The Revolution GTX3, Continued
Graphics : 3x XFX GeForce GTX 280 (SLI)
This is the heart of the Revolution GTX3’s gaming potential : a triple threat of the fastest single-GPU cards money can buy. It will be interesting to see how these can deliver compared to a dual-GTX 280 and dual-4870 X2 machine. In the past, our experiences have been that you need a particularly powerful CPU in order to drive a dual-card configuration, much less a 3-way setup like this one.
Hard Drives : 1 Western Digital 300 GB Velociraptor, and 1 Western Digital 640 GB Caviar
Instead of using a RAID solution to boost hard drive transfer speed, MaxForce opted for a fast 10,000 RPM 300 GB Velociraptor for the system drive and a regular 640 GB Caviar for storage. It does the job without the data jeopardy of RAID 0 and the performance hit of RAID 1.
With that said, we’re still advocates of more secure arrays like RAID 5 and 0+1, especially on such a beefy machine. It’s also be interesting to see how the Revolution HTX3 would do with a couple of Intel’s SSDs.
Sound : Asus Xonar DX
The Asus Xonar has established itself as a high-end alternative to Creative’s Xi-Fi cards and is an excellent option in the high-end MaxForce rig. Check out this peek at the Xonar from our last System Builder Marathon.
Case : Antec Twelve Hundred
The Antec Twelve Hundred is an excellent case with a lot of space and superlative airflow, coupled with quiet operation—a fine choice for any high-end rig.
Power : Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W
Thermaltake’s Toughpower supplies a rated 1200 watts of power. It might be overkill, but those three GeForce 280 cards will be hungry and it’s never a good idea to skimp on the juice. Generally, our concerns about using heavy-duty PSUs like this once center on efficiency. But there’s a fair chance that the Toughpower in MaxForce’s Revolution will be operating within its optimal efficiency range for much of the time.
OS : Windows Vista Ultimate 32 bit
As we’ve mentioned earlier, 32-bit Vista can only make use of roughly 3 GB of RAM, so Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit is appropriate given MaxForce’s decision to arm our machine with 2 GB of DDR3. Folks who are looking to use apps that can take advantage of more RAM should be steering toward the 64-bit version of the operating system, and we’d most definitely recommend a higher-end memory configuration.
In addition to these main components, there are extras of course : an optical drive, a card reader, and a USB stick. MaxForce includes the OS and other driver disks and manuals in a binder with detailed parts and contact information.
