Elite PC Titan FX: Setting New Standards in Gaming
by Wesley Fink on November 30, 2003 10:57 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Final Words
Elite PC has been selling computers on the web for quite a while, and we have seen their advertisements in many computer magazines. They also maintain a storefront and LAN Gaming Center at their headquarters in Tempe, Arizona. However, in the end, their main focus has been, and continues to be, as a web-based reseller. This is our first look at an Elite PC system and to say that we are impressed with what we have found would be an understatement.The Elite PC Titan FX is the best Gaming System AnandTech has ever tested. It is also more than just a gaming system. In every benchmark we have run, the Titan FX is at the top of our performance charts! In some cases, the margin of victory is small, but in others, the Titan FX demolishes what had been our previous high score. There is no doubt that Elite PC's decision to use fast Mushkin ECC Registered memory and a SATA RAID built with Western Digital 10,000RPM Raptor drives have contributed strongly to the blazing performance we see here. Then, add in the Athlon64 FX51 and the 256mb ATI Radeon XT, and you have quite a contender. However, Elite PC, like any system builder, can choose the parts they put into their systems, and their choices for this system are extremely well balanced for absolute top performance. Elite PC appears to have chosen the parts for the Titan FX with great care and tweaked the system for blazing performance.
That is not to say the Titan FX is completely trouble-free. While the performance with 2 DIMMs was blazing, we were not able to get 4 ECC Registered DIMMs to work in this board. We are hopeful that MSI or Elite PC can fix this issue because it is the only real negative we found in this system. Perhaps a BIOS update or careful selection of 4 modules by Elite PC will make the use of 4 DIMMs a non-issue. The other is overclocking, where the Titan FX was a disappointment. At least you can overclock, but we wish we had seen results faster than about 6% overclock. This is strongly offset, however, by the option to add a 2nd CPU to the Titan FX. In Anand's earlier testing of the Opteron, he found that the 2nd processor increased overall performance by more than 25%. If the Elite PC Titan FX scales similarly, and we have every reason to expect it will, then the performance increase with 2 Opteron chips will blow well past what any enthusiast might hope to achieve with overclocking a single CPU.
So the point is not missed — the Elite PC Titan FX is the fastest gaming system we have ever tested. The Titan FX is, in fact, the fastest single processor system we have ever tested, however we benchmark it. What's more, this Dual-CPU board can be expanded to two Opteron processors for even higher performance levels. The fastest performer does not come at a bargain-basement price, nor do we believe you would expect that for a system that has the best performance tested. For $3000, you get the system exactly as we tested it, but you will need to add a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers for a complete system. Despite the $3000 price tag, we still believe the Elite PC Titan FX offers excellent value for your money.
This is the fastest system we have tested, period. Sometimes it is easy to send a system back after a review, but this is one system that will be sorely missed when it is returned to Elite PC. If you (or your Santa) are well-heeled or extremely generous, then put the Elite PC Titan FX on your shopping list. You will not be disappointed. The $3000 price tag is a virtual bargain when you look at the performance that you can achieve with this system.
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sprockkets - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
Adding, but how much of the system actually follows industry standards. Like why would I want a D/Hell with a stupid bios that is worse than features included even on uATX boards?sprockkets - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
The power supply is FSP, and unlike the stupid dell is not proprietary. FSP are known for making good PS. Like the ones with the 120mm fans inside them.Of course the p4 systems can be faster with the RAID setup but neverless impressive. You should compare not only the specs and scores.
Wesley Fink - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
Doop - While AMD has stated from the beginning that the FX would not be multi-processor capable, MANY reviews have speculated that the shipping FX chips did not, in fact, have the 2nd and 3rd HT links disabled. If links were not disabled, then the chips WOULD work in a dual-processor board. Manufacturers tell us many things, but we still prefer to find out for ourselves, because things often turn out not to be exactly what we have been told by manufacturers.Now that we have tested this for ourselves, the article has been corrected. We have also added the recommendations from Elite PC on multiple CPU selection to the review, and I have just received a written response from AMD. We have done our best to answer the question with hands-on testing in a timely manner, and post the information as soon as it is available.
I also read many other sites, and I don't recall an actual attempt to run 2 FX51 chips being reported. The question has never been AMD's intention with FX, but there have been many questions as to whether the other two HT links were actually being disabled on FX chips. We can now say that on FX chips we have tested, Dual-Processor operation with FX chips did not work, and the Opteron 2 and higher series should be used for dual processors.
Doop - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
tfranzese, not many people think the Athlon FX is dual capable. AMD has clearly stated that they are not. This article was clearly not up Anandtech's usually extremely high level.Now this is purely wild speculation on may part but it could be possible that you get higher yeilds of opteron cores if you accept some with not all the functioning hypertransport links.
Just like Radeons with 4 instead of 8 pipelines.
You could enable the hypertransport links but there is possibility that you've got a chip where the links needed for dual operation will never work.
tfranzese - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
I don't think it's been clear, because I and others were under the assumption that they were not disabled in an effort to get them out asap. Might have just been engineering samples though, because these assumptions came from an article.Shinei - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
Uh, tfraneze, I'm pretty sure it's been clear since the start that the FX-51 has had and always will have two disabled HT links... Turning them on MIGHT be possible, but that depends on how much time and money you're willing to waste (since a mistake can cost you $800).Shinei - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
Uh, tfraneze, I'm pretty sure it's been clear since the start that the FX-51 has had and always will have two disabled HT links... Turning them on MIGHT be possible, but that depends on how much time and money you're willing to waste (since a mistake can cost you $800).tfranzese - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
Locutus, the board is a design that uses only one memory controller to cut down on traces. There's a recent article, I think from GamePC that compares it with an Extended ATX dual board with use of both memory controllers.Wesley Fink - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
#31 - The board is located on the MSI site under 'server workstation' at http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/server/svr/... As stated in the review the board is the VIA K8T800 chipset.Locutus4657 - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
I couldn't find this motherboard on the MSI web site. But to me it looks like this is a dual system using a via chipset? If so I didn't think this was possible... Or at the very least sane. Could some one confirm this?