Smooth Creations' LAN Shark reviewed, well loved

Tweak Town has given the new LAN Shark gaming PC by Smooth Creations a thorough once-over and they really seem to like what they see. The review machine (priced at $1,343.75) arrived kitted out with a 3.0 GHz Core 2 Quad processor, 4GB RAM, Diamond HD 4870 1GB graphics and Western Digital Raptor 150GB storage. The whole shebang is housed in an elegant acrylic case with a subtle, yet understated "flame" motif (as pictured above) and gently illuminated by a full compliment of LEDs and cold cathodes. In fact, the only real complaint they lodged about the case was that the fans were too loud. When it came time to roll out the benchmarks the reviewer remained pretty upbeat, citing "very good" processor calculation scores, "fairly smooth" game play at 1900 x 1200 and the machine's making short work of World in Conflict as among the reasons to give this machine some serious consideration. But don't take our word for it -- for the intense, 14-page review hit that read link.

[Rudiger @ Nov 16th 2008 1:31AM]

How in the hell is that understated?!

[The Walrus @ Nov 16th 2008 1:42AM]

And why is flame in quotations? Is there some metaphor there that I'm not getting?

[lowdef @ Nov 16th 2008 2:50AM]

im sensing "subtle" sarcasm...

[Artie Lange @ Nov 16th 2008 1:34AM]

Candygram...

[Kspraydad @ Nov 16th 2008 1:37AM]

Telegram

[artie Lange @ Nov 16th 2008 2:38AM]

Plumber...

[Tankyu @ Nov 16th 2008 2:49AM]

...for Mongo?

[Oli D @ Nov 16th 2008 8:04AM]

Howard Johnson is right!

[gonintendo @ Nov 16th 2008 10:09AM]

Nationwide is on your side.

[Erb @ Nov 16th 2008 1:47AM]

I wonder if the world would explode if you tried water cooling that "flame" motif

[JohnTitor @ Nov 16th 2008 2:56PM]

Kill it with Fire!!

[ryan @ Nov 16th 2008 1:52AM]

1920x1200?

[The Walrus @ Nov 16th 2008 1:59AM]

A common "high-end" resolution in PC gaming. Also; please take note of my use of quotations Engadget.

[ryan @ Nov 16th 2008 2:01AM]

The article says 1900x1200, not 1920x1200

[The Walrus @ Nov 16th 2008 2:07AM]

Wow, I didn't even notice that. A typo I would assume

[modified @ Nov 16th 2008 2:57AM]

I guess that PC scored 3 unanswered points because......IT'S ON FIRE! BOOMSHAKALAKA!


That probably won't be funny tomorrow when I'm sober.

[digitallysick @ Nov 16th 2008 3:17AM]

Lame i could build something with far better specs and overclock far cheaper, or for the same price with better stats. My pc is a 2.6ghz core 2 quad overclocked on air to 3.5ghz, i have 4gb of gskill ram at 44412 , and a SSD harddrive. I would love to see benchmarks of this pc

[bot @ Nov 16th 2008 5:12AM]

You win at internetting. What's the point of seeing benchmarks? I'm sure dozens of other benchmarks have that exact same setup since it's so common. All you are paying for is that horrible horrible looking case.

[Phoenix @ Nov 16th 2008 2:40PM]

...What is this SSD Hard Drive you speak of?

you do realise that an SSD is a completely different technology to an HDD, rather than a different kind of it?

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Nov 16th 2008 5:09PM]

Serious business!

[Boards of Canada @ Nov 16th 2008 3:22AM]

really nice spec for the price! really impressive! (and I dont talk about the paint job...)

[lost..civantares @ Nov 16th 2008 3:22AM]

Why would you get this now when i7 is coming out in 2 or so weeks? Wait a little bit and get a far better cpu.

