What Does A $16,000+ PC Look Like, Anyway?
What Does A $16,000+ PC Look Like, Anyway?A couple of months back, I was talking to the folks at Puget Systems for the first time, and in our initial discussion, they mentioned a high-end system they were working on. Curious as to what the company meant by a true high-end machine, I asked about the box's innards.
The project was just getting started and it would apparently require lots of customization, so I naturally wanted to know more. It turned out that the system would cost in excess of $16,000.
Given the enthusiasm over our $5,000 System Builder Marathon machine (despite its prohibitively high price tag), we just had to get a complete album of what goes into a box priced at more than three times what we already considered to be the ultimate enthusiast build.Â
In the pages to come, we'll give you the customer's reason for wanting such a powerhouse, the full list of specs, and plenty of shots of what Puget had to do to get this thing running the way it wanted.
Running 4 cooling blocks in series is going to create a ton of back pressure, and that particular pump on the Koolance, while quiet, is not a very powerful one.
90 degree barbs are a big no-no for a watercooling setup, they create even more back pressure making the pump work harder.
You never place a reservior at the bottom. It should be at the top of the case where it is the highest component in the water loop so as to minimize the formation of air bubbles in the other components.
I don't know how well their setup runs, but I would be very surprised if it goes for a year without something breaking somewhere.
There are no Nehalem-based Xeons yet
Video workstation maybe? The problem with most rackmount systems is that they're bloody noisy. This thing was designed to be the exact opposite, suggesting it'd be used in an office or something.
Who knows, maybe the new owner of that rig will stop by and tell us exactly what he's doing with it now!
There are no Nehalem-based Xeons yet
And, the Chasis going to be massively heavy on one side, with the already heavy mainboard + the radiator, wonder if the chasis can withstand such setup for long term.
It's in one of the captions, too, but he ordered an 8800 GTS.
Running 4 cooling blocks in series is going to create a ton of back pressure, and that particular pump on the Koolance, while quiet, is not a very powerful one.
90 degree barbs are a big no-no for a watercooling setup, they create even more back pressure making the pump work harder.
You never place a reservior at the bottom. It should be at the top of the case where it is the highest component in the water loop so as to minimize the formation of air bubbles in the other components.
I don't know how well their setup runs, but I would be very surprised if it goes for a year without something breaking somewhere.
But other than that annoyance, this rig is just awesome! Run Crysis + encode video + run a scan + zip a huge file + burn DVD all at once!
Cheers,
CList