Specifications and external analysis
Armari, in designing the ultimate, portable gaming system, has chosen an eclectic mix of high-end components, spearheaded by AMD's impressive dual-core Athlon 64 FX-60 CPU that we reviewed a few days' ago.| System name | Armari Pantheon FX |
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 @ 2.8GHz (14x multiplier) |
| Motherboard | ASUS A8N-VM CSM (nForce 430, PCI-Express) |
| Memory | 2GBytes (2x 1GByte) Corsair TwinX3200C2PT @ 3-3-3-8 DDR400 |
| Hard Drives | 2x Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 250GB SATA2 in RAID0 |
| Screen | None as standard, optional extra |
| Graphics card | XFX GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB XXX Edition |
| Optical drive | Sony DRU-810 multiformat DVD ReWriter |
| Sound | Creative Labs X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS |
| Modem | None |
| Networking | Marvell 88E1111 Gigabit Phy (NVIDIA MAC) | Ports connectivity | 8x USB2.0, 2x FireWire400, GbE, PS/2, audio, DVI, VGA |
| Operating system | Windows XP Pro SP2 |
| Dimensions | 263mm (w) x 210mm (h) x 393mm (d) |
| Warranty | Armari 1-year onsite |
| Price | £2395.00 inc. VAT (as at 11th January 2006) |
| Shipping | £29.38 including VAT |
| Other notables | SilverStone Sugo chassis, overclocked 'FX-60, Logitech G7 mouse and G15 keyboard |
Eagle-eyed readers will note that Armari has adopted SilverStone's SG01 chassis for its Pantheon FX. It's slightly larger than most other SFF chassis, large enough to accommodate a micro-ATX-sized motherboard without problems, and deep enough to ensure easy building. As such, in pure internal volume, it's around 40% larger than, say, a Shuttle P-series SFF unit. The anodised, brushed aluminium chassis certainly looks the part but smudges rather too easily, as you can see from the above picture. 4 USB2.0 ports and a single FireWire400 are left unconcealed, and that kind of spoils the black aesthetic.
The SG01's two external 5.25" bays hold a matching black Sony 16x multiformat dual-layer DVD ReWriter that supports all the usual formats and writes to dual-layer discs at an impressive 8x. The lower bay houses the front-end to Creative's X-Fi 'Fatal1ty' FPS, a sound system that's engineered for gamers and one that includes onboard memory, dubbed X-RAM, to limit the I/O expenditure across the PCI bus. Apart from the funky looks and myriad of features, the underlying technology for the X-Fi is good, so it's another sensible choice for a top-end gaming rig.
Moving on across the side, which has suitable venting to allow hot internal air to be pushed out, the rear is a mix of standard motherboard I/O and small form-factor space compromises. Armari has opted for ASUS' micro-ATX A8N-VM CSM motherboard that sports NVIDIA's PCIe-based nForce 430/GeForce 6150 combination. The latter is why, through onboard graphics, you see both DVI and VGA outputs on the I/O section, along with the usual gaggle of ports. The wider-than-normal nature of the chassis allows Armari to include the X-Fi soundcard, an Akasa fan-controller, and, salivatingly, a GeForce 7800 GTX 512MB card that is, right now, the fastest single-card in town. You can visually see that the motherboard's four expansion slots have been taken up, with two reserved for the dual-height card.
The larger-than-normal chassis allows Armari to use a standard-sized Akasa PaxPower v4 460W ATX v2.01 power supply in the Pantheon system. A high-quality PSU is a must when driving the components listed above. It's from Akasa's ultra-quiet range and uses a slow-spinning 120mm fan that pushes air down into the chassis.