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
Conclusion: Too Much in Every Way
I've spoken with a couple of boutiques about Sandy Bridge-E and the general consensus is a feeling of being underwhelmed. Gulftown this isn't; when Gulftown came out there was a very clear reason to go for it, but Sandy Bridge-E has a harder time making a case for itself when good old fashioned 95W Sandy Bridge has been getting the job done and done well for almost a year now. It's also clear that Sandy Bridge never really suffered in multi-GPU rigs from low bandwidth as a result of splitting the PCI Express 2.0 x16 lanes. I even had one boutique cancel on sending me a Sandy Bridge-E rig in favor of one with an i7-2700K, and that one's due in house soon. I don't blame them.
The fact is, a hex-core processor is overkill for gaming. The system we have on hand from Puget Systems is clearly able to do far more, and would probably rule the school at some heavy duty tasks, but video editors are likely going to want a RAIDed storage system and potentially a Quadro or FireGL GPU, and that takes the Deluge, at least in this configuration, out of contention. Bottom line: the Deluge L2, based on Sandy Bridge-E, is grossly overpriced and the final performance fails to impress. That's before we even take into account the fixed voltage overclock that causes it to put off an uncomfortable amount of heat. It's a beautiful build with a beautiful liquid-cooling system, but I have a very hard time justifying its existence.
Puget Systems does offer a Deluge A2 based on mainstream Sandy Bridge, but you sacrifice the fancy custom liquid-cooling that tags the video cards in favor of a single closed loop CPU cooler: more than a little disappointing. On the flipside, though, the stock Deluge A2 starts $2,000 under the L2, and when you configure it into a fairly comparable build, it winds up being nearly $3,000 less. That's not an insignificant difference. You lose the multi-threaded performance that benefits from having six cores, but it's not like any gamers have been crying that a 4GHz+ i7-2600K isn't enough.
Unfortunately, as we noted in our launch article, we think Sandy Bridge-E is more or less a bust for the majority of enthusiasts. If you need the performance a hex-core CPU can offer, there's a good chance you're already running Gulftown anyway, in which case SNB-E doesn't offer a huge upgrade. There are also several areas where the platform as a whole feels rushed (e.g. NVIDIA's Surround Gaming not working at launch, the chipset lacking native support for USB 3.0, and only a coulple native SATA 6.0Gbps ports). As such, the Puget Deluge L2 winds up being a "more money than sense" kind of investment. While I would happily continue to recommend Puget Systems as a boutique and the build quality here is stellar, this Deluge is so far beyond the pale and so excessive in its configuration that I can't in good conscience recommend it.
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vanadiel - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
I don't understand for the life of me why anyone would purchase a system like this for over $7K.While it's true that this system will ensure top notch gaming, so will a system that costs 5 times less.
I benched my own system to compare the scores, and while I got beaten on every number, the beating was merely a little tap on the shoulder.
If I would pay this much for a system I would expect it to crush and utterly demolish my current gaming system.
Beenthere - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
No one would actually buy a system like this unless they were technically PC illiterate. This is a system for posers with more money than knowledge.vanadiel - Friday, November 25, 2011 - link
Maybe, but it's not much of a pose if you get beaten. A system like this has to have stellar performance or there's no point in purchasing it.Beenthere - Saturday, November 26, 2011 - link
Which is exactly why no one but a poser would buy it. ;)mariush - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
Mass storage is handled by a Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB drive, and given the current shortages in the industry as a result of the Thailand flooding, you pay dearly for the privilege.Yeah, right. I'm sure the price of a 2 TB hard drive really matters in the total of 7500$ for this system system.
Catalina588 - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
I too was surprised by the high voltage used in the factory OC, as well as the permanent 1.4+ volt load on the processor. I don't see the benefits of that overclock. Here are two scenarios:1. Always at 100% CPU Utilization
If you're running simulations constantly (e.g., Folding@Home), then the cooling limits of your setup will drive the possible OC. I set my Turbo to 43X BCLK 100 for a 4.3GHz boot on 6 cores. After 10 minutes, CPU-Z reports the core speed has dropped to the thermal stability point of my Intel HSC water-loop: 4.1 GHz at less than 80 degrees package temperature (via Core Temp) with a voltage of 1.104. Looks like it could run this way for a long time with no sweat.
2. Occasional high-performance single threads
Set the Turbo multiplier to 48X. Leave all the Intel SpeedStep technology enabled. If it boots, run your burn-in tests and you should be fine. If not, try a lower Turbo multiplier The processor will spool all 6 cores up to 48X briefly (seconds) or a couple of cores for long runs. If you're doing a long video transcode, you'll see the core speed decline from 48X as the TDP thermal limits are met and throttled back. With this method, most of the time you'll benefit from the energy savings running at lower voltage and lower core speeds at idle.
Death666Angel - Friday, November 25, 2011 - link
Not a very sophisticated overclock, if you rely on thermal throttling.Also, if your CPU throttles (but there is more overclock to be had) you might want to think about getting better cooling, because 1.1V and 4.1GHz seems quite conservative on moderate to good air cooling. Seems like you have bad to moderate cooling in your rig.
My CPU (i7 860) is not limited by temperature (75°C @1.408V+4.05GHz) but by normal manufacturing errors. Even a small spike at 1.5V didn't result in better OC and gave me errors after a few minutes on LinX.
Even if it was limited by temperature, I wouldn't let it just throttle, I'd tweak it to get the best non-throttle overclock.
But there are enough good OC manuals out there. :D
jadawgis732 - Thursday, November 24, 2011 - link
I think the conclusion here smacks of real, independent speak, which is not something you find in spades in this day in age when every reviewer is just writing it as nicely as possible in order to keep in high standing with manufacturers. I love the "good citizen" line in the power section too. Just one mistake, on the conclusion page, after you finish ripping apart Puget's placement strategy and pricing scheme you say, "[...] having six cores, but it's not like anyone gamers have been crying that [...]" Anyway keep up the great work.McFoozle - Friday, November 25, 2011 - link
1. Intel Sandy Bridge-E is a bust. By the time it starts providing the necessary performance per dollar to make sense, Ivy Bridge will be out.2. This system doesn't even make sense for people with money to burn who don't have time to spend on building it themselves.
3. Boutique systems builders obviously charge big money to build these things for you and they almost always do things that are weird, undesired and even downright inexplicable.
piroroadkill - Friday, November 25, 2011 - link
I agree that Sandy Bridge-E is pointless for almost everyone.Also, the sort of person that would buy the best ULTRA EXXXXTREME edition processor would already have a Core i7-980x or 990x system, and would STILL have no reason to upgrade to this.
Everyone's better off waiting for Ivy Bridge.