High-End
Ah, the high-end arena, playground of those unconstrained by budget. Buyers in this market are similar to buyers of other luxury items, and are often looking for incredible performance along with a good degree of flair, differentiation, and personal attention to complement their purchase. This often includes items such as customized cases, specialized cooling systems, insane overclocks, hand-tweaked BIOS parameters, owner binders with benchmark performance, and generally just a sense of uniqueness from all of the other boxes out there.
High-End Supplier Choice: Maingear
Maingear impressed us with their high ratings for customer service and support. While their F131 didn't have quite as much panache and performance as we'd hoped, their ePhex is a different beast.
Maingear ePhex
CASE: Maingear ePhex in Inferno Red automotive finish and translucent side panel with Red LED lighting bundle
POWER SUPPLY: 1200W Silverstone DA1200
CPU: Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition 3.2GHz
COOLING: MAINGEAR X20 GPU and CPU Liquid Cooling System with red liquid
MOTHERBOARD: Asus Rampage II Extreme Intel X58 Chipset
MEMORY: 6GB Kingston HyperX 1600MHz
VIDEO CARD: 3 x NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 3GB GDDR3 in Tri-SLI w/ PhysX
HARD DRIVES 1 and 2: Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10,000 RPM 16MB Cache - SATA II, in RAID 0 configuration
HARD DRIVE 3: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache - SATA II
OPTICAL DRIVE 1: Lite-On Blu-ray Optical Player
OPTICAL DRIVE 2: 20X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive w/ LightScribe Technology
KEYBOARD: Razer Lycosa Gaming Keyboard
MOUSE: Razer Deathadder Gaming Mouse
FLASH READER: All-in-One Internal USB 2.0 Flash Card Reader and Writer
AUDIO: SupremeFX X-Fi EAX4.0 Audio Card
OS: Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
WARRANTY: 3 Year Standard Maingear Warranty
OTHER: Redlining (Overclock), Far Cry 2
PRICE: $7,925.74 plus ~$80 shipping; $8005 total
System Rationale
Available in a multitude of custom auto-paint colors and high-end video configurations, the ePhex is "competitively priced" compared to other boutique vendors, and offers "Redlining" or factory overclocking, which is not always the case even for high-end suppliers. The cooling system is huge to support overclocking, and you have the option of choosing your liquid coolant color. We opted to go with two VelociRaptor drives in RAID 0 strictly for "economy" and added storage space for games; if you truly have no bounds, the Intel SSDs will not let you down.
We certainly won't make the claim that Tri-SLI with the GTX 280 cards is a sensible decision or that it will boost performance in every game out there, but since when do $8000 systems make sense? Such a configuration will truly blister through games in an alarming fashion. Dual HD 4870X2 cards in CrossFireX is actually a slightly cheaper option, but the initial problems on Core i7 platforms have us more than a little leery, so for multi-GPU we're recommending NVIDIA. If you're not in a rush, you might even want to hold off until the New Year to see how GTX 295 performance pans out. Maingear is certain to offer the next generation NVIDIA cards when they begin shipping, and 4-way GTX 295 SLI (two cards) for potentially less money than 3-way GTX 280 seems like a better deal. If you prefer 4-way CrossFire with HD 4870X2, we'd recommend holding off for a couple more driver revisions, or else drop back to a Core 2 platform.
Whatever route you might choose to take, the performance and style of this system is vast, and Maingear's excellent reputation for support will be around for the next 3 years. And for something like this, you really need to grab a 30" LCD to do it justice; otherwise the GPUs are overkill. Just try to avoid buyer's remorse by making sure you really want to drop this much money on a system -- while such configurations are fun to play with, systems costing half as much can offer very close to the same performance.
And that's a wrap. We hope you've enjoyed our Holiday 2008 System guide. Have a great holiday season!
