A very shiny gaming PC from Deus Ex that, though pricey, is hard not to like.
You know you're in for something special when a PC arrives not in a standard cardboard box, but a heavy wooden shipping crate. Opening Deus Ex's new system was not unlike one of those scenes in a movie where the hero opens some long lost crate, searching for rare antiquities or stolen treasure. We only wish the thing was nailed shut, not conveniently latched, so we could get the full crowbar experience!
In fact, 'full experience' is probably the phrase we used more than any other while getting to know this system, as Deus Ex has not only delivered a kick arse, pre-overclocked PC with a smooth custom paint job, but it's nailed the customer service aspect down better than any other manufacturer we've come across.
But first, just what's in this beast?
When, the specs above tell the tale pretty thoroughly, but we have to say that this is pretty much a near perfect mix of components. In fact, it's very nearly identical - down to the case - to our own Justin Robinson's home rig! Even the choice of hard drives is well thought, with a faster system drive that also has enough room for games, and a larger storage drive for larger files that don't necessarily need such speedy access. The aftermarket cooler is a lovely copper Zalman sink and fan combo, very popular amongst vendors that sell OCed gear, and the RAM is well considered two sticks of 2GB Corsair DDR3. This means there's space to upgrade, and you still get the immediate benefit of the 64-bit OS.
And all that great gear has been lovingly cabled to within an inch of its silicon life. All cable slack has been neatly stored away behind the mobo back plate. In fact, it's so tightly stored there that you remove that side-panel at your own risk - it's hard to get back on! The HDD's SATA cables are nice and long, meaning you never put them under strain when sliding the drives out of their bays, too.
As to the custom spray job? Well, that's a matter for personal taste - it's certainly striking, though whether it's worth it to you enough to lay down a shade over $400 for... well, at least it's one saving you might be able to make. We can say the quality of the job is superb, though, and the mirror finish has to be seen to be believed.
But all the looks in the world won't save a system from our wrath if it can't perform. Thankfully, Deus Ex has that department covered too.
One of the fastest - and most expensive - systems we've looked at recently was the Pioneer DreamVision, in issue 92. It topped 22,000 3Dmarks in the 06 version of the program, and could handle our Crysis benching with near disdain. It also cost over $6,000.
Deus Ex's effort is of course below that stupendous effort, but its 20,149 3DMarks is not far off, and at a significant cost saving. It's faster than ScorpionTech's system from the same issue, too, though that is a complete system (monitor and all) for only a few hundred more. Then again, if you ditch the paint job and the Three Year Onsite warranty of this particular unit, you'd knock about $600 off the price.
Suddenly, this becomes a very competitive system.
Finally, there's also the excellent customer service to consider. Not only was the case shipped in a secure wooden crate, but in the bundle was a folder of documents for the 'new owner'. This includes a letter with the name of the engineer who built your system (plus his email), similar details for the airbrushing, full benchmarking results at stock and overclocked specs, plus a guide to reloading the overclocked settings if you should happen to suffer some BIOS related disaster. Even Deus Ex's overclocking is explained! Anyone who bought this machine could not help but feel looked after by the vendor. Even we felt kinda chuffed, and we're just reviewing it!
We think this machine hits the perfect sweet spot of performance to price, of bling to functionality. The art may not be your thing, but that's something you can easily tweak to your own liking, or ditch entirely to save some money. For the overall package, we can't help but call this the best PC we've seen from a builder this year.
Check out the first look we did on this beastie last year, and the gallery of pics there too!
Internal build of the Deus Ex machine. Oh my.
Issue: 107 | December, 2009