[Wwhat @ Nov 16th 2008 3:52AM]

Yeah but you need a very expensive mobo, and 30% more ram, and that will drive the price up.
Plus in the computer business you can ALWAYS argue for waiting a few weeks and getting something much better, at any time, and if you did you'd be waiting forever while you try to get your pentium-2 to run Windows7 from your 400MB HD.

[El Taco @ Nov 16th 2008 12:10PM]

uhm, maybe because i7 will double the price?

[C. Todd [phylum sinter] @ Nov 16th 2008 3:49AM]

This article is deceptive.

Though the price stated is on the site as the 'affordable' model, you don't get anywhere near the review machine for that price. Here's what you get for $1,343.75 http://www.smoothcreations.com/builder.asp?specific=116

Totally bogus. I wish i could get a quad core system with 1gb of video ram for that price.

[digitallysick @ Nov 16th 2008 4:50AM]

Build one, you could do it for less than $800.00 i bet

[bot @ Nov 16th 2008 5:36AM]

Hooray for not being able to sleep:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 2.33GHz 1333mhz bus $190 free ship
OCZ Reaper HPC Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 cas 4 $50 free ship
DIAMOND 4870PE51G Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 $299 plus ship
Seasonic 500 watt PSU $90 free ship
Non-hideous, sound dampening Antec Solo $60 free ship
Any socket 775 board of your choosing anywhere from $45 to $200+

That's around $750 for the core components. There's still alot of headroom to make it less expensive than their entry level setup, which I am assuming is not the one they are reviewing. There were some rebates I didn't factor in. Just add a HDD an optical drive and you're set. If you wanted to overclock get a nice cooler for another $70 or less, I'd recommend a Zalman.

This review sounds like a commercial for this company. "The process allows you to really peer into a company, how they operate and ultimately how satisfied a customer would be with their purchase. This past week I spent a great deal of time talking with Smooth Creations personnel, from the marketing team all the way up to the CEO." So I can talk to the CEO and have a chat with him too? I don't have to be a PC reviewer, right?

[Wwhat @ Nov 16th 2008 3:55AM]

I think the flames on acrylic thing is an idea that has merit but needs to be done right by someone with more taste/smarts because in this form it has so many obvious flaws.

[MarbleMind @ Nov 16th 2008 4:20AM]

Uh... electromagnetic shielding much?

[Str1ker @ Nov 16th 2008 4:42AM]

"...acrylic case with a subtle, yet understated "flame" motif (as pictured above)"

Here we go again. We can see the damn picture!! We aren't stupid!

[drumdbeat @ Nov 16th 2008 6:09AM]

Ohhh, is that what that is?

[aznofazns @ Nov 16th 2008 6:38AM]

WAIT THAT'S FLAME? I thought it was just an inartistic mesh of yellow and red paint.

[Ori Matalon @ Nov 16th 2008 6:29AM]

Talking about graphics: NVIDIA's Quadro FX 5800 with 4GB graphics memory was launched - Amazing!

my comments at http://www.commentino.com/orim

[aznofazns @ Nov 16th 2008 6:39AM]

annoying, much?

[Oli D @ Nov 16th 2008 8:07AM]

blimey, i bet that wouldnt even register in 32bit!

[thatrotierkid @ Nov 16th 2008 12:35PM]

our comments

http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/10/nvidias-quadro-fx-5800-with-4gb-graphics-memory-is-the-most-po/

[Sean @ Nov 16th 2008 9:30AM]

Mmmm, I love Landshark beer!

[LonnieDvD @ Nov 16th 2008 10:58AM]

Not bad for that price, good job Smooth Creations.

[Crashtheholy @ Nov 16th 2008 11:30AM]

Now why would you call it the LAN Shark and then paint flames over it?
Something like i don't know, maybe a shark would be better suited

[johnzilla @ Nov 16th 2008 3:38PM]

This case is what happens when some idiot hands an airbrush to his cousin's friend's little brother and says "make it look cool and we'll sell a bunch out of the basement!"

[ED @ Nov 16th 2008 6:28PM]

...for a given value of subtle