The Battlebox tested: what the monster gamer PC can do
28.8.2017
Translation: machine translated
With its integrated Titan Xp, the Battlebox aims to be the ultimate PC for gamers, video editors and graphic designers. I feel I belong primarily to the first group and have pitted the supposedly fastest graphics card against the toughest games.
As soon as I see the postman unload the parcel, I know it must be for me. It's a miracle that he can even carry the huge box without a jack - and probably not Suva-compliant. I was offered the chance to test the Mifcom Battlebox. A monster of a PC with supposedly the fastest graphics card available for consumers: the Nvidia Titan Xp.
But that alone wouldn't make the thing so fat. The Battlebox is almost twice as wide as my trusty NZXT H440 tower. The concealed rear section houses the power supply unit and cables. There is also space for four SSDs. The water cooling mounted on the ceiling on the main side keeps the i7 7700K at low temperatures.
Tidy
The entire interior looks pleasantly tidy. No cables sticking out, everything is perfectly bundled. That's how it should be. My system is equipped with a 500GB SSD M.2 and a 2TB hard drive. Although the SSD is too small for my games library, it delivers top performance. 32 GB of RAM is also nothing to sneeze at. Two case fans ensure optimum airflow. The case is a Corsair Carbide Air 540, which provides plenty of space for hardware and elbow room during installation. LED chains are installed along the viewing window, which can be conveniently controlled using the pre-installed software. The installed Asus STRIX Z270-F gaming board also lights up. A veritable Goa party took place at my feet.
At first glance, there is nothing to criticise about the equipment. The only thing that annoys me about the case, or rather the mainboard, is the measly number of USB ports. Five at the back and two at the front are far too few. How can such a monster PC have just seven USB ports? On the other hand, the Battlebox has a Bluray drive, which is completely superfluous for me. But there's no shortage of space.
There is no pre-installed software. Only Corsair Link, Asus Aura and Team Viewer can be found. The latter is used by Mifcom for remote maintenance. The purchase price includes a 36-month warranty. If something doesn't work, the manufacturer can intervene directly.
Volume
The device is relatively quiet, sometimes even completely silent during normal office use. As expected, the fans turn more strongly in gaming mode, but are still a lot quieter than on my previous system. Overall, the Battlebox is very quiet. And there are still profiles to select via the Corsair software, such as "quiet" or "performance". I used the preconfigured one from Mifcom.
My test system
- OS: Windows 10 Pro
- CPU: Intel i7 7700K@ 4.2 Ghz
- RAM: 32 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4
- Mainboard: ASUS STRIX Z270-F Gaming
- Driver version: Nvidia 384.94
Let the games begin
In the following test, I am interested in the performance at maximum pixel splendour. Does the Battlebox manage resolutions of up to 3840 x 2160 pixels with a consistently smooth frame rate or does it have to bow to the supreme discipline? I serve the monster particularly heavy fare for this. I've picked out nine games that demand a lot from most systems even in Full HD.
The candidates
- "Crysis"
- "Doom"
- "Hitman"
- "The Division"
- "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds"
- "Battlefield 1"
- "Deus Ex Mankind Divided"
- "Rise of the Tomb Raider"
- "Ghost Recon Wildlands"
I tested with maximum details where possible. And when I say maximum details, I mean maximum. Anti-aliasing (not really necessary for 4K), HBAO, Pure Hair and whatever else there is. Unless otherwise mentioned, but without V-Sync. For games without an integrated benchmark, I used the Fraps and Frafs programmes.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
The multiplayer hit is still in the Early Access phase, which excuses some of the mediocre performance. The expansive landscape and the far-reaching views are a challenge even for the best hardware. Even the Battlebox does not achieve a stable 60fps on average when all details are set to maximum. If it rains, the fps drops even lower. But it's quite playable this way and if you do lose, you can always blame it on the PC. ;)
3840 x 2160p, maximum details, average 55 fps, minimum 41 fps
Crysis
Of course, I started the most famous benchmark ever. The ten-year-old game also demands everything from today's system. However, the Titan Xp almost manages to maintain a stable 60fps. In the end, however, the Cryengine is too demanding.
