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

Overclocking

One big upside to the problems we encountered is that we spent a long time tinkering in the BIOS and, therefore, we spent quite a while testing the limits of the system. Particularly since it was my first experience with Core i7, I wanted to see how far the Edge Z55 would go.

We easily hit 3.8GHz with the Core i7-940, at a BCLK of 190MHz. The huge limiting factor was not the motherboard or CPU but the Intel heatsink, as temperatures would quickly shoot to 100°C (the thermal throttling point) under load.

Keeping QPI close to stock is important for stability; anything above around 6.8 GT/s (or 3400MHz in CPU-Z) and stability was compromised. We did boot and idle at desktop at almost 7.9 GT/s, but any load situation would crash.

Heat prevented us from doing much testing at 3.8GHz, but we did run through the CINEBENCH CPU tests.

Pricing and Warranty

As configured, the Edge Z55 retails for around $3600. The Core i7-940 alone retails for around $570 right now, and the Intel motherboard around $260 - already we're over the $800 mark. Accounting for a quality aluminum case from Silverstone, drives, fans, etc., the cost rolls up to around $2400. This is a quite a large premium, even accounting for items like the "free" games, but a 40% margin is fairly typical for high-end system manufacturers and they are close to this mark. It does include some intangibles for the customer, like the customization steps Velocity Micro takes in the case to make their product stand apart, and the time spent in testing and customizing the operating system.

When it comes to product warranty support, Velocity Micro has an advantage here as their technical support personnel are the actual system builders. Any problem with a system is referred back to the person who constructed and tested it, by hand, in the Virginia office. This is impressive for a company of their size. 24/7 Technical Support is not standard but available as an upgrade, and provides an on-call technician for "emergency" problems only such as no-boot situations. Though we had our share of problems with our system, the people we talked to were very knowledgeable, burned each system in with custom scripts of blended small/large runs in Prime95 and had a good understanding of BIOS tweaks. One gripe that we have is that the standard warranty offered is a 1-year depot service only. On higher end gaming systems such as this, the level of investment is deserving of a 3-year warranty. This is an available option and costs an additional $169 including on-site support, but we hope this is a point that Velocity Micro tries to convey as an important choice to the more uninformed buyers.