VIDEO: Dream PCs 2008: Armari's amazing XCP

Posted at: Wednesday 27th August 2008 by Alex Watson

2008's Dream PCs are in the labs, and we've got video of Armari's amazing XCP, which submerges all its key components in liquid to keep them cool

Once every twelve months we challenge a select group of PC manufacturers to enter a very simple, but very demanding competition: build the best PC you can, money no object. We've seen PCs in the labs that have cost over £5,000 before, and even ones approaching £10,000, but Armari's XCP machine topped any previous PC, being born from over three years work and £100,000 of R&D.

The XCP is a liquid cooled PC with a difference: the main components are all fully immersed in special, non electrically conductive liquid. Getting this to work was a huge technical challenge - among other things, the coolant is denser than water, and expands and contracts according to temperature changes - but the results are trully wonderful. Check out the video below to see what we mean.

Our analysis of the Armari XCP and the other Dream PCs from Scan and HP are in Issue 61 of the magazine, which is on sale now. You can also see the winner of the 2007 Dream PC competition, Scan's White Cobra, here.

If you want to download hi-res images, click here to grab a zip file featuring four beautiful photos of the XCP.