AVADirect Deluxe Quiet Gaming Desktop PC Review
by Dustin Sklavos on February 23, 2014 12:01 AM ESTPower Consumption
Where power consumption is concerned, AVADirect's build is in the ballpark of where it needs to be. The fans are all running at low speeds, so they're not liable to affect power consumption that much. Voltage on the Intel Core i7-4770K is a little on the high side, but still totally within reason and not cause for alarm.
The net result is an idle power consumption of 60 watts, jumping up to 402 watts under AIDA64's stress test with everything but "Stress Disks" enabled. This is in line with where it should be; DigitalStorm's Virtue idled 10 watts higher but drew 40 watts lower under load with the same CPU and GPU, but shipped with a reference GTX 780 instead of a factory overclocked card and frankly, much less hardware overall.
Heat
Despite its sub-30dB noise profile, AVADirect's Quiet Gaming PC also does a fine job of keeping thermals in check. The fly in the ointment is the i7-4770K, whose peak temperatures are a little on the high side. While Haswell's lousy TIM can be blamed for some of this, I can't help but feel like a 140mm closed loop liquid cooler would've been an improvement.
The GTX 780 is running downright frosty, owing to the build's excellent airflow and high quality aftermarket cooler that Gigabyte employs. The problem is that the 4770K is getting dangerously close to throttling; even under water, 1.28V can be a little onerous for Haswell's thermals in my experience, but the Zalman cooler still seems to underperform by about 10C.
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gandergray - Sunday, February 23, 2014 - link
Dustin, thank you for the review. Regarding rubber fan mounts, why are screws preferred?Samus - Sunday, February 23, 2014 - link
So your fans don't fall out.tim851 - Sunday, February 23, 2014 - link
That only happens with shitty mounts.homer_pickett - Thursday, October 9, 2014 - link
+1 to keep the fans in place. /Homer from http://www.consumertop.com/best-desktop-guide/SunLord - Monday, February 24, 2014 - link
The fans installed in this system have a built in rubber bushing so you don't need to use rubber mounts to silence them.zodiacsoulmate - Monday, March 3, 2014 - link
Rubber fan mount always leave a little crack between fan and case, which is a very severe air leak that will cause inefficient air cooling...Gyro231995 - Sunday, February 23, 2014 - link
Neat I guess. I have a chub but not a full on erection.xaml - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - link
@Gyro231995 What you're really saying is that certain people and their bushes should be thrown into oversized fans. I couldn't agree more.brucek2 - Sunday, February 23, 2014 - link
My first reading of the table was that this was a system that included 3x Nvidia 780s, yet was still quiet, and that cost only $2,500. I was ready to order on the spot.The downside of that much excitement is that now that I've realized its just one, it seems so so much less interesting.
will54 - Sunday, February 23, 2014 - link
I thought the same thing at first. I know avadirect has a good price point but damn that would have been a sweet deal.