Would it really be packs if we didn't do like top five gaming desktops at the
Intel booth? The answer is yes. Yes, it
would. But this is good, too. So, we're going to start with a system that was
done up by our buds over at BS Mods. You always got to include those guys cuz
their systems are always so gorgeous.
So, in this case, get it Case. They started with a Case Labs SM8. They got
the just primed version so that they could put their trademark automotive
grade finish on this puppy. I mean, what do they not put a beautiful automotive
grade finish on? In terms of specs, it has some beautiful hardware. So, we got
a Core i7 5960X. That's of course supporting quad channel DDR4, which we
had 32 gigs of from Corsair. Those are Dominator Platinums, but they've done a
lot of little subtle customizations here. those black strips on the top of
the Dominator Platinums, the removal of the white shroud on the X99 Deluxe
motherboard to make this look absolutely gorgeous in a monochrome black and white
and gray color scheme. We've got dual GTX 980s, water cooled by EK Water
Blocks along with the CPU with that sick looking Maym fluid inside. But this
machine is really all about the SSDs, and there are a lot of SSDs in here.
We've got two 750 series SSDs plugged directly into PCI Express slots down
there. We have a third plugged into ASUS's hyper kit coming off the
motherboard there and plugging in with the cable and then mounted on like a
showcase pedestal stand. And then as if that wasn't enough, the entire front of
the case is full of four more SATA 3
SSDs. I mean, I guess that's, you know, the 730 series has been, you know,
panded off the mass storage duties now, as if the, you know, 1 point whatever
that is, 2 terb of PCI Express SSD wasn't enough. What an overkill build,
but absolutely gorgeous. Number two, you know that song that you
know I'm always singing. I like little
builds. They make me feel so good. Well,
this one is a little tiny machine that makes me feel pretty good. I'm calling
it the like fantastic fiber or
something. It doesn't have a real name, but Exotic PC did it up for the show.
They're actually triing a new finish for the outside of the case. You'd hardly
even recognize that this is a Corsair Air240 because they went and they put
like automotive blue paint on it, then like some hydro something dip to bring
out this sort of faux carbon fiber blue
and silver finish, and then they clear coated it to give it shine and
durability. Looks absolutely fantastic. But of course, none of that would be
meaningful if it didn't have the horses under the hood. And it does. We've got a
Maximus 8G motherboard. That's an MATX board in there with a Core i76700
K processor. Of course, that supports DDR4 memory. So, we got 32 gigs. Of
course, they're Dominator Platinum DDR4. And these GPUs, they fit in there just
barely. You can actually see if you look closely, the window is Boeing from the
manifold thing sitting over top of both graphics cards that puts parallel water
flow through them. So, they did get them in there, even if it was a bit of a
tight fit. And of course, this is always a nice finishing touch for I mean,
mounting your SSD in a drive sled is so like, you know, 2000s. It's 2015.
Mounted to the window. Loving it. Nice touch. Number three, we've got the Main
Gear Force. And this is about as like,
you know, cosmic bowling as I think you can pretty
much get with a computer. Although, as a
fan of the UV lighting effects myself, I have to say they've taken a pretty novel
approach here. So, they've actually mixed LED lighting for the green with
blue LEDs. So, they've got green LEDs around the fans with these thermal fans
as well as illuminating the front panel. And then they've got blue LED strips on
the inside to illuminate the UV reactive green fluid. So you don't really see the
blue as more than just kind of like an underglow to the foreground popping out
green lighting effect. I think it looks absolutely fantastic. As you can clearly
tell, it's custom water cooled in a really, really neat way. So they've got
two pumps in the bottom that split the flow between the CPU and the GPUs and
then bring it all back together right at the reservoir that screws right onto the
top of the dual pump unit. And as always, it's got the horses under the
hood. So, that's a Z170 Deluxe from ASUS with a Core i76700
K. We've got dual GTX 980 Ti. It's got
an AX1200i power supply. You might hardly recognize it, but this is a
Corsair 900D case. And then this is one
of the few machines at the show that features uh Yes, there it is. The Intel
750 series SSD, but in the 1.2 terbte
variety. I mean, I guess that's kind of cool. I got one in my rig, so you know,
whatever. I'm not that impressed, but they've definitely blown me away with
the looks of this machine because as much as it might be that like, you know,
gamer over-the-top bling, some of us are into that sort of thing. So, yeah. So,
it's time for system number four. And this one is an absolute beauty. It's
actually in the Intel booth because it's running an early build of Karma
Incarnation 1, like a moral choice point-and-click adventure game. But,
we're here for the hardware anyway, so we're going to focus on this puppy.