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JarredWalton - Friday, December 19, 2008 - link
Actually, that is *NOT* the case anymore. Dell specifically talked to me about this at last CES: for sure on their XPS models, they now use a 100% standard ATX power supply. It's possible that decision doesn't extend to the Vostro line, but I do know for a fact that the XPS 620 I have uses a standard ATX PSU. In fact, I think even my old XPS 410 used a standard ATX PSU, and that was ~3 years ago.tacoburrito - Friday, December 19, 2008 - link
Some XPS models (possibly all?) use the BTX-form motherboards. I have the XPS 410 myself and it has a BTX MB. XPS models with the BTX MB might use a different power connector that only Dell suppled PSU can connect. This question was posed in a computer publication (I don't remeber which; it might be Smart Computing) less than 6 months ago and the reply from the magazine editorial was Dell's MB might not work with any standard PSU.it is also very possible that Dell is now using standard parts for all their newer systems. If that is the case, this thread is moot.
JarredWalton - Tuesday, December 23, 2008 - link
BTX in this case is merely an arrangement of internal parts; BTX motherboards still use ATX power supplies, unless the vendor decides to make something proprietary. Dell has told me outright that they have moved away from using proprietary PSU connectors, and as far as I can tell the PSU in the XPS 410, XPS 620, and XPS 720 H2C I looked at, and quite a few other non-XPS systems all use normal ATX PSUs now. (Thank goodness!)Matt Campbell - Friday, December 19, 2008 - link
I searched through some forums before writing that, and several of them all stated that the Vostro 220 uses a standard ATX supply. I can't be 100% sure since I don't have one myself, but our Inspiron 530 has a standard ATX supply, and as Jarred says I believe they've been moving towards that in general.Pr1mus - Tuesday, December 30, 2008 - link
I've done PSU swaps on many of them, and both the Vostro 200 and 400 series use standard ATX PSUs. We generally throw Corsair PSUs in when we can.Matt Campbell - Friday, January 16, 2009 - link
Thanks for the update! Helpful for those looking.MalVeauX - Friday, December 19, 2008 - link
Heya,Largely the reason there's no HTPC extravaganza is because exactly what was just mentioned. There's just too many codecs, hardware problems, questionable means of digitizing a media source, software issues for playback (it's hard to have a single piece of software that can do it all; not even VLC can do it all perfectly). A lot of the software is open source, but a lot is pay as well; and in the end, building a HTPC might be cheap hardware wise, but it gets costly when you start to use real software (compared to pirated/freesource).
Then there's this one thing: simplicity. HTPC's are never simple. Someone who wants to sit back, click on the tube, and browse their collection while watching some HD content at the same time will have to keep maintenance, fix it, and make sure all the new things work with what they have. It's not nearly as simple as just putting in a disc or tuning into an HD channel with a hardware solution.
HTPC's are generally for the enthusiast who is willing to put in the time and effort to know the system, know the hardware, know the media, and be able to fine tune and cope with codecs and `ripping' of sources. Not everyone can do that confidently. And that's why you don't see massive tech sites displaying new cases and systems for HTPC. It's a tiny market. There is however big forum communities for it (google will reveal them).
Very best,
The0ne - Friday, December 19, 2008 - link
For reasons you've mentioned already this is why I still use my main PC to output all music/video content. It's just not as simple I would like it to be and I really don't want to spend my weekends keeping maintenance or debugging problems. My co-worker has a fantastic setup but using myth-tv but when things don't work right it's a nightmare. I wish they were simplere but they're not. For now a Phillips DVD upscaling player that allows attachment of USB drives is easier :)QChronoD - Friday, December 19, 2008 - link
Is there a good option out there for a powerful but QUIET playback machine. Doesn't necessarily need space for tuners, but something small that can handle 1080p H.264 or anything else you could throw at it.Also hope that you guys put together a guide on HTPCs in all its glory. The net is severely lacking in a competent comparison of all the 10-foot interfaces, and the bazillion drivers and codecs needed to get anything more than .avi and .wmv to work. Please, please, please, look at the extenders and tell us if any can actually handle what formats (i.e. do they work with all my .mkv anime? can they play all DVD backups [yes i own the discs])
aeternitas - Thursday, December 25, 2008 - link
Here are my steps to create a silent system that can play just about anything you throw at it at 1080i/p.Its complicated and long so try and pay attention.
1. Build a silent cheap ($500) dual core system.
2. Search "Community Codec Pack" online. Download. Install.
The reason there isnt many guides for this is the fact it is not complicated. Plug the PC into a TV.