Getting to the guts of the Lian Li chassis is as straightforward as it gets, you simply remove one screw at the top and pull open the side windowed panel.
We don’t often get excited with system builds as we see so many, but this, as I am sure you will agree is very beautiful. The guys have clearly done their homework in regards to the components selected for the Nemesis SE. We have a custom High Flow Water cooling of CPU and GPU; using 2x 140mm HW Labs dual pass heat exchanger, 1x 120mm TFC dual pass heat exchanger, Laing DDC pump with integrated reservoir, Swiftech Apogee XT CPU block, Koolance HD5870 GPU blocks, nozzles and fittings, half inch tubing and anti-kink throughout.
Under these sexy tubes is an Intel Core i7 980 XE 3.33GHz ‘Cryo Boosted’ to 4.5GHz. Cryo have asked us not to show BIOS screenshots as competitors sometimes ‘borrow’ their settings, so we have agreed to this. They do meet the ‘Zardon seal of approval’ however and I could see nothing I would change myself.
Above we can see the HIS HD5870′s running in Crossfire, the routing really is a work of art …
Dual HD5870s, every gamer’s wet dream.
The Laing DDC pump with integrated reservoir – the blue really looks stunning when its lit up.
Dual fans at the top of the chassis, helping to keep the internals chilled.
Just in case you missed it – the Republic Of Gamers badge on the motherboard, or you can call him ROG for short, he doesn’t mind.
The Belly Of The Beast – the formidable Corsair TX850W PSU – quiet, powerful and delivering plenty of amps on the 12v rail.
They have included a high quality F3 1TB HD Samsung drive. The only let down for me, was the lack of SSD drive in the system. When I spoke to Cryo about this their answer was that they felt the price was already high enough, but to hell with that, I would have two of these in Raid 0 just for the Windows OS. Cryo do offer SSD options when you build the system, so dig a little deeper, we recommend it.
We have included below a little gallery showing the system lit up in the dark.
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June 7, 2010
#1
Fuck me.
I am in work right now but ive skimmed half of the review. the performance is mind melting. its expensive, but hell at least its well made. *dell* cough
June 7, 2010
#2
i saw the price, and almost splurted out my coffee. After reading the results however, bloody hell. I think its almost worth the price. It would be if I was loaded mind you.
My own system seems so woefully inadequate now, I almost punched it out of anger
June 7, 2010
#3
we should have a poll. “Kitguru has undoubtadely high end readers, how many of them however could afford this Cryo system?”.
What the bets, less than 5%? imagine this going up on tomshardware. its all 13 year old boys, no one would even understand it :p
June 7, 2010
#4
absolutely beautiful, way out of my price league, but regardless. I want it
June 7, 2010
#5
can we have a competition to win it ? please? Zardon, bribe Cryo.
June 7, 2010
#6
That lian li is quite a modest chassis, you would think they would have opted for the X2000, high end case ?
June 7, 2010
#7
Yeah I agree, we need a Cyro competition. just to even see the crate :p
June 7, 2010
#8
I need to get a job running Apple, then I could afford this. You reckon Steve Jobs would like it? I bet he would, but he probably would go use it behind a locked door in his mansion. Frag some newbs in Left4Dead2.
June 7, 2010
#9
Wow, I don’t really know what to say. thats just insane.
June 7, 2010
#10
How much? dear lord, how much? I couldn’t even earn that in a year! Id like a job building pcs for them though ! how cool would that be, being able to tell your boss you are ‘stress testing’ the new system for the customer by playing games all day on it.
June 7, 2010
#11
lol, 30 pages. I like to think id be a good reviewer but id kill myself half way through.
Nice review Zardon, and that system is a lot of readies, but it seems like the bizz!
June 7, 2010
#12
Cryo? never heard of them, but im going to check them out. My last system I had cyberpower build me and it was utter crap. a stick of crap on a crapfest pole.
June 7, 2010
#13
Its almost like Dell, but good in every way :p
June 7, 2010
#14
That read out device is good, where can you get them?
June 7, 2010
#15
HD5870′s? whats the point, isnt one good enough for anything?
June 7, 2010
#16
980x and HD5870′s. the stuff of legend. and dreams. wet ones. ernm. ill stop typing now
June 7, 2010
#17
I nearly went and bought this on my credit card, then splashed cold water over my face. I am still tempted. I cant build a system this good, and my last three have been cheap ass, rubbish. I suck
June 7, 2010
#18
@ the guy looking for the LED readout device. You can get them almost anywhere in stores man, check your online dealer. aint too hard to pick up.
