PCSpecialist Predator X99 System review

1. Introduction2. PCSpecialist Predator X99 System3. PCSpecialist Predator X99 (High Res Gallery)4. Testing Methodology5. 3DMark 116. 3DMark7. Unigine Heaven Benchmark8. Unigine Valley Benchmark9. SiSoft Sandra10. Cinebench R11.5 64 bit11. Cinebench R1512. SDD and HDD Performance13. USB 3.0 Performance14. HD Media Encoding15. Tomb Raider 1080p/4k16. Wolfenstein: The New Order17. Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor18. Thermal Dynamics19. Acoustics Performance20. Power Consumption21. Closing Thoughts22. View All Pages

Today we look at one of the latest systems from popular UK system builder PCSpecialist. Their X99 Predator system is loaded with high end components, including AMD's flagship R9 295X2 graphics card, an Intel i7 5820k six core processor and an Asus X99-S motherboard. The Predator ships in a Corsair Air 540 Chassis and is overclocked extensively for every customer. Is it worth the £2,299 inc vat asking price?

KitGuru fans will know that we have been working with PCSpecialist to give this system away – to a lucky reader. At time of writing the competition has just ended, so what better time to analyse the system before PCSpecialist send one away?

System overview:

• Corsair Carbide Series™ AIR 540 Gaming Case
• Intel® Core™ i7 Six Core Processor i7-5820K (3.3GHz) 15MB Cache (overclocked to 4.4ghz)
• ASUS® X99-S: ATX, HSW-E CPU, USB 3.0, SATA 6GB/s
• 16GB Kingston HyperX PREDATOR Quad-DDR4 2400MHz X.M.P (4x4GB)
• 8GB AMD Radeon™ R9 295X2
• 240GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD
• 2TB 3.5” Seagate SSHD
• 24x Dual Layer DVD Writer
• Corsair 1000W RM Series™ Modular 80 PLUS® GOLD PSU
• Corsair H100i Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler

Buy directly from PCSpecialist for £2,299 HERE.


The PCSpecialist Predator X99 System arrives doubled boxed. The inner box contains the system, built inside the Corsair Air 540 chassis.

PCSpecialist protect their systems well. They use sculpted blue foam to hold the components in place, as shown in the image above. Obviously this needs removed before turning the system on for the first time.


We are big fans of the Corsair Air 540 chassis. We liked it so much that it won our MUST HAVE award way back in June 2013. You can read our full analysis of the chassis, over HERE.

The new Intel Core i7 5820k processor is cooled by the Corsair H100i Hydro. The Asus X99-S motherboard beats at the heart of this PCSpecialist Predator X99 System.

The Corsair radiator is mounted at the top of the case in an exhaust position.

PCSpecialist have installed a Kingston HyperX 3K Solid State Drive, alongside a 2TB Seagate SSHD.

AMD's R9 295X2 is a frame rate monster, designed for 4K gaming. We have reviewed it some time ago and for the price it offers mega performance.


The Corsair Carbide Air 540 has plenty of space to hide not only the power cables, but the Corsair RM1000 watt power supply itself.
On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later.









The PCSpecialist Predator X99 System is formed around an ASUS X99-S Motherboard. The Core i7 5820k processor is overclocked to 4.4ghz.

Above, an overview of the system in CPUz and GPUz. We can see they are using 16GB of Kingston 2,400mhz memory, with 12-13-13-35 timings. The dual GPU AMD R9 295X2 is running at 1018mhz.

You can get CPUz Validation of the system from this LINK.

We are featuring results today with an Apple 30 inch Cinema HD Display at 2560×1600 resolution and an Asus PQ321QE Ultra HD 4K screen running at 4K 3840 x 2160 resolution.

Room ambient was held at 23c throughout testing.

Comparison Systems (for specific synthetic test compares):

CyberPower Achilles Pro
Case: InWin 904 Chassis
Power Supply: Corsair 750W Modular
CPU: Intel Core i5 4690
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87 Gaming 3
RAM: 8GB DDR3 Kingston
SSD: 256GB Plextor PCI-E SSD
Graphics Card: Gigabyte GTX780 2GB GPU
Cooling: Cooler Master Seidon

AWD Ignis Aqua 290X 250D Mini ITX PC
Case: Corsair 250D Mini ITX
Power Supply: XFX XTR 650W Gold Certified Power Supply
CPU: Intel Core I5 4670K Overclocked @ 4.0Ghz (Liquid Cooled with XSPC Raystorm)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87N-Wifi Motherboard
RAM: 8GB DDR3 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit
Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive
SSD – Samsung 840 EVO 120GB Solid State Drive
Graphics Card: Radeon R9 290X (Liquid Cooled with R9 290x Block)
Sound: Realtek 7.1 High Definition Channel Sound (On-Board)
Optical Drive: N/A
Cooling: Custom XSPC Watercooling

