Naveen's System Review: System Owned 6 Weeks

I'm not one of these people who jumps up and reviews the second I get something out of the box.  I wanted to test it and put it through it's paces.  I've never had a system built for me (not counting my C64 or various Apple IIs back in the day). I've built them all myself.  This time though I wanted liquid cooling and for my first one I wanted the pro's to do it.

I picked up one of the pre-built "can't change anything at all" deals.  Not everything is exactly what I would have picked but the price was obscenely low (relatively speaking).  Here are the specs:

System Configuration:
Chassis Model: Special Deal Hot Seller - Cooler Master HAF 932
Exterior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Interior Finish: - Standard Factory Finish
Trim Accents: - No Thanks
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz (Quad Core) Factory Overclocked to 4.0GHz
Motherboard: EVGA X58 3X SLI (Chipset: Intel X58)
System Memory: 6GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair/Mushkin (Digital Storm Certified) (Hand Tested)
Power Supply: 1250W Enermax Galaxy EVO (Dual/Triple/Quad SLI Compatible) (Recommended)
Card Reader: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 1: Operating System: 1x (1TB Western Digital (7200 RPM) (32MB Cache) (SATA) (Extreme Speed)
Set 1 Raid Options: - No Thanks
Hard Drive Set 2: Multimedia\Data: 1x (500GB Western Digital (16MB Cache) (7200 RPM) (SATA)
Hard Drive Set 3: Backup\Misc.: - No Thanks
Optical Drive 1: DVD±R/RW/CD-R/RW (DVD Writer 20x / CD-Writer 48x)
Optical Drive 2: - No Thanks
Internet Access: High Speed Network Port (Supports High-Speed Cable / DSL / Network Connections)
Video Card(s): 2x SLI Dual (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 1.792GB (Includes PhysX Technology)
Add-on Card: - No Thanks
Sound Card: 7.1 24-bit / 192kHz Decoding High Definition Integrated Audio
Extreme Cooling: H20: Stage 3: High-Performance Liquid Chilled FrostBite System For CPU
Liquid Color: Blue: Non-conductive High-Performance Fluid (Requires H20: Stage 3 Cooling Package)
Chassis Airflow: Standard Factory Chassis Fans
Internal Lighting: - No Thanks
Enhancements: - No Thanks
Chassis Mods: - No Thanks
CPU Boost: Yes, Factory Overclocked i7 920 from 2.66GHz to 4.0GHz with 100% Stability & Reliability
Graphics Boost: Yes, Overclock the video card(s) as much as possible with complete stability
Memory Boost: - No Thanks
Windows Boost: Yes, Disable and tweak all of the non-crucial services on the operating system
Windows OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-Bit Edition)
Restore Kit: Digital Storm Specialized Recovery System (DVD Image Based)
Virus Protection: - No Thanks
Office: - No Thanks
Benchmarking: - No Thanks
Pre-Install Game: - No Thanks
LCD Display: - No Thanks
Surge Shield: - No Thanks
Speakers: - No Thanks
Keyboard: - No Thanks
Mouse: - No Thanks
External Storage: - No Thanks
Exclusive T-Shirt: - No Thanks
Priority Build: Ship Within 72-Hours After Order Is Successfully Processed 
Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Care Extended Parts & Labor Warranty

I order on 10/13/09 and receive the unit on 10/23/09.


Cat decided she wanted to be used for size reference.


THANKS UPS!


The smell of fresh computer.


Boxes moved.


In all it's glory.


Look ma, (almost) no cables!


The setup with my 40" Samsung LCD-LED (holy god is this screen sweet).

Okay review part:

I initially had some issues with audio (specifically the mic) locking up my system.  After a ton of poking I found some settings deep inside of the Control Panel that fixed it.  About 1/2 the programs that list what the CPU speed is say it's running at 3.8 Mhz the other 1/2 say 4.01 Mhz.  Not sure which ones are 100% correct (I've not had a ton of time to research it)

The system is an amazingly clean build and I could not even come close to how clean they built it (cables hate me with a passion).

I've had some temp issues when the room gets over 78-80F so in Summer I might need to lower the OC or run the AC.  Other than that temps have been good.  My GPU1 and GPU2 max out around 61c and GPU3 and GPU4 never go above 48c (3/4 are right next to 1/2 and block airflow).  Yes I run Quad-SLI.  The water cooling seems to be very well done and keeps things nice and cool (unless as previously stated room temps get too high).  No drips, drops or leaks.

Frame rates in most games are nuts.  In WoW I can get almost to 200 FPS in some areas.  Dalaran drops me to around 70 FPS.  Mass Effect 1 seems to be the only game so far that gets a bit choppy.  I just started playing it and need to research a bit on why this may be the case.

The only hardware glitch I can find (and I posted about it somewhere) is on the access door 2 of my 4 fans run at much lower speeds than the other 2.  I really did not pursue looking into it because the PITA factor of swapping them out would be far too high.

Packaging and documentation were top notch and I could not have asked for better.

During the ordering and after I received the system Eric helped me extensively.  Thanks again Eric!

From a raw numbers standpoint here is what I get on 3DMark06:


I was hoping for a number closer to 30k and when I have the time might try to tweak the system up a bit.

Over all I'm extremely happy with my purchase and am enjoying the system.  Hmmm did I leave anything out?

I posted this picture elsewhere but it's just too cool to not share again....  My DS system with 5 amBX systems running:


If you have any questions feel free to ask.

you are running at 4.0 Ghz.. some programs take your B-clock and use a set multi for the chip model.. you have a 920. at 190 Bclock, so they use 20 for the multi reporting 3.8Ghz.. You actually are using a 21 multi giving you an overclock of 4.0Ghz Your 3dmark does look low.. you have quad sli enabled in the nvidia control panel?  My 2 little 4890's broke 30,000 on 3dmark06.

overclocking on air is tough, they scale well  with cold, so if possible, get the room cold as you can, have the fans locked at 100%. overclock little by little, once you see the score drop, you have gone to far.. make sure you unlock the core speed from the shader clock, so  you can up them separately.

Edited by justin.kerr - 07 Dec 2009 at 12:32pm

try it like i mentioned, with the GPU fans at 100%, unlink the clocks, raise core first, bring up the shader as needed, then lastly do the mem once you find the other two's max.

Looks Great!!!

Nice set up. Wish I had the $ for that monitor.

Ah... cool thanks