Built for the video editors and creative professionals, Sonox is a high-performance system based around Intel X99 and is destined for silence.
Product on Review: Sonox Workstation
Manufacturer and Sponsor: Utopia Computers
Street price: £2,281.64 GBP
Utopia Computers was established back in 1993 and is based in Kilmarnock, Scotland. Their intention is to provide customers with custom built, bespoke computer systems and having reviewed a number of their systems already, we can confidently say they are a rising force within the UK. There are a number of exclusive features which Utopia include with their prebuilt systems such as an outstanding 10 year warranty and lifetime technical support
Today we’re excited to be taking a look at a new systems range for Utopia Computers. The Sonox range seeks to present the video editor/creative professional with a high-end offering able to maximise productivity whilst operating at near silence.
The configuration we’re looking at today is based around Intel’s Haswell-E and X99 and has an assortment of high-performance components from reputable brands, so let’s waste no further time and begin our analysis!
About Utopia Computers
Utopia Computers started building custom PCs back in 1993. In those days we were established out of the need for a computer builder who could supply a bespoke, great performing PC that would not break the bank. On day one it was decided that we would do everything in our power to ensure that our PCs were built to a higher standard than any of our competitors and we would look after our customers with more care than any other PC builder could. Today, we’ve carried on that concept by producing elite, custom built PCs backed up with almost 20 years of knowledge, experience and national award-winning service & support.
Our customer service has always been the core value of our company. This has seen customers from all over the UK continue to return to Utopia repeatedly for their computer requirements. Our outstanding service and attention to detail has not gone un-noticed within the industry. It has allowed us to win multiple industry awards such as the PCR Best Service & Support in the UK, UK’s Best Independent Retailer and UKs best retail experience.
Our customer service has always been the core value of our company. This has seen customers from all over the UK continue to return to Utopia repeatedly for their computer requirements. Our outstanding service and attention to detail has not gone un-noticed within the industry. It has allowed us to win multiple industry awards such as the PCR Best Service & Support in the UK, UK’s Best Independent Retailer and UKs best retail experience.
Technical Specifications & Features
Chassis
Be quiet! Silent Base 800 w/ Utopia Metallix Paintwork detailing
CPU
Intel Core i7 5930K @ 4.3GHz
Motherboard
ASUS X99-A
Memory
16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666MHz
CPU Cooler
Be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3
Graphics Cards
ASUS GTX 980 Strix w/Utopia Metallix Paintwork
Storage
1x 1TB Samsung 840 EVO (OS)
1x 3TB Seagate 7200RPM
Power Supply
Be quiet! 800W Straight Power 10 Modular
Be quiet! Silent Base 800 w/ Utopia Metallix Paintwork detailing
CPU
Intel Core i7 5930K @ 4.3GHz
Motherboard
ASUS X99-A
Memory
16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 2666MHz
CPU Cooler
Be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3
Graphics Cards
ASUS GTX 980 Strix w/Utopia Metallix Paintwork
Storage
1x 1TB Samsung 840 EVO (OS)
1x 3TB Seagate 7200RPM
Power Supply
Be quiet! 800W Straight Power 10 Modular
Utopia Computers Exclusive Features
• 10 Years limited warranty – Europe’s longest computer warranty: 2 years parts cover, 10 years labour, Free lifetime tech support
• Exclusive 30 Days ‘No-Fail’ Guarantee
• Free delivery w/ 1 Hour delivery window via premium courier – DPD (mainland UK only)
• Hand-built by our multi-award winning expert engineers
• 48 Hours minimum stress testing for maximum reliability
• Multi-award winning customer service & after-care
• The most customisable high performance laptops on the market (including full chassis Utopia Metallix paintwork)
• Exclusive Utopian Transit Armour – Ship your laptop in a military-grade crate for maximum protection
• Exclusive 30 Days ‘No-Fail’ Guarantee
• Free delivery w/ 1 Hour delivery window via premium courier – DPD (mainland UK only)
• Hand-built by our multi-award winning expert engineers
• 48 Hours minimum stress testing for maximum reliability
• Multi-award winning customer service & after-care
• The most customisable high performance laptops on the market (including full chassis Utopia Metallix paintwork)
• Exclusive Utopian Transit Armour – Ship your laptop in a military-grade crate for maximum protection
Packaging & First Look
Utopian Transit Armour – maximum protection
The Sonox system arrives in a large reinforced box which Utopia Computers ship all of their products in. This wooden construction is named “Utopian Transit Armour” and as you might have guessed is designed to provide maximum protection during transfer from Utopia to the customer. Having extra protection means that any knocks or bangs will be sustained by the wood rather than the flimsy cardboard which most other system manufacturers use.