Hazer Mini Gaming PC
Case: Bitfenix Colossus M Micro ATX Case – Black
Power Supply: Corsair VS450 450W Power Supply
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-S2PV Motherboard
Processor: Intel Core i3 4130 3.4GHz Dual Core Processor
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 750 Ti 2GB Graphics Card
Audio: Onboard 7.1 Surround Sound Audio
Optical Drive: 24x DVD Re-Writer
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 60GB SATA3 6Gbs Solid State Drive
HDD: 1TB SATA3 6Gbs Hard Drive
Memory: Kingston HyperX 8GB 1600MHz Memory

Mesh Elite Mini Gamer Plus:
Power Supply: 750W Cooler Master GX RS-750, 85% Eff’, 80 PLUS Bronze, SLI/CrossFire.
Motherboard: MSI Z87I WIFI – Mini-ITX Motherboard Socket 1150.
Processor:  i7-4770K Quad Core Processor (3.5GHz, 8MB Cache) @ 4.2ghz.
Memory: 16GB DDR3 1866MHz Memory (2x8GB) Kit.
Graphics: 4GB AMD Radeon™ R9 290 – 4GD5 Gaming Series Graphics.
SSD: 240GB SSD – Solid State Drive.
HDD: 2TB SATA III 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache, 8ms Hard Drive.

PCSpecialist Vanquish 230X:
Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K @ 4.2GHz
Memory: 16GB Kingston HyperX BEAST @ 2400MHz
Motherboard: ASUS Z87-A Motherboard
SSD: 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD
HDD: 1TB SATA III 6Gb/s HDD
Graphics: 3GB AMD Radeon 280X Graphics
Cooler: CoolerMaster Seidon 120M Liquid Cooler
Power Supply: Corsair TX650M Modular PSU

Intel E5 2687W x 2
Motherboard: Asus Z9 PE-D8 WS
Coolers: Corsair H80 x2
Memory: 64GB Kingston Predator 1,600mhz 9-9-9-24 1T
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory).
Power Supply: Seasonic 1000W Platinum Modular
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Lian Li X2000FN
Monitors: Dell U3011, 3x Ilyama ProLite E2472HDD
Boot Drive: Corsair 240GB Neutron GTX SSD
Secondary Drive: Corsair 240GB Neutron SSD

Intel E5 2660
Motherboard: Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WIFI
Cooler: Corsair H100
Memory: 16GB G.Skill ARES 2,133mhz @ 9-11-10-28
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory).
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Lian Li X2000a
Boot Drive: Intel 510 120GB
Secondary Drive: Patriot 240GB WildFire

Intel i7 3960X EE
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS WorkStation
Cooler: Corsair H100
Memory: 8GB Corsair Dominator GT8 2400mhz memory
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory).
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos 2
Boot Drive: Crucial C300 128GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 240GB Pyro SE

Intel i7 3820
Motherboard: ASRock Extreme4-M
Cooler: Intel reference cooler
Memory: 8GB Corsair GTX8 @ 2133mhz
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: Lian Li PC60
Boot Drive: Crucial C300
Secondary Drive: Patriot Pyro SE 240GB

Intel i5 3570K @ 4.2 – OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming System
Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77
Cooler: Coolit Liquid
Memory: Corsair Vengeance White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Power Supply: OCZ ZS 750W PSU
Chassis: Bitfenix Prodigy Mini ITX Case – White
Boot Drive: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB
Secondary Drive: 1TB HDD

AMD FX 8150 Black Edition
Processor: AMD FX 8150 Black Edition
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB)
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3
Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire

Intel Core i7 990X
Processor: Intel Core i7 990x
Cooler: Corsair H100
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Assassin
Memory: Kingston HyperX 6GB
Drives: Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Chassis: Antec Twelve Hundred

Core i7 970 @ 4.6ghz
Graphics: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory).
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Memory: 6GB ADATA @ 2133mhz 9-10-9-32
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot)

Intel Core i7 2700k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2700k
Cooling: ThermalTake Frio OCK
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard
Chassis: Silverstone Raven 3.
Power Supply: Corsair 850W.
Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory
Storage: Intel 80GB SSD (boot) / Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD.

