Elite PC Titan FX: Setting New Standards in Gaming
by Wesley Fink on November 30, 2003 10:57 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Final Words
Elite PC has been selling computers on the web for quite a while, and we have seen their advertisements in many computer magazines. They also maintain a storefront and LAN Gaming Center at their headquarters in Tempe, Arizona. However, in the end, their main focus has been, and continues to be, as a web-based reseller. This is our first look at an Elite PC system and to say that we are impressed with what we have found would be an understatement.The Elite PC Titan FX is the best Gaming System AnandTech has ever tested. It is also more than just a gaming system. In every benchmark we have run, the Titan FX is at the top of our performance charts! In some cases, the margin of victory is small, but in others, the Titan FX demolishes what had been our previous high score. There is no doubt that Elite PC's decision to use fast Mushkin ECC Registered memory and a SATA RAID built with Western Digital 10,000RPM Raptor drives have contributed strongly to the blazing performance we see here. Then, add in the Athlon64 FX51 and the 256mb ATI Radeon XT, and you have quite a contender. However, Elite PC, like any system builder, can choose the parts they put into their systems, and their choices for this system are extremely well balanced for absolute top performance. Elite PC appears to have chosen the parts for the Titan FX with great care and tweaked the system for blazing performance.
That is not to say the Titan FX is completely trouble-free. While the performance with 2 DIMMs was blazing, we were not able to get 4 ECC Registered DIMMs to work in this board. We are hopeful that MSI or Elite PC can fix this issue because it is the only real negative we found in this system. Perhaps a BIOS update or careful selection of 4 modules by Elite PC will make the use of 4 DIMMs a non-issue. The other is overclocking, where the Titan FX was a disappointment. At least you can overclock, but we wish we had seen results faster than about 6% overclock. This is strongly offset, however, by the option to add a 2nd CPU to the Titan FX. In Anand's earlier testing of the Opteron, he found that the 2nd processor increased overall performance by more than 25%. If the Elite PC Titan FX scales similarly, and we have every reason to expect it will, then the performance increase with 2 Opteron chips will blow well past what any enthusiast might hope to achieve with overclocking a single CPU.
So the point is not missed — the Elite PC Titan FX is the fastest gaming system we have ever tested. The Titan FX is, in fact, the fastest single processor system we have ever tested, however we benchmark it. What's more, this Dual-CPU board can be expanded to two Opteron processors for even higher performance levels. The fastest performer does not come at a bargain-basement price, nor do we believe you would expect that for a system that has the best performance tested. For $3000, you get the system exactly as we tested it, but you will need to add a monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers for a complete system. Despite the $3000 price tag, we still believe the Elite PC Titan FX offers excellent value for your money.
This is the fastest system we have tested, period. Sometimes it is easy to send a system back after a review, but this is one system that will be sorely missed when it is returned to Elite PC. If you (or your Santa) are well-heeled or extremely generous, then put the Elite PC Titan FX on your shopping list. You will not be disappointed. The $3000 price tag is a virtual bargain when you look at the performance that you can achieve with this system.
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tfranzese - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
Doop, no I don't feel like a fool. It's better to be informed than be completely ignorant like yourself. Even Wesley, the guy who wrote this article, was under the impression the current FX's were dual capable. It could either have been fixed by AMD or fixed in the BIOs for all you know.As for sales, sales don't determine leadership. As for the 8x thing, being first to market a new speed does not make you the leader. Am I not the only one disappointed that it can't do 8x + and - R?
And no, no one mentioned Pioneer in this article but neither did they mention Plextor. And you're kidding yourself if you think Plextor has the same prestiege in the DVD burner market as they did with CD burners. Plextors are good, but speed isn't what makes you the best.
Tweak - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
oops, late post.Tweak - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
Well Mr Fink, can you answer the dual FX question for us?You changed the typos, but completely ignored this MUCH more important querry.
In any case, if the 940pin Fx's are dual compatible it would be a reason for the 940 pinners to remain in existance after the release of the 939pin. The performance of the new 939's will probably destroy single chip 940's configs.
TheRealMandak - Tuesday, December 2, 2003 - link
1. The Athlon64FX IS an Opteron 148, a single server/workstation processor.2. The socket for the FX, vill change to 941. So you might get problems with upgrading this system or have to use Opteron's at a higher price. "hint" Change'en socket might give a small price drop to the FX, since it cannot work in servers/workstations any more. Properly depends on Prescott performance (but this is a guess).
3. It is not recommended to use 4 DIMMS in a single Athlon64/FX processor system, it will reduce performance.
4. The MSI K8T Master2 is NOT supporting dedicated RAM for both Processors in a dual setup. As the socket 940 designs describes. The 2.end Processor has to go through processor number 1, using Hyper Transport. Result, latency!!! And reduced performance. The MSI K8T Master2 not a great dual board. Maybe cheep but not great.
destaccado - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
#12 I said nothing negative about pioneer, and in terms of leadership do you mean sales? That pioneer may lead but I seem to recall plextor having the first 8x drive to market...that signifies leadership to me....and why would you bring up pioneer? They aren't using pioneer who makes really good burners, they're using MSI, now I'm not saying MSI is bad but you'd think for 3g's........AMDjihad - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
in yomammas face intel. you suck suck suck. Iknew this is much better, over 30000 3dmarks its better than anyting intel will make in the next years from prescott to tjas. amd will be market leader soonmizzouXC - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
I think these benchmarks are unfair to the Barton 3200+ setup. Every other system had Raid 0. While this won't make much difference in the brute force FPS competition, it does play into the everyday use (office) benchmarks. Other than that great comparison. I'd like to see these comparisons when we actually have a 64 bit O/S and 64 bit software....Doop - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
err tfranzese you feel like a fool now? Perhaps YOU should read the reviews before spouting complete bollocks about Athlon FX dual capability.tfranzese - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
Wesley, interesting. Is the second CPU showing in the system hardware section of XP's control panel? That should let you know if it's running as a dually or not.Wesley Fink - Monday, December 1, 2003 - link
Elite PC has provided an update on Dual Processor usage. <em>"The only AMD processors that can be run in DUAL mode are the 200 and 800 series Opteron processors. The motherboard in the Titan FX machine will run all 940 pin processors, however only the 200 and 800 series Opteron processors will run as Dual processors."</em> We have just tried to benchmark the Titan FX system with 2 FX51, and while the system worked, the boot screen only identified ONE CPU even though two were installed. Oddly, the few benchmarks we ran were higher than single CPU, but not at the levels we would expect with Dual Opteron chips. Elite PC recommends the 200 or 800 Opterons for Dual CPU operation.An update with this information has been added to the review.