June 7, 2010
#19
I always wanted to build a water cooling system like this, but im too chicken to do it
June 7, 2010
#20
Anyone here born into a rich family? if so, contact me and we can trade places. id sell my soul for this.
June 7, 2010
#21
wow, more than the price of my last car. but if its your thing, cant see you getting much better than this. any other UK builders like CRYO?
June 7, 2010
#22
@ DAX – yeah there are Dell and HP. they make some great systems like this
seriously though, I dont know, I tend to build all my own systems and its not something I look out for. This is better than I could build though, not too proud to say it
June 7, 2010
#23
Falcon Northwest ever move to the UK?
June 7, 2010
#24
no, they are only in America, they get a good rep though. crap name, always reminds me of a bird santcuary.
June 7, 2010
#25
The lack of SSD is weird mind you, would have expected to see one as a boot drive
June 7, 2010
#26
Why no SSD? wtf.
June 7, 2010
#27
its optional extra for SSD, they do sell em, check out the linkages
June 7, 2010
#28
great showcase and I am sure the rest of their systems are nicely made too. its way out of my price league. I sold my last car for less than this.
June 7, 2010
#29
Seems a bit overpriced, going on the part costs, but I pose they offer support and repair, time etc.
June 7, 2010
#30
Its only overpriced, if you dont have it
June 7, 2010
#31
Review long enough? lol, seriously. 30 pages. enjoyed the read though, think you covered everything I could want to know.
Well apart from performance in solitaire. how many FPS ?
June 7, 2010
#32
Good to see Crysis was playable :p rofl
June 7, 2010
#33
2560×1600 Crysis at enthusiast ! woo whooo. id buy that for a dollar. ermm I mean several thousand.
June 7, 2010
#34
power consumption is slightly high. wouldnt fancy seeing my electric bill next quarter!
June 7, 2010
#35
While I cant afford this, that is an amazing build. I was over looking at their other systems, some nice looking builds. ill bookmark it and look ater when I get home.
June 7, 2010
#36
thats really a showcase of how to build a PC. even the routing is top notch. look at the PSU for instance. and the top area near the CPU.
June 7, 2010
#37
While I cant afford a new PC now, these guys are building my next one, ive birthday money coming next month, so ill get something around 1200
June 7, 2010
#38
im going to buy one of these in a few months, not the SE one, but the cheaper version, which is a grand less.
June 7, 2010
#39
Great review Mr Zardon, one of the best ive seen in a long time.
As for the system, Id go for a bigger case for something like this, seems a little small. Why not use a bigger Lian Li? apart from that, very good. liked the photography too.
June 7, 2010
#40
Great review, and mega system if a little expensive
June 7, 2010
#41
What a design. what a product. One of the fastest pcs ive seen by a long shot.
Not really affordable, but that happens when you dont cut corners!
June 7, 2010
#42
That tubing is wicked. my friend has a similar system which he built, ill have to show him this however
June 7, 2010
#43
very well built system, but lack of SSD is quite surprising, surely for the money it could have made the cut
June 7, 2010
#44
The watercooling selection is well educated. this equipment is well known to be very reliable and high performing. id like to see a 980x running at 5ghz however. not many can do that, would need phase possibly.
June 7, 2010
#45
Impressive review for a killer system. nice to see a company with their thumb firmly out of their ass. for a change. Alienware take note !
June 7, 2010
#46
Do they deliver outside the UK or too expensive?
June 7, 2010
#47
oui oui, I like, delicious build
June 7, 2010
#48
I priced all the components, its around 3k, so 500 markup to cover support, time building etc. its not really that much.
June 7, 2010
#49
3k? i think not, seems more like 2.7k by my calculations.
June 7, 2010
#50
my wallet is screaming at the thought of it, but hey, each to their own !
June 7, 2010
#51
If I had a lot of spare cash I would buy it, I can never build systems as good as this, so why not. For the mean time, im using a toshiba laptop. sad, yep.
June 8, 2010
#52
I’m Drooling as I read these.
November 1, 2011
#53
i dont understand what all the hype is about. the liquid cooling side is undersized drastically, the cpu block is ok but theres better, the wire routing and cable managment looks pretty bad (custom sleeving woulda been nice) the pumps just ok. to me its a PC full of fluff to make people go wow that dont have a clue. u could build this system yourself and have a much cleaner look then what they came up with plus the performance would be better and much cheaper