Ars Technica System Guide: July 2013

Compared to the massive, across the board shakeups seen in some updates, this iteration of the System Guide looks pretty straightforward. The new System Guide accounts for a significant jump in graphics performance and the continuing evolution of faster CPUs, but the effects are limited.

Small but significant product changes add up, though, and enough of them mean an updated System Guide. It’s hard to ignore shiny new CPUs and graphics cards—especially when the new shiny is cheaper, faster, or both!

New shiny

Intel’s new 4th generation Core i-series processors, codenamed Haswell, bring nice improvements in performance and platform power consumption, but the Haswell processors available at launch are really only suitable for the Hot Rod. Haswell-E for Xeon processors won’t be out until deep into 2014, and cheaper dual-core Haswell parts in the Budget Box price range won’t hit until the second wave of Haswell processors later this year.

Overclockers have not been terribly happy overclocking Intel’s 22nm processors (Ivy Bridge and Haswell), but in general, the IPC (instructions per clock) improvement and reduced power consumption have made Haswell a nice update all around. In the Hot Rod and God Box, AMD’s current processors (based on Piledriver) lagged behind Ivy Bridge and fare worse against Haswell, but to AMD’s credit, the very modest tweaks in its latest codenamed Richland APUs keep them very relevant in cheaper systems such as the Budget Box.

Video cards are a little easier. AMD’s lineup changes are minor, but Nvidia’s GK110 and GK104 GPUs get refreshed products with new price points; making the new Geforce GTX 700-series and (not so new) GTX Titan graphics cards strong candidates for the Hot Rod and God Box. This also knocks down prices on older GPUs that are relevant to the Budget Box, although the price drops aren’t huge. It’s not as exciting as an entirely new generation of GPUs, but the added performance is always nice.

Other areas are a little duller; incremental improvements in solid-state disks (SSDs) hit around the previous update, and shiny new 4K monitors now trickling into consumer hands are unfortunately extremely expensive. It’s far out of typical System Guide builder range at the moment.

We continue to focus more on the tangible benefits for the System Guide: better overall performance and performance for your dollar (aka value) while trying to stay within the average enthusiast’s budget for a new system.

System Guide Fundamentals

The main Ars System Guide is a three-system affair, with the traditional Budget Box, Hot Rod, and God Box addressing three different price points in the market from modest to a little crazy. The main System Guide’s boxes are general-purpose systems with a strong gaming focus, which results in fairly well-rounded machines suitable for most enthusiast use. They also make a solid starting point to spin off into a variety of configurations.

The low end of the scale, the Budget Box, is still a capable gaming machine despite its reasonable price tag ($600-$800). A capable discrete video card gives it some punch for gaming, while sufficient CPU power and memory ensure it’s good for everything else. The Hot Rod represents what we think is a solid higher-end general-purpose computer that packs plenty of gaming performance. We’ve adjusted the price tag a few times recently, from $1400-1600 down to $1200-1400… and now, perhaps back up to the old point to reflect new capabilities and jumps in performance. The God Box remains a showcase or a starting point for workstation builders or enthusiasts who believe in overkill with a capital “O.” It may not do exactly what you want, but it should be an excellent starting point for anyone with a good idea of their truly high-end computing needs—be it gaming to excess after winning the lottery, taking advantage of GPU computing, or storing and editing tons of HD video.

For the short version: the Budget Box is for those who are seeking the most bang for their buck. The Hot Rod is for enthusiasts with a larger budget who still know that there’s a sweet spot between performance and price. The God Box, as excessive as it is, always has a slight dose of moderation (as mentioned in previous guides, “God wouldn’t be a glutton”).

Each box has a full set of recommendations, down to the mouse, keyboard, and speakers. As these are general-purpose boxes, we skip things like game controllers and $100 gaming mice, although the God Box does get something a bit nicer. We also discuss alternative configurations and upgrades.

Operating Systems

For the typical System Guide user, this boils down to Windows or Linux. Windows occupies the vast majority of desktop space, with Windows 8 and now 8.1 on the way. Standard Windows 8 does fine for most, while Windows 8 Professional includes additional features such as BitLocker, Remote Desktop Connection, and domain support that home users may not need. Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional also sport similar differences, and these are equally viable. Some find the Windows 8 UI changes intolerable and prefer Windows 7, but we don’t have a strong preference either way.

God Box builders sticking with Windows will want at least Windows 7 Professional or Windows 8 Professional (for a desktop OS) due to memory and CPU socket limits on some versions or specific versions of Windows Server 2008 R2 (HPC, Enterprise, or Datacenter) or Windows Server 2012 (Standard, Datacenter, or Hyper-V) for their support for large amounts of memory.

Microsoft has a detailed list of Windows memory limits.

Linux is a strong alternative, although support for many applications is somewhat limited. Gamers in particular are probably stuck to Windows for most mainstream games. If you do go the Linux route, Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mageia, Debian, Arch Linux, and tons of others are around.

We do not try to cover all operating systems or front-ends here. We don’t begin to touch media center-biased ones (such as XMBC, MediaPortal, or Plex), storage-focused ones (such as FreeNAS), or many others outside the focus and scope of the main three-box System Guide. So poke and tinker away—there’s a ton more we can’t begin to cover.

Those trying to build hackintosh systems for OS X are also outside the scope of the main three-box System Guide. If that’s your goal, you should give our own Mac Achaia as well as sites such as tonymacx86 and OSx86 a look.

Budget Box

• Core i3-3220 = $129.99
• MSI H77MA-G43 = $84.99 (plus $5 MIR)
• Crucial 2x4GB (8GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5v = $72.99
• Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB = $154.99 (plus $15 MIR)
• Samsung 840 120GB = $99.99
• Lite-On 24x DVD-RW = $17.99
• Fractal Design Core 1000 = $39.99
• Corsair CX430 = $44.99 (plus $20 MIR)
• Asus VE228H 21.5″ = $137.99
• Logitech X-140 =$29.99
• Logitech MK120 = $19.99
• Total = $833.89 ($793.89 after rebates)

Intended as a solid foundation for an affordable gaming box that is also suitable for all-around use, the Budget Box is full of compromises that we believe are good (or at least reasonable). Moving to the upper end of our preferred price range nets a box with decent performance at 1920×1080 in modern games, 8GB of memory, and an SSD for what amounts to an extremely quick setup for the money.

Individual builders can adjust components to better-fit their specific needs. In particular, removing the video card would make the Budget Box a nice starting point for an office or HTPC, or a video card downgrade could better fit a user with more modest performance requirements.

CPU, motherboard, and memory

Intel Core i3-3220 retail

MSI H77MA-G43 motherboard

Crucial 8GB DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5v memory

The Budget Box processor choice has been an interesting one these past few years. If we inch closer to the upper range of the Budget Box price range, an Intel Core i3-3220 (3.3GHz, 3MB cache, 55W TDP) just barely squeezes in. It faces a formidable challenge from AMD’s new Richland APUs, particularly the A10-6700 and A10-6800K. While AMD does well in multithreaded applications, overall performance works out fairly close, and in gaming, Intel’s Core i3 maintains the lead. Given the Budget Box’s slight tilt towards gaming, Intel’s Core i3-3220 makes the most sense. Factor in power consumption and things definitely go Intel’s way.

