Intel’s X79 platform was recently announced and we are lucky enough to have one of the first custom PC’s that it is based on. Our friends at iBUYPOWER have sent us over their Gamer Paladin XLC Intel X79 Gaming System. This system packs a brand new Intel Core i7 3930K 6-core processor, ASUS P9X79 motherboard, EVGA GeForce GTX 580 video card and a liquid cooling system. Read on as we take this system through the paces.
Special thanks to iBUYPOWER for providing us with the Gamer Paladin XLC Intel X79 Gaming System to review.
Specifications
– Intel® Core™ i7 3930K Processor (6x 3.20GHz/12MB L3 Cache)
– ASUS P9X79 Pro Motherboard
– EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580
– 16GB [4 GB X4] Kingston Memory DDR3 Memory
– Corsair TX850 850W Power Supply
– 120GB ADATA S510 SSD
– 1TB Seagate SATA Drive
– 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
– Card Reader
– NZXT Phantom Full Tower Gaming Case
Price: $2,645
Prices start at: $2,475
Packaging
We received this system just like you would if you ordered it from iBUYPOWER yourself. The system comes in a nice large box. When you open it up there is a large notice that tells you who to contact if you have any issues with the system.
Opening the box up inside we find our case box that has the system in it and a quit setup guide.
To give you a good idea of how the system comes, what all it comes with and an overview of the system itself check out our unboxing and overview video below.
Man, seeing an X79 build review really takes me back. The i7-3930K was such a legend in its day; having 6 cores at 3.20GHz for a home gaming rig felt like absolute madness when most of us were still struggling to justify moving past quad cores. I especially remember the hype around liquid cooling being a “must-have” to really let those Sandy Bridge-E chips stretch their legs.
It’s funny to look at these specs now that my daily focus has shifted more toward enterprise hardware. I’ve been spending a lot of time lately with a ProLiant DL360 rack that has a 16 Core 2.9GHz Xeon https://serverorbit.com/pc-and-servers/proliant-dl360/16-core-2-9ghz-xeon, and it’s wild how much the “core wars” have evolved. Back then, 6 cores were for extreme gamers, but now 16 cores in a 1U chassis is just a standard Tuesday for virtualization tasks. I still have a soft spot for the “cool factor” of cases like the NZXT Phantom mentioned in the post, though—server rails definitely aren’t as fun to look at!
Do you think these older enthusiast platforms like X79 still have a place as budget workstations today, or has the power draw versus modern efficiency finally made them too expensive to keep running?