This entry originally appeared on January 6, 2009 (before I installed WordPress).
Look, BFG. I like you. You make good nVidia boards, and are one of the few GeForce partners out there with a Step-Up program. But your new adventure in system integration is a bit…preposterous.
Starting configurations run $3000, $5000, and $8000, with the eight-grand box loaded out as follows:
- Core i7 965 Extreme Edition
- MSI Eclipse X58 mobo
- 6GB Patriot DDR3-1600
- 2x GeForce GTX 295
- 1x GeForce GTX 285 (as a dedicated PPU)
- CoolIt contained watercooling system
- 4x WD Velociraptor HDDs
- Blu-ray drive
- Auzentech X-fi Prelude
- 1.2kW PSU
- Integrated iPhone/iPT dock
- Integrated 8″ touchscreen
A few comments about these specs:
- “Extreme Edition” on an Intel CPU means that out of the box, you’re getting a marginal performance boost over the highest-tier standard processor, in exchange for an astronomical price that’ll give any system builder but Scrooge McDuck severe sticker shock. An EE’s main benefit is its unlocked multiplier, which really only comes into play for overclockers shooting for world record benchmarks. For the consumer ordering a system online from an integrator, it’s a scam to cash in on the ill-informed.
- Patriot memory blows.
- SLI scales horribly. This configuration of two dual-GPU cards for quad SLI falls into the above category of tiny performance benefit for gigantic mountains of cash.
- Prefab, off-the-shelf watercooling units offer meager benefit (if any) over a top-tier heatsink with a good 120mm fan strapped to it. They don’t offer the above-and-beyond cooling performance the average user expects from watercooling, and while they do have the benefit of silence, a 120mm fan is pretty quiet, and I’d say below most people’s noise tolerance threshold. In exchange for these slight advantages, you pay a lot more money. Cash-in bait #2.
- The integrated iPhone dock is a good idea…if you have an iPhone. I hope (I assume) this is optional. Why not have the choice for a standard iPod dock? There’s still a lot more classic/nano/older-gen iPods floating around out there than iPhones/iPTs.
- I’ll put down money that at least 85% of Phobos purchasers play with the touchscreen for five minutes when they first get the thing, and never use it again. Especially considering this system is in a standard tower configuration. Memo to BFG: Most people with a tower or midtower put it under the desk.
But the most absurd part of this whole offer is not what’s in the box. It’s the concierge service. From the BFG press release:
“As a result, Phobos is sold with complementary Concierge Service which includes expert in-home installation and a six month follow up maintenance visit.”
Expert in-home installation. For an $8000 gaming PC. Look, if you’re buying an SLI gaming box, and you can’t match a DVI cable to a DVI port and USB cables to USB ports, I don’t know how the hell you’re going to manage to even turn the thing on.
All things considered, this isn’t the right economy to introduce such a product anyway. Anyone in the “gullible, uninformed twit who likes gaming but knows a lot less than he thinks he does about computers and wants maximum e-peen factor” demographic—at least, anyone who still has, you know, a job, and money to splurge on such things—is likely already a customer of Alienware or Falcon Northwest. If you were serious about offering a product for gamers who simply don’t have the time or inclination to build their own box, you could easily create a rock-solid $1000-1500 i7/DDR3 system that’ll handle, at a minimum, the next three to four years’ worth of games. Phobos will also handle the next three to four years’ worth of games. But it’s more about attempting to swindle those gamers.
