CES 2009 : HEXUS.tv EXCLUSIVE : BFG talk through the Phobos

[HEXUS]

At CES 2009, BFG's John Malley talks us through the Phobos, their new ultra-high end system with more bells and whistles than a joint campanology and referee convention.

Watch the show.

[Vadim]

I expected to see the insides, nevertheless, I made a few comments on what has been presented.

1) Airflow - top to bottom.
I understand that it was made because the graphics cards are made to push the air out and as this system is made to have the graphics facing bottom of the chassis, it will be absurd to make it bottom to top airflow.
However, just an idea for BFG if they read this. If they are to redesign the coolers of the graphics cards as well, so they suck the air from the bottom of the chassis, and then change the top fans so they push the air out, I guess they will see a good drop in temperatures as the hot air normally goes up easier than down (natural convection), plus there is a slight difference in any room temperature when you compare the floor level to the 40cm level, (unless you have floor heating of course).

2) The comment about picking the best cards from the best batches as opposed to what they give their competitors who buy from them. I doubt other system integrators who supply BFG cards in their systems will be very happy when they hear this...

3) USBs - ok, you have 2 on the top, 2 on the back. Not enough if you ask me and accessing the rest of USBs via the bottom would be rather inconvenient.

4) VGA/Power etc bottom placement - same as for USBs - I think its inconvenient to have it that way.

I just made a post on my blog with a bit more info on this

[Vulcanite]

Vadim, even though you block my posts on your forum at least HEXUS is free from censorship

1) John Malley explained that they designed the air flow from top to bottom because if it were the other way round they would have issues with dust being drawn in from below. He also explained that as long as you have airflow the problem doesn’t exist so why would they want to redesign the GPU heatsink?

2) From memory (correct me if I'm wrong) you used BFG cards in Vadim systems - I assume you would have been a little pi$$ed if they said this whilst you were in business andrightly so, however it strikes me as more marketing talk as they will just loose all their system integrators if this were completely true and I doubt they would want to do this.

I have to say I think they’re onto a winner. 4 USB ports isn’t enough but it is a prototype - maybe best to wait till the full specs come out. I do wonder how much system resources the LCD panel takes up esp when giving the status of HDDs and networking etc etc, maybe it isn’t enough to worry about.


On the link to Vadim’s blog:

“On a totally different note, and also to finalise this article, I had a comment last week from someone who was angry with me, why do I put down the small SI’s and praise so much Scan, saying that SCAN pays me for promoting their brand. Soon there will be made a more public announcement, which will explain why the banner on the top in more detail. For now, lets just say that I approached SCAN to offer placing a 3XS banner and if I wouldn’t have believed they do a good job, I wouldn’t have done that!”


Hmmmm, so not only did you not post my message on your blog but you are also not posting other peoples questions asking advice? Sounds like to me. If you read Vadim’s blog you will find that every article relating to PCs has a link to SCAN, even the gaming laptop market has a link to a SCAN SFF system.

The message I tried to post over 5 separate times was to correct your comments saying that 92C for a CPU (SCAN review system) is definitely not “not out of the ordinary” and that 76C is fine - even the HEXUS reviewer disagrees with you on this. Your blog and above post are blatently biased and anyone who says 92C CPU temp is ok for a retail system should definitely not be offering his thoughts on the BFG systems thermal layout. It seems like you are happy to shamelessly promote SCAN and yet offer no reasoning why you won’t let comments about any one else on your blog. As I tried to post on your blog you can’t go round as the puppet of a company, say 92C is not out of the ordinary and then slate the BFG system when most of what you write is biased. Seeing as you are now a “wine distributor” it’s even more absurd.

To explain the above rant, Vadim has chosen to write a blog, yet he decides which comments from the public to post, it seems it's only permissable if it is pro Vadim or pro SCAN. What he is writing is severely SCAN biased and also factually incorrect (see CPU temps for example). It’s only fair that people realise this rather than taking his comments and advice as correct.

[Vadim]

Vulcanite, it was your comment I was referring to in my blog - you seem to have a problem with Scan. what did they do to you?

I wont allow any comments on my blog that are out of order and your last one was unfair thats why it didnt get published.

If you ever put an overclocked quad core system under stress test with 4 instances of prime95 and 3dmark running all together with all the panels closed, then you will know what temperatures of a CPU will go upto.
as I said and I will say again - a core 2 quad overclocked to that level peaking at 92C under stress tests will give you a perfectly stable system and this is the whole idea about overclocking - get as much as possible for free and keep it stable. I am sure that if scan overclocks if to that level you get a warranty on it as well, so I still dont seem to get the point of your anger.

[moogle]

Originally Posted by Vulcanite

To explain the above rant, Vadim has chosen to write a blog, yet he decides which comments from the public to post, it seems it's only permissable if it is pro Vadim or pro SCAN. What he is writing is severely SCAN biased and also factually incorrect (see CPU temps for example). It’s only fair that people realise this rather than taking his comments and advice as correct.

You know what? Their blog their choice to be biased. Anyone with a right mind can see if it's biased or not. It's just a blog anyway, if people want hardware advice or information they'd go to a more reputable hardware site

OT now, I would have preferred to see this BFG system in action and see the insides. Not to mention some benchies and how much power it consumes.

I do hope this move doesn't affect BFG's service/warranty

[Vulcanite]

moogle, your right of course - it is just a blog and my problem isn't with SCAN, it is with Vadim.

If it hits 92C on load it'll die in 3 months so if SCANs warranty covers that then I suppose it is "fine".

I think he said in the video that the BFG system is only 2-3 weeks away so there should be propper reviews online before too long and they will have performance figures etc - I too want to see the innards

[Nick]

We asked to see inside but that was a more than a little tricky as the entire thing is one wrap-around shell that slides off... and by the very nature of the system and who it is aimed at, it's not built for easy accessibility and we just did not have the time to go pulling it all apart.

[moogle]

Originally Posted by Nick

We asked to see inside but that was a more than a little tricky as the entire thing is one wrap-around shell that slides off... and by the very nature of the system and who it is aimed at, it's not built for easy accessibility and we just did not have the time to go pulling it all apart.

Case is bespoke?

Would be nice to see specs at least then

[Vulcanite]

Top end specs here http://channel.hexus.net/content/ite...m=16758&page=2

[Vadim]

Originally Posted by Nick

We asked to see inside but that was a more than a little tricky as the entire thing is one wrap-around shell that slides off... and by the very nature of the system and who it is aimed at, it's not built for easy accessibility and we just did not have the time to go pulling it all apart.

and Tarinder was dragging you to the AEE