Velocity Micro Edge Z55: Core i7-940 with CrossFire 4870

Final Thoughts

It's difficult to summarize our experiences with the Edge Z55. We were certainly plagued with a number of issues, but our impression coming away is that this is the result of the early adoption of the X58 platform and Core i7, and the growing pains that come with it. In terms of fit and finish, Velocity Micro does a great job of differentiating their product from the pack with visual appeal, clean assembly, and the largest number of BIOS, program, and operating system tweaks that we've ever seen in a PC supplier. In the line item of "performance tuning", Velocity Micro promises small and delivers big. Every component choice was top quality, and their support high caliber. They do, in fact, still have what it takes to compete with the boutiques. It's difficult to put a gut feeling into words, but this felt like it was a solid offering that just kept missing the mark.

On the other hand, if we put ourselves in the seat of a consumer who had purchased this system, we would be sorely disappointed. The problems that we encountered were frustrating enough just in benchmarking; if this was an anticipated gaming machine for home use, the user would most assuredly have become disgusted regardless of the steps taken to correct it. There are also some areas we feel they fall short, such as not offering guaranteed overclocks (like their associated Overdrive PC branch) and retaining a standard Intel heatsink and fan, often as their sole offering.

When it comes to systems, different users are looking for different things. In the arena of top-notch gaming machines that set themselves apart from the crowd (and those willing to pay for it), we would have awarded Velocity Micro an Editor's Choice award if the system had followed through. As it is, we can't do that today, but came away with a good impression of Velocity Micro despite the bad taste in our mouth from the problems we had. We'd still recommend keeping them on your short list of high-end suppliers, and welcome them to submit another (more mature) product for consideration in the future. Being first out the gate with new hardware is great… but only if the hardware actually works as advertised.