System sits within branded case box
Within this wooden box, Utopia have placed the tower inside the cardboard box to which the case for this particular system comes with. In this instance we have the be quiet! Silent Base 800. Again, this gives us even more defence during transit and we applaud Utopia for taking extra measures when shipping such expensive equipment.
Sonox is presented in be quiet’s new Silent Base 800
Utopia has chosen to base their Sonox system around the new Silent Base 800 chassis. Since Sonox is all about maintaining silence as a key attribute, this case fits the bill as its forte is keeping noise levels down to an absolute minimum. The front, top and sides are closed off and inside there is noise damping material to further assist with reducing decibels.
In our experience with Silent Base 800 the case looks great and has plenty of useful features, some of which we’ll be exploring over the next few pages.
Closer Look: Externals
USB 3.0 ports and other features at the top of the case
At the top of the case there is an assortment of useful functionality. Running along the right hand edge there are two USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports and headphone and microphone jacks. A large power button is situated in the middle.
DVD-RW for accessing media
Although the DVD/CD drive is now becoming one of the obsolete devices for a computer system, Utopia has still opted to provide a 24x Dual Layer DVD±RW/DL SATA Drive for accessing CD/DVDs.
This optical drive is found behind the door on the front of the case. This door has some of the noise insulation material we mentioned earlier, to help reduce electrical noises heard from the system.
The rear of the system
Around the back of the case there are numerous ports to take advantage of which consists of:
1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo ports
1 x LAN (RJ45) port(s)
6 x USB 3.0
4 x USB 2.0
1 x Optical S/PDIF out
5 x Audio jacks
1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button
Also at the back are the ports found on the ASUS GTX 980 Strix graphics card, which allow you to use 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI or 1x DVI port.
Closer Look: Internals
A colour coordinated system lies within
Inside the case we have an aesthetically pleasing configuration which has been purposely colour-coordinated. Utopia present us with a very clean and tidy system.
Utopia’s twist on the ASUS GTX 980 Strix
At the heart of Sonox we have the Intel Core i7-5930K which has been overclocked to a conservative 4.3GHz to reap extra performance. This powerful 6-core processor is cooled by be quiet!’s Dark Rock Pro 3, which is a substantial dual-tower CPU cooler which also comes with twin cooling fans.
The real muscle behind the 3D capabilities inside Sonox is surely the ASUS GTX 980 Strix which has 4GB GDDR5 and has been given a special finish via Utopia’s ‘Metallix Paintwork’ to correspond with the general theme of this system. We have to say, the finish on this graphics card is exceptional and it really adds that “wow” factor to the rig.
Corsair Vengeance LPX sits on the ASUS X99-A motherboard
A premium offering in the X99-A
All of these components sit upon the ASUS X99-A motherboard which is not only stunning in its visual appearance but offers up an extensive feature-set too. Such as Digi+ power delivery and Crystal Sound 2 to name just a few.
Since this platform uses Intel’s X99 chipset, DDR4 is obligatory and Utopia has chosen to use Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666MHz.
As you may have guessed, this configuration is designed as a high-end workstation and so it’s ideal for just about any usage but more specifically will be useful for video editors, CAD engineers and creative professionals who need optimum processing power to complete such tasks.
Utopia has cable management under control
Behind the motherboard tray there is clear evidence that considerable time has been spent on ensuring the cable management is nice and tidy and free of clutter – this is pleasing to see.
Around the back we can also see that Sonox uses two drives for storage. The primary drive makes use of a Samsung 840 EVO 1TB. This solid state drive hosts Windows 8.1 – offering fast boot times and quick read/write access. It’s nice that we’re given a large SSD in this instance, often system retailers will include just a 120GB drive for the Operating System, having the additional space will mean that there is possibility to even install games and large applications on this drive. Even though we have a huge, 1TB SSD as the primary drive, Utopia has also included a 3TB Seagate 7200RPM mechanical drive for extra storage options.
