14 DAY TRIAL // Intel's latest high-end consumer processor, the Core i7 980X, also known as the six-core Gulftown central processing unit, was reviewed just a few days ago but PC makers are already hard at work advertising their various product offers that include or are somehow related to the new chip. Of course, this is quite understandable, considering the fact that, in absence of a similar solution from AMD, the hexacore is, currently, the most powerful consumer CPU on the market. This being the reason for its quick adoption by Origin and CyberPower, the CPU is now taken in by Maingear as well, which added it as an option for its SHIFT gaming system.
The SHIFT was first introduced last November, when it was described as a personal supercomputer because of its top-end specs. The configuration was subsequently upgraded, when the ATI Radeon HD 5970 made its appearance.
The New Core i7 chip is the latest option and adds a new level of processing power. The configuration can also feature an optional Crucial RealSSD C300 solid state drive, up to an astounding 24GB of DDR3 memory, a 1.2kW power supply, a Blu-ray burner and even a CrossFireX configuration of two Radeon HD 5970 cards.
"Our all new 2010 SHIFT is taking the pole position in the high performance consumer desktop market," said Wallace Santos, CEO and Founder of Maingear. "By intelligently integrating best-of-breed hardware and supporting it with top-tier, in-house technical support by the same guys who built your system, we're delivering the best PC experience money can buy."
The Maingear SHIFT is definitely one of the best systems out there but it is also one of those configurations that will leave one's account dry. The starting price is of “only” $2,299, but the Gulftwon option takes it all the way up to a nice $3,290. One can only imagine how high this starting price will go when the SHIFT is inevitably outfitted with NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 480 graphics card.