The Swiss Army Knife Of Gaming PCs

Yesterday, I printed some information concerning the launch of system integrator CLX’s new Intel-based dual-PC, the mighty Hathor. The primary of its form, in response to CLX. For the uninformed, we’re speaking about two PCs in a single, eliminating the necessity to run two standalone computer systems when gaming and streaming on the identical time.

I’ve spent a few week with a totally spec’d out evaluate unit, and whereas it’s undoubtedly a distinct segment product aimed toward a really particular section of the gaming/streaming market, I feel it’s value a severe look, if just for the plain ambition behind the construct.

First off, the Hathor is an insanely heavy piece of tech gear. I wouldn’t say that’s shocking, given how jam-packed with elements the Lian Li chassis is. As an example, it’s acquired two separate energy provides put in to energy two separate CPUs. There’s additionally the impartial NUC unit with accompanying mini-board, which takes up the whole backside portion of the motherboard space. All of that’s mixed with the standard part suspects like an enormous GPU (GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Version, on this case), a 1TB OS drive, a 4TB dump HDD, a 4K Elgato seize card and sufficient cooling followers to offer a clear runway takeoff for a literal jet, in all probability.

For these , right here’s the total spec checklist:

CLX Hathor, Main Unit

• Main Unit
• CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K
• CPU Cooler: Phanteks Glacier One 360MPH White
• Motherboard: ASUS STRIX Z690M-G Gaming D5
• Reminiscence: 32GB Kingston Fury Black RGB
• OS Drive: 1TB Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Storage Drive: 4TB Western Digital HDD 256MB Cache
• Video: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Version 16GD6X
• Chassis: Lian Li O11D Dynamic XL ROG White
• Chassis Followers: Gamdias Aeolus M2 1201R White RGB
• Energy Provide: 1000W EVGA SuperNova Gold G5
• Energy Provide Cables: Cablemod Black Cable Package for EVGA PSUs
• Working System: Microsoft Home windows 11 Dwelling 64 Bit

CLX Hathor, Secondary Streaming Unit

• Intel Compute Component 12
• CPU: Intel Core i9 12900
• Reminiscence: 16GB Essential DDR4 3200MHz SODIMM
• OS Drive: 1TB Samsung 980 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Seize Card: El Gato 4K60 Professional
• Energy Provide: 750W EVGA SuperNova GT Gold
• Energy Provide Cables: Cablemod Black Cable Package for EVGA PSUs
• Working System: Microsoft Home windows 11 Dwelling 64 Bit

The chunky system arrived in what CLX calls its Sarcophagus crate, which itself added many extra kilos to the package deal, punishing my poor, aching again as I in some way managed to tug it the place it wanted to go. I’d advocate bribing a really sturdy good friend with In-N-Out for this arduous course of, particularly in case your Hathor must—god forbid—make it up some stairs.

The excellent news is that the wood crate protected the PC fantastically throughout transit. The Hathor was cozily located inside a heavy responsibility cardboard field throughout the protecting Sarcophagus, padded with loads of insulating foam in addition, each inside and outside. Upon eradicating all the inside foam from the chassis, I couldn’t discover any cracked glass, damaged elements or unfastened elements. That’s a win for CLX, and possibly for UPS. I’ve had PCs present up with their glass panels fully shattered, however not this time.

The Lian Li O11D Dynamic XL ROG case (in a modern white colorway) is straightforward and spectacular. It’s acquired a brushed aluminum panel up entrance that homes separate energy buttons for the principle 13900K gaming processor and the secondary 12900 NUC, so you may independently boot them up at will. It’s additionally acquired 4 USB-A ports, two towards the highest and two towards the underside of the panel. Lastly, there’s each microphone and headphone jacks, in addition to buttons to bodily management the unit’s inner RGB lighting.

Regardless of the stuffy tempered glass panels displaying off all of the elements, the chassis may be very effectively vented, with perforation throughout a lot of the surrounding stable paneling. Ten totally different RGB followers aide the customized CLX Phanteks AIO in maintaining the machine working easy and funky, and in all of my testing, every thing appeared to be doing its job swimmingly. No bizarre bottlenecks or throttling.

So far as basic construct high quality goes, I feel CLX did a superb job. Cable administration is stable and there isn’t a single little bit of shoddy set up to talk of. I do want an identical white GPU had been included, because the silver and black 4080 clashes with the in any other case ubiquitous white theming.

The ASUS STRIX Z690M-G Gaming D5 motherboard isn’t the final word motherboard by any means, nevertheless it’s acquired loads of what you may want, together with three totally different M.2 slots for quick storage and as much as 6E wi-fi connectivity. What’s fascinating is that, as a result of it is a dual-PC setup, the NUC and the Z690-G each have enter panels alongside the again of the Hathor. Principally, you get double the inputs (USB, ethernet, and so on.) since you’re actually working two PCs.

So what’s the Hathor like to make use of? Properly, I’d say that should you’ve by no means used a double PC setup earlier than, one thing just like the Hathor takes some getting used to. I initially thought I’d should hook up two units of peripherals, however after monitoring down the Microsoft software program Mouse With out Borders, I used to be capable of share a single keyboard and mouse throughout each PCs and displays. Superb!

For a dual-PC beginner like me, the entire expertise was an absolute journey. The NUC has its personal processor and 16GB of DDR4 reminiscence, so working a stream (or some other software, actually) on the second monitor whereas concurrently gaming on the 13900K was a ravishing, seamless expertise. And this was with video games like Cyberpunk and Forza Horizon working on max graphics settings with regular (and sometimes above) 60fps in 4K over on the first monitor! CPU and GPU temps stayed fully cheap, too. It’s a sort of darkish magic and I can’t get sufficient.

General, I’ve been severely having fun with the all-on-one powerhouse nature of the Hathor, even when on the finish of the day, it stubbornly stays an odd, bespoke product.

Do I like to recommend the Hathor to the typical PC gamer and content material creator? Maybe not. In the event you simply wish to recreation in 4K at ridiculous graphics settings and possibly edit YouTube content material on the aspect, you may simply configure one in all CLX’s different machines with a 4080 or 4090 and loads of reminiscence for countless gaming and creation choices. The Hathor can be overkill for this sort of client, who is best off sticking to a standalone gaming PC.

Nevertheless, should you’re already falling deep into the streaming/content material creation rabbit gap and will really profit from off-loading a bulk of the encoding, rendering and basic grunt work to a different PC in real-time, then the Hathor might doubtlessly match that invoice like a glove. All of the whereas rising gaming efficiency and lowering the litter in your desk in an enormous manner, too. That stated, I wouldn’t recommend placing this beast on high of a desk essentially, until it’s manufactured from pure titanium. That is extra of an under-desk operation, I’d say.

Clearly with a 4080 and 13900K, the Hathor can deal with any recreation you throw at it with flying colours. Add the helpful NUC into that equation and you’ll have the final word streaming (or basically, multi-tasking) PC. Using a single set of peripherals for each machines, having the ability to drag information and transfer the mouse cursor throughout displays, is solely the icing on the cake.

CLX didn’t present actual pricing for this particular mannequin, however I’d think about it’s pushing $5,000, in any case. Plus, pricing is relative to what you place within the chassis, and that may alter relying on what goodies you determine to incorporate by the web site configurator.

Verdict? Value it for severe streamers and a shocking achievement in part consolidation, however avid gamers who solely wish to recreation could also be higher off trying elsewhere.

Disclosure: CLX supplied a evaluate unit for protection functions.