AVADirect X79 Gaming PC, Tri-SLI GeForce GTX 680

by Paul Lilly — Thursday, June 07, 2012, 10:30 AM EDT

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Performance Summary & Conclusion

Performance Summary: We said earlier that AVADirect came at us like an angry peacock with outstretched feathers, demanding we take notice, and that we did. What else can you do when a company sends you a fully loaded system with three high end graphics cards, an overclocked six core processor, and obscene storage configurations consisting of a pair of SSDs in RAID 0 and two capacious hard drives rocking a RAID 1 mirror? As expected, AVADirect's X79 Custom Gaming PC dashed through our gamut of benchmarks, in some cases breaking records that were set just a month or two ago. Without any visible bottlenecks, AVADirect's build crushed our gaming tests, topping 230fps in Far Cry 2 and, more impressively, breaking 90fps in Aliens vs Predator at a 2560x1600 resolution with all the settings cranked up.

At the start of our analysis, we noted the challenge in evaluating a specific system configuration from a system builder that offers as many options as AVADirect does. If we walk a narrow line, then we would have to totally discount other components available to AVADirect's customers, leaving us with a $5,100 system that few gamers can afford. But hey, that's the nature of the game, and the reality is, there are PC gamers out there who have the requisite funds for a balls-to-the-wall system like this one. If you're one of the them, more power to you. As configured, AVADirect's X79 Custom Gaming PC is sure to delight, in gaming and in day-to-day computing, as well content creation that relies on lots of RAM and ample (and fast) storage.

If you don't have that kind of cash to throw around at a gaming system, then pay less attention to the specific benchmark scores and focus more on the build quality. On the positive side, AVADirect's wiring job is more organized than a mob boss, and it's legal to boot. AVADirect's system mechanics are obviously comfortable underneath the hood of a hotrod gaming system, and their attention to detail shows. Less encouraging are the stability problems we ran into, some of which were the result of a faulty CPU, which AVADirect promptly replaced. But we also ran into wonky RAID issues, which probably had to do with overly aggressive overclock settings. It didn't cripple the system by any means, and with a 3-year limited parts and labor warranty, you're pretty well covered if something does go wrong. Still, if you're dropping five large on a system, there's an expectation that you could run it over with a Mack truck and have it still fire up without any quirks.

So, would we recommend this, or any AVADirect system? Sure, RAID hiccups aside, AVADirect's build quality is solid with immaculate wiring, and you can't argue with the performance numbers this system put up. We're inclined to think the CPU issue we had was a one-off fluke, though it certainly did give us cause for concern. The bigger question -- and one you'll have to answer on your own -- is how much are you willing to spend on a gaming system? Fortunately, with system builders like AVADirect around, you can dial pretty much anything you want in, on the level with threshold of pain.