My Custom Designed/Built High-End 2.5 Year Old Xidax PC Specs (& 2 Finalists to Replace It...)
As I wrote in my short piece earlier this evening, I have -- for the time, 2.5 years ago -- a very high-end custom designed, custom built Xidax gaming PC which wasn't as high-end as one could go, but it was still pretty sweet. I mentioned in my post (https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6561400022213160960/) that I was thinking of replacing it with something from one of the top four boutique companies that had a little more power and speed, and said that after spending weeks doing over 160 configs with at least 35 different companies, I had narrows the two finalists to a Digital Storm Velox (PC Magazine's PC of the Year - 2019) and a monster OriginPC Genesis, with massive storage capacity, which I value. I further said I'll probably be interested in selling my Xidax to anyone interested, so I thought I'd post the specs here, just as an FYI. Not as up to date as the current, but still pretty high-end... I'll also include a photo or two.
Xidax X-8 Glacier Specs
Brand: Xidax
Model: X-8 Glacier
Case: Thermaltake View 71 Tempered Glass RGB Edition
CPU: Intel i9-7920X 12-core, hyperthreading, 2.9 GHz (4.5 GHz overclocking)
Motherboard: ASUS ROG RAMPAGE VI EXTREME
Memory: G. Skill Trident Z-64GB DDR4 3200 MHz (4x16GB)
PSU: Corsair AX 1500i
GPU: Dual MSI NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB in SLI bridge (GPU overclocking)
Storage: 2 1TB SSD M.2 discs, led by Samsung 960 Pro NVME M.2; 3 1TB SSD discs, led by Samsung 850 Pro; 6TB WD Black HDD
RAID: RAID 0
CPU Cooling: Corsair Hydro H100 V2 Water Cooler
OS: MS Windows Home 10 Premium
Security: Bitdefender Security
Keyboard: Corsair K55 RGB Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Zelojes T-90 Gaming Mouse
Webcam: Logitech C-3105
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster ZXR PCI Express
To this system, I also added:
Security: Bitdefender Security
Keyboard: Corsair K55 RGB Gaming Keyboard
Mouse: Multiple gaming options
Webcam: Logitech C-3105
Audio System: Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 200-Watt THX Speaker System
The purchase came with a free lifetime warranty, which is non transferable -- sorry. Additionally, there are extra drive bays, it is upgradeable in terms of both storage and memory, among others.
Sorry about the terrible photo. Most of my good and close-up photos are vertical, not landscape and no matter what I do, I have not been able to figure out how to rotate the stupid photos so that one can see the rig clearly or closely! I do have plenty of pics to provide any potentially interested parties, however.
This was a five figure purchase, but obviously there's depreciation, so I don't have an actual figure in mind but it will be considerably less.
Meanwhile, my Two New Finalists! I have worked and worked to get just the right combo of machine and price and I think I've succeeded. I would like to ramp up the rig big time, but circumstances dictate otherwise. However, I'm torn between the two. They are about 50-50 and I'm having a heck of a time deciding. Frankly, I think the Origin Genesis might be a little better, if for no other reason that the massive storage. But I've bought from them twice and haven't been happy with my personnel interactions and a lack of communication, IMO. That said, Falcon Northwest is considered to be just as good, if not better, and can get a heck of a lot more expensive, but this is a good machine that's competitive with the Origin. Main drawback. One expansion bay. But then I could get min-RAIDS, if necessary, so that shouldn't be a problem. I've heard they're good to work with. Both have outstanding reviews and on a couple of sites that rate PC companies by customers, OriginPC, out of about 450 reviews, with an average of close to 9.8 out of 10. Meanwhile Digital Storm had over 2,200 reviews with an average of over 9.9 out of 10! Tough call. Customer/technical support would be an issue, but I've heard both are terrible, so it's still a toss up. I'm going to post the specs of each here and if anyone is familiar with these companies or wants to comment, I'd appreciate any advice. (And yes I know it's cheaper to build your own, but while I've built my own basic PCs, I would never be stupid enough to take the three months necessary to try and build machines of this quality. I'll go with the expert craftspeople...)
Digital Storm Velox
OriginPC Genesis
As you can see, virtually identical. Perfect? No way! Very good components and good machines? Yep. The Digital Storm is about 90 pounds and the Origin is about 120 pounds. (The Xidax is about 90 pounds...) A few differences between them to possibly make a difference, but otherwise it's tight race. So if anyone wants to chime in, I'm open. However, please don't suggest other companies, because it's almost certain I've tried any anyone recommends and have rejected them for one reason or another. And for God's sake, please don't ever suggest an off-the-shelf prebuilt! Thanks!