Just as a car manufacturer designs extreme concepts that would be virtually impossible to use on the road, there are also hardware configurations that border on the inconceivable. The latest proof of this was at CES 2016, where the folks at Kingston joined forces with LinusTechTips to create a system capable of running seven instances of high-end games at the same time. The build demanded hours and hours of work just for assembly.
Many of our readers likely own computers with superior performance that can run the latest of the latest in video games without much trouble. Graphics card specifications improve with each new generation, and it becomes easier in economic terms to access previous versions with more than respectable power. Even so, there is always a configuration that throws sanity out the window, or a hardware combination that needs days and days of planning just because it is so absurd. That brings us to one of the most recent videos by LinusTechTips, sponsored by Kingston.
The Hardware
Linus himself admitted that this was the most advanced computer he has built on his channel, although the concept is not exactly new. He had previously built a system capable of running two games at the same time without performance issues, but this time we are talking about seven. It all starts with the processor combo (note the plural) and the motherboard. The chips chosen to move this monstrosity are two Intel Xeon E5-2697 V3, with 14 physical cores and 28 processing threads per CPU, so the final configuration is 28/56. The motherboard is an Asus Z10PE-D8 WS, with EATX format and obviously two CPU sockets. 256 GB of Kingston DDR4 RAM, eight Kingston 1 TB SSDs, an EVGA T2 power supply of 1,600 watts (80Plus Titanium, those 1,600 watts are sustained), seven AMD Radeon R9 Nano graphics cards, a custom watercooling system, a Mercury S8 case, seven Acer Predator X34 monitors... and the list goes on.
Software and Troubles
All the software “coordination”, so to speak, was carried out with the help of the unRAID platform ($109 for the Plus license), and as expected, the computer refused to cooperate at first. Temperature problems (with several sensor errors), additional BIOS adjustments, preparing seven virtual terminals based on Windows 10... as I said above, sanity out the window.
The Cost
The total invested in hardware slightly exceeds $28,000. Just the processors alone cost more than $5,000, but any interested party could drastically reduce that number by swapping the Acer Predator monitors ($1,300 each) for other ones. Despite everything, a spectacular job.
