It was interesting to view the contrasts between last year's Best PC (EiED Online>> Best Computer Of 2005, ED Online ID 11574) and this year's quad core powerhouse utilizing Intel's new Core Duo 2 Extreme QX6700 processor with its 775-landing multichip package. The chip itself is about the same size as the AMD Athlon used last year but it double the number of cores.
The other big change was on the display side with a nod to the latest big screen systems in your favorite electronics store. We used a 27-in. widescreen HDTV, the Viewsonic N2761w, for the monitor.
A quick overview of the parts is next but definitely check out the links to individual reviews of each component used in the system for more details. The overview is followed by the construction steps and finally a quick wrap up of the system's operation.
Matching Powerful Parts
The key to a good system is mixing components that properly support each other. Of course, a top of the line system like this winds up using the best components available at the time.
At the heart of the system is the Intel Core Duo 2 Extreme QX6700 processor. Each of the four processor cores is running at 2.66 GHz. They share access to a 1066-MHz memory system populated by Corsair's Dominator XMS2-8500. The Dominator XMS2-8500 handles speeds up to 1111 MHz with latencies of 5-5-5-15. We used a matched pair of 1-Gbyte units in this project, but the motherboard, Intel's D975XBX2, can handle up to 8 Gbytes of memory using 1-Gbit technology.
The D975XBX2, code named Bad Axe 2, is an ATX motherboard. It has three PCI Express slots and two PCI slots, although only a combination of three boards is allowed. Even with this limited number of slots, the motherboard can handle a great deal including eight Serial ATA drives (four with hardware RAID support). Of course, we matched this with a pair of 750-Gbyte Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA hard disks in a RAID 1 configuration.
It also handled the two ATI X1950XTX graphics cards with CrossFire support from AMD and BFG Technologies' Physics Processor Board with Ageia's PhysX chip. These provide the highest performance level of gaming support around. The four main processors handle the main aspects of the game while the physics board tracks the simulated world and the two video boards handle the display.
Packing this hardware into a case is no easy task, and powering it is even harder. The quad core processors are actually running pretty cool but power requirements when you add in multiple drives and multiple video cards make for a heavy to power supply unit (PSU) like Enermax's Galaxy 1000W. It is one big PSU. We matched it with one big UPS (uninterruptible power supply) from APC, the Smart-UPS 2200VA USB.
The Galaxy 1000W will not fit into just any case so we turned to Enermax again for its stylish ECA3052-BS case. It has a giant fan on the side. Just the thing for multiple video cards and for gamers who want to overclock without turning to liquid cooling.
The ECA3052-BS case (Fig. 1) we received is solid black that matches the black 27-in. Viewsonic N2761w wide screen HDTV. It dominates the desktop and is enough to handle a small room as a TV alone. We chose this display because it provides a large viewing area, thereby eliminating the need for dual monitors. It also provides instant access and picture-in-picture display of HDTV content as well as PC output. Some users, especially gamers, may prefer the faster Viewsonic VX924 19-in. LCD (ED Online ID 11722) that we used last year, with its 3-ms response time.
Watching the latest movies might be nice with a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive but they are not available in quantity yet and it is unclear whether a universal drive will win out. This year we chose Hewlett-Packard's 940i DVD writer. It handle writing double-layer DVDs and it can print on LightScribe media like the new multicolor media from Verbatim.
Now we have the three black monstrosities (PC, HDTV and UPS). It made sense to stick with the color scheme and look at the slickest keyboard and mouse around, Logitech's diNovo Edge keyboard and MX Revolution mouse.
Now how about we put all this together.