No Expense Spared: The ridiculously powerful MicroATX PC

[madboyv1]

m.2 was only released 31st March 2015 so you are incorrect there. SM951 was available from approximately July 2014. Also SM951 only released as OEM part is odd. There's no reason they couldn't release it as a retail part.

Hence my question...

Oh wow I had dates flipped in my head... That is a good question. My guess is price difference (about half) and branding with a familiar retail name? Compared to the rest of the retail family the SM951 would stick out like a skylight next to a couple AA cell flashlights in terms of performance, and would not have mixed well with the rest of the product line...

 

[BloodyMatters]

You build a 'no expense spared' mATX system and didn't built it into a Case Labs Mercury S5 with REAL water cooling? Looks like you DID spare some expense.

They should've gone with a bigger case, and pack that case to it's fullest.
Like 4 295X2's. More SSD's etc. The moment they chose this case they already spared on money. LinusTechTips made an 6K Pc. and he said he could make it more expensive than that. He also said that if he had not expense limit he would build that 6K pc for himself.

But even so, for a small build this is pretty good

 

[melkiik]

Nice build! I also have a mATX build now. Hopefully we are going to have more and more high-end mITX cases for enthusiast builds in the near future.

That would be real nice. I like the build too + the case is neat. Like the classic on the top PSU placement.
I have built only one mITX system, and it was real cramped when I cabled it. But it has been working real neat to my friend. And just like this one, the temps are a little higher than a ATX or mATX case where you can really cool it properly.

 

[Peter Farkas]

That would be real nice. I like the build too + the case is neat. Like the classic on the top PSU placement.
I have built only one mITX system, and it was real cramped when I cabled it. But it has been working real neat to my friend. And just like this one, the temps are a little higher than a ATX or mATX case where you can really cool it properly.

I suppose we will need proper water cooled GPUs for a reasonable price for those mITX builds. With water cooling on both CPU and GPU mITX should be absolutely OK from a temperature perspective.
I am keeping my fingers crossed it is going to happen soon.

 

[madboyv1]

They should've gone with a bigger case, and pack that case to it's fullest.

Well... considering when anyone does a truly no expenses spared, they ALL practically do the same thing... Big Case, most expensive feature rich motherboard, fastest processor they can buy, max memory ( or one step down) 2-4 GPUS... So a miminum expenses spared build that is constrained to a form factor besides ATX Full towers is a welcome change. I will say they definitely could have stuffed a little more into that Kubalai, but then thermal performance would likely have been in question.

 

[snowcrashedx]

You guys are missing the PCIe SSD. That would add another $600 to the build but I can only image how fast it would be.

Except for the fact that PCIe SSDs offer no improvement in consumer applications over mSATA SSDs: http://classic.slashdot.org/story/15/04/20/205246

As one might expect, these new PCIe drives destroy the competition in targeted benchmarks, hitting top speeds several times faster than even the best SATA SSDs can muster. The thing is, PCIe SSDs don't load games or common application data any faster than current incumbents—or even consumer-grade SSDs from five years ago.

Thanks for the great review! I have the Temjin TJ08-E with the the ASUS Maximus Gene V, Intel Core i7-2600k, 16GB RAM, ASUS Essence STX 7.1, and the ASUS Matrix GTX 980. The TJ08-E truly has been the best mATX case on the market in terms compact, powerful builds. I'm glad Silverstone has updated and improved on the greatest case yet. The KL06 is my next purchase!

 

[Evernessince]

Except for the fact that PCIe SSDs offer no improvement in consumer applications over mSATA SSDs: http://classic.slashdot.org/story/15/04/20/205246

So you expect people to take your word for it when you link a source like a discussion board? That's about as credible as asking for "facts" on 2Chan, except that 2Chan is way more known then what you linked.

Aside from that, NVMe PCI-E based SSDs seem to do a darn good job

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NVM_Express

Just from a technical standpoint, once these hit mainstream they are going to be much faster in all aspects compared to ACHI based drives.

 

[snowcrashedx]

So you expect people to take your word for it when you link a source like a discussion board? That's about as credible as asking for "facts" on 2Chan, except that 2Chan is way more known then what you linked.

Wait, what? Do you know what Slashdot is? I don't even have the words A geek not knowing what Slashdot is would be like a gamer not knowing what Game Informer or Nintendo Power was. Enlighten yourself young Padawan!

Just from a technical standpoint, once these hit mainstream they are going to be much faster in all aspects compared to ACHI based drives.

Since you didn't read the post, which clearly links to the original source, here it is: http://techreport.com/review/28050/intel-750-series-solid-state-drive-reviewed/5

Maybe you've heard of Tech Report, one of the most respected technology sites on the net? Here's a summary of their testing in case you don't read it:

Nothing to see here... except for the six-year-old X25-M G2 matching the load times of the latest SSDs, including Intel's wicked-fast PCIe drives. Kinda puts things into perspective, doesn't it?

 

[Evernessince]

Since you didn't read the post, which clearly links to the original source, here it is: http://techreport.com/review/28050/intel-750-series-solid-state-drive-reviewed/5

Maybe you've heard of Tech Report, one of the most respected technology sites on the net? Here's a summary of their testing in case you don't read it:

While the 1.2 TB model doesn't show much promise, it's the lower capacity 400 GB one that we should be looking at. To me it looks like they included a weak controller that really bottlenecks the 1.2 TB model.

Lets just say that while PCIe SSDs are largely a poor choice for consumers now, thanks to NVMe, they will be much better once issues like the one above are sorted out and controllers are improved. There are scant few choices right now that are even aimed at consumers.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Yes unfortunately the bus technology is a few years behind where it ideally should have been and we just need to wait longer for products. SATA 3 was obsolete before it became even became mainstream (when the attached devices saturate it at launch, you haven't future proofed).

Can't exactly judge the products when you can count the offerings on one hand - they are clearly not established in the marketplace. NVMe is a welcome and very overdue addition. Can't wait for the problems to be ironed out and products to start making good use of it.