14 DAY TRIAL // AMD fans are probably a little disappointed about the fact that the 4x4 platform failed to deliver. I'm pretty sure you know the results from the first tests, so I won't bother you with more unimportant info. But I have to say that, although the numbers are pretty impressive, AMD still has a lot of issues with the platform, most of them related to the memory latencies and burst rate. It seems that the NUMA architecture is far from a final form but even more, it seems that Windows XP cannot properly use this architecture. Motive for which, it's safe to assume that Vista will perform better than XP under the 4x4 platform.
But if you still want to buy a 4x4 PC now, you will quickly realize that the platform is almost impossible to find. Moreover, big system integrators aimed at the enthusiasts such as Alienware and VoodooPC didn't release any info regarding the launch of such products. Despite that, some other American BTO (Build to Order) manufacturers have been building 4x4 based systems for a while now and they are ready to release them into the market with a starting price tag of $2999.
Vigor Gaming calls its system Quadfather and the cheapest one integrating two FX70s running 2.6GHz costs $2999 including a free shipping and has 4x512MB Corsair memory, two 250GB drives in RAID 0, a Geforce 8800 GTX and the mighty 1100 W Tagan PSU. The company even offers a free Vista business upgrade in case you fancy Microsoft OSes.
Maingear and Ibuypower also have 4x4 platforms on sale and if you ask for the same configuration as the one presented above, you'll probably end up paying the same amount of money. Evidently, in case you need a SLI setup, 4GBs of Ram, a Raid array and a set of high-end speakers, you'll go as high as $6,500. On the other hand you can't go much higher with a desktop system and you'll buy a pretty rare configuration. Enjoy!