Cybertron has put this beast of a
machine in a just gorgeous aluminum and glass enclosure from InWin that has all
the fix in the me. Check this out. It's got front USB type-C. I love that. And
it's got a touch sensitive button that I accidentally touched and turned off the
game before when I was trying to reposition it to shoot this video. And
of course, it's got the goods inside. So, we've got a Core i76700 K water
cooled by EK water blocks. And then we've also got dual GTX Titan blacks.
We've got 32 gigs of DDR4 memory from
Crucial. We've got an EVGA power supply of some sort. It's like buried in there
in this very uniquely laidout interior that has like a triple 120 mm radiator
in the back. And then it's got like another fan here. And then all the water
cooling tubing, which is hard pipe by the way, looks beautiful, is like
stealthily run up here and run between all the components. Another dual 120 mm
radiator in the front. It's got two more intakes in the bottom. I mean, the thing
is cooled to the absolute nines. And of
course, it's got, yes, there it is. An Intel 750 series 400 gig PCI Express SSD
down there. All on an ASUS Maximus 8
Ranger. Man, I love this like just slightly lit
but very dark like contrasty almost like
comicbooky looking color scheme they got going on here. Just beautiful. System
number five is something you don't see from us very often. This is a tier one
pre-built machine. I mean those suck right now. This one looks pretty darn
interesting to me. This is the Acer Predator. And while the look might be
quite polarizing. Nick calls it the armadillo, but I think it looks more
like a the front of a tank tread or something. They've done a few things
that are kind of cool here. So, in your front with your front IO, you got your SD card reader, your headphone,
microphone jacks, two USB 3, and boom. What's that? Headphone holder. Yeah,
that's right. Headphone holder right in the front of the case. Uh, okay, fine. That's kind of bizarre. Uh, you've got
your optical drive just in case you still have one of those. This is pretty
cool. Pop this baby down. You got a hot swap either 3 and 1/2 in or 2 and 1/2 in
sled. So, you can go ahead and do a hard drive upgrade pretty easily should you
so desire. We're just going to leave that. Now, this is where things get really interesting on this one. It is
almost impossible to get open without instructions, but of course, I managed
it. Uh, in fact, one of the people showing people around at the Intel booth
was like, "Yep, I straight up don't know how to get that out." Because it is kind
of weird in terms of its construction. It's like a normal Acer case inside.
See, just like very normal case construction. And then it's actually got
like a gigantic body kit on it or something. Uh the hardware inside is
looking pretty good though. So we've got a Core i76700
K. We've got a custom Z170 microATX
motherboard. So it's a Acer Acer special in there. We've got a GTX 970. It's a
very short looks like OEM only skew with
a blower design which is very nice for cooling. We've got I don't know 16 or 32
gigs of DDR4 memory. And we've got a
very strange hard drive configuration. 4 terbte Seagate drive and a 3 TB WD
green. So, I guess the 4 TB Seagate is
the boot drive. Well, whatever. You'll be able to get it in a variety of different configurations. I would
recommend one with an SSD and then get a
storage drive as well. Those are good, but boot off your SSD. And uh it's very
interesting to see Acer's take on the gaming desktop up close and in person.
So, I think that's pretty much it, guys. Thanks for checking out our top five
gaming desktops at the Intel booth here at PAX Prime 2015. Don't miss any of our
PAX Prime coverage because it's all freaking awesome. I haven't actually
watched any of it yet cuz like Luke did it and I haven't watched it yet, but I'm
sure it's awesome. He does a good job. Oh, and one thing I missed, it's got a
turbo button. Bringing back the 486
days. Yeah. as you.