Benchmarks: Temperatures
For our first benchmark tests we observe the max. CPU temperature by loading the system with LinX and monitoring temperatures with RealTemp. For the GPU temperatures we use 3DMark and GPU-Z to read the maximum temp.
Benchmarks: Power Consumption & Boot Time
Next, we observe the power consumption by using 3DMark to load the system and then monitor DC readings with an energy tool. Using a digital stopwatch we also monitor the Windows 8.1 bootup time.
Benchmarks: Cinebench R15
CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor is.
Benchmarks: X264 HD
Simply put, this test measures how fast your machine can encode a short, DVD quality MPEG-2 video clip into a high-quality x264 video clip. What’s x264, you ask? It’s more or less the next-generation Xvid/DivX codec. We think it’s ideal for a benchmark because the application (x264.exe) reports fairly accurate compression results (in frames per second) for each pass of the video encoding process and it uses multi-core processors very efficiently.
Benchmarks: PCMARK 8
Since launch, SiSoftware has always been at the forefront of the technology arena, being among the first providers of benchmarks that show the power of emerging new technologies such as multi-core, GPGPU, OpenCL, DirectCompute, x64, ARM, MIPS, NUMA, SMT (Hyper-Threading), SMP (multi-threading), AVX3, AVX2, AVX, FMA4, FMA, NEON, SSE4.2, SSE4.1, SSSE3, SSE3, SSE2, SSE, Java and .NET.
Benchmarks: 3DMark & Heaven 4.0
The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. And it’s not just for Windows. With 3DMark you can compare your scores with Android and iOS devices too. It’s the most powerful and flexible 3DMark we’ve ever created.
Benchmarks: Far Cry 4, Assassin’s Creed Unity, BF4, Crysis 3
Our system uses the highly capable ASUS GTX 980 Strix graphics card. To test how effective the 3D capabilities are, we’ll be benchmarking some of the biggest gaming titles out there.
Conclusion
The aim of Sonox is to maximise productivity for heavy duty applications and while doing so, retain low-noise operation and this system certainly achieves all of the above.
Sonox uses the new be quiet! Silent Base 800 for its enclosure and this new case not only looks aesthetically very pleasing but its design is primarily involved with keeping noise to an absolute minimum. Utopia has done an excellent job with the component selection inside this rig for a number of reasons. Firstly, from a visual standpoint they all complement each other very well and present a stylish, attractive configuration. Secondly, by having such components, Sonox is able to achieve outstanding performance results regardless of the benchmark or usage.
The preceding pages are testament to Sonox’s high-performance. Loading up any of most recent gaming titles will reveal a system which is able to deliver high framerates with high detail preset enabled.
One of the biggest concerns for consumers ordering a high-value computer system over the internet is surely the packaging and this is an area of particular significance for Utopia Computers. Choosing to stand out from the crowd and offering something rather unique is appreciated by the customer – the extra protection from their “Utopian Transit Armour” ensures your new purchase arrives without any damage.
The Sonox range is new to Utopia Computers and as such there is no landing page yet but we’ll be updating this review with links once this is ready. This particular specification will be priced at £2,281.64 GBP. Although this is a substantial sum of money, it’s also accurate according to and against other online retailers for a similar calibre of product. This system offers outstanding performance and is definitely at the very high-end of configurations. Consumers should also bear in mind the benefits that come with Utopia’s unique after sales advantages: Free UK Delivery, 30 Day No-Fail Guarantee, 2 Years Parts replacement, 10 Years FREE Labour and Lifetime Free Tech Support.
Sonox achieves what it set out to – high-performance and low-noise. This system is furnished with premium components which do not shy away from delivering outstanding results.
Pros
+ Powerful
+ Low-noise
+ Extra protection for packaging
+ Visually impressive theme
+ High-quality components throughout
+ Excellent for gaming and video editing
+ Great aftercare benefits (Free lifetime tech support etc)
Cons
– Case is predominately plastic
+ Powerful
+ Low-noise
+ Extra protection for packaging
+ Visually impressive theme
+ High-quality components throughout
+ Excellent for gaming and video editing
+ Great aftercare benefits (Free lifetime tech support etc)
Cons
– Case is predominately plastic
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