Haswell in dual-core Core i3 and Pentium variants isn’t due until Q3 2013, so unfortunately it is not yet a factor in the Budget Box. It should further lower platform power consumption and improve performance, which will keep things interesting.

Aiming a little lower, the Pentium G2130/G2120/G2020 and Celeron G1620/G1610 compete against AMD’s lower-end A4, A6, and A8-series Richland APUs. For a general purpose box the differences are small, although builders who don’t need the additional performance of a discrete graphics card will find that AMD’s onboard graphics are markedly superior to Intel’s for light-duty gaming. As the Budget Box performance requirements mandate a discrete GPU, this means the formidable integrated performance of AMD’s APUs is not a factor in the Budget Box.

Balancing features, performance, and cost is a little more delicate with an Intel board in this price range. The H77 chipset does not permit overclocking, but it does support onboard video (should any Budget Box builder choose to skip a discrete video card), SATA 6Gbps, and USB 3.0, which is finally standard on Intel 7-series chipsets. Switching to a Z77-based motherboard allows overclocking but costs a few bucks more. This is best done with a K-series processor, which is considerably beyond the Budget Box’s price range.

AMD builders will want to look at AMD A85-based boards with Socket FM2 for AMD Trinity APUs. SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 are standard everywhere now and finding a suitable board is generally not a big deal.

The MSI H77MA-G43 motherboard may be fairly simple, but it supports four DDR3 slots, two PCI-e 2.0 x16 slots (x16 and x4 electrical), two PCI-e 2.0 x1 slots, two SATA 6Gbps ports, four SATA 3Gbps ports, two USB 3.0 ports (plus more internally), VGA and DVI-D out, Ethernet, and all the basics.

Heatsink: make sure to pick up a retail boxed CPU, as the included heatsink/fan is more than adequate. Overclockers buying a Z87 board can look at heatsinks such as the Coolermaster Hyper 212+ without worrying too much about cost. And memory, right now, is extremely cheap. We stick with major name brand DDR3-1600 at the JEDEC-standard 1.5v for optimal compatibility. 8GB of memory is so cheap it’s worth the extra expense in the Budget Box to simply not have to worry about it in the future.

Video

Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB

Assuming the rest of the system is competent, the easiest way to enhance the performance of a gaming system is a few more bucks on the video card. As much as we prefer to not stretch the price of the Budget Box all the way to its upper bounds (or a tad beyond), this might be the place to do it if it’s really worth it.

This means a slight stretch from the last update, from a Nvidia Geforce GTX 650 Ti up to an AMD Radeon HD 7850 1GB. The 1GB version of the Radeon HD 7850 is supposedly being discontinued, but supply still seems quite good. The performance boost over the slower Radeon HD 7790 or Geforce GTX 650 Ti (non-Boost) is appreciated at 1920×1080 resolutions that the Budget Box operates at. Builders should be cautious to check which titles they expect to run, as the competition from Nvidia (the GTX 650 Ti Boost) is sometimes slightly faster than the Radeon HD 7850 in some titles. Note that some reviews also show minimal differences between 1GB and 2GB cards, at least at particular resolution/graphics settings.

Budget Box builders with a little extra cash and even more demanding gaming should look at the Geforce GTX 660 or Radeon HD 7870 GHz Edition, while builders who have lesser performance demands can look at the standard Geforce GTX 650 Ti, Radeon HD 7790, or even the lower-end Radeon HD 7770. Those who have no significant need for 3D performance should omit a discrete card all together and stick with the integrated video.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 selected has a 900MHz GPU clock, 1GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus at 1200MHz (4.8GHz effective), 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort, 2x DVI, and a two-year warranty. Competing cards vary somewhat on clock speeds, heatsink/fan performance, noise, and the like. Shop carefully and better values may be found, although we would be careful not to get too carried away.

Sound, communications

Network card: none (on-board)

Sound card: none (on-board)

Onboard sound and gigabit Ethernet work well enough for almost all Budget Box users.

Those seeking more can look at the Asus Xonar DSX or the higher-end Xonar DX for audio. The list of alternatives is fairly short at the moment, and a discrete sound card is not critical to the Budget Box.

Storage

Samsung 840 Series 120GB SSD

Lite-On 24x DVD-RW (iHAS124-04)

SSD price drops seem to have stabilized around $0.85/GB for 120GB~128GB models, although patient shoppers who can wait for sales and rebates pay even less. Performance on models in this size range suffers somewhat compared to their larger brethren due to current controller architecture design and the fact that smaller models use fewer flash dies, but performance remains orders of magnitudes better than conventional hard disks.

Affordable SSDs include the Samsung 840, Plextor M5S, Crucial M500, Sandisk Ultra Plus, and quite a few others. Pay attention to controllers used, as older controllers may have significant real-world performance issues despite similar specs. Higher-end, higher-capacity (or both) SSDs start to get beyond the Budget Box’s price point and more into Hot Rod territory.

Hard disk prices are getting back down into dirt-cheap levels, but with SSDs now being so affordable, the performance advantage of the SSD is hard to ignore. There is still a significant capacity hit with SSDs, so those needing terabytes of storage still must keep a mechanical disk around, such as Seagate’s latest 1TB/platter drives.

The Samsung 840 Series 120GB SSD packs fairly modest performance for a modern SSD, but its Samsung MDX controller with its high-density TLC (triple-level cell) NAND keeps the price very affordable. Sequential read speeds of 530MB/sec and 4K random read of up to 85,000 IOPS are very competitive. Sequential write speeds of 130MB/sec with 4K random write performance of 32,000 IOPS shows the impact of fewer active NAND, typical across the board of most smaller-capacity designs. A three-year warranty tops things off.

Optical drives have been a commodity product for the past few years, and the DVD-RW we chose is no exception. A BD-ROM is also affordable, should Blu-ray be necessary. Heck, even a nice Blu-ray writer such as the Pioneer BDR-208 isn’t very expensive.

Case and power supply

Fractal Design Core 1000

Corsair CX430

Given the modest demands of the Budget Box, the case-and-power-supply combos such as the Antec NSK4482B are usually viable options. Power supply quality in the cheaper combos can be pretty sketchy, but several, including the Antec NSK-line, are pretty decent.

In a break from the norm, the Budget Box shifts to the Fractal Design Core 1000 case and the Corsair CX430 power supply. Even without rebates, this ends up a few bucks cheaper than the NSK4482B, and it nets a higher quality case and power supply than many of the cheaper case/PSU combos available. Neither is a fancy unit, but the Fractal Design Core 1000 is a fairly solid micro-ATX chassis that includes front-mount USB 3.0, 2×5.25″ external bays, a combo hard disk bay (perfect for a 2.5-inch SSD and 3.5-inch HDD), and up to three fans (2×120 mm, 1×92 mm).

The Corsair CX430 is a fairly decent power supply, with better than 82 percent efficiency (per 80PLUS Bronze), a 120 mm fan, up to 32A available on the +12v rail, 1x PCI-e, 4x SATA, 3x 4-pin, and 1x FDD connectors, plus a three-year warranty. It can also be found on sale fairly often, which makes it a very attractive unit.

