Top 5 Desktops @ the Intel Booth - PAX Prime 2015
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,843 words · ~9 min read
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Would it really be packs if we didn't do like top five gaming desktops at the
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Intel booth? The answer is yes. Yes, it
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would. But this is good, too. So, we're going to start with a system that was
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done up by our buds over at BS Mods. You always got to include those guys cuz
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their systems are always so gorgeous.
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So, in this case, get it Case. They started with a Case Labs SM8. They got
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the just primed version so that they could put their trademark automotive
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grade finish on this puppy. I mean, what do they not put a beautiful automotive
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grade finish on? In terms of specs, it has some beautiful hardware. So, we got
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a Core i7 5960X. That's of course supporting quad channel DDR4, which we
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had 32 gigs of from Corsair. Those are Dominator Platinums, but they've done a
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lot of little subtle customizations here. those black strips on the top of
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the Dominator Platinums, the removal of the white shroud on the X99 Deluxe
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motherboard to make this look absolutely gorgeous in a monochrome black and white
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and gray color scheme. We've got dual GTX 980s, water cooled by EK Water
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Blocks along with the CPU with that sick looking Maym fluid inside. But this
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machine is really all about the SSDs, and there are a lot of SSDs in here.
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We've got two 750 series SSDs plugged directly into PCI Express slots down
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there. We have a third plugged into ASUS's hyper kit coming off the
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motherboard there and plugging in with the cable and then mounted on like a
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showcase pedestal stand. And then as if that wasn't enough, the entire front of
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the case is full of four more SATA 3
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SSDs. I mean, I guess that's, you know, the 730 series has been, you know,
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panded off the mass storage duties now, as if the, you know, 1 point whatever
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that is, 2 terb of PCI Express SSD wasn't enough. What an overkill build,
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but absolutely gorgeous. Number two, you know that song that you
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know I'm always singing. I like little
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builds. They make me feel so good. Well,
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this one is a little tiny machine that makes me feel pretty good. I'm calling
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it the like fantastic fiber or
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something. It doesn't have a real name, but Exotic PC did it up for the show.
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They're actually triing a new finish for the outside of the case. You'd hardly
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even recognize that this is a Corsair Air240 because they went and they put
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like automotive blue paint on it, then like some hydro something dip to bring
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out this sort of faux carbon fiber blue
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and silver finish, and then they clear coated it to give it shine and
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durability. Looks absolutely fantastic. But of course, none of that would be
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meaningful if it didn't have the horses under the hood. And it does. We've got a
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Maximus 8G motherboard. That's an MATX board in there with a Core i76700
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K processor. Of course, that supports DDR4 memory. So, we got 32 gigs. Of
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course, they're Dominator Platinum DDR4. And these GPUs, they fit in there just
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barely. You can actually see if you look closely, the window is Boeing from the
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manifold thing sitting over top of both graphics cards that puts parallel water
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flow through them. So, they did get them in there, even if it was a bit of a
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tight fit. And of course, this is always a nice finishing touch for I mean,
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mounting your SSD in a drive sled is so like, you know, 2000s. It's 2015.
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Mounted to the window. Loving it. Nice touch. Number three, we've got the Main
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Gear Force. And this is about as like,
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you know, cosmic bowling as I think you can pretty
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much get with a computer. Although, as a
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fan of the UV lighting effects myself, I have to say they've taken a pretty novel
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approach here. So, they've actually mixed LED lighting for the green with
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blue LEDs. So, they've got green LEDs around the fans with these thermal fans
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as well as illuminating the front panel. And then they've got blue LED strips on
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the inside to illuminate the UV reactive green fluid. So you don't really see the
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blue as more than just kind of like an underglow to the foreground popping out
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green lighting effect. I think it looks absolutely fantastic. As you can clearly
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tell, it's custom water cooled in a really, really neat way. So they've got
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two pumps in the bottom that split the flow between the CPU and the GPUs and
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then bring it all back together right at the reservoir that screws right onto the
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top of the dual pump unit. And as always, it's got the horses under the
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hood. So, that's a Z170 Deluxe from ASUS with a Core i76700
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K. We've got dual GTX 980 Ti. It's got
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an AX1200i power supply. You might hardly recognize it, but this is a
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Corsair 900D case. And then this is one
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of the few machines at the show that features uh Yes, there it is. The Intel
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750 series SSD, but in the 1.2 terbte
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variety. I mean, I guess that's kind of cool. I got one in my rig, so you know,
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whatever. I'm not that impressed, but they've definitely blown me away with
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the looks of this machine because as much as it might be that like, you know,
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gamer over-the-top bling, some of us are into that sort of thing. So, yeah. So,
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it's time for system number four. And this one is an absolute beauty. It's
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actually in the Intel booth because it's running an early build of Karma
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Incarnation 1, like a moral choice point-and-click adventure game. But,
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we're here for the hardware anyway, so we're going to focus on this puppy.
