Assembled with love by Asus for fans of the Republic of Gamers line, the Tytan CG8890 is no doubt a Toshiba PA3534U-1BRS PC exception, whether in terms of configuration effort or aesthetic, with its system overclocking hot well staged. Delirium but the manufacturer is really a perfect product? Is it worth the € 5,000 required? See this in more detail ...

The first face to face with the Asus ROG Tytan of intimidating, and actually quite annoying. Indeed, there are few really heavy boxes to be delivered to us, those that require you to seek the help of a colleague to bring the monster to the lab. Colleague who will not hesitate to ask you how often you use your membership card to the nearby gym ... And muscles must once again put to good use to succeed in the Tytan out of the box and manipulate the photo shoot rigor. Casually, near 2000W lighting was quickly off his sweater.

"I saw a big beast ..."

But despite the efforts, the pleasure of discovery remains present, because there is something impressive during the unpacking. We know the Asus ROG Tytan of, and for good reason, we have tested the model CG8580. Yes, but now it is the Sony VAIO VGN-AR630 , which is equipped with a configuration more balèze with a GeForce GTX 690 and a Core i7-3960X and above which has the famous opening mechanisms motorized walls and cover, hiding many small additional fans to better cool the configuration during periods of extreme stress, in addition of course to add a pinch of geek style 100% to the bike.

This is definitely a machine that does not go unnoticed. Firstly, it is obviously quite impressive size that strikes. Full box weighs approximately 24 Kg, and measures 57 cm high, 36 cm in width and 63 cm deep. These are maximum dimensions identified as the Tytan is far from being a stupid cube. Very angular, sleek design is intended, such as VGP-BPS14 laptops in this range inspired by American stealth fighters, and it fits perfectly with the image that can be overclocked from a configuration-oriented "gamer". The idea of ​​this computer with Asus ROG is clear: to offer lovers of beautiful objects an original configuration and very muscular without requiring them to leave or the screwdriver or the Dremel. And who says PC uncompromising also says need to incorporate components of high-end experience to deliver the highest performance possible, but also justify a high selling price.

A choice of more components "ROG"

As such, the Tytan CG8580 was able to show a bit disappointing, especially for fans of the Asus ROG range. In fact, many did not understand how a computer that has a personable Republic of Gamers logo could for example not be fitted with a ASUS ROG motherboard, motherboard that is yet the market reference Asus , one which is the world leader. Idem, the onboard graphics GeForce GTX 680 was a reference, not a model in the colors of factory overclocked Asus ROG. Brief remarks that the manufacturer has taken into account the time comes to prepare the list of components for Tytan CG8890, as we shall see.

But before plunging his hands into this monster, you must first remove its walls connected by cables to the configuration, via a control card installed to manage the spreading mechanism and automated ventilation. Once the configuration is laid bare, we find the housing base, a gray metal cage much more classic than that suggested the appearance of Tytan. Inside, we see the first presence of a watercooling system for the processor (it would also be interesting for config 'at this price, and given its positioning as other components benefit from this cooling mode ...), installation kit quad-channel RAM (16GB G.Skill DDR3 2133 MHz, as to fully exploit the Core i7-3960X and X79 chipset), mounting a GeForce GTX 690 dual-GPU (this is not ROG, but the GTX 690 is only available in the reference model ...) and the sound card Xonar Phoebus, or the participation of two SanDisk SSD U100 128 Go mounted in RAID 0 for speed storage part, also complemented by a Seagate 2TB Everything plugged into a VGP-BPS13 motherboard high-quality and comprehensive oriented "gaming", the Rampage IV Formula Asus ROG stamped ATX format. The rear panel wants comprehensive (USB 3.0, eSATA, RJ45), with the presence of a PS / 2 port which necessarily interested players (anti-ghosting), or a Clear CMOS button resets the BIOS settings if mishandled.

The side of the processor, in addition to the watercooling system which is mounted above (including the pump operator and a heater installed in the rear topped with a 120mm fan quite noisy at full speed), you can not miss the Turbo Gear overclocking a system of pre-programmed and can not be changed. Indeed, if the Core i7-3960X Intel processor (Sandy Bridge-E with 6 physical cores with HyperThreading) is clocked at 3.3 GHz output box, it is overclocked to 3.8 GHz base in Tytan the CG8890. After first press the button "speed" of the case, it is automatically increased to 4 GHz, while the noisy opening system implements walls from the Tytan in "Transformers." A second press of the button changes the hot processor to 4.2 GHz, the maximum frequency. If the system does not require overclocking to restart his machine is a definite plus, however we regret that the machine's BIOS does not allow the user to define itself the level of overclocking at all levels. Overclocking the VGP-BPS12 Battery  reference does not benefit the other hand, with a GPU clocked at 915 MHz, and climbing on our test configuration at 1019 MHz GPU Boost.

Of course, for all this power, it was mighty power. That of Tytan CG8890 disappoint in appearance (block gray metal, old), but reassures side characteristics. Phew, because the non-TDP CPU overclocked to 130W is indicated, the graphics card is 300W ... Do not worry, the food here is manufactured by AcBel present, displays of power and 900W 80Plus Gold sticker, this which certifies a very decent performance. With maximum 713W from the socket Meter in accordance with our load test CPU overclocked to 4.2 GHz + GPU, it remains quiet even on the supply side based on a yield of only 80%, there is a little leeway given the level of certification.