Alternative recommendations include the Antec Earthwatts Green 380W power supply and the Seasonic SS-350ET. For a case, the Corsair Carbide 200R, Antec Three Hundred Two, NZXT Source 210, and Bitfenix Merc Alpha are also worth a look if the extra money can be spent. Shop carefully for deals, though, to make sure it’s worth your trouble and that the deal is actually a deal. Several “value” cases out there don’t add up well, especially when quality and design (or lack thereof) become hindrances. Don’t forget the importance of personal preference either; buy what suits the build.

Monitor

Asus VE228H 21.5-inch LCD

An abundance of low-cost 1920×1080 LCDs makes for a wide variety of choices in the Budget Box. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the low-cost panels they all use don’t have too much variation. Frequent model changes sometimes make things hard to keep track of.

The Asus VE228H 21.5 packs an acceptable response time and fairly low input lag into a 21.5-inch 1920×1080 panel, making it suitable for gaming. The LED backlight also helps reduce power consumption, while HDMI, DVI-D, and VGA inputs mean the inputs are fairly comprehensive. A 5ms (rated) response time and 250cd/m^2 brightness are fairly typical for budget monitors.

Asus, Acer, Dell, etc. do have some other acceptable ones—but so do a host of other manufacturers. Tracking one important measurement (input lag) is almost impossible, as it’s rarely listed on spec sheets. Viewing angles and color reproduction on TN panels tend to be good enough, but if a nicer monitor is needed, the Hot Rod and God Box pack a wealth of information.

For those who want something a little nicer, though, keep an eye on affordable e-IPS panels such as the HP ZR2240w, Dell U2312HM, Asus PA238Q, and the like. In particular, the Acer H226HQLbid is extremely affordable for an IPS panel, although we have very little experience with it in the Orbiting HQ. IPS panels tend to have better color reproduction and viewing angles, but they cost more. They are also equally subject to variations in input lag and response time from model to model, so doing specific research before buying is strongly recommended.

Mouse, keyboard, and speakers

Logitech MK120 (keyboard and mouse)

The demise of the Microsoft Business Hardware pack (keyboard and mouse) leaves us sad, as it was an affordable combo for a very decent keyboard/mouse setup. The Logitech MK120 is an acceptable replacement, as are the Microsoft Wired Desktop 400 and Wired Desktop 600. There are many others out there as well—we recommend you try a few, as keyboard and mouse often lead to intensely personal preference.

Serious gamers may consider checking out the Hot Rod’s selection for a better gaming experience, where updates such as the Logitech G400s mouse are very nice updates to consider.

For speakers, the Logitech X-140 is a very basic 2.0 setup that is… well… acceptable. Twice the money gets you into a slightly better 2.1 setup like the Logitech Z313 if a little more effort toward sound is needed. Most computer speakers are so-so to middling quality at best. Finding exceptions is almost impossible, even in boxes costing three times as much. Find something else if these don’t work for you, and consider headphones if quality-for-your-money is a top priority.

Up next: The Hot Rod box…

Hot Rod

• Core i5-4670K = $239.99
• Asus Z87-Plus = $159.99
• Crucial 2x4GB (8GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5v = $72.99
• Asus Geforce GTX 760 2GB = $259.99
• Plextor M5S 256GB = $189.99
• Seagate 2TB 7200rpm = $99.99
• Lite-On 24x DVD-RW (iHAS124-04) = $17.99
• Fractal Design Define R4 = $99.99
• Seasonic G Series 450W = $74.99
• Asus VS248H-P = $189.99 (plus $20 MIR)
• Logitech Z323 = $59.99
• Logitech G500 = $59.99
• Microsoft Keyboard 200 = $9.99
• Total = $1,535.87 ($1,515.87 after rebates)

When the balance between performance and cost is shifted toward performance, the result might be the Hot Rod.

Value is still a key issue, but affording enough CPU and GPU performance for smooth gaming at 1920×1080 and 1920×1200 resolutions is easily done in the Hot Rod. This update in particular makes significant performance gains on the GPU side, which is always welcome to see. There’s enough room left over in the budget to justify some bulk storage, too.

The Hot Rod is also a quick GPU downgrade and monitor change into a more focused computing box (video encoding? Photoshop? a few VMs?) with room for a CPU upgrade if needed. Going SLI/Crossfire is somewhat beyond the scope of the Hot Rod, but slight adjustments to the motherboard and power supply are discussed should you want something closer to Ars’ occasional Performance Gaming Box.

CPU

Intel Core i5-4670K retail

Intel’s 4th generation Core i-series processors (codenamed Haswell) offer welcome improvements in IPC (instructions per clock) and in platform power consumption over the previous 3rd generation (Ivy Bridge) parts. AMD’s existing Piledriver chips had a hard enough time competing with Ivy Bridge, and Haswell further builds Intel’s lead over AMD in the Hot Rod. Heavily multithreaded applications let AMD chips such as the FX-8350 stay competitive, but in applications that favor single-threaded performance (including most games) Haswell is on top. Add in power consumption and things look even more in Intel’s favor, as they have the past few generations.

The one crowd not happy about Haswell (or Ivy Bridge, for that matter) is extreme overclockers. Neither seems to overclock as well as Intel’s 2nd generation Core i-series (Sandy Bridge), but generational improvements in power consumption and IPC mean that for the average Hot Rod builder, including most overclockers, the Haswell-based i5-4670K is probably the way to go.

An additional note for builders worried about virtualization performance: Intel’s K-suffixed CPU models, intended for overclocking, have Intel VT-d disabled. Those specifically focused on optimal virtualization performance will want to stick with the regular Haswell CPUs, such as the i7-4770 and i5-4670. Keep in mind that most Hot Rod builders are unlikely to notice the performance difference under most use.

Some may have noticed Intel’s high-end desktop/workstation-targeted Sandy Bridge-E processors occupying the LGA2011 socket, plus the upcoming Ivy Bridge-E. Sporting quad memory channels, up to six cores, and significantly more PCI-e connectivity, the Core i7-3970X and its brethren are pretty nice. They’re also serious overkill for the Hot Rod, where the newer Haswell-based quad cores provide similar (if not superior) performance in typical desktop and gaming applications for a much lower platform cost (motherboard/CPU/memory). The extra PCI-e connectivity’s performance benefits do not show in typical enthusiast use, at least according to limited (yet extensive) testing done by Anandtech.

A somewhat forgotten detail by many is the heatsink. We buy the retail boxed processor for the three-year warranty and the included heatsink, which does just fine for normal use at stock clock speeds.

Overclockers may wish to look at aftermarket heatsinks such as the fairly affordable Coolermaster Hyper 212+ and Silverstone AR01. The Thermalright TRUE Spirit 120M and 140 occupy the midrange for those who need more performance and can spend a little more. The higher-end Phanteks PH-TC14PE, Thermalright Archon, Noctua NH-D14, and Noctua NH-U14S are all top heatsinks intended for serious overclockers. Those seeking beyond what air cooling can provide should be looking at high-end, dual-fan-radiator water cooling (particularly the Swiftech H220), although the primary weakness of additional performance with many closed-loop water cooling setups is often significantly more noise.

