Puget Systems Deluge: Revisiting the Art of Custom With X79
by Dustin Sklavos on November 24, 2011 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Gaming
- Intel
- Puget Systems
- mid-tower
- Water Cooling
- NVIDIA
Introducing the Puget Systems Deluge
It's been a little while since we've had a Puget Systems desktop in, and so far we haven't yet tested any of their big dog gaming machines. Everything else we've tested, we've liked, but what happens when the fine folks over at Puget Systems pull out all the stops and put together a high end gaming machine? The answer: the Deluge, an X79-based rig in a modified Antec P183, employing a custom liquid-cooling loop. It's big, powerful, and expensive. Did Puget Systems hit another custom out of the park, and is Sandy Bridge-E the enthusiast platform we were waiting for?
While we're used to seeing liquid-cooled systems around here, the Puget Systems Deluge is one of the few we've had in with a fully custom solution. Puget Systems modified the Antec P183 enclosure substantially, planting a 360mm Koolance radiator in the top and adding a window to the side (complete with intake fan). This is really the first tricked-out system we've received from them, and it's a doozy aimed at demonstrating what Intel's new Sandy Bridge-E and X79 platform can do. Needless to say, the rap sheet comes packed with all the latest and greatest hardware.
Puget Systems Deluge L2 Specifications | |
Chassis | Antec P183, Modified |
Processor |
Intel Core i7-3960X (6x3.3GHz + HTT, Turbo to 3.9GHz, 4.6GHz Overclock, 32nm, 15MB L3, 130W) |
Motherboard | ASUS Sabertooth X79 (X79 chipset) |
Memory | 8x4GB Patriot Viper Xtreme DDR3-1600 @ 1500MHz (expandable to 64GB) |
Graphics |
2x NVIDIA eVGA GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB GDDR5 in SLI (2x 512 CUDA Cores, 772/1544/4008MHz core/shaders/RAM, 384-bit memory bus) |
Hard Drive(s) |
Intel 510 250GB SATA 6Gbps SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 7200-RPM SATA 6Gbps HDD |
Optical Drive(s) | ASUS BD-RE (BW-12B1ST) |
Networking | Intel 82579V Gigabit Ethernet |
Audio |
ASUS Xonar DX Speaker, mic/line-in, surround jacks, optical out for 7.1 sound |
Front Side |
Optical drive Card reader USB 3.0 2x USB 2.0 Headphone and mic jacks |
Top | - |
Back Side |
PS/2 5x USB 3.0 6x USB 2.0 6-pin FireWire Optical out 2x eSATA Ethernet 4x DVI-D 2x Mini-HDMI Speaker, mic/line-in, surround, and optical jacks |
Operating System | Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1 |
Dimensions | 19.9" x 8.1" x 22" (WxDxH) |
Extras |
Card reader Antec CP1000 PSU Custom liquid-cooling loop with 360mm radiator |
Warranty | 1-year parts, Lifetime labor and tech support (extendable by up to three years) |
Pricing |
Starts at $3,945 Review system configured at $7,254 |
Well, I believe that's officially the most expensive configuration I've yet tested, so if you don't need a car but can afford to buy one, Puget Systems is willing to sell you a tricked out desktop in its stead.
We start at the top with Intel's shiny new top-of-the-line Core i7-3960X. Built on a 32nm process, the new chip features eight hyper-threaded Sandy Bridge cores and 20MB of L3 cache, although in this chip 5MB of L3 and two of the cores are disabled. There's an unlocked multiplier and quad-channel memory, and it runs at a nominal 3.3GHz clock speed. Puget Systems, however, pushed this baby to 4.6GHz, and strapped to the four memory channels is 32GB of Patriot DDR3 in eight 4GB DIMMs, running at 1.5GHz due to a tweaked BCLK.
Handling graphics duties are a pair of eVGA GeForce GTX 580s with Koolance waterblocks attached to them. For the first time, I think I'm actually mildly surprised the video cards themselves haven't been overclocked, especially given how much headroom there can be on the GTX 580 (my own is pushing 880MHz on stock voltage). The stock clock speeds of 772MHz on the core (resulting in 1544MHz on the shaders) and 4GHZ on the 1.5GB of GDDR5 is actually kind of disappointing, especially knowing that all of Puget Systems' suppliers offer factory overclocked cards. Even a mild bump, as is found on eVGA's SuperClocked GTX 580, would've been appreciated. But they're running in SLI and the stupefying amount of CPU power on hand should hopefully alleviate any CPU limitations in gaming.
