AMD's amazingly tiny and powerful Project Quantum dissected!

[ozziestig]

Sadly it's not a Quantum computer.

 

 

Ok so PC World got their hands on a Project quantum and tore it apart.

For this autopsy, AMD provided one of maybe a dozen Project Quantum prototype machines in existence. Ours was specifically Number 5. We were given free rein to mess with Number 5, with the sole stipulation that we had to put it back together. An off-the-shelf PC is no problem for this veteran of hundreds of PC builds, but the close-quartered Project Quantum would be a challenge.

 

Number 5 started its life traveling the world as a demo machine for AMD’s VR initiative. That’s not an easy life, and Number 5 suffered the fate most demo machines do after being manhandled in a dozen cities: It broke. Exactly how I don’t know, but AMD said Number 5 was dead, making it the perfect cadaver for my autopsy.

 

Looking inside it is cool.

let’s get inside this rig. Project Quantum features two compartments. The top integrates a 180mm radiator, a pump, and a unique reservoir. A fan sucks in air through the open center section and pushes it up through the radiator and out the top. You can easily get inside by removing four screws at the corners.

 

AMD went custom with parts of this build, like the reservoir, AMD 3D printed it and some of the tubing.

 

While the radiator and pump appear off-the-shelf, the reservoir is built just for Project Quantum. In the past, having a small run of custom reservoirs would be too cost-prohibitive, but the 3D printer revolution has changed everything. This tank is clearly 3D-printed, as is much of the hosing.

 

Parts of the hose are rubber, but the main lines that carry the liquid between the top half and the bottom half are 3D-printed in hard plastic. I’m not sure why AMD didn’t just use conventional hosing, but I suspect the company was concerned the tubes would folding or crimp, cutting off the flow. But then, maybe it’s just because this is an unconventional PC.

 

Looking at the back of Quantum it has what you would need.

 

Flipping Project Quantum around to give you a better view: The LiquidVR logo is prominently displayed and reminds you of Project Quantum’s original purpose: to showcase AMD’s VR program. The round port on the lefthand side is where the power supply goes.

 

One way AMD saved space was to move the PSU outside of the case. This meant a lot of tricks internally, but an external power brick on a desktop case isn’t unheard of, nor a bad idea. It gets the heat from the PSU out of the system and lets AMD run a much larger unit. Unfortunately, AMD didn’t make the brick available for this autopsy, but from pictures I’ve seen of it, it’s very hefty and I suspect fairly high wattage. 

 

Now looking at the guts of it.

 

With the bottom panel removed, you can see every single square inch of Project Quantum is put to use. Yes, that’s an AMD Radeon SSD, which is a rebrand of an OCZ SSD.

 

On the bottom is a Fury X card. As far as I can tell, it’s pretty much a stock Fiji XT card. I know, you were expecting a dual Fury X card, which AMD made a point of saying was inside Project Quantum at E3. I tried to get a dual-Fury X Project Quantum for this autopsy, but AMD wasn’t going to play.

 

Not surprising AMD went with INTEL for the CPU, I believe that they understand that their current line of CPUs probably can't handle the power a fury x outputs.

 

There is indeed an Intel CPU powering AMD’s Project Quantum. It’s specifically a Core i7-4790K “Devil’s Canyon” chip. A lot of AMD FX  fan boys will be heart broken to see  an Intel CPU inside instead of an AMD PC but there’s no real reason to despair. AMD officials have said from beginning they could have based it on an AMD CPU too. But in the here and now, AMD knows who is in charge and it’s not Charles from the sitcom show.

 

AMD went full mod on the Motherboard here.

 

The motherboard is indeed off-the-shelf, but if you look at the pictures, it’s been heavily modified. For a point of reference, this image shows an unmodified Asrock Z97E-ITX/ac board. Note those silver blocks near the top.

The shot below shows all those silver blocks (of the rear I/O) removed, leaving just the gigabit port. AMD uses a short dongle that plugs into the ethernet port that goes to the back of the machine. Why? You probably didn’t realize it from looking at the picture of the back of the machine, but AMD actually mounted the motherboard backwards. The back of the board faces the front of the machine. The whole board is also inverted to make contact with the water block. 

 

Project Quantum is indeed an incredible little PC. It ranks among one of the coolest I’ve seen in a small production run. Yes, I’ve seen modded  PC’s that are even more amazing and certainly wired better but those are one-off machines. From nosing around Project Quantum, I can only conclude that AMD actually intends, or at least hopes, to market it.

 

I would love to see this in the market a small, quiet, water cooled, powerful living room unit.

 

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2973970/software-games/exclusive-amds-amazingly-tiny-and-powerful-project-quantum-dissected.html

 

What do you think about Project Quantum?

 

Edit: I forgot to say that their is an autoplay video.

Edited August 25, 2015 by ozziestig

[Guest]

Love how it has an Intel CPU 

[TheSLSAMG]

It looks very interesting. I wonder how temps are with a 180mm radiator though (and to that effect, how well the Furyx2 would cool in it.)

