The Verdict
First things first, as a computer the LANShark ‘Skelly’ is a freakishly great machine. It has a mixture of top-of-the-line components and custom painted case that result in pure awesomeness. I mean, just look at it! This is a machine I would be proud own and lug to and from LAN parties, no question. I mean you wouldn't even have to turn it on to get your friends to pay for beer. That’s an automatic win in my book!
What I liked most was the choice of hardware in the LANShark. It uses Intel's Core i7 965 at 3.6 GHz 'stock' overclocked, mated to an ASUS Rampage II Gene microATX motherboard. Since SmoothCreations is a custom shop, we were offered the choice of an SLI setup with two GTX280's or a single GTX295. We thought the GTX295 a better choice for a LAN gaming machine, it's just less things to mess with when you're away from parts and tools, and not to mention you only get room for two on the Gene microATX motherboard. Then there is that paint job, which really gives the LANShark some soul. Humans often project onto inanimate objects, but those skulls, they don't stop watching you... the warlocks out there will appreciate it, to be sure.
Since I can't just gush all over hardware, I do have to point out a few minor quirks to the LANShark. The first is the lack of tweaks out of the factory. Fan speeds were set to deafening, easily fixed in BIOS, and a little more difficult setting the HDD mode from IDE to AHCI mode. Lastly, and I'm really scraping the barrel here, since the LANShark comes factory overclocked, the stock overclocked setting could have been saved in the BIOS profile to make recovering from a failed OC attempt much easier.
The last comment I have is about the use of the from Cool It Pure water cooling solution. The Cool It Pure worked fine actually, but it won't cut it for serious overclocking. We found the i7 would throttle itself when pushed beyond 3.6 GHz, negatively impacting performance. The double-edged sword here is that while you can get better performance out of higher end water or air cooling, it tends to make transporting the LANShark much more hazardous than with the lighter and simpler Cool It Pure solution. Anyway, if you don't see yourself doing a lot of overclocking (and the hardware is certainly capable of it), then this LANShark will be great. Everybody else will want the more expensive, but better performance, of SmoothCreation's higher end water solution.
Now that the critical stuff is out of the way, the LANShark is a great machine. Just load your stuff on it and proceed to kick ass. The one thing that I gravitate to with this LANShark is the purity of it. It is a pretty simple machine, which usually equates with good reliability. It also means it will survive a couple of upgrade cycles, especially with the lifetime warranty on the paint job.
Of course, the ultimate goal is performance, and the LANShark’s combination of the i7 965 at 3.6GHz and the GTX295 provides blistering performance indeed. The LANShark is pretty competitive with the synthetic benchmarks, as you would expect for being factory overclocked, only being bested by an overclocked i7 975 on most tasks. It's 3DMark Vantage P scores were pretty good, at 3.6 GHz was P19409, not the best we've seen, but at 3.9 GHz and a fairly aggressive OC on the GTX295, the LANShark posted a respectable P20894. Far Cry 2 benchmarks didn't suck either at an average of 75-80 FPS at 1920x1200 at the highest quality settings.
If you are in the market for something a bit special, something that will let you tweak to get ultimate performance, with a spectacular paint job, then this is a machine worth considering.
Last words: Thrilling. The LANShark is the fastest scary computer we’ve ever used.
Stuff That is Always at the End.
Special thanks to Jim, Mario, and everybody at SmoothCreations who worked on this little devil, for their patience and expertise. I think I will buy that extra ink, thanks. Extra-special thanks to the tall, dark, and handsome Hilbert for letting me write for guru3d.com.
This review brought to you by the letter K.
+++BAM
Our last moment of Zen:
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