Intel Core i7 2600k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600k
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen 3
Cooler: Intel XTS-100H
Memory: ADATA 1600mhz DDR3 8GB (2x4GB)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W
Boot Drive: Intel 510 SSD 250GB

Intel Core i5 2500k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2500k
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev.2 CPU Cooler
Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory 8GB (2x4GB)
Power Supply: Corsair 850W.
Boot Drive: Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD.

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB)
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3
Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire.

Software:
3DMark 11
3DMark
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
Cinebench R15
FRAPS Professional
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Unigine Valley Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11
Cyberlink MediaEspresso
Atto Disk Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
SiSoft Sandra

Games:
Tomb Raider
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor

All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.

Some game descriptions edited with courtesy from Wikipedia.
3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.

After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.


The AMD R9 295X2 is a monster graphics card – scoring 28,170 points. This helps boost the overall score to 21,459.
3DMark is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance.

Futuremark say “Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system. Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good.

To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.”


The latest Direct X 11 benchmark from Futuremark indicates excellent overall performance from the PCSpecialist Predator X99 System.
Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset.

A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:

• Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
• Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
• Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
• Multicore CPU support
• Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
• Powerful C++ API
• Comprehensive performance profiling system
• Flexible XML-based data structures

We test at 1080p with Quality: High, Tessellation: Normal, Anti-Aliasing x2.


A little microstutter would cause the minimum frame rate to drop to sub 10 figures, although in reality the engine ran exceptionally smoothly.
Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user.

We opted to run at 1080p with the following settings. Quality: High, Anti-Aliasing x2.


Super smooth frame rates at 1080p, averaging 125 fps.
SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

Native ports for all major operating systems are available:

• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
• Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
• Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
• Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)

All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:

• SMP – Multi-Processor
• MC – Multi-Core
• SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
• MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
• GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
• NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
• AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
• IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit

Overall system performance, as we would expect is exceptionally high. The overclocked Core i7 5820k delivers performance levels well in advance of a 4770k thanks to the two extra cores. The DDR4 memory delivers around 46GB/s of bandwidth.
CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation.

MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more. CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.


If 3D Rendering is a primary prerequisite then the overclocked Core i7 5820k makes an ideal partner – especially in this overclocked state.
CINEBENCH 15 is a cross-platform testing suite that measures hardware performance and is the de facto standard benchmarking tool for leading companies and trade journals for conducting real-world hardware performance tests. With the new Release 15, systems with up to 256 threads can be tested. CINEBENCH is available for both Windows and OS X and is used by almost all hardware manufacturers and trade journals for comparing CPUs and graphics cards.


Again, superb performance from the powerful, overclocked Core i7 5820k processor.
Crystalmark is a useful benchmark to measure theoretical performance levels of hard drives and SSD’s. We are using V3.0.1 x64. We test the 240GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD, and the 2TB 3.5” Seagate SSHD

The Kingston HyperX 3K drive is a solid performer, although write speed lags behind the market leaders in today's market. The Seagate SSHD delivers good results, hitting between 170MB/s and 180 MB/s.

Both drives perform well. We aren't completely sold on Seagate's SSHD's configurations when compared to the highest grade pure mechanical drives, but the performance is pretty good.
Today we test USB 3.0 performance with the class leading Corsair Flash Voyager GTX drive which we reviewed back on July 15th.


USB 3.0 Performance is as good as we have seen – hitting a maximum read speed of 433MB/s.

ATTO delivers results of 460 MB/s sequential read and 141MB/s sequential write. Pretty much as good as the USB 3.0 drive can deliver.
CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.

Now you can easily playback and display your favourite movies, songs and photos not just on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.

New and Improved Features:

• Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously.
• Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention.
• Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices.
• Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment.
• Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A.
• Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier.

For our testing today we are converting a 3.3GB 720p MKV file (2h:12mins) to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power. We are using the newest version which has been optimised for Sandybridge processors.

Full hardware acceleration is enabled, to call upon the power of the R9 295X2.


A final time of 6 minutes and 1 second is one of the fastest times we have recorded for this task. The slowest ATOM powered systems by comparison can take 1 hour and 20 minutes to finish the job.
Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far.

We test at the highest image quality preset ‘Ultimate', at both 1080p and 4k resolutions.


Super smooth game play at both resolutions, thanks to the R9 295X2.
Wolfenstein: The New Order is played from a first-person perspective and its levels are navigated on-foot. Players control Blazkowicz as he attempts to halt the Nazi operation and recover justice in the world. The story is arranged in chapters, which players complete in order to progress through the story.

We max every single graphics setting and select a 4k resolution (3,840×2,160). We average frame rates from several very intensive sections of the environment to give a worst case scenario.

