Origin Genesis Review: Triple Titan Terror
by Ryan Smith on April 23, 2013 9:00 AM EST
As some of you might recall, as part of NVIDIA’s GTX Titan launch NVIDIA not only sent out individual cards, but also some custom concept systems to showcase the unique aspects of Titan. Specifically its high quality construction and how its blower-style cooler means it can be exploited to pack high performance systems into relatively small spaces. NVIDIA shipped us two such concept systems, a small form factor (SFF) Falcon Northwest Tiki, and at the opposite end of the spectrum was the obscenely powerful tri-SLI Origin Genesis.
Of course that was almost two months ago, and there’s no getting around the fact that as the reviewer assigned to the Genesis I’ve ended up turning in this review very late. An initial delay to focus on the Titan launch turned into a serious illness, followed by not one but two conferences, two more video card launches, and some other fun stuff in between. So living up to the motto “better late than never”, now that everything has settled down (relatively speaking) I can finally pick back up where I left off and finish our look at Titan with the final piece of the puzzle: Origin’s monster gaming machine.
With the Genesis the idea was that Origin would put together a triple Titan system to showcase just how quiet Titan’s blower-style coolers were even when the cards were tightly packed together. Instead Origin unexpectedly exceeded NVIDIA’s specifications and was able to get three Titans hooked up to water in time for the Titan launch. The end result somewhat defeats the original purpose of sending the system out – we can’t tell you what three stock Titans sounds like – but in the end we got something far more interesting: three Titans hooked up to water, creating a tri-SLI system effectively unrestrained by heat and cooled by one of the only things quieter than NVIDIA’s blowers. Ultimately if one Titan on its own is powerful, then three Titans is nothing short of obscene. This is the same sentiment behind the Origin’s Genesis system we’re reviewing today.
In Origin’s product lineup, Genesis is Origin’s brand for their line full-tower computers. As a boutique builder, Origin uses a number of different configurations on their Genesis lineup, offering multiple CPU/motherboard combinations and multiple cases under the same Genesis heading. As a result Genesis spans everything from relatively simple systems to XL-ATX monsters.
The Genesis system we’ll be looking at today is positioned at the top end of that lineup, and is intended to be the fastest thing that can be put together in an ATX form factor. Sparing no expense, Origin has assembled a Genesis system that packs in Origin’s best components, best cooling, greatest overclocks, and highest price tag. Based around the combination of a Corsair Obsidian 800D case, NVIDIA’s GTX Titan, and Intel’s X79/SNB-E platform, it’s a luxury computer like no other.
With that thought in mind, let’s take a look at just how a $9,000 luxury gaming computer is built and configured.
| Origin Genesis (2013) Specifications | |
| Chassis | Corsair Obsidian 800D |
| Processor |
Intel Core i7-3970X (6x3.5GHz + HTT, Turbo to 4.0GHz, 4.9GHz Overclock, 32nm, 15MB L3, 150W) |
| Motherboard | Intel DX79SR(X79 Chipset) |
| Memory | 4x4GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3-1866 (expandable to 64GB) |
| Graphics |
3x NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan 6GB in SLI 3x (2688 CUDA cores, 837/6008MHz core/RAM, 952/6208MHz Overclock, 384-bit memory bus) |
| Storage |
2x Corsair Neutron GTX 120GB SATA 6Gbps SSD (LAMD), RAID-0 Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200-RPM SATA HDD |
| Optical Drive(s) | Hitachi-LG 14x BD Burner |
| Power Supply | Corsair AX1200i |
| Networking | 2x Intel 82579L Gigabit Ethernet |
| Audio |
Realtek ALC892 Speaker, mic/line-in, surround jacks, optical out for 7.1 sound |
| Front Side |
Optical drive 40-In-1 Media Card Reader 2x USB 2.0 2x USB 3.0 IEEE 1394a Headphone and mic jacks 4-channel fan controller Koolance RP-401X2 Reservoir |
| Top | - |
| Back Side |
4x USB 3.0 6x USB 2.0 Optical out IEEE 1394a 2x Ethernet Speaker, mic/line-in, surround, and optical jacks 6x DVI-D (3x GTX Titan) 3x HDMI (3x GTX Titan) 2x DisplayPort (3x GTX Titan) |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1 |
| Dimensions |
24" x 9" x 24" (609.6mm x 228.6mm x 609.6mm) |
| Extras |
Card reader Custom liquid-cooling loop, CPU & GPU Custom LED lighting 80 Plus Platinum PSU |
| Warranty | 1-year parts, 45 days shipping, lifetime labor and 24/7 support |
| Pricing | As configured: $8,499 (+$479 paint job) |
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DanNeely - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
I'd swag it at 3-4 years for a $1200 box; and two more for the $600 pricepoint.We're probably 2 die shrinks from having similar performance levels in an x70/x80 card. The first shrink will put slightly better than titan level performance down the upper mainstream die size (assuming standard doubling); the second will give a single card with double that and since 3way SLI performance is significantly less than the 3x that linear scaling assumes the 2 die shrink GPU should be in the same ballpark.
