MaxForce Reviewed: 3-Way SLI and 4 GHz+
Table of contents
- 1. SCS Is Dead. Long live MaxForce.
- 2. The Revolution GTX3
- 3. The Revolution GTX3, Continued
- 4. Test Systems & Configurations
It’s been almost a year since we reviewed a couple of PCs from Solaris Computer Systems—a company that has nothing to do with the Solaris operating system from Sun Microsystems, for the record. Those systems proved to offer strong performance at their respective price points. The company proved to be very accessible and willing to accommodate individual customers’ needs and requests. We concluded that the upstart Solaris Computer Systems might have a sunny future ahead as long as it could prove to be a reliable vendor in the long term.
Fast forward to today. Solaris Computer Systems is still doing what it was doing a year ago, but now it is doing it under another name: MaxForce PC. It seems likely that the folks at Solaris were tired of having their company confused with an OS, so the firm chose a clever twist on the first name of the firm’s founder, Max Feinstein.
The new name doesn’t reflect a fly-by-night company, as MaxForce continues to honor all warranties sold under the Solaris Computer Systems banner. In our original review last year, Solaris Computer Systems was having some teething troubles with its Web site. The new site at maxforcepc.com is much more put-together, although when this article was written the site’s online system configurator didn’t spit out accurate pricing—this is a pretty big chink in the armor, but Max let us know it was being changed.
On the plus side, Max let us know that MaxForce is upgrading its hardware warranty to three years instead of the original two, so all hardware is covered for a minimum of three years and labor is covered for each system’s lifetime. A little snooping around on the Web showed us that Max is building a reputation for excellent communication and customer support, so while we don’t have any personal experience with MaxForce warranty issues, we prefer stumbling across positive feedback versus lists of complaints.
Now that you have a little background on the company itself, let’s see if MaxForce can still offer a compelling system at a reasonable price.
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Why is Crysis exceptionally run on 32-bit mode??? Your test setup states that you are running 64-bit everything. Of course 4870x2 in crossfire will be a pig in 32-bit os.
the 4Gigs of GFX ram take up ALL the addresses. What a sham. Basically you don't want to conclusively show that the NVIDIA rigs are a waste of money.
I hate your slanted results.
Again another poor review..
Don't you think it is about time you put more work into these? You certainly won't fool anyone who knows what they are talking about.
Why moan about the CPU cooler without giving us any numbers - if it runs at a decent temperature then why put in water cooling which has many more parts that could go wrong?
Why is Crysis exceptionally run on 32-bit mode??? Your test setup states that you are running 64-bit everything. Of course 4870x2 in crossfire will be a pig in 32-bit os.the 4Gigs of GFX ram take up ALL the addresses. What a sham. Basically you don't want to conclusively show that the NVIDIA rigs are a waste of money.I hate your slanted results.
i don't know where you got the idea of 4 gigs gfx ram but there are only 3 gtx 280's with one gig of ram each ...
are you a ati geek or something ??? (excuse me if i insult you)
and i dunno but my rig has an asus striker II extreme mobo (based on the same nforce 790i ultra sli) and also 3 gtx 280 in sli and this thing kicks ass...
i do have to agree with david__t on the cpu cooler why moan about the cooler if it work ???
i just wouldnt trust a watercooling setup that i didn't build anyways...
I am refering to the line...
"With or without AA enabled, 3-way SLI is the way to go in this game on a 32-bit platform, and the MaxForce delivers. If you remember from the Gaming System Shootout, the Radeon’s reclaim the lead upon switching over to 64-bit mode."
I AM refering to the ATI beast that it is compared to. These are equipped with 2 4870x2's. My first comment stands. He mentions in words that the 4870x2's BEAT the tri-sli rig, but it shows a chart of the Geforce rig "beating" it in crysis.
He is using his editorial power to mislead readers into thinking that the Geforces can achieve better performance when they in fact do not on any sensible setup.
This is especially sneaky considering no mention of this is mad ein the test setup section which is ALL 64-bit setups.
but 4870x2's have 2gb each... so they have 4 gigs in total on a x-fire rig. So all the address space is taken up...
so its not a fair comparison....
You make my point for me.....