[Tomsen]

No benched? 3 pages, where every single one of them had a video to auto-play...

Wonder how well it can keep those GPU at higher frequencies. Hope it doesn't throttle to much.

[ozziestig]

Love how it has an Intel CPU 

I know, it's a bit sad but they understand in today's market a high end computer will have an Intel CPU in it.

[KemoKa]

Love how it has an Intel CPU 

ikr, inb4 butthurt AMD fanboys.

[TheSLSAMG]

No benched? 3 pages, where every single one of them had a video to auto-play...

Wonder how well it can keep those GPU at higher frequencies. Hope it doesn't throttle to much.

If you read it, they said that Number 5 is dead.

[Guest]

I know, it's a bit sad but they understand in today's market a high end computer will have an Intel CPU in it.

Well, hopefully in the next year we will see AMD CPU's in there 

[ozziestig]

It looks very interesting. I wonder how temps are with a 180mm radiator though.

 

 

No benched? 3 pages, where every single one of them had a video to auto-play...

Wonder how well it can keep those GPU at higher frequencies. Hope it doesn't throttle to much.

Well the unit they had was Dead so no bench marks.

But I'm with you I would like to see some benchmarks and temps.

[Briggsy]

I wonder how many people were expecting to see a dual furyX in the pictures?  :lol:  

[ozziestig]

Well, hopefully in the next year we will see AMD CPU's in there 

I still want to believe in AMD and hopefully Zen can compete with Intel.

[CydiaDash]

Wonder what the price point would (have) be(en).

[Tomsen]

If you read it, they said that Number 5 is dead.

Not currently in the place where I have the time to read to much into the details.

That is truly sad

[Megahurt]

I don't know of any mini-ITX motherboard for AMD FX CPUs, it's probably one of the main reason they went with intel.

[You_are_a_cunt]

Damn it's ugly

[wpirobotbuilder]

That's an awesome little machine. I want it to become a reality so I can have an obvious choice for SFF PCs. The current NUCs don't really do it for me.

 

Also, I disagree with the OP -- Charles is always in charge.

[Prysin]

Love how it has an Intel CPU 

you know, Lisa Su, or that other guy at who was at stage with her on Computex DID state (very quickly and never twice) that it had a intel CPU...

 

So yeah... there is that.

[bcredeur97]

this was great to show off even if they cannot release it. This lays down the mark for the next gen consoles to fufill

[Notional]

It's pretty damn cool. Maybe we could see it be realized once ZEN is out? After all we would get new ram, new socket, new motherboards (incl. ITX). With 14/16nm FF components, that 18 cm radiator might be able to handle the heat of everything no problem.

[dalekphalm]

Looks just as sweet as I suspected when they announced it. I would love one of these in my living room.

 

Here's hoping the project gets resurrected next year for ZEN!

[PortentousLad]

So has anyone made one themselfs yet?

Nice case mod/diy project.

[Misanthrope]

Actually it doesn't looks like it's a terribly difficult project to pull off: cpu and gpu blocks from EK, 200mm rad and a small pump/reservoir, 3d printed case with a funnel shape and another funnel shape on top, that's about it.

[Bouzoo]

Rebrand of an OCZ SSD. I've read only bad things about them. And I'm curious how hot that thing runs, and I have a feeling it might not be cool at all.

[Misanthrope]

Rebrand of an OCZ SSD. I've read only bad things about them. And I'm curious how hot that thing runs, and I have a feeling it might be not cool at all.

 

Actually you'd be surprised: a 200mm rad is probably enough for a cpu and gpu without serious overclocks, and the chamber separation means it probably keeps the bottom half rather cool and pushes hot air out of the top.

 

AMD cards on water work rather well.

[ThE_MarD]

Heyyo,

No benched? 3 pages, where every single one of them had a video to auto-play...

Wonder how well it can keep those GPU at higher frequencies. Hope it doesn't throttle to much.

Yeah sadly it was dead... but hey, I'm sure it'll cool just as well as any zip-tied CPU cooler on a GPU.  

 

Looks just as sweet as I suspected when they announced it. I would love one of these in my living room.

 

Here's hoping the project gets resurrected next year for ZEN!

Yeah no doubt. I'd be a monsterous little unit. Maybe it'll get the R9 Nano treatment too.

 

Actually it doesn't looks like it's a terribly difficult project to pull off: cpu and gpu blocks from EK, 200mm rad and a small pump/reservoir, 3d printed case with a funnel shape and another funnel shape on top, that's about it.

Indeed. The hardest part would probably be to setup the watercooling loop.

 

Rebrand of an OCZ SSD. I've read only bad things about them. And I'm curious how hot that thing runs, and I have a feeling it might not be cool at all.

The first batch of OCZ SSD's back when it was $200 for a 60GB SSD? Yeah they weren't so great and suffered stability issues when used in RAID... but my bud got his RMA'ed for a newer revision that worked fine and sold me one a few years ago. It's still going and working great. OCZ does have a good warranty setup on their SSD's at least.