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Cybertron has put this beast of a
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machine in a just gorgeous aluminum and glass enclosure from InWin that has all
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the fix in the me. Check this out. It's got front USB type-C. I love that. And
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it's got a touch sensitive button that I accidentally touched and turned off the
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game before when I was trying to reposition it to shoot this video. And
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of course, it's got the goods inside. So, we've got a Core i76700 K water
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cooled by EK water blocks. And then we've also got dual GTX Titan blacks.
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We've got 32 gigs of DDR4 memory from
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Crucial. We've got an EVGA power supply of some sort. It's like buried in there
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in this very uniquely laidout interior that has like a triple 120 mm radiator
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in the back. And then it's got like another fan here. And then all the water
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cooling tubing, which is hard pipe by the way, looks beautiful, is like
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stealthily run up here and run between all the components. Another dual 120 mm
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radiator in the front. It's got two more intakes in the bottom. I mean, the thing
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is cooled to the absolute nines. And of
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course, it's got, yes, there it is. An Intel 750 series 400 gig PCI Express SSD
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down there. All on an ASUS Maximus 8
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Ranger. Man, I love this like just slightly lit
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but very dark like contrasty almost like
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comicbooky looking color scheme they got going on here. Just beautiful. System
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number five is something you don't see from us very often. This is a tier one
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pre-built machine. I mean those suck right now. This one looks pretty darn
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interesting to me. This is the Acer Predator. And while the look might be
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quite polarizing. Nick calls it the armadillo, but I think it looks more
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like a the front of a tank tread or something. They've done a few things
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that are kind of cool here. So, in your front with your front IO, you got your SD card reader, your headphone,
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microphone jacks, two USB 3, and boom. What's that? Headphone holder. Yeah,
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that's right. Headphone holder right in the front of the case. Uh, okay, fine. That's kind of bizarre. Uh, you've got
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your optical drive just in case you still have one of those. This is pretty
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cool. Pop this baby down. You got a hot swap either 3 and 1/2 in or 2 and 1/2 in
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sled. So, you can go ahead and do a hard drive upgrade pretty easily should you
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so desire. We're just going to leave that. Now, this is where things get really interesting on this one. It is
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almost impossible to get open without instructions, but of course, I managed
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it. Uh, in fact, one of the people showing people around at the Intel booth
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was like, "Yep, I straight up don't know how to get that out." Because it is kind
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of weird in terms of its construction. It's like a normal Acer case inside.
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See, just like very normal case construction. And then it's actually got
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like a gigantic body kit on it or something. Uh the hardware inside is
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looking pretty good though. So we've got a Core i76700
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K. We've got a custom Z170 microATX
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motherboard. So it's a Acer Acer special in there. We've got a GTX 970. It's a
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very short looks like OEM only skew with
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a blower design which is very nice for cooling. We've got I don't know 16 or 32
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gigs of DDR4 memory. And we've got a
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very strange hard drive configuration. 4 terbte Seagate drive and a 3 TB WD
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green. So, I guess the 4 TB Seagate is
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the boot drive. Well, whatever. You'll be able to get it in a variety of different configurations. I would
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recommend one with an SSD and then get a
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storage drive as well. Those are good, but boot off your SSD. And uh it's very
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interesting to see Acer's take on the gaming desktop up close and in person.
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So, I think that's pretty much it, guys. Thanks for checking out our top five
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gaming desktops at the Intel booth here at PAX Prime 2015. Don't miss any of our
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PAX Prime coverage because it's all freaking awesome. I haven't actually
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watched any of it yet cuz like Luke did it and I haven't watched it yet, but I'm
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sure it's awesome. He does a good job. Oh, and one thing I missed, it's got a
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turbo button. Bringing back the 486
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days. Yeah. as you.