
  • EVGA GeForce GTX 680 SuperClocked PCI-e Video Card
  • Corsair TX850 V2 850 Watt Power Supply
  • NZXT Switch 810 Case (White)
  • Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
  • Xtreme Gear USB Keyboard & Mouse

As you can see, you get some pretty good hardware and our review unit has an MSRP of ~$1799.00 shipped. We have a feeling it will be tough to configure an identical system on your own for much cheaper. Just for fun we jumped online to see what we could build a virtually identical system for.

After spending some time on Newegg and Pricegrabber we were able to figure out the pricing of each component of this computer. If you wanted to build this identical system you are looking at spending $1880.90 and that is also having to deal with two rebates. Then you have to put it all together, install Windows 7 and load up all the drivers and software. Once again we find that buying a customized system from CyberPower will you actually save you time and money. CyberPowerPC also backs all the components in the system for a year and oddly enough has labor coverage for three years. You can also buy extended warranties like the Intel Performance Tuning Protection Plan if you’d like to have directly from CyberPowerPC.

Let’s take a look at the actual Zeus Thunder 2500SE system that CyberPowerPC sent us to review!

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