Kobalt Daedalus Wows Custom PC Dream PC Competition!

[neil@kobalt]

Our entry in the 2009 Dream PC competition has just been uploaded to Custom PCs sister website bit-tech.net here Kobalt Daedalus (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/pcs/2009/10/21/kobalt-daedalus-dream-pc-2009/1) and has been praised to the heavens! (Also on youtube HERE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiW_r4oQFVE&feature=player_embedded))

For those of you who don't subscribe to Custom PC magazine enjoy the video. Here are some quotes from the magazine:

“An extremely fast, TEC cooled monster.....The Apache ICE X58 we recently looked at was an eye popping water-cooled PC, but the Kobalt Daedalus is a very different kettle of fish. Even at £7,500, you have to admire its design and awesome use of technology.”


“The result is profound, with the metal outlet of the cold-loop pump feeling like the outside of a chilled coke can. The CPU temperature was an eye-popping 11C cooler than the Beast Cerbarus and 14C cooler than the Chillblast....despite the Daedalus supporting a much higher CPU clock speed than either.”


“...the Daedauls (unsurprisingly) did very well in our benchmarks, posting consistently high scores. It was most prolific in wPrime and Cinebench, with a time of 5.79 seconds and a score of 25,445 respectively, both results being noticeably faster than any of the other Dream PCs.”


Conclusion

“The Kobalt Daedalus is easily one of the most technically advanced commercial PCs ever built. Inside, it’s very well executed, with great cable tidying and cooling, and a monster overclock on the CPU and graphics cards. As a result, it delivered several knockout blows in our benchmarks. Overall, this is the fastest professionally manufactured PC we’ve ever seen in Custom PC , so Kobalt can proudly wear that feather in its cap.”


If you have seen the Blade concept you might notice that we based the Daedalus around the same chassis, however we have made major modifications to the original design and incorporated a complete custom TEC cooling solution and design.

The system will be available to buy tomorrow online as featured in the magazine/bit-tech but the blade chassis will be available with a lower specification from less than half the price of the TEC cooled Daedalus!

Specification and clocking will follow shortly!


Here are the links to the product and configuration pages:

Daedalus Overview Page (http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/daedalus_overview.php)

Daedalus order page for the version in Custom PC (http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/acatalog/daedalus.html)

Daedalus full configuration Page (http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/acatalog/daedaluslq.html) Please note that this is 99% complete, all the options are correct though.

[Draven]

congrats guys to be honest tho i already knew nobody else could hold a candle to what you guys make;);)

*Update* just saw the scan won again what aload of s*** i demand a recount on the votes*

[chefinal]

Looks amazing i watched video on facebook page really nice machine. Nice price tag lol . I am sure it would be good for gaming. Well done!!

Any idea on what sort of specs it would get for games? like cod4 or steam games like Counter Strike Source or Team Fortress 2?

[dR.bEEf]

:D:D:DAwesome rig lads and looks the absolute nuts. By far the best on show. Many congrats and keep it coming :D:D:D

[Wolf]

I really liked this pc, i love the thought that went into it. I do however agree with some of the points that Custom PC made. If you found some way to stop dust (or indeed spillages) entering the case I think this might have won. But regardless, this has raised Kobalts profile and im sure you guys will do well out of this.

There is always next year!

[andrew@kobalt]

Hi Wolf,

Glad you liked the Daedalus. This is one of the many small points which was mentioned to Custom but was not considered/ ignored and we are raising it with them.

We've actually never had anyone spill any liquid or similar in a system costing over £5,000. People tend to look after them rather more than something cheaper so it wasn't something we were too worried about. Also considering there are plenty of cases out there like the Antec 900 etc which are virtually open as well (just larged mesh).

We always intended to and will be offering a very fine mesh option when the system is available to purchase in the next few days which should put anyone's mind at ease.

[Shizbazki]

Hmm i find Custom PC generally tend to prefer SCAN PCs on the Dream Machine competitions, anyways the points they kept raising were dust and spillages now lets look at these realistically.

Dust: they say "case is full of holes, it will let in loads of dust in". NOW THINK ABOUT IT if there's holes for dust to come in then seriously a case this open such as the BLADE easily lets the same dust out only a small amount of dust will settle in the case, nothing a quick blow can't fix. IMO i think they are over exaggerating this point.

Spillages: Unless you put your PC under or next to the kitchen sink or its normal for you to place a cup of tea on top of the case then i don't see this being an issue. Most people tuck their PC under a desk away from most liquids (unless your using water cooling) again another point IMO that Custom PC is over exaggerating.

Although they did point out a good point about the BLADE case, lack of front I/O USBs, i mean it has to be a given these days to have those and I can see that there is space on the power switch/LED panel to accommodate those. T

They also moan and argue about power draw, but since when is a Dream PC owner really gonna care about paying for electricity bills if they can afford a £7500 machine and they will be rich enough not to care about the environment.

[henrybutt]

Im interested to know who this company called "Kobalk" are in the linked words :P. Looks like a sweet system though guys... wish I could afford one :(

[Wolf]

Hi Wolf,

Glad you liked the Daedalus. This is one of the many small points which was mentioned to Custom but was not considered/ ignored and we are raising it with them.

We've actually never had anyone spill any liquid or similar in a system costing over £5,000. People tend to look after them rather more than something cheaper so it wasn't something we were too worried about. Also considering there are plenty of cases out there like the Antec 900 etc which are virtually open as well (just larged mesh).

We always intended to and will be offering a very fine mesh option when the system is available to purchase in the next few days which should put anyone's mind at ease.

When I metioned the spillages it was more tongue in cheek. I only mentioned it as Custom PC had mentioned it. Anyone that manages to spill something over a £7k rig deserves everything they get :D

Like I said in earlier post im sure you will do well from this machine and as I have mentioned on other forums both Kobalt and Beast will sell a lot more of their Dream PC's than Scan will (Scans entry is undeniably stunning even if its aesthetics arent to everyones taste).

I would love to see you guys include a laptop style slot loading drive as I think it would tidy up the front no end.

[andrew@kobalt]

Yup, as we seemingly didn't get through to the final two because of a 'flawed' case design due to the possibility of spillages it's a rather sore point here :(

We'll have a better front bezel for the full retail version as it was a question of time rather than us not wanting / not doing it ;)

[robs]

Hi,
Beautifully engineered case Andrew, great work.

Spillages? Load of rubbish.

When will the prices be released, I was only really looking to spend around £2k. I really want this case though. Would you be selling the case separately?

Look forward to seeing some more photos.

[Cafeine]

OMG, this is the sort of thing I would buy if I was rich... awesome !

[Ardbeg]

Are there any benchmarks of this beast in action? it would be nice to see what this Rig is capable of :) Top end and the setting that you ship it at.