Motherboard and memory

Asus Z87-Plus motherboard

Crucial (2x4GB) DDR3-1600 1.5v CL9 memory

For the Hot Rod, the Intel chipset most worth considering is the Z87 chipset. It’s the only one to support overclocking, unlike the rest of the Haswell chipset lineup. In particular, the Z87’s added PCI-e 3.0 slot configuration options allow multiple GPUs. Six native SATA 6Gbps ports (at long last) and six native USB 3.0 ports round out the bulk of Haswell’s connectivity options. Saving a few bucks with the H87 or B85 chipsets might make sense if overclocking is not a goal, but the cost savings appears to be minimal in the context of the Hot Rod.

AMD builders have the AMD 970, 990X, and 990FX chipsets to choose from, essentially a respin of the previous 800-series chipsets for Socket AM3+. The excellent Asus M5A99X EVO and M5A97 EVO are well worth looking at, among others.

Gigabyte, MSI, ASRock, and others all have very good Z87 boards that tend to span the whole price range, from $80 to $300 for most makers, sometimes more for ultra-premium models with and without Thunderbolt. We elect to stay toward the mid-range for the Hot Rod, as the extra features on premium models are not necessary for most Hot Rod builds. Midrange models still overclock nicely but tend to skimp a bit on extra I/O and the highest-end power delivery. One lineup of note is Asus’s extensive Z87 selection, as Asus has an unusually good fan control setup on many of its nicer motherboards that its competitors are only now catching up to.

The Asus Z87-Plus is a well-equipped motherboard despite its affordable price. It has four DDR3 memory slots, two PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots (x16 or x8/x8 electrical), one PCI-e 2.0 x16 slot (x2 electrical), eight SATA 6Gbps ports (6x Intel, 2x ASMedia), six rear-panel USB 3.0 ports plus headers for two more internally, Realtek ALC892 7.1 sound, 8-phase VRM, Intel gigabit Ethernet, and plenty of other goodies.

Stepping up to the higher end, the Z87-Pro nets better sound (ALC1150), fancier VRMs, more USB ports, and additional PCI-e x16 slot flexibility for Hot Rod builders who need more, while those more focused on value will probably find MSI’s Z87-G45 Gaming and Asus’s Z87-A to be very attractive. Hot Rod builders who are sure that they’re sticking with a single GPU can save even more with lower-end boards such as the MSI Z87-G43 and Gigabyte GA-Z87-D3HP.

Memory is easy. 8GB (2x4GB) of DDR3-1600 at JEDEC-spec 1.5v is cheap and affordable from any major name brand. The trivial cost increase over 4GB is far easier to justify in the Hot Rod than it is in the Budget Box, especially because the typical Hot Rod user may actually see some benefit from it. As tempting as 16GB is, the lack of tangible benefit makes it a little hard to justify as the default recommendation in the Hot Rod.

Video

Asus Geforce GTX 760 2GB (GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5)

GPU advancement continues to be significant across the market. Nice speed boosts, power consumption reductions, and more have defined every generation for the past two or three generations.

This time around, though, it’s a re-spin of existing GPUs. No major process shrinks, no new architectures, but attractive improvements nonetheless. In particular, Nvidia’s higher-end desktop lineup gets bumped to the GTX 760, GTX 770, and GTX 780 to fit underneath the very-top-tier GTX Titan. The GTX 780 is a cut-down Titan offering superb performance and significant (relative) value, while the GTX 770 is a full-fat GK104 (found in the GTX680) pushed even faster. The GTX 760 effectively matches the older GTX 670 for a hundred bucks less and surpasses its direct competitor from AMD, Radeon HD 7950 Boost, by a small but significant margin.

We advise builders to check the games they plan to play and see which card suits them best. The differences are that close between AMD and Nvidia in this generation.

Hot Rod builders aiming for beyond 1920×1080 and 1920×1200 resolution will probably benefit from faster video cards. Gaming at the next step up, 2560×1440 or 2560×1600 for some or triple-monitor surround setups of 5760×1080 for others, makes higher-end cards such as the Radeon HD 7970, Geforce GTX 770, and GTX 780 justifiable for many. Onboard memory beyond 2GB at such high resolutions begins to make a performance difference as well, and high-end, multi-GPU setups in SLI/Crossfire also earn mention, although the possible permutations get a little beyond the Hot Rod.

When selecting a specific card, pay attention to rebates and clock speeds. Considerable variation can be found as factory overclocked cards abound in both camps, so often a little extra performance can be squeezed for no extra money. Price differences between 2GB and 3GB versions also vary as a result, at a typical 1920×1080 resolution there is probably no difference. Also be aware of card lengths; longer graphics cards will not fit into some cases. The typical Hot Rod video card is short enough to avoid this issue, but the higher-end cards or cards with unusually long PCBs or massive coolers may cause issues in poorly designed chassis.

The Asus Geforce GTX 760 2GB (GTX760-DC2OC-2GD5) has a 1006MHz base clock, 1072MHz boost clock, 1152 CUDA cores, 2GB of GDDR5 memory at 6008MHz effective memory clock on a 256-bit memory bus, plus 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort, and 2x dual-link DVI ports. Asus provides a three-year warranty and its very effective DirectCU II cooler.

Sound, communications

Network card: none (on-board)

Sound card: none (on-board)

Onboard sound and gigabit Ethernet work well enough for almost all Hot Rod users.

Those seeking more can look at the Asus Xonar DSX or slightly higher-end Xonar DX for audio; the list of alternatives is fairly short at the moment. Some staunchly recommend either of the two cards above, while others see less benefit. A third group finds that the benefits are outweighed by the driver headaches. Those wishing to see hard numbers may find Tech Report’s review to be very useful.

Storage

Plextor M5S 256GB

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200rpm (ST2000DM001)

Lite-On 24x DVD-RW (iHAS124-04)

For primary storage, an SSD is expected in a box like the Hot Rod. The performance benefits for frequently used data and applications are tremendous, and the cost is now very affordable. Not quite affordable enough to permit the Hot Rod (or even God Box) to go flash-only for storage, but it’s enough to permit a very decent amount of SSD for storage.

The Plextor M5S is a solid performer based on a proven Marvell controller, and Plextor’s engineering seems to have paid off with solid performance. The similarly priced Samsung 840 offers equal (if not better) performance, but it’s not as consistent as the Plextor M5S in used states. Crucial’s M500 is also worth a look, especially in larger capacities. Extra money for higher-end SSDs such as the Intel 520 Series, Sandisk Extreme II, Plextor M5P Xtreme, and Samsung 840 Pro does buy more performance, but the differences in real-world use are slight. Even benchmarks show differences that tend to be limited in typical enthusiast workloads.

The Plextor M5S has a maximum sequential read speed of 520MBps, maximum sequential writes of 390MBps, 4KB random read up to 73,000 IOPS, 4KB random write up to 70,000 IOPS, a 1.5 million hour MTBF—all based on a Marvell controller and packed into a 2.5-inch form factor with a three-year warranty.

For bulk storage, 1TB/platter 5400rpm or 7200rpm hard disks are very affordable. Western Digital Red drives and Seagate’s latest Barracuda models all fit the bill. While there are performance differences, for bulk storage it’s less of a concern. Check warranty differences—some drives pack only one-year warranties today, some pack longer. Seagate Barracuda is two years, Western Digital Red is three years, and only a few give five-year warranties, such as the Western Digital Black.

