The new Avalanche system from AVADirect is indeed a high-powered machine chock full of high-end components, but its key differentiating feature is that it features (bent) hard tubing in its liquid cooling solution.
The system features Windows 8.1 Pro with an Intel Core i7-4790K, two Nvidia Geforce GTX 980s in SLI, 16 GB DDR3, and a 1 TB Samsung 850 EVO SSD paired with a 3 TB Barracuda HDD for storage. The system also utilizes a 1200 W 80 Plus Platinum power supply.
The Avalanche ships with a factory overclock. How much the GPU is overclocked is unclear, but AVADirect's site claimed a 20 percent or higher performance increase on the CPU.
This dream machine doesn't come cheap, with a whopping $5,900 price tag for the "Ultimate" version.
Paying $5,900 is a lot when you could build a similarly-spec'd system yourself for much less cash, but much of what you're paying for is the premier water cooling system and the overclocking services by AVADirect.
Not only did AVADirect liquid-cool the CPU and both GPUs inside of this system, but the company used high-end hard tubing. Hard tubing also takes longer to setup and is more difficult to build with than soft tubing.
If the price for the Ultimate edition is too much for you, a base model of the Avalanche with customizable parts and services is also available. The base model keeps the same case and the hard tubing, but all other components, save for the motherboard and cooling system, are different.
The base model features Windows 7 Home with an Intel i5-4690K, Nvidia Geforce GTX 970, 8 GB DDR3, and a 120 GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD paired with a 1 TB HDD for storage. The system utilizes a less powerful 860 W 80 Plus Platinum power supply. This base configuration costs $4,150.
The base model is not overclocked, but AVADirect offers GPU overclocking free of charge. There is an option for free "mild" CPU overclocking (between 10 and 20 percent), while an "extreme" CPU overclock (above 20 percent) will run you an additional $60.
You can upgrade the base model to an Intel Core i7-4790K CPU, and there are five GPU upgrade options available including Nvidia Geforce GTX 980, Nvidia Geforce GTX Titan X, and three SLI offerings.
The RAM options range up to 32 GB configurations but maintain the same speed across all setups, with a frequency of 1866 MHz and CL9 timings. The storage options are numerous, with multiple SSDs, HDDs and RAID configurations to choose from. The OS can also be upgraded to Windows 8.1 for free, but Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, and Windows 8.1 Pro options will cost an additional fee. (That's all essentially irrelevant, though, when the Windows 10 upgrade rolls out this summer.)
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