The Dream Machine Revealed--Part Two of Three!
The Dream Machine Revealed--Part Two of Three!
Posted 07/07/2008 at 8:45am
| by David Murphy
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Dream Machine 2008 Revealed! For Part One of Three, Click Here
Here we go again! It's time for our second look at what's going into the Maximum PC Dream Machine 2008! If you're just joining us, here's the skinny: once a year, the Maximum PC staff descends to its underground lair. After a number of bizarre and dark technological rituals (we sacrifice an iMac), the team emerges with a gift blessed by the Gods of Technology themselves: the Dream Machine. It is, hands-down, the single-greatest computer you could ever hope to assemble based on the year's best (and sometimes unreleased) products!
This is an epic three-part series, and you're on step number two. If you want to start from the beginning, check out our unveiling of the rig's keyboard, mouse, display and hard drive(s). If you're ready for more Dream Machine action, we're taking a look at the system's CPU(s), motherboard, optical drive, and memory this time around.
The CPU(s)
We're gluttons for speed, so we've opted to slap two of Intel's high-end Core 2 Extreme QX9775 processors in our system. You read that correctly. Two. That's 3.2 GHz of processing power split over eight cores, or at least, it would be. Did we mention we're gluttons for speed? Thanks to an awesome custom water-cooling setup (to be unveiled in the third edition of this article), we've kicked this pair of processors up to 4.0 GHz apiece.
And where will we use this power? Well, there aren't that many applications optimized for eight-cores. But there are plenty of applications that could make full use of our setup. We'd just have to run them at the same time: gaming, video encoding, disk defragmenting, a Folding@home session, a Photoshop script. The sky is the proverbial limit for what our souped-up rig will be able to handle.
The Motherboard
Astute PC enthusiasts will be able to guess this one just by the processors we used. Since we're rocking two quad-cores, it only makes sense for us to slap these on an Intel Skulltrail motherboard. Our winner in this category is Intel's D5400XS. It gives us a ton of overclocking options which we liberally sprinkled across our two steaming processors. But more than that, it's the only motherboard we've found that will run both Nvidia SLI and AMD Crossfire setups. It's an awesome way to future-proof a rig, but more than that, it allowed us to choose our video card configuration based on speeds alone.
The motherboard also comes with the typical accouterments we've come to expect and love: support for 7.1 audio, Gigabit LAN, six external USB ports, two eSATA ports, and four PCI Express 1.1 x16 slots--a perfect fit for the video cards we'll might use...
The RAM
We've opted for 8GB of Corsair FB-DIMM memory for our mighty Dream Machine. At four sticks of 2GB apiece, these 800 MHz speed-demons are primarily geared for workstation environments. Their key difference from normal DDR2 or DDR3 RAM lies in their advanced memory buffer. This gives us a serial interface between the memory controller and the memory module, allowing the RAM to use fewer wires and more memory channels than a typical parallel architecture. This, and the fact that FB-DIMM memory processes read and write requests concurrently, allows us to tap into unmatched speeds for our memory. The downside? These little sticks are more prone to latency and heat. We solve the latter by attaching a Dominator fan accessory to the hot little sticks.
The Optical Drive
HD-DVD is dead. Done. Buried. We have eschewed the combo drive route for this very fact, opting instead for the fastest possible Blu-ray burner we can get our hands on. LG's GBW-H20L allows you to read and burn your Blu-ray discs at a speedy 6x, burn your DVD titles at 16x, and burn your standard CDs at 40x. No matter your optical media of choice, you'll be in speedy hands with this awesome SATA-based optical drive.
Check back next Monday for the final unveiling of the 2008 Dream Machine's guts!
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FenixSS
July 26, 2008 at 5:01pm
I'm confused by the description of the RAM. Is it DDR2 or DDR3 that they're using?
davidst489
July 26, 2008 at 11:19am
What next year a Dell case? I can agree with just about everything you did except for the case.
And if the case was $250 I could let you go on this but $1000 for that case, come on !!!!!!!
system32
July 16, 2008 at 8:43pm
4870x 2 pwns the gtx 280. the 280 is **** compared to the 4870 x2. and two 4870x2 will be way better than two 9800 x2.
RodneySB
July 15, 2008 at 12:14pm
"only motherboard we've found that will run both Nvidia SLI and AMD Crossfire setups"
So you ran a Crossfire over a single 280? Why? SLI?
How about 2x 280 or even a pair of 9800GX2? You don't need three way SLI to beat a pair of crossfires. Last time I checked the dream machine was never about money so the obvious best duo for the dream machine is only one of two choices
280 or 9800GX2
Drivers are more productive on gamming with the 9800GX2 but on app heavy systems / graphics the 280. Very disappointed in the choice of second rate video for a mag that I thought was unbiased. You can't reserect ATI to the top. They are happy with bringing quality for cheap. Top guns they are not and its not there aim right now.
JPmatt6
July 29, 2008 at 11:32pm
Really? Explain this: The 4870 falls somewhere between the 260 and 280 in performance across the board.