Optical drives have been a commodity product for the past few years, and the DVD-RW we choose is no exception. A BD-ROM is also affordable, should Blu-ray be necessary. Heck, even a nice Blu-ray writer such as the Pioneer BDR-208 isn’t too expensive.

Case and power supply

Fractal Design Define R4

Seasonic G Series 450W

The Hot Rod has quite a selection of chassis to choose from. The Antec Solo II, Bitfenix Shinobi, Corsair Obsidian 550D and Corsair Carbide 500R are all very good. The somewhat cheaper Corsair Carbide 300R and a few others are also worth looking at. Nanoxia has an impressive pair of cases as well, the Deep Silence 1 and Deep Silence 2, although finding them for sale in the USA is practically impossible.

Most cases aimed at Hot Rod builders pack only a few 5.25-inch exposed bays, maybe an exposed 3.5-inch bay or two, and then a bunch of 3.5-inch bays, plus clearance for video cards up to 11 inches in length or more. As the Hot Rod video card choice often hits 10.5″ or even 11″, this is a good feature that a previous long-time favorite lacked (the original Antec Solo). A few 120 mm or 140 mm fans keep things cool, although as SilentPCReview and Anandtech find, there are definite differences in layout, construction, cooling, and noise.

With a single CPU, single GPU, single optical drive and single hard disk, the Hot Rod is fairly modest in its chassis needs, and any of the above choices will work more than well enough. We splurge a little with the case, as a good quality chassis not only offers the potential for superior noise control while simultaneously offering superior cooling, but it also ends up being easier to work in, not to mention the aesthetic benefits.

The Fractal Design Define R4 can pack up to seven fans (120 mm and 140 mm), two 5.25-inch bays, and eight 3.5-inch bays, plus USB 3.0 compatible front headers.

The power supply is a bit trickier. Finding an appropriately sized, quiet, high-quality unit is easier now than before, but price changes make keeping track of the best value a bit tough. Additionally, somewhat-reasonably priced 80PLUS Gold units are finally available, bringing a nice efficiency jump over older 80PLUS (regular, Bronze, or Silver) units.

450W is almost the right size for the Hot Rod, and it’s at least somewhat closer than the previous 500W+ units available. SilentPCReview’s power distribution numbers show that similar systems can probably get by with as little as 300W, although a quick browse for high-efficiency power supplies shows relatively few smaller suitable power supplies available. Plus, they cost almost the same as slightly larger units.

The Seasonic G-series 450W packs more than enough power for the Hot Rod with up to 37A on its +12v rail, two PCI-e 6+2-pin power connectors, very low noise, 80PLUS Gold efficiency, and some of the best voltage regulation on the market. An alternative unit would be the FSP Aurum Gold 400W, although Seasonic has a long history in the Orbiting HQ. If value is the most important thing, the lower-end Corsair CX430 would also work at the expense of some additional noise and slightly lower efficiency.

Those seeking more performance will probably want a higher-end video card, which the power supply of choice should power just fine. However, the truly ambitious aiming for a pair of higher-end video cards in SLI/Crossfire will probably want a bigger power supply such as the Seasonic X-760. The larger Seasonic X-850 and its competition are probably unnecessary unless a pair of overclocked GTX 680s plus a heavily overclocked CPU is being planned. Note that specific power needs of such systems are probably worth more detailed investigation by individual builders.

Monitor

Asus VS248H-P 24-inch LCD

A large selection of potentially suitable 1920×1080 (plus a few 1920×1200) monitors exists for the Hot Rod. Finding ones that actually perform well is a bit trickier, as tons of them are fairly lousy panels with excessive input lag (very bad for gamers), poor response time, lousy contrast ratios, etc. Input lag in particular is rarely discussed in spec sheets and hence finding quality reviews is necessary. Xbitlabs, prad.de, TFTCentral, Digitalversus, Anandtech, and others all do very good reviews, but there are so many monitors on the market that they can only review a tiny fraction of what’s available.

On the cheaper side, monitors such as the Asus VS248H-P pack a TN panel with a decent response time and fairly low input lag. The VS248H-P adds an LED backlight for lower power consumption and still manages to look pretty good. The hard numbers are a 1920×1080 resolution on a 24-inch screen, 170/160 degree (horizontal/vertical) viewing angles, 250cd/m^2 brightness, and a 2ms (grey-to-grey) rated response time. Slightly smaller (23.6-inch, 21.5-inch) models also exist in Asus’ VS-series and VE-series lineups. The very similar Asus VS247H-P also has low input lag if the VS248H-P is unavailable for some reason.

Also worth a look are monitors that support Lightboost, such as the Asus VG248QE and its 27-inch counterparts, the VG278H. TFTCentral gives a detailed analysis of its benefits for gaming, and serious gamers may find such monitors are worth the extra money.

Hot Rod builders with more money to burn or who need a nicer monitor, perhaps for color-sensitive work, have several choices. For those who merely want a bigger monitor, the Asus VG27AH is a 27-inch IPS 3D-capable panel that is supposedly quite good, although we have limited exposure to it in the Orbiting HQ. We also like the slightly cheaper Asus VE278Q. Note that both of these monitors offer the same 1920×1080 resolution as the smaller versions, though, so those looking for more screen real estate will be disappointed.

Those more concerned about image quality will want to look at IPS, PLS, or PVA/MVA panel-equipped monitors. They cost somewhat more but tend to lead to better viewing angles and much better color reproduction than TN panels. Check reviews and specs carefully if gaming is a consideration; some have very competitive response times and input lag, but some do not. Solid examples include the Dell U2212HM, Dell U2312HM, HP ZR2240w, and NEC EA232Wmi on the more affordable side. The slightly larger Dell U2412M and HP ZR2440w 24-inch ones offer a few more pixels (1920×1200 vs. 1920×1080) but also cost more. Plenty of others also exist, including Asus’ excellent PA248Q. For even more pixels, 2560×1440 27-inch monitors such as the HP ZR2740w and Dell U2713HM are excellent, but they’re much too pricey for the average Hot Rod builder.

Also worth mentioning is the availability of affordable 27-inch high-resolution IPS displays from smaller Korean brands; Tech Report has an excellent breakdown on them. Monoprice also carries one with its own in-house label at a very affordable price. For massive 2560×1440 pixels at the price of a nice 1920×1200 monitor, they have attracted more than a few enthusiasts despite their drawbacks.

Mouse, keyboard, and speakers

Logitech Z323 2.1 speakers

Microsoft Keyboard 200

Logitech G500

Computer speakers have sucked for years, and the recent past has been no exception. Somewhat more serious money buys the Swan M200MkIII, Audioengine A5+, M-Audio AV40, or M-Audio BX8a, but all of those are too much money to be the de facto recommendation in the Hot Rod. The cheaper, smaller Audioengine A2 might work, but it’s also still a little pricey. The one computer speaker worth serious mention is the Corsair SP2500, but again, it fails the value measurement.

This leaves the Hot Rod in a less than desirable area. The Logitech Z323 2.1 speaker setup does the job well enough, but only just so. 30W RMS total power and a 55Hz-20kHz frequency response reflect their modest capabilities. For higher quality sound on a restricted budget, we might recommend some nice headphones instead.

