Back in October, YouTube tech reviewer LinusTechTips created a single PC that was powerful enough to run two separate, high-end gaming machines, each with their own monitor, keyboard, and mouse. But it seems that wasn't enough for the PC fan, as he's upped the ante and created a single, massive tower that can run seven gaming setups at once.
The seven systems are far from what would be considered mid-range (virtual) machines. Each one is connected to a 34-inch Predator X34 monitor running at a 3440 X 1440 resolution, and Linus showed how he can play Crysis 3 at 60 to 100 FPS while the six other setups ran Unigine Heaven.
Building a single PC that is capable of doing this does, of course, take an immense amount of hardware - near $30,000 worth, to be exact. Linus started with an Asus Z10PE-D8 WS ($564) motherboard as it's one of the only standard form factor Mobos that can fit in a gaming case and is able to hold all the components.
Next was the dual CPUs - two Xeon E5-2697 hyperthreaded 14-core processors ($5312) that could provide the equivalent of a quad-core CPU for each setup. There was also 256GB of DDR4 RAM (8 sticks of 32GB, costing about $2454 in total), and eight 1 TB SSDs (roughly $3267).
Linus used seven Radeon R9 Nanos ($4543) - chosen for their size and efficiency - to provide those 1440p images on the seven X34s ($10,003). The hardware gets its power from an EVGA T2 1600W ($429) PSU, and the whole thing sits in a CaseLabs Mercury S8 ($399.95) case, which Linus used as it can accommodate both the E-ATX mobo and a water cooling setup.
What's more amazing than constructing this machine is the fact that Linus managed to get all the various components and peripherals working together. Kingston - who sponsored the build and provided the SSDs and memory - is showing off the PC at their CES 2016 booth. It may not be very practical (or cheap), but it's still an incredible piece of work.