An Unprecedented Machine
Hardcore Computer asks enthusiasts to think inside the box: an oil-fi lled,
overclocked box, that is
THERMAL RADIATION
All of the Reactor’s oil is circulated through
a large radiator. This concentrates all of the
thermals produced by the machine in one
central place. Future designs may plumb an
external AC unit to cool the oil.BACK-DOOR ACCESS
Two fan-cooled 3.5-inch bays are easily accessed
from the rear of the Reactor. There’s no rear I/O
in the way, as the connectors for the graphics
cards are moved to the top of the case and the
audio and USB connectors are moved to the sides
(note the funky server-style power plug).Over the years, we’ve seen it all—or so we
thought: PCs that are water-cooled, Peltier-
cooled, both water- and Peltier-cooled, even
PCs cooled with phase-change refrigeration,
but we’ve never before seen a submerged
PC designed for mass production. Even
more amazing, the Reactor doesn’t use off-
the-shelf parts that Joe Screwdriver can buy
on eBay. Everything from the motherboard
to the enclosure to the power supply is
custom designed.
And what an impressive package it
makes. If you hoisted this 110 pound beast
onto a table at a LAN party, you would
instantly cause a traffic jam of nerds rubber-
necking your rig. In a circle of PCs, the Reac-
tor would make the 12-layer paint jobs and
curvaceous plastic bodies of its peers seem
downright pedestrian.
And that’s the outside. Once you drill
down into the guts of the machine, fondle
the heavy-duty aluminum panels and ports,
and finally lift the core from the PC’s interior
and watch the oil slowly stream off the
components, you’ll ask yourself how the hell
anyone can make and sell this machine at a
reasonable price (Hardcore says entry-level
models will be $4,000; high-end rigs will
push five figures).
That’s what crossed our minds when we
fi rst saw the Reactor PC—can this really be
pulled off? Is this some elaborate plan to have
the coolest PCs on the Internet but not actu-
ally sell them? Apparently not. We did some
sleuthing on Hardcore Computer and verifi ed
the company’s incorporation date with the
state of Minnesota, looked into the patents it
holds, and ran a credit check. Nothing indi-
cates that this company is a front for the Mob
or a ruse for a Punk’d episode.NOT A DELOREAN
Daren Klum, president of Hardcore, said it’s
all real. The company received $2.4 million
in first-round funding and is expected to
get a second round in the $10 million range.
Hardcore has 30 employees, and the city
of Rochester even loaned the company
$200,000 last year. So put aside any fears
you have that if you buy a Reactor the com-
pany might vaporize next year, Klum said.
“This is not a DeLorean,” Klum said in60 | MAXIMUMPC | HOLIDAY 08 | http://www.maximumpc.com
THREE’S NOT A CROWD
Thanks to its sub-
mersion technique,
Hardcore says it can
comfortably stack three
overclocked GeForce
GTX 280 cards as close
as possible. The black
plate is a stiffener to
keep the card from
bending in the mount.A^
WELL-OILED
MACHINE