Keyboards are an intensely personal choice; we have no strong preference for the Microsoft Keyboard 200, but it does the job well. Serious gamers will want to pay attention to N-key rollover, mechanical key switches, and other features, but breaking things down too far beyond this is beyond the scope of the guide. Logitech, Corsair, steelseries, Razer, and Microsoft all make a large variety of keyboards to choose from.

The mouse situation is similar, but recommendations are at least easier to make. Logitech’s G500 is very well-regarded and very capable, and it’s a good value for the money. The newer G400s also look solid, but it’s so new it has yet to prove itself the way the G500 has. More basic units also exist, plus a few ambidextrous models. Logitech, Microsoft, Razer, and others all make plenty of other mice to choose from should the G500 be unsatisfactory.

Up next: The God Box…

God Box

• Two Xeon E5-2687W = $1934.99 * 2 = $3,869.98
• Asus Z9PE-D8 WS = $579.99
• Two Thermalright Archon SB-E heatsinks = $84.90 * 2 = $169.80
• Eight Kingston 16GB DDR3-1600 Registered ECC (KVR16R11D4/16) = $167.99 * 8 = $1,343.92
• Two EVGA Geforce GTX Titan Superclocked = $1,069.99 * 2 = $2139.98
• Asus Xonar DSX = $59.99 (plus $10 MIR)
• Adaptec 7805 SAS RAID = $659.99
• Two Samsung 840 Pro 512GB = $519.99 * 2 = $1039.98
• Four Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB = $389.99 * 4 = $1559.96
• Pioneer BDR-208DBK = $84.99
• Lite-On 24x DVD-RW = $17.99
• Lian-Li PC-V2120X = $469.99
• Three Corsair AF140 Quiet Edition = $18.99 * 3 = $56.97
• Three Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition = $16.26 * 3 = $48.78
• Corsair AX1200i = $319.99 (plus $30 MIR)
• APC Smart-UPS 1500 = $459.99ev
• Two Dell Ultrasharp U3014 = $1199.99 * 2 = $2,399.98
• Logitech Z906 = $334.99
• Logitech G500 = $59.99
• Logitech G19s = $199.99
• Total = $15,877.24 ($15,837.24 after rebates)

The most ambitious box in the main three-box System Guide, the God Box is so high-end, so elaborate, that we expect most builders to use it as a starting base and to customize their builds as needed.

It offers significant CPU, GPU, and storage, but striking the right balance between the three (as well as cost) is up to individual builders. The God Box as-is is a very, very nice general box that can easily be focused on more specific needs.

Unlike the previous update, the God Box sees only minor tweaks this time. New Ivy Bridge-E based Xeons are not expected until Q3 of 2013 at the earliest, and aside from a nice video card bump in this update, God Box performance remains relatively unchanged.

CPU

Two Intel Xeon E5-2687W retail

The God Box took a major upgrade in the CPU area in the last update, going to shiny new Sandy Bridge-E based Xeons. This update stays with Sandy Bridge-E (2nd generation Core i-series), as Ivy Bridge-E (3rd generation Core i-series) isn’t out just yet. Server parts tend to lag desktop parts anyway, meaning that Haswell (4th generation Core i-series), which has just hit the desktop, is even further out.

Two generations old or not, Sandy Bridge-E is still the latest hotness for dual-socket servers. It gives AMD a hard time. Desktop benchmarks for the single-socket Sandy Bridge-E parts showed solid performance, but the extra memory channels and other goodies were really meant for multiple-socket workstations and servers… like the God Box. Single-thread performance is beaten by Intel’s Ivy Bridge and Haswell chips, and unfortunately the Xeon versions of those aren’t due for a while. Add in eight cores/16 threads; with a 3.1GHz base clock/up to 3.8GHz turbo, 20MB L3 cache, and a 150W TDP ensuring maximum headroom to get the most use possible out of turbo boost, and the Xeon E5 is about as good as it gets for the God Box at the moment. Dropping down to slightly slower Xeons reduces power consumption and saves a few bucks if value or performance per watt is a concern.

AMD’s codenamed Abu Dhabi Opteron chips look good, but even the top-end Opteron 6380 (16-core, 2.5GHz, 115W TDP) lags behind Intel’s Sandy Bridge-E. Based on the updated Piledriver design, AMD’s weak single-threaded performance hurts despite all of the threads they can handle, and hence AMD’s current chips do not match up to current Intel processors as far as the typical God Box user is concerned.

Gamers who don’t care about all of the extra threads and obscene amounts of memory may be better off at something in-between the God Box and Hot Rod that we normally cover in our occasional Gaming Boxes. However, a single-socket Core i7-3970X (paired with an Asus P9X79 Pro) would probably be a good place to start. Or you could possibly opt for the lower-cost (yet probably just as good for gaming) i7-4770K, with the corresponding motherboard from the Hot Rod, which shares the same socket. The 40 PCI-e 3.0 lanes (vs. 16 in Intel’s mainstream desktop processors) mean that three-way and four-way GPU setups are possible without a PCI-e bridge chip, offering maximum bandwidth for very high-end GPUs and other PCI-e cards—although real-world benefits may be limited.

Motherboard, memory, and heatsinks

Asus Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

Two Thermalright Archon SB-E heatsink/fan

Eight Kingston 16GB DDR3-1600 ECC Registered (KVR16R11D4/16) memory

God Box motherboard choices are kind of slim, although the situation isn’t as bad as it used to be. Putting in two high-end video cards has caused all kinds of undocumented compatibility issues in the past, although today that should no longer be a concern with the spread of GPU computing. Supermicro’s X9DAi and Asus’ Z9PE-D16 are viable choices, but the Asus Z9PE-D8 WS shows explicit support for quad GPUs and is probably the better choice.

The Asus Z9PE-D8 WS is based on the Intel C602 chipset and packs only eight DIMM sockets (at up to DDR3-2133 when overclocked), which is its main expansion limitation. It has seven PCI-e 3.0 x16 slots (in varying electrical configurations) to feed plenty of bandwidth to hungry GPUs and RAID controllers, 6x SATA 6Gbps (2x Intel, 4x Marvell), 8x SATA 3Gbps, Realtek ALC898 7.1-channel audio, dual Intel gigabit Ethernet, eight rear-panel USB ports (2x USB 3.0, 6x USB 2.0), internal headers for six USB ports (2x USB 3.0, 4x USB 2.0), and connectors for up to eight fans. It’s all on an SSI EEB form factor with a three-year warranty.

Memory is a matter of searching Asus’s compatibility list or checking Crucial or Kingston‘s memory compatibility selectors. While Asus has qualified memory as fast as DDR3-2133, to get enough reliable memory into the God Box we stick with Kingston 16GB DDR3-1600 CL11 1.5v Registered ECC modules. Eight of them are needed to populate all memory channels with dual Xeons, filling all of the slots on the motherboard. Those seeking even more memory will need to look at 32GB modules such as the Kingston KVR13LR9Q4/32.

Heatsinks: the Thermalright Archon SB-E is enormous, but it should fit just fine due to its relatively thin fin stack (and being one of the better heatsinks available is nice). Paired with the excellent stock fan, it gives great performance and low noise. Note that the massive width of the Archon (or the alternative, Noctua NH-U14S) does require some attention in chassis selection.