As I've come to expect from Puget Systems, the SSD is an Intel 510. Other manufacturers will use SSDs by Crucial, Corsair, or OCZ, and I personally run a Corsair in my desktop, but Puget is serious about hardware reliability and thus far Intel is one of the best for SSDs. The 510 is rated for 500MB/sec in read speed and 315MB/sec in write speed, making it more than adequate for our purposes. Mass storage is handled by a Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB drive, and given the current shortages in the industry as a result of the Thailand flooding, you pay dearly for the privilege.
Rouding out the Deluge is an ASUS Xonar DX on audio duty and an ASUS BD-RE drive. While I can definitely vouch firsthand for the quality of the Xonar DX (and it's a popular choice among enthusiasts), I'm keen to point out that it becomes a lot less attractive if you're using optical out instead of analog. I use a pair of Antec Soundscience Rockus speakers with the digital out on my motherboard, and found it to be a bit less of a hassle than keeping my Xonar DX installed.
Of course, one of the big things you're paying for is the 360mm Koolance radiator custom mounted to the top of the P183 V3 enclosure along with the 3/8" tubing used for the liquid-cooling loop that runs between the CPU and pair of GeForce GTX 580s. There's also a reservoir mounted in one of the front 5.25" drive bays. It's a very slick and clean installation.
Update 11-30-2011: We've added results for the Deluge in surround gaming.
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Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
If I could keep it, why would I give it to you? ;)vol7ron - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
Umm, possibly a prize give away to the more active readers/forum participators/commenters?Onslaught2k3 - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
"We start at the top with Intel's shiny new top-of-the-line Core i7-3960X. Built on a 32nm process, the new chip features eight hyper-threaded Sandy Bridge cores and 20MB of L3 cache, although in this chip 5MB of L3 and two of the cores are disabled."to this
"We start at the top with Intel's shiny new top-of-the-line Core i7-3960X. Built on a 32nm process, the new chip features SIX hyper-threaded Sandy Bridge cores and 20MB of L3 cache, although in this chip 5MB of L3 and two of the cores are disabled."
Can't anyone willing buy the same system AND build it themselves at less than half that cost? Nice review though, Dustin.
Death666Angel - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
Read the SNB-E review:"If you look carefully at the die shot above, you'll notice that there are actually eight Sandy Bridge cores. The Xeon version will have all eight enabled, but the last two are fused off for SNB-E."
This version is a hexacore, not a quad-core as you say. But the chip it is built on actually has 8 cores.
Onslaught2k3 - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
Ok, no corrections are needed. I wonder if at some point a BIOS-based unlock would be available for this chip exclusively... since... you know... it's over $1k in price...JarredWalton - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
Pretty sure they're fused off; AMD has allowed core unlocking on some chips in the past, but I don't recall that from Intel any time in recent history.mfenn - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
Anybody want to take bets on whether or not Dustin can make it through an entire article without using the word "dire"?Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
Outlook...dire. ;)ckryan - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
When will the Dustin Sklavos Review kit become available for purchase?You get a case with dire cable management, a laptop with a dire TN panel, and an AIO with dire thermals AND a dire TN!! It's a can't-win proposition.
I don't have a beef with boutique builders putting boutique prices on boutique builds. I do have a problem with laying out that much feddy and not getting an Asus Xonar Essence STX, but instead receiving the DX. If I using someone else's money to buy this system I could easily massage it into the system is could be. I could adjust the overclock my damn self.
FWIW, I think it's hard to really make a high end X79 build, when you get most of the actual features from a P67/Z68 chipset.
wickman - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
1920x1080 is a pretty low resolution to be using for a system powered by dual GTX 580, 590s, 6990s, and so forth. I don't think anyone running this type of gpu subsystem would possibly be running such a low resolution when the cards themselves are capable of running games at 2560x1400, 2560x1600, or higher when used with multiple panels.Would be nice to see what these systems were able to do at much higher resolutions.