The Machine is Holy Crap: A Review of the Camino RM

As we lift the lid off this behemoth, we're greeted with an unexpected sight - three power adapters staring back at us. "Holy crap, this might actually be a two-man lift," Ed exclaims, chuckling as he carefully lifts the top off the case. The first thing that strikes us is the sheer size of the components inside. A Threadripper processor and four 2080Ti graphics cards are nestled in the heart of this compact machine, leaving us wondering how they all fit together.

The Graphics Card: A Slim Design

One of the most impressive features of the Camino RM is its graphics card setup. Instead of plugging them into traditional PCIe slots, the manufacturers have opted for a unique design that allows two 2080Ti cards to be installed in a slim, PCI Express-compatible module. This innovative approach has allowed the designers to create an incredibly compact system that would otherwise be impossible to achieve.

The Cooling System: A Custom Design

The cooling system on this machine is a custom-designed CPU block that cools both the processor and power delivery on the motherboard. This clever solution allows for efficient heat dissipation, even when the GPU cards are installed in their slim modules. The design also incorporates three 140mm fans to keep temperatures under control, providing an impressive level of airflow.

The Assembly: A Puzzle Worth Solving

Despite its compact size, this machine is not easy to disassemble. Ed comments that he's still struggling to figure out how the components are assembled or taken apart, but we're more interested in getting our hands dirty and exploring every nook and cranny of this system. With patience and care, it seems possible to take apart this machine and understand its inner workings.

Private Internet Access: Our Sponsor

Before we dive back into the machine itself, let's take a moment to talk about Private Internet Access (PIA), our sponsor for today's video. PIA offers users the ability to access services and websites as though they're in a different country, encrypting all internet traffic and using a safe, protected IP address. With clients available for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, and Android devices, PIA is an excellent option for anyone looking to stay secure online.

The Real Purpose of the Camino RM

As we continue to explore this machine, it becomes clear that its true purpose goes beyond simple gaming or high-end video editing. Instead, it's designed as a network-accessible rendering server, capable of handling complex tasks and delivering results in record time. The lack of expansion slots might seem like a limitation at first, but with the system's high-speed Ethernet connectivity, users can still push the limits of this machine without having to worry about bottlenecks.

Conclusion: A Machine Worth Exploring

The Camino RM is certainly a unique machine that has left us both impressed and curious. With its compact size, innovative graphics card design, and custom cooling solution, it's clear that the designers have put a lot of thought into creating something truly special. While some might see limitations in this machine, we believe that its true purpose – as a rendering server or network-accessible workstation – makes it an excellent choice for those with specific needs.