A demanding engine at these settings but the system holds frame rates in the playable sector at all times.
In Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, the player plays as a ranger with wraith-like abilities by the name of Talion.The game is an open world video game and players will have the freedom to pursue side quests and roam around the world.

We test at 2560×1440 with high/ultra image quality settings, as shown above.

The game played very well at 1440p, running smoothly throughout the levels we tested.
The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 23c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this. Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Tomb Raider 2014 for 60 minutes and measuring the peak temperature.

The system runs cool, even under extended load conditions. The Corsair Carbide 540 Air has been proven to deal well with hot running components thanks to the high airflow design.
Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1,5 meters from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.

We use a calibrated meter.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

The system when idle, is very quiet.

Under general gaming load demands, the fans spin up to remove heat. Noise levels when gaming are not too intrusive, although you will clearly hear the system running.

Taxing the system with Prime and Furmark simultaneously pushes the cooling system to the limits and noise levels rise to 41.2dBa. This is rather intrusive, but not truly realistic of a real world situation we could replicate.
We test power consumption at the socket with a calibrated meter under the following conditions.

1: when idle
2: running Tomb Raider at Ultra HD 4K with ‘ultimate’ image quality settings.

The monitor is not included in the power draw – just the demand via the system power supply.

The AMD R9 295X2 consumes a lot of power and Tomb Raider is one of the most demanding games you can run. Total load is 702 watts.
We covered the X99 launch at the end of August, focusing on Intel's flagship 8 core i7 5960x processor at the time. There is no doubt that the X99 platform offers immense levels of performance – albeit at a price premium. Negatively, there are also still some teething issues behind the scenes, as motherboard partners develop and try to stabilise BIOS configurations.

PCSpecialist have adopted the Asus X99-S motherboard in their Predator X99 System. This demonstrated to be rock stable throughout our testing this week – even with a substantial out of the box overclock on the processor, to 4.4ghz. At this clock speed, the Core i7 5820k is a formidable processor able to not only deal with the latest Direct X 11 game engines at 4K, but 3D rendering duties and high definition video editing.

The exemplary performance of the i7 5820k processor is backed up by 16GB of 2,400mhz DDR4 memory which manages to deliver around 46GB/s of bandwidth. Personally, I would have liked to see this system equipped with 2,800mhz or 3,000mhz DDR4 memory, and perhaps PCSpecialist will offer these configurations on special request.

PCSpecialist have outfitted the X99 Predator system to be a force for Ultra HD 4k gaming. In this regard the AMD R9 295X2 is the best first choice. Including two R9 290X cards in Crossfire wouldn't have been quite so elegant a solution, due to rising noise levels and heat emissions. The watercooled R9 295X2 is the most powerful graphics card that money can buy and performance is not lacking in any regard.

Build quality is very good, and all the cables are carefully routed out of the way behind the motherboard plate. The Corsair Carbide Air 540 is a perfect choice for a system build such as this – as there is plenty of airflow and physical space to hide away cables from sight.

Any system with an R9 295X2 in the mix will demand a lot of +12V juice, and thankfully PCSpecialist have opted for the Corsair RM 1000 watt power supply. We measured peak power demand around 700 watts, so the power supply will be running at 70% power demand during the most intensive situations.

We admire the attention to the smaller details. As we would expect PCSpecialist have installed a large 240GB Solid State Drive for operating system/boot duties, however they have opted for a hybrid 2TB Seagate SSHD drive for primary stories duties. I can't say I am completely sold on these hybrid solid state/mechanical drives, but they do perform to a high level and it didn't seem to cause any issues handling all our STEAM games and benchmark files.

We feel the PCSpecialist Predator X99 System is deserving of the MUST HAVE award. We do present the award with a caveat however. If you are only using this system for gaming duties, then you may be better speaking to PCSPECIALIST and getting an overclocked 4790k/R9 295X2 system instead – you will save hundreds of pounds. The X99 platform can certainly handle 4K gaming duties, however it is a much better proposition if you want to use the system for a myriad of duties including 3D rendering and video encoding.

You can buy direct from PCSPECIALIST at this link for £2,299 inc vat.

Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.

Pros:

• extremely powerful.
• 4K gaming powerhouse.
• fine selection of components.
• Asus motherboard is rock solid.
• overclocked i7 5820K is ideal for more serious duties.

Cons:

• For a purist gamer, best saving some money and getting a 4790k based build.

Kitguru says: The Predator X99 is built to very high standards and designed for a myriad of duties including 4K gaming and bandwidth intensive editing.

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