Ian "8Pack" Parry and Overclockers.co.uk have collaborated on some stunning built-to-order systems, but the Supernova XL is one of a kind.
Ian “8Pack” Parry and Overclockers.co.uk have collaborated on some stunning built-to-order systems, but the Supernova XL is one of a kind.
Ian “8Pack” Parry and Overclockers UK are today proudly unveiling his latest extreme machine, the Supernova XL]. Built inside the monolithic CaseLabs STH10, the Supernova XL not only draws its inspiration from the very first 8Pack machine, but also gives one final moment in the sun to CaseLabs and their legacy.
Standing at just under a metre tall the Supernova XL is a colossal machine, consisting of five custom acrylic pass through plates complete with mirrored internals. It’s a showpiece, fitted with an interior light box that bathes the water-cooled components in a customisable light display. And that’s just its looks.
Powering the Supernova XL is one of Intel’s most exclusive processors, the Core i9-9990XE. Available in extremely limited quantities through closed auction, this elusive processor is so exclusive it isn’t even listed on the official Intel Ark database.
The i9-9990XE is a 14 core processor with a 4.0 GHz base clock rated at 255W TDP, and it’s capable of hitting a 5.0 GHz boost clock across all cores straight out of the box. By prioritising exceptional frequencies over even greater core counts seen in the i9-9980XE the i9-9990XE balances both extreme gaming and creative endeavours even before specialists begin to optimise the system configuration. Cooled by a custom water-loop with two dedicated radiators, the Supernova XL’s i9-9990XE is overclocked by 8Pack himself for a system that gives only world-class leading performance.
8Pack Supernova XL – Limited Edition at a glance:
– Designed and overclocked by world-record breaking Ian “8Pack” Parry
– Built inside one of three available Caselab STH10 cases
– 7″ display built into the front of the case
– Intel i9-9990XE LTD Edition CPU watercooled and overclocked
– ASUS ROG Rampage Xtreme Omega X299
– 2 x NVIDIA 2080 Ti watercooled and overclocked
– 128GB GSKILL Trident X Royal 3600MHz RAM
– 2 x 1TB Samsung 970 Pro NVME Drives
– 2 x 10TB Western Digital HDD
– Superflower 1600W Titanium PSU with custom braided cables
– Custom OCUK Techlabs RGB Lightbox to illuminate the interior
– Dual water-loop configuration with 5 custom acrylic passthrough plates
– Phanteks Glacier RGB CPU and GPU waterblocks with chrome GPU backplates.
– 2 x 480mm, 1 x 360mm and 1 x 240mm EK CoolStream Radiators
– Built inside one of three available Caselab STH10 cases
– 7″ display built into the front of the case
– Intel i9-9990XE LTD Edition CPU watercooled and overclocked
– ASUS ROG Rampage Xtreme Omega X299
– 2 x NVIDIA 2080 Ti watercooled and overclocked
– 128GB GSKILL Trident X Royal 3600MHz RAM
– 2 x 1TB Samsung 970 Pro NVME Drives
– 2 x 10TB Western Digital HDD
– Superflower 1600W Titanium PSU with custom braided cables
– Custom OCUK Techlabs RGB Lightbox to illuminate the interior
– Dual water-loop configuration with 5 custom acrylic passthrough plates
– Phanteks Glacier RGB CPU and GPU waterblocks with chrome GPU backplates.
– 2 x 480mm, 1 x 360mm and 1 x 240mm EK CoolStream Radiators
A water-cooling masterclass – perfecting performance and aesthetics.
In developing the Supernova XL 8Pack not even the mighty Caselabs STH10 was spared from being stripped down and redesigned up from the ground up, a necessary consequence of to integrating the array of modifications required to house an 8Pack extreme build.
A total of five acrylic pass-through plates have been built and fitted into the case for a water-cooling with maximum versatility. These pass-through plates are specifically designed so that chrome hardtubing from the waterblocks can be fitted in parallel with minimal bending for an immaculate finish.
The pass-through plates redistribute the coolant between four EK CoolStream radiators. Two 480mm radiators provide dedicated cooling for the dual RTX 2080 Ti while additional 360mm and 240mm raditators work in unison to cool the overclocked Intel Extreme i9-9990XE.
Mounted to both the CPU and GPU are Phanteks Glacier water-blocks. Finished in chrome and with matching backplates, they are completely customisable thanks to addressable RGB lighting.
Extreme performance from Intel’s most exclusive processor
“The Intel® Core™ i9-9990XE is designed specifically for the financial services industry because of specific customer requirements. Because the Intel® Core™ i9-9990XE was built with unique specifications and high frequency to meet the workload needs of this targeted industry, it can only be produced in limited quantities and will not be broadly made available.”
– Intel 17/01/2019
– Intel 17/01/2019
The centrepiece of each Supernova XL remains that Intel Core i9-9990XE Extreme Edition processor, a 14-core/28-thread model which was tailor made for the financial industry. While as standard it’s configured with very healthy clock speeds and supports Intel Turbo Max 3.0 dynamic clocks, 8Pack hand-overclocks each to a minimum of 4.7GHz across all cores for awe-inspiring performance come rain or shine.
Of course, such high-end overclocking on a CPU already carefully binned for high-end performance necessitates the sorts of bespoke cooling discussed above. In stock configuration each i9-9990XE is rated at a TDP of 255W, and overclocking would only push this envelope out further. It’s for this reason that such care has been taken to create cooling which is both attractive and exceptionally capable, and why two radiators are dedicated to the CPU alone.
Equipped with dual RTX 2080 Ti in matching chrome finish
The Supernova XL packs two ASUS NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards paired in SLI via NVIDIA’s 2nd generation NVLink, a solution that’s capable of sharing up to 100GB/s of bi-directional bandwidth the cards. Water-cooled and overclocked, they’re tailor made for both creative, professional and gaming applications.
Each RTX 2080 Ti is equipped with a Phanteks Glacier RGB waterblock and backplate, offering not only a premium grade water-cooling solution but also a fully customisable display through their addressable RGB lighting.
Professional storage solution with Samsung 970 Pro NVMe
Two 1TB Samsung 970 Pro NVME drives in each Supernova XL offer high performance storage with sequential read/write speeds of up to 3,500/2,700 MB/s, making them ideal for use with professional applications.
Secondary storage is comprised of two 10 TB WD HDDs; an abundance of room for media, games and redundancy back-up.
Price and Availability
The Supernova XL Limited Edition is a system for those with extreme requirements that go way beyond what would be considered an enthusiast specification. Custom water-cooling solutions such as these not only ensure that each component can hum away contentedly 24/7, but also is assembled by experts in their field that offer guaranteed quality. Even aside from the i9-9990XE – a CPU as rare as hens teeth – components have been selected to be the very best available in the enthusiast prosumer segment, with more that a passing nod towards long-term reliability.
With all that in mind, it should come as no surprise that the 8Pack Supernova XL starts from an exceptionally premium £14,888.88, available exclusively from Overclockers.co.uk. More information can be found at the Supernova XL landing page, or alternatively you can check out the rest of OCUK’s extensive range of custom systems including other models designed by 8Pack.
