The number of the BEAST
The third bottom-mounted radiator works in a similar fashion, too,
sucking in air from the sides and blowing out of the bottom. The end
result, says BEAST, is a cooling system that dissipates extreme amounts
of heat from multiple heat sources in the same loop.
The pre-production system was specified with a couple of watercooled
Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards in CrossFireX mode.
The CPU - in this case a Core i7 940 - will be overclocked when the
machine launches later on this month.
Our brief testing with the system highlighted CPU temps hovering at
around 50°C under load, which whilst good, isn't extraordinary.
Speaking to BEAST representatives, we learned that the CPU block was the first available for Core i7 processors. As such, we expect thermal performance to improve as a greater number of block manufacturers design for Core i7's revised dimensions.
We expect BEAST to replace the motherboard with a more
enthusiast-friendly ASUS P6T Deluxe or Rampage II Extreme - opening up
the possibility of specifying either a two-card Radeon HD 4870 X2 or
three-card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 280 graphics setup.
Expect to see the system ship with a Core i7 running at over 4GHz,
graphics cards pre-overclocked, and a slew of solid-state drives for
ultimate performance.
Revision 2 and 3 of this PC will use higher-quality materials, we're
told, and we wait to see it with bated breath.
The downside of having a custom-built PC - where you can probably
choose which colour of cable-tie goes into the system - is price.
Equipped with a Core i7 probably operating at >4GHz; twin
pre-overclocked Radeon HD 4870 X2s in CrossFireX; 6GB DDR3 RAM; 1.3TB's
of mechanical-based storage; 1,100W PSU, LG Blu-ray drive; the complete
watercooling kit; powdercoated case finish, and personal delivery,
you're looking at little change from £6,000 - and that
excludes monitor and peripherals. That's the price you pay for ultimate
bespokeness, it seems, but it's manifestly out of the reach of most
consumers.
Having tinkered with it for a day or two, we reckon that performance,
once the full-retail model is released, will be about as good as money
can buy. However £6k is an awful lot of money to spend,
especially when 90 per cent of the performance can be purchased for
less than half the asking price.
Most readers will guffaw at the price and label it insane. However, even in today's economic climate there remains a clique of folks with multiple thousands of pounds/dollars to spend on their hobbies. BEAST is targeting those people with systems like these.
We'll know more of whether it can succeed in such a segment as
we take a similar system in for full review in a couple of weeks' time.