Plenty of other top-ranked heatsinks exist, including the Phanteks PH-TC14PE and Noctua NH-D14, but their dimensions may be an issue on dual socket motherboards due to their second fin array.

Video

Two EVGA Geforce GTX Titan Superclocked (06G-P4-2793-KR)

The fastest cards on the block are powered by Nvidia’s Kepler GPU, the top of the line GK110 found in the GTX Titan and GTX 780. Those two share the GK110 with Nvidia’s high-end Tesla K20 and K20X GPU compute-focused cards.

As the top of the line, performance is impressive. The best value is probably the GTX 780, which packs most of the GTX Titan’s capability at a significantly discounted price. The one area where the GTX 780 is limited is its double-precision floating point math to 1/24th its single-precision rate, like the rest of Nvidia’s consumer-focused cards. Given that the God Box builder might actually benefit from GK110’s full double-precision performance, we choose to go with the GTX Titan.

For those whose applications favor AMD GPUs, the Radeon HD 7970 and dual-GPU Radeon HD 7990 are the way to go. As impressive as Nvidia’s latest cards are, some applications strongly favor AMD GPUs, and God Box builders should select their graphics cards accordingly. Two or three 7970s or two 7990s would be a ridiculous amount of GPU, especially for AMD GPU-friendly projects like Folding@home.

A less gaming-centric God Box may want to check the Hot Rod video section for more suitable recommendations such as the Geforce GTX 760. For crazy multiple display use—a wall of six monitors or something—AMD’s Radeon HD cards have a few models that support Eyefinity with up to six mini-DisplayPort outputs on a single card.

The EVGA Geforce GTX Titan Superclocked (06G-P4-2793-KR) has a full GK110 GPU with 2688 CUDA cores at 876MHz core clock/928MHz boost clock, 6GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit, 6008MHz effective memory bus, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort, 2x dual-link DVI ports, and a three-year warranty.

Sound, communications

Network card: none (on-board)

Asus Xonar DSX soundcard

Dual onboard gigabit Ethernet is fine for virtually all God Box builders.

For audio, the choices are relatively few today. Asus’ Xonar line dominates the consumer market, while M-Audio, Terratec, RME, and a few others occupy the professional market. Those who need professional-level audio capability probably already know what they need. By and large, gamer options are limited: Asus’ Xonar line, what’s left of Creative’s X-fi line, or motherboard onboard audio.

While some onboard audio setups are quite decent, the God Box can do better. This previously meant Asus’ top of the line Xonar Xense card, which had impressive specs: 7.1 output, 118dB signal to noise ratio, 24-bit D-A and A-D converters, DS3D GX 2.5, Asus’ AV100 processor, a PCI-e x1 interface, etc. It makes for a very nice card. Toss in the included Sennheiser PC350 headset and it’s a pretty good deal.

Unfortunately, supplies of this card seem to have dried up, leaving God Box builders stuck looking for alternatives. The much lower-priced Xonar DSX is actually almost as good for a fraction of the price, while those focused heavily on headphones may want to look at Asus’ Xonar Essence STX. The Xonar DSX is also one of Asus’ latest cards, and while it doesn’t spec quite as well as the Xonar DX or Xonar Xense, its performance is perhaps the best value around. It (hopefully) benefits from better driver support than the older Xonar DX.

God Box users seeking to use a pro-level audio card can use the on-board Firewire or USB 3.0 interface to add an external card. Squeezing in an internal PCI-e card would also work, but an external card may be a better idea. Leaving an empty PCI-e slot between the other cards in the system may help reduce temperatures and fan speeds on otherwise tightly packed expansion cards.

Primary Storage

Two Samsung 840 Pro 512GB SSD

Four Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB SATA (ST4000NM0033)

Adaptec 7805 SAS RAID card (retail kit)

SSDs have evolved continuously. Smaller fabrication processes means cheaper NAND and hence lower-cost SSDs, while controllers have been advanced and refined. More attention is paid today on performance consistency, particularly in enterprise-targeted drives such as the Intel DC3500. As SSDs continue to evolve, performance will undoubtedly continue to improve, and the next generation SATA Express interface currently in the wings should enable even faster SSDs.

For desktop-class SSDs with optimal performance consistency, the Sandisk Extreme II is well reviewed. It’s also a brand-new drive with an unknown track record, much like the also-new (and more expensive) Seagate 600 Pro. We choose to stick with the proven Samsung 840 Pro until we have a better reliability picture on the newest drives. It helps that the Samsung 840 Pro is still one of the fastest SSDs available.

The Samsung 840 Pro is capable of up to 540MB/sec sequential reads, 520MB/sec sequential writes, 4KB random read up to 100,000 IOPS, 4KB random write up to 90,000 IOPS, a 1.5 million hour MTBF, and very low power consumption. It also packs a five-year warranty.

Bulk storage is handled by a bunch of Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB 7200rpm mechanical disks. Adaptec’s 7805 8-port SAS/SATA controller provides superb performance, easily on par with Areca’s ARC-1882i and LSI Logic’s MegaRAID 9271-8i. Compatibility and driver support vary slightly, but Adaptec is decent about driver updates and hardware compatibility testing. Make sure to buy the retail kit for the RAID card to get the necessary cables, although buying mini-SAS fanout to SATA cables separately isn’t a big deal. (Adaptec 2247000-R)

Four 4TB disks may prove limiting; individual God Box builders are welcome to add more disks as appropriate. Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB (and the competing Hitachi Ultrastar 7K4000 and Western Digital RE4 4TB) offer five-year warranties, 7200rpm spindle speeds, and plenty of performance for this kind of use. They’re also on Areca, Adaptec, and LSI Logic’s hardware compatibility lists or should be soon for their RAID controllers. This is a very good thing where data integrity is concerned.

Other Storage

Pioneer BDR-208 Blu-ray writer

Lite-On 24x DVD-RW (iHAS124-04)

For the optical drive, Blu-ray is a must in the God Box. The modest price premium is better saved in most systems, but the God Box can easily afford the extra flexibility. The Pioneer BDR-208 is one of the best, with 15x BD-R/14x BD-R DL speed, support for BDXL discs (up to 128GB on a quad-layer disc), 4MB cache, SATA interface, and all the goodies.

A DVD-RW for mundane tasks may also be nice, and having dual drives is sometimes useful. The picky used to have a few slightly better drives to choose from, but the optical drive market in the last few years has become almost entirely a commodity product. Not to mention, the performance differences tend to be very small in reality.

Case and fans

Lian-Li PC-V2120X

Three Corsair AF140 Quiet Edition

Three Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition

Two top of the line Xeon processors and two top of the line video cards suck quite a bit of power. While TDP (thermal design power) is not necessarily a precise indicator compared to real world numbers, the God Box can still safely be expected to pull 900+ watts at load (possibly more depending on individual builders and their component choices).

All of this heat has to go somewhere. The blower-style coolers on the GTX Titans directly exhaust some of their  own heat, but that still leaves quite a bit that we need to manage. We find the Lian-Li PC-V2120X does this job quite well, although we find ourselves eagerly anticipating the Silverstone Fortress FT04.

