Chillblast Fusion Elixir review

£599
Price when reviewed

While some PCs concentrate on specific aspects to the detriment of others, Chillblast has put together a very well-rounded machine – at least for the relatively modest price of £599.

We’re used to seeing Intel’s mid-range Core i5-2500K dominate the mid-range, but here it gets a boost from some hefty overclocking: a boost from 3.3GHz to 4.5GHz is enough to return a benchmark score of 1.1, enough to see to all but the toughest of applications and equal to the excellent Palicomp Phoenix i5 Destiny.

The graphics card, an Asus-branded Radeon HD 6850, is equally impressive thanks to a core that’s been overclocked from 775MHz to 790MHz. Its average of 36fps in our 1,920 x 1,080 Very High quality Crysis test means the Fusion Elixir means it’s got the grunt to play games at 1080p – and easily trumps the Palicomp, which included a weaker HD 5670.

Chillblast Fusion Elixir

The EZCool A200D chassis is a Chillblast favourite for budget machines, and it’s easy to see why. The meshed, chrome-effect design looks dearer than it is, and build quality is good. The luxury of a neat, painted interior and a motherboard tray is a rarity this month, and it helps create a PC that’s both tidy and aesthetically pleasing.

Upgrade room is generous, although not perfect. While there are two spare DIMMs, one of them is impeded by the CPU’s Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2 heatsink, and you won’t be able to easily add a second graphics card: the vacant PCI Express x16 slot runs at just x4 speed, and the EZCool power supply has no spare 6-pin power connectors, despite a healthy 650W rating.

Warranty

Warranty1 yr return to base

Basic specifications

Total hard disk capacity1,000GB
RAM capacity8.00GB

Processor

CPU familyIntel Core i5
CPU nominal frequency3.30GHz
CPU overclocked frequency4.50GHz
Processor socketLGA 1155
HSF (heatsink-fan)Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2

Motherboard

MotherboardAsus P8Z68-V LE
Motherboard chipsetIntel Z68
Conventional PCI slots free3
Conventional PCI slots total3
PCI-E x16 slots free1
PCI-E x16 slots total2
PCI-E x1 slots free1
PCI-E x1 slots total2
Internal SATA connectors4
Wired adapter speed1,000Mbits/sec

Memory

Memory typeDDR3
Memory sockets free2
Memory sockets total4

Graphics card

Graphics cardAMD Radeon HD 6850
Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards?no
3D performance settingLow
Graphics chipsetAMD Radeon HD 6850
Graphics card RAM1.00GB
DVI-I outputs2
HDMI outputs1
VGA (D-SUB) outputs0
DisplayPort outputs1
Number of graphics cards1

Hard disk

Hard diskHitachi DeskStar 7K1000.C
Capacity1.00TB
Hard disk usable capacity931GB
Internal disk interfaceSATA/300
Spindle speed7,200RPM
Cache size32MB

Drives

Optical driveSony Optiarc AD-5280S
Optical disc technologyDVD writer

Case

ChassisEZCool A200D
Case formatFull tower
Dimensions191 x 475 x 440mm (WDH)

Power supply

Power supplyEZCool JSP-650
Power supply rating650W

Free drive bays

Free front panel 5.25in bays3

Rear ports

USB ports (downstream)7
PS/2 mouse portyes
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports1
Modemno
3.5mm audio jacks8

Front ports

Front panel USB ports3
Front panel memory card readerno

Operating system and software

OS familyWindows 7

Noise and power

Idle power consumption102W
Peak power consumption357W

Performance tests

3D performance (crysis) low settings197fps
3D performance settingLow
Overall Real World Benchmark score1.10
Responsiveness score1.05
Media score1.14
Multitasking score1.10

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