Date:
Sunday , June 12, 2005
Author:
Chris Morley
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Velocity Micro ProMagix DCX Evaluation

Velocity Micro kicks off our Systems Evaluation Program, sending us a hot off the press Pentium D Extreme Edition system that's overclocked, watercooled, and fully loaded. Join us as we take a hard look at this ambitious machine and whether or not its bite matches its bark.

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Part I - Company Overview

Website Overview

Velocity Micro’s website attempts to cater to every facet of the computer market. However, this can be a daunting challenge, especially if you can’t clearly communicate a value proposition for every type of computer you offer, or provide clear product segmentation. Velocity Micro offers PC’s for gamers, first and foremost, followed by systems for digital media and home/office users. They also offer a wide range of 1U – 5U servers, including a quad Opteron configuration. And like most boutique builders, they offer some pretty powerful re-badged laptops from various ODMs.

Website Marketeering

I do take issue with one prominent point that Velocity Micro makes and links to on their front page. Velocity Micro claims that one of their competitive advantages is that they use only retail or ‘retail grade’ components. On this page they claim that OEM parts, those sold in bulk to larger systems integrators, are slower, hotter, and more prone to fail than those sold in retail. I have worked for systems integrators large enough to purchase in bulk. I have seen no difference between the quality of an OEM and retail component when it comes to major system components such as CPUs, memory, motherboards, or video cards. Specifically talking about CPUs, some very famous overclockers have been found in the OEM channel, such as the SL36A Celeron 300A which hit 450Mhz, and the 1Ghz Athlon Thunderbird from the AXIA batch. However, there are some ‘OEM only’ components that are ‘de-tuned’ and lower priced than the components they are derived from, such as the ATI Radeon 9800 SE 4-pipeline video card, but even that made it into the retail channel from companies like PowerColor. The fact is that aside from some batches that may overclock or perform better than others, it’s a crapshoot whether you’ll find them in the retail or OEM channel. There just isn’t an industry wide OEM conspiracy out there. I’d rather see Velocity Micro spend their energy explaining that you’re going to find fully featured components from the best vendors in the business instead of pushing a “scare tactic” to drive you away from other options.

Just The Facts, Ma'am

They do make some factual statements in regards to OEM vs. Retail parts, however. Some components from manufacturers that sell retail and OEM bulk will only carry a direct warranty on the retail component. I just went through this a couple weeks ago with an optical drive manufacturer. They would not accept our company’s RMA because the component was OEM, we had to RMA with our vendor. This isn’t the case with most companies however, as I’m sure some of you have witnessed this when RMA’ing hard drives. What this means to a Velocity Micro customer is that if they were to so choose, they would have an easier time RMA’ing defective components directly with the component manufacturer, and would be able to do so for a longer period of time with a longer retail warranty. However, the purpose of OEM components is to give large systems integrators a price break by having them assume the warranty themselves and by delivering the components free of all the costly marketing fluff that ensues when you have retail packaging. And believe me, it also makes for a cleaner stock room. Have you seen the size of retail Xeon boxes lately?

All That Glitters Isn't Gold

Interestingly enough I found a non-retail part in my Velocity Micro machine. To Velocity Micro's credit they say they’ll use ‘retail-grade’ components. I presume this means that they think some OEM components are equal to their retail brethren. If this is the case, then it puts a ding in their argument that retail is better. The Audigy 2 ZS card that my ProMagix DCX came with did not include any signs of being retail. A quick check with Newegg showed that it should have come with Rainbow Six 3 and Tomb Raider, along with a full color Quick Start Guide. It came with none of these things. According to Velocity Micro, one of the great things about retail components is the documentation…well, I didn’t get any.