3840 x 2160p, maximum details, average 56 fps, minimum 41 fps
Battlefield 1
The epic multiplayer battles make PCs glow. 64 players, explosions and smoke everywhere you look The computer has to work hard. The Frostbite engine uses DirectX 12 as an option and scales quite well on systems with different performance levels. The Battlebox makes a pretty good trap in the First World War baller game. Tested on the St Quentin Scar map with 64 players.
3840 x 2160p, maximum details, DX12, average 64 fps, minimum 50 fps
Ghost Recon Wild Lands
Ghost Recon utilises a number of performance-intensive features such as Ambient Occlusion and Long Range Shadows. Combined with the lush vegetation, the huge game world is a real challenge for your PC. If you really switch on every graphics feature, the frame rate will hover around 40fps. Still playable, but if you prefer a smoother experience, you will need to slightly reduce the visibility, shadows and possibly even the object details.
3840 x 2160p, maximum details, average 39 fps, minimum 31 fps
The Division
The Division makes full use of Nvidia's range of features. And you can see that. When night falls and dense snow flurries are illuminated by flamethrowers, the game shows its best side. The downside is, unsurprisingly, that the whole thing consumes a lot of performance. The Titan Xp can't really stand out from the GTX 1080Ti here. Something seems to have slowed down the system in this test, but for the life of me I couldn't pinpoint what. Drivers, game updates, the devil knows, but there should be more to it than that. Do you have a tip or have you already found out what the problem is? Please tell me in a comment.
3840 x 2160p, maximum details, average 38 fps, minimum 35 fps
Deus Ex Mankind Divided
Still the most challenging game I've come across so far. The razor-sharp visuals, the glossy surface and the countless details will bring even the best PC to its knees. You can forget about switching on the MSAA edge smoothing option. This makes the game absolutely unplayable. But it's not really necessary at 4K. Without it, however, the integrated benchmark delivers a pretty decent result.
3840 x 2160p, maximum details, DX12, average 39 fps, minimum 31 fps
Rise of the Tomb Raider
For once, I get the better results here than other Titan XP testers. As in Deus Ex, I had to do without edge smoothing, but it runs absolutely smoothly even with Pure Hair. A real feast for the eyes.
3840 x 2160p, maximum details, DX12, average 70 fps, minimum 42 fps
Doom
The bloody baller orgy uses hardware resources relatively sparingly. I can turn up all the controls and the game still runs smooth as butter. That's how it should be.
3840 x 2160p, maximum details, Vulcan, average 88 fps, minimum 65 fps
Hitman
The hitman simulator features large levels with opulent facilities and countless NPCs. Nevertheless, the Glacier engine scales very well. With all the details, the battlebox virtually races through the benchmark.
3840 x 2160p, maximum details, average 76 fps, minimum 60 fps
To enlarge the graphic, mobile users can click here
Conclusion: A real monster, but with room for improvement
The Mifcom Battlebox is undoubtedly a really fat gaming PC - in every respect. The case is a small hunk of power that is the star of every LAN party with its disco lighting. The workmanship is impeccable, the interior is perfectly organised and this also ensures optimum airflow. The Titan Xp in combination with the iT 7700K delivers rich gaming performance in 4K and for virtual reality. However, having already tested the GTX 1080Ti, I'm a little disappointed with the performance. I would have hoped for more fps. This may also be due to the current Nvidia driver. External tests of the Titan Xp, which were carried out in May or earlier, gave it significantly better values in some cases. But perhaps they didn't really set all the levers to the maximum. Either way, you can confidently do without various graphics options that don't really make a noticeable difference.
In return, you get a three-year warranty and Mifcom can access your system directly if necessary. If you don't feel like assembling your PC yourself, you can get a top device at a fair price. Hobbyists save around 600 francs if they buy all the individual parts and screw them together themselves. You have to think carefully about whether it's worth the effort. The wiring harnesses would certainly never look as nice on me ;).
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Philipp Rüegg
Senior Editor
Philipp.Rueegg@digitecgalaxus.chBeing the game and gadget geek that I am, working at digitec and Galaxus makes me feel like a kid in a candy shop – but it does take its toll on my wallet. I enjoy tinkering with my PC in Tim Taylor fashion and talking about games on my podcast http://www.onemorelevel.ch. To satisfy my need for speed, I get on my full suspension mountain bike and set out to find some nice trails. My thirst for culture is quenched by deep conversations over a couple of cold ones at the mostly frustrating games of FC Winterthur.
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