By analyzing the assembly of these components, we realize that there is so much opportunity in this case to future changes in configuration. Indeed, the sony vgp-bps9 motherboard having beautiful example be compatible 4-Way SLI, the tower only 7 slots for expansion cards, two of which are already occupied by the GTX 690, while a third slot is reserved sound card Xonar Phoebus. At the front, there is already a bit more space even if the 4 x 5.25'', 3 are already used (Blu-ray HDD Rack 3.5'' extractable and control board side panels). As for 3.5'' bays occupied by racks for easy installation of hard drives, they are present in number 5 with three drives already installed. At the assembly itself, it is relatively clean and well put together, it is not integration systems sometimes seen in the sphere of workstations or Apple Mac Pro, almost without visible cables, compartmentalized, etc..

Power to spare, and a lot of noise ...

However, what we can not remove the Tytan CG8890 is its firepower. Indeed, various tests and benchmarks which we submitted showed that it was indeed extremely powerful machine. With such a configuration, it is better you tell us. Some history scores grandstanding? One can start with a score of 13,859 points in 3DMark 11 (Performance Preset), a total of 5377 points in hp pavilion dv6  7, or 10.92 points in the CPU benchmark of 14,310 points in CineBench and Fritz Benchmark.

More practical tests also confirmed the very good skills to do everything, not just to play. So while it may take more than 3 minutes of fairly standard configurations to complete our reference made in Photoshop CS5, it took only 50 seconds to Tytan. And in Handbrake, encoding a video in High-Profile which usually takes about 4 minutes was held here in just 1 minute and 20 seconds. With over 86 fps average in Unigine Heaven DirectX 11 everything thoroughly, the  Pavilion DV4 confirms its top-flight performance, and you can be sure you will not a priori framerate problems for a long time on fashion games. And all these figures are those obtained at 3.8 GHz! Only disappointment, SSD Raid 0 on which the system relies. A configuration that allows for storage certainly reach impressive sequential speeds (769 MB / s read in Crystal Disk Mark), but that does not help the treatment of random files, and thereby depress IOPS quite drastically. Which, nevertheless, does not prevent the Tytan CG8890 be swift and responsive machine.

Before looking at the price of this machine exception, you must know that this power dissipation is also pay in a currency other than greenbacks: the noise! Indeed, the Tytan CG8890 offers a sophisticated cooling system and that eyeful, but also shows that noisy. While it is true that the beast absorbs and releases a lot of Watts therefore necessarily a lot of calories, it is very successful in maintaining its main components to acceptable HP 484170-001 operating temperature. Thus, at rest and 3.8 GHz, while it pulls 153W on the outlet, the Tytan CG8890 CPU remains at 41 ° C and GPU at 36 ° C in a room at 22 ° C, while already producing still 41.7 dB (in a room at 35.3 dB PC off). At full load, the turbine audible enough watercooling kit proves even more noisy fan and coupled to the GTX 690 which begins to run harder, you climb to 49.8 dB for consumption of 624W. It blows hard, but GPUs are stabilized at 84 ° C maximum, and the CPU at 72 ° C.

Turbo mode at 4.2 GHz, the topography is almost the same, except that the Tytan is even noisier. Inevitably, its doors are open and the back of the hood is raised to take advantage of the additional eight small fans, they run at low speed, it produces no less for all new noise. Remains that the fans are installed inside the housing which are the noisiest. Result, at rest in this config 'overclocking, the computer consumes 228W, CPU is 46 ° C and the meter back a measure of 46.4 dB. Charge, we fly: 713W, 55.3 dB and 75 ° C for the CPU. Unchanged for GPU temperature. The conclusion is clear: the Tytan CG8890 is properly cooled, fully assumes its various stages of overclocking, but it makes noise, lots of noise when fully pressed. Asus ROG is no magic to this level.

Of course, all this comes at a price, very salty in this case since the Asus ROG CG8890 Tytan displays a label of € 5,000. As often during such test configurations, so let out the calculator and references our price comparison-Street Hardware to see if such a bill is justified, and try to evaluate the overhead required by Asus A3000 for very special benefits this machine. € 950 on average for the processor, € 900 for the graphics card, € 350 for the motherboard, € 170 for food, 270 € for the storage part, 70 € for the watercooling kit, € 70 for the Blu -ray, € 160 for the sound card, 130 € for the whole keyboard / mouse, and € 130 for the system ... we arrive at € 3,200.

If we put aside voluntarily dealer margin and the costs associated with marketing and logistics, there is still Asus ROG is paying a high price its case "Transformers", the assembly of the machine and following softwares installed immediately, the system overclocking hot. It would therefore have been possible, even if done in excess, to opt for a 3-Way SLI GTX 680 (GTX 680 TOP three kind DirectCU II Asus € 500 room ...), the motherboard being compatible 4-Way SLI. But the housing offering only seven slots for girls, and sound cards and WiFi in addition, there was a clear need to make a choice.

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