The Lian-Li PC-V2120X may lack some of the nicer features found in the latest extended ATX chassis such as the Corsair Obsidian 800D, Corsair Obsidian 900D, Antec P193 V3, or Fractal Design Define XL R2, but it works fine with the ridiculous thermal load imposed by the rest of the God Box. More storage-oriented builders may want to look at the extended-ATX capable Chenbro SR107 and its optional hot-swap drive cages (or other chassis with hot-swap bays) to get the full benefits of hot-swap from their RAID controllers.

The PC-V2120X offers a considerable amount of airflow potential for the God Box. Fans are 3×140 mm + 1×120 mm and a rear 1×120 mm, plus up to three additional 120 mm top fans. It also offers 11 expansion slots, 10 3.5-inch bays, five 5.25-inch exposed bays, USB 3.0 front panel ports, and video cards up to 360 mm (14″) long. Sharp eyes will note that the fan mounted behind the drive cage to feed air to the video cards is a nice touch.

We swap out the stock fans for Corsair AF120 Quiet Edition and Corsair AF140 Quiet Edition fans. These are among the best airflow-to-noise ratio fans currently available in a fairly low-noise fan, although the stock Lian-Li fans are also quite good and may be worth keeping. Utilizing the top fan mounts is probably not necessary, but again, that depends on specific God Box builder configuration.

Power supply

Corsair AX1200i power supply

APC Smart-UPS 1500VA UPS

With an expected power draw of at least 900 watts, the God Box is one of the few systems where a kilowatt-class power supply is reasonable.

This means the relentless power supply size inflation that has taken place in the past few years finally has a system where it’s actually needed. The Corsair AX1200i (1200 watt) is the unit of choice, with its 80PLUS Platinum certified efficiency (more than 90 percent at some loads), more than 100A on its +12v output, six PCI-e power connectors, and reasonable noise levels. Some of its competition, notably Seasonic’s X-1050, may be more quiet, but the AX1200i is still very, very good. Also consider Antec’s High Current Platinum 1000W, Seasonic Platinum-1000, and Enermax Platimax 1000W. Even larger power supplies such as the Seasonic X-1250 or Enermax Platimax 1350W are options for those who might sport something even more insane, like triple GTX Titans. Quad GTX Titans paired with dual Xeons would probably be more comfortable with an even larger unit like the Enermax Maxrevo 1500W, although at that kind of power draw, we don’t even want to think about noise or heat output.

God Boxes that are less focused on gaming and more on GPU computing will probably have similar power requirements. God Boxes focused entirely on the CPU (and possibly storage)—skipping GPU-heavy applications and getting by with significantly more modest video cards—can probably step down to smaller power supplies such as the Seasonic Platinum 760.

Backup power protection is a necessity for the God Box, if at least to ensure a clean shutdown during longer outages and to minimize the effects of shorter ones on gaming.

At peak power, the God Box is getting into fairly hefty UPS (uninterruptible power supply) territory, to the point where UPS sizes get a little unreasonable. The next step up in APC’s line, the 2200VA version, has a NEMA 5-20P plug and hence God Box builders should make sure they know what they are getting into. The APC Smart-UPS 1500VA is one step down (1440VA/980W, sine wave output, eight outlets, USB) and hence might not take a God Box running full tilt for very long at all, but it has a NEMA 5-15P plug for the much more common NEMA 5-15R outlet.

Heck, two UPS units might be a good idea, one for the monitors and one for the computer, just to reduce the load on power supply.

Monitor

Two Dell Ultrasharp U3014 30-inch LCD

Updates in the 2560×1600 monitor market are hard to come by. The previous HP ZR30w, while excellent, is a bit long in the tooth. Advancements in backlights and panel technology have finally resulted in the updated panel in the Dell Ultrasharp U3014, which has improved power consumption, even less input lag when in game mode, and a host of other improvements (see Anandtech’s review).

A more gaming-friendly alternative to a pair of 30″ monitors would be a trio of them (or if some reasonableness in price is required, a trio of 27″ displays instead. The Dell Ultrasharp U2713H, HP ZR2740w, and Asus PB278Q are all excellent, although the HP ZR2740w is probably the most suitable for gaming as it has the least input lag. Lightboost-capable monitors such as the Asus VG278H can do 144HZ with very low motion blur, so it’s also worth a look. But the TN panel used in the VG278H and its counterparts mean they are not suitable to use in portrait mode because of very limited viewing angles.

God Box users doing absolutely color-critical work will want to look at true professional displays like LaCie’s or NEC’s professional models (such as the NEC PA301w) which are designed for such use. For most, though, the color accuracy and capabilities of high-end consumer displays such as the U3014, ZR30w, and U2713H will be more than good enough, especially after calibration.

Note that many high-end displays are wide-gamut, which may not be ideal or desirable for all work. Standard-gamut units such as the HP ZR2740w, Asus PB278Q, and Dell U2713HM are excellent options if standard gamut displays are required. Those who find 27-inch and 30-inch displays unsuitable and prefer 24-inch monitors will find the wide-gamut Dell Ultrasharp U2413 and Asus PA246Q to be excellent. The Dell U2412M, Asus PA248Q, and HP ZR2440w are all fine choices if a standard gamut 24-inch panel is required.

A future development to watch out: 4K monitors such as the Asus PQ321 (31.5″ panel, 3840×2160). These are the next major jump in resolution for desktop monitors. The Seiki 39″ unit is even affordable, although it has significant performance and interface limitations which make recommending it for a monitor a little tough. Be aware that gaming at such a high native resolution pushes even a quartet of modern GPUs in multiple titles beyond what even the God Box might consider reasonable.

Mouse and keyboard

Logitech G19s keyboard

Logitech G500 wired mouse

Logitech’s G19 gaming keyboard is the company’s latest top of the line wired keyboard, with a dedicated color LCD display, customizable backlighting, 12 programmable keys, 6-key rollover, and all sorts of goodies. The G710+ mechanical keyboard is also worth a look.

The Logitech G500 gaming mouse is no longer the top wired mouse, but it’s close, and it’s perhaps the best general recommendation for the God Box. Higher-end units like the G600 MMO Gaming Mouse tend to get a little more specialized, which may or may not be a good thing. With adjustable sensitivity up to 5700dpi, 10 programmable buttons, a laser-lit sensor… the G500 is a nice, versatile mouse for gaming.

That said, there are tons of competitors on the market in both categories and we encourage all builders to pick what suits their individual needs and preferences best. In the old school IBM Model M keyboard vein, Unicomp fills the modern version, while keyboards with Cherry MX switches such as the Corsair Vengeance K70, Razer Blackwidow, Realforce and Leopold are popular with those who want the mechanical switch with a newer design. Heck, some of us are using old school Microsoft Natural keyboards, others old Dell Quietkey units—whatever suits best!

The mouse has even more choice than the keyboard. Razer has a wide selection, Microsoft too, as do Logitech and many others. As already noted, aside from size and shape, differences include adjustable DPI, buttons and button layout (and programmability), click versus smooth (and sometimes adjustable between the two) scroll wheels, tilt scroll wheels, etc. Logitech’s G400s and G700s also earn lots of praise. A few ambidextrous models exist as well. A non-gaming God Box may want a more ordinary mouse such as the Logitech M500 or even the trusty old Microsoft Wired Optical Mouse.