As always, we encourage you to subscribe to Short Circuit for more fun unboxings like this one. With a mix of excitement and skepticism, we're eager to dive into the performance of this machine and see just what it's capable of. Will it live up to its promises, or will there be some surprises in store? Only time will tell.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Holy crap.This might actually be a two-man lift.Hey, Ed.Holy crap, this is really heavy. (laughs)Here it is.Whoa, full marks for presentation,ladies and gentlemen.What am I looking at?Three power adapters.Oops, okay.(plastic rustling)Okay, there we go, therewe go, just need leverage.(plastic rustling)This is already a super-weird computer.This is not how you'resupposed to open it.(plastic rustling)We're opening it backwards,but the computer is backwards.Look, the mounting earsfor the server rack,apparently this is a rackmount, are where the front,the back I/O comes out ofthe front of the computer.What am I even looking at?So here's the handles.Here's your power button,your reset button,whatever these plates are for,whatever this display does,and your I/O plate, it's allat the front of the computer.So what's at the back of the computer?Whoa, we got water-cooling for days here,ladies and gentlemen.(box thumps)Okay, this is the Camino RM.And it shouldn't surprise me that muchthat the internal layout of this thingis unlike any serverI've ever seen before,because these are the samecrazy folks that brought us,yes, that thing,that super, super tiny liquid-cooled,Small Form Factor gaming rig.Inside this box is apparentlya Threadripper processor,four 2080Ti's, and presumablyenough power and coolingto take care of all of that.And I don't know if you guyshave the context for this or not,but here's a Linus hand for scale.This is a really compact little server.Wait, what?Where are the graphics cards at?Why are there three power supplies?What am I even looking at here?Oh, what the crap?Andy, I need Allen keys.- Here you go.- An Allen key, ladies andgentlemen, courtesy of Andy,the Andyman can.This machine is nucking futs.Let's walk through whatwe're lookin' at here.Starting at the back,we've got a triple 120 millimeter radiatorwith a quite dense FIN stack.So, this is optimizedfor high airflow fans.We don't have any fansdirectly mounted to it.Instead, we've got threeNoctua industrial PPC fans.So these are 3,000 RPM monstersthat have this kind ofredirection piece hereso that it directs it upand through the radiator,which also has a little bitof kind of soft tape here.That's presumably to help sealup the back of the chassis.As for the components inside,rather than take atraditional server approachand go with a single butredundant high-power power supply,like a 1,600 watt powersupply or something like that,Camino has opted (laughs) togo with three SFX 750 watt,more like Small Form Factordesktop power supplieswith their own label.So, they've presumably gotlike an OEM manufactureror ODM manufacturerbuilding these for them.Next up, we've got our motherboard.So this is a Zenith II Extreme Alphaor whatever it's called.This is a top-of-the-lineThreadripper board,Threadripper CPU, I believeit's a 32 core model,but that's sort of irrelevant,because the focus, whenbuilding a machine like this,was on GPU.And where are they?Where are the graphics cards, Andy?- Behind the board.- Yeah, they are.This Andy guy, he doesn't miss a trick,ladies and gentlemen.So here on the front of the board,we've got three of Camino'ssuper-cool PCI Express risers.So these are PCIE 16x right here.And then they've actually got two,each of them handling eight of the lanes,two of these thin PCIExpress extension cables.Now, normally, when you builda Small Form Factor machine,the PCI Express riser is like, it's thick.It's like a ribbon-style cable.But these apparently havegood enough signal integrityto handle these linksover a rounded/sleeved connector here.3,200 megahertz, these are 32 gig sticks,so that's 256 gigs of RAM,this puppy is maxed out.Here, ahh, it's so heavy, oh, okay, ahh.Ow.Right here is our water-cooling reservoir.They've got a really nice,handy-dandy little cutout.I haven't looked at thewater-cooling much here.So, our CPU block, which alsohandles cooling the VRMs here,goes down to what seems to besome kind of a manifold or splitter.Our radiator goes downunder the motherboard tray,and then our reservoir's over herewith a nice handy-dandy little cutout.CPU block seems to be a custom designthat cools both the CPUand the power delivery on the motherboard.Let's go find some graphicscards here, shall we?Movin' this thing around'swarming me up, lttstore.com.So I guess why would themanufacturer of a system like thishave the graphics card I/Oat the front of the casewhere people would be pretty unlikelyto plug in a graphics card,and especially whywould they put the plugsbehind these like little cover plates?That's a weird thing to do, right?Oh, my God, that is so cool.I haven't seen this in so long.So way back, like 10 years ago,Nvidia did a dual GPU graphics cardwhere it actually had two PCBs.So, one on the slot sideand then one over onwhere would normally be your intake fan.And then they had a cutout in the PCBfor the fan to drawair in from both sides,and then blow it downthe back of the card.Now, when manufacturers wentto water-cool this thing,they had no choice, because the two PCBshad the components mountedfacing each other in.They had no choice but to create a blockthat sat in between them,and had the water channelwill go in and out.And it had cold plates, likecopper plates, on both sides.That is what Camino has done hereto create this incredibly slim designthat actually has two RTX 2080Ti'sin about the space you wouldnormally have a single one.Before I open this up, I wannatell you about our sponsor,Private Internet Access.Private Internet Accessallows you to access servicesand websites as though you'rein a different country.It encrypts all your Internet trafficand uses a safe, protected IP.You can connect up to fivedevices at once with clientsfor Windows, Mac OS,Linux, iOS, and Android.And, if you check outour offer down below,it's $39.95 for a full yearand you'll get two months free.So, go check it out.Now, we'll take this off.Oh, wow, that's actually notbad in terms of accessibility.(imitates bird warbling)There they are.I found you, I got you.Inlet, outlet, thatgoes to this right hereonto the CPU, out tothis side of this, okay?And then it must also go into the GPUsinto this side of this,where it goes, comes back to,ah, yeah, okay.So, the CPU is gettingabout half of the flowcoming out of the pump,and the GPUs are sharingabout half of the flow.Now I don't actually expectthat to be a terrible problem,because GPUs, while they doactually consume a lot of powerand therefore output a lot of heat,they're really, really large.And it's a little bit easierto draw the heat off of 'em.One of the reasons they run so hotis that they have thesetiny slim coolers on themwith these really inefficient fan designsbecause they have togo in PCI Express slotsinstead of being able to have a big thingplunked on them like a CPU does.One thing I can't reallywrap my head around right nowis how they actually putthis whole assembly inor take it out.But we can leave that for another day.We're gonna do a fullLinus Tech Tips videoon how this machine performsfor its true purpose,which, (grunts) as I alluded to before,doesn't require the GPUs toeven have their plugs accessiblebecause apparently it's intendedas like a network-accessiblerendering server.It's a little curious to methat they didn't bother toat least allow you toinstall any expansion slots.Not a big deal, becausethis is one of thosehigh-end desktop boardsthat happens to have 10 gigabit ethernet,which is good enough forputting a rendering load onto itand then taking the results back.So, your bottlenecks are gonnabe elsewhere in the system.You know, like theseguys really impressed mewith that Small Form Factor machine,but I do have my doubts.Just three 140 millimeter fanscooling four 2080Ti's and a Threadripper.Get subscribed to Short Circuitfor more fun unboxings like this.Actually I can't promise we'llhave too many like this one.This is really unique.But definitely, definitely more videos.\n"