Origin Genesis (i7-3930k)

The Origin Genesis (Core i7-3930K) ($5,894 direct) is an update to the Origin Genesis ($6,499 direct, 4 stars) gaming desktop we looked at in 2010. It has a new six-core Intel Core i7-3930K processor (aka Sandy Bridge?E) and three Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 graphics cards. These are some of the most powerful components you can currently buy, and naturally the system is made to achieve the pinnacle of performance on multiple tasks including multimedia and gaming. Is the Genesis better than our current ?ber-gaming Editors' Choice, the Maingear Shift Super Stock (Core i7-3930K) ($5,289 direct, 4.5 stars)? Read on to find out.

Design and Features

This version of the Genesis uses a lightly customized Bitfenix Shinobi XL chassis, which is a towering, black-painted behemoth with a windowed side panel. It has the look of an imposing gaming rig, worthy of inclusion in the $5K club. The system has six USB 3.0 ports (four on the top panel), whereas others are limited to two inconveniently placed ports in the back. There are seven USB 2.0 ports as well, for slower peripherals like game controllers, keyboards, and mice. There's a specialized "SuperCharge" port on the top of the system, which is a 2.5-amp USB port for charging your phone or tablet; it's a nicety that gadget-laden folk will welcome. The Genesis also has a FireWire 400 port, two Ethernet jacks (each can access a separate network), S/PDIF digital audio out, and analog audio jacks. The three GTX 680 cards provide a total of six DVI ports, three DisplayPort, and three HDMI ports; you can funnel all of this power through a single DVI port, or you can configure a surround setup with three monitors and 3D glasses (sold separately). The Genesis comes with a BD-RE Blu-ray burner that also reads and burns CDs and DVDs. With this system, you're well covered for entertainment.

The inside of the system is roomy, although the video cards restrict expansion somewhat. There is one free PCI Express (PCIe) x1 slot, but the video cards block your access to it. Two solid-state drives (SSDs) in a RAID Level 0 array provide a speedy platform for running your OS and programs, and a 2TB 7,200rpm drive gives you plenty of extra capacity as well. There is also room for an additional three optical drives or 5.25-inch devices and up to five hard drives (which you install on removable sleds). There are only two free SATA ports on the motherboard to service any additional drives, however. There are four free DIMM slots in case you need more than the included 16GB. A 1,200-watt power supply gives the necessary juice to everything, including the interior lighting, accomplished with multiple red LEDs, that gives you a uniform glow by which you see the hardware you've paid so dearly for.

Like most custom-built gaming systems, the Origin Genesis comes preinstalled with the operating system (Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit), the hardware drivers, minimal utilities, and not much more. That's a good deal for gamers, who never want to be have an extra piece of bloatware to blame for a poor showing on the game grid.

Performance

The Genesis oozes performance. The six-core processor has been overclocked to an insane 4.9GHz, which is 100MHz faster than the overclock on the Maingear Shift Super Stock (Core i7-3930K). (Both are miles ahead of the Core i7-3930K's 3.2GHz stock clock speed.) As such, the Genesis is faster than the Maingear on multimedia benchmarks like our Handbrake video conversion (51 seconds for the Genesis, 54 seconds for the Shift) and Photoshop CS5 (2:12 Genesis, 2:15 Shift) tests. But to be honest, you'll hardly notice a difference of three seconds when you're rushing through a project. Both are faster than stock-clocked Core i7-3930K systems like the iBuypower Chimera 4-V1 ($2,499 direct, 4 stars).

The Genesis' three graphics cards are good for more-than-playable scores on all our benchmark tests at all settings, though ultimately the Maingear proved faster at the DX11-heavy Lost Planet 2. That said, both delivered insane frame rates, though you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference between 207 frames per second (fps) and 232fps during real gameplay. If there's any nit to pick about the system's 3D performance, it's that the cooling fans on the graphics cards kick into full-power mode during strenuous gameplay and therefore push a lot of air through the system. It's not a lot compared to some older gaming PCs, but it still produces a din that's hard to ignore in a quiet room unless you're wearing noise-cancelling headphones.

Ultimately, the Origin Genesis (Core i7-3930K) provides an excellent high-end gaming experience, but it's not that much faster than the Maingear Shift Super Stock (Core i7-3930K), which costs more than $600 less. The Genesis is worth keeping on your short list, to be sure, but the better buy remains the Maingear Shift Super Stock.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Origin Genesis (Core i7-3930K) with several other desktops side by side.

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