Logic means that 4 4870s will be faster than 3 GTX 280s. And considering a GTX 280 is nearly as fast as a
9800GX2, that means the 4 4870s will outperform two 9800GX2s in SLI.And explain this too: http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/15105/3
And that's with underdeveloped drivers. So, I believe the magazine remains unbiased.
TheDuck
July 13, 2008 at 2:44pm
I have been researching to see which OEM PC could beat (or closely rival) the Dream Machine 2008, and the results were, quite frankly, suprising. The XPS 730, Area51 ALX, and the Mac Pro were the top competitors of the Dream Machine if configured to the highest settings*.
However, Maximum PC, you still have work to do on having the most RAM- the Mac Pro beat you by a whooping 24 GB! The Dream Machine, though, does inspire me to support you guys on everything ranging from verdicts to ummm... just about everything else. Though I'm not sure why you would not use a HD DVD + Blu-Ray drive even though HD DVD is dead (HD DVD gives you enhanced DVD performance).
* Computers from HP, Voodo, or Gateway were not in the investigation.
hortizonen
July 12, 2008 at 8:39pm
12 kw generator needed to run this thing or is al gore taken into consideration?
Mathewpb
July 12, 2008 at 3:07pm
I would like to see full ESA setup even though the tech is still new. Mathew"
Bender2000
July 08, 2008 at 3:11pm
Dual Quad Cores? Fully Buffered RAM? Isn't that the MacPro?!?
Can we at least see the simple, clean SATA HDD installation that the MacPro uses. It's been how many years on the market and still not a standard feature in the PC case world?
pseizure2000
July 08, 2008 at 12:33pm
I'm curious about what audiocard you guys are going to pick.
Auzentech has a superb card compared to creative's and I've been wondering why it didn't get a kickass or best of best rating from you guys. I posted a comment about it on your review of the auzentech but never got any followup. eager to hear your thoughts on the matter.
i mean, try hooking up the digital outs and inputs of the creative card to some z-5500s and you'll see the problems I have with that damn flexijack.
kamman
July 07, 2008 at 8:34pm
since as far as i know 3-way is impossible on this board, i think the GPUs will either be:
two 280gtx2 in "quad" SLI
or
two 4870x2 in crossfire
yr
July 07, 2008 at 7:46pm
This is some really cool motherboard, but I guess I can only call it a dream at $650 just for the board!!
I guess I'll just keep dreaming; maybe someday it will be affordable!
BTW this machine will probably need a 10K BTU air conditioner to keep it cool!!! ;p
Maybe MPC can make a drawing for someone to win it, like the legoPC? (Just dreaming...)
yr
September 24, 2008 at 4:57pm
here is the address for the give-away:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1853580,00.asp
and
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,1918186,00.asp
pellier
July 07, 2008 at 4:11pm
can you have 8 gpus with the dual gpu cards. theres four full length PCIe slots on the motherboard
Silencer
July 07, 2008 at 10:57am
It would be neat to see ATi's new cards on it, (4870 X2s?,) or whatever, (even if you don't pick them.)
It would be neat to see Linux on it too. I believe the biggest resistance to Linux adoption, is new game support.
Does anyone know what the 'lag time' is, for new game support on Linux, (with that TransGaming subscription service, and all that,) or whatever? And is it good (fast, accurate,) enough? Bottom line, can Linux be a real gaming platform today? If not, how much longer, or what, will it take?
P.S. Seeing as how you use it, I may have to try Corsair memory sometime.
csdavid505
July 09, 2008 at 9:51am
I use open SuSE 11.0 and KDE 3.5 on Nvidia hardware. Most of the popular PC Games are already up. Thanks to the DirectX simulation, some new games pop right in, others can take up to 6 months.
I find better support for the hardware under Linux, built in RAID support, and built in 64bit support to be great advantages.
willsmith
July 07, 2008 at 11:50am
Even with Transgaming, Linux isn't viable for gamers who play a lot of new titles. If you just play WoW and TF2, you're probably OK.
TheMurph
July 08, 2008 at 9:38am
Funny you should ask. That review's coming out in the September issue...
TheMurph
July 07, 2008 at 10:34am
This should be a fun conversation thread. $20 says none of you get it right. :D
TheMurph
July 10, 2008 at 11:10pm
Yep. You called it. The Dream Machine 2008 is a Macbook Pro with Gordon's face custom-painted on the front: the iUng.
TheMurph
July 07, 2008 at 4:55pm
Bless your kind words. Had only the higher-ups at the magazine granted me permission to bring back "Lil' Boxy" from the dead...
RIP
Magaliiiii
July 08, 2008 at 3:56pm
to this day, whenever i try to explain which maxpc editor dave is, i just go "the one who made a cardboard box PC."
whatever man, *I* thought it was creative.
hogkill
July 07, 2008 at 2:48pm
Alright, for my second guess I bet you guys put it in the Lian Li PC-P80R even though it has NVidia cards, and then you all get a big laugh out of it.
Talcum X
July 07, 2008 at 11:50am
It's that Carbon Fiber case from Ultra. May not be the best, but it's the most unique and expensive....ok, j/k. Had to throw something in this ring...
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