That's only 3 years out. Depending on how competitive the market is that card could be anywhere between $250 and $600ish; the lower end of that range should easily make a $1200 system; the top of it will probably be a year behind with the $600 price point needing another die shrink so 2 more years for that or 6 total.
faroguy - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
NVIDIA had a demo system at GTC with 3 Titan's in it that was running Metro: Last Light. It was quite an awesome feeling to play on a system with that much power. Also, it wasn't terribly loud.Samus - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
lol, ridiculous BF3 scorekrazeyivan - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
If you want to see a beast system with 4 x Titans - check this link - probably the fastest 24/7 Rig aroundhttp://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1755071
Denithor - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
Well, now that you have enough GPU power to push those games, do some core count studies and see what games are seriously benefiting from 2/4/6 cores. This would clearly show where you're being held back by CPU versus GPU.DanNeely - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
Very few games are heavily threaded on the CPU today; so finding CPU bottlenecks would be about downclocking the chip not disabling cores. With the PS4 and xbox720 rumored to have 8 relatively lightweight CPU cores we probably will start seeing games able to take better advantage of the width of high end CPUs in a few years; but we're not at that point today.mapesdhs - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
Ryan writes:> 1340W at the wall is over 11 amps; we’re not to the point where the Genesis
> needs a dedicated circuit, but that’s the majority of a 15 amp circuit right there.
Less than 6A where I am. ;)
Finally Edison's daft low-voltage DC-bias legacy is revealing itself. Is it possible that top-end
PC tech development may eventually become limited by the comparatively low max power
available from a US wall socket? I hope not.
Ian.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
"Is it possible that top-end PC tech development may eventually become limited by the comparatively low max power available from a US wall socket? I hope not."Nope. You already have household items that use power in the thousand Watt range (vacuums, heaters, microwaves etc.), so a PC doing the same thing isn't a problem. And the drive in the PC industry is for lower power consumption overall. No one of the component vendors is pursuing 1k+ Watt PCs. It's the end manufacturers that offer that kind of power consumption beast on their own. And the few people that really need bigger PCs usually have their own circuits to run them off, along with specialized cooling solutions.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
I don't understand the choice of 2 120GB SDDs (in RAID 0 nonetheless). And 4x4GB RAM looks wrong in this type of PC. If you go crazy, go crazy on everything. :DAs for the water cooling, I'd rather have another case that supports something like 200/280/360/420 radiators and at least 2 of those. This setup is not very elegant. If you go with such a case, give me an external water cooling radiator like the 1080/1260 ones or install a 480 quad one on the side of the case.
hero1 - Tuesday, April 23, 2013 - link
With that much money spent on the hardware I would expect them to have used a better case, custom one and bigger radiators to reduce the heat and noise. Poor job imo.