Eighteen months ago we reviewed the Chillblast Photo OC II, a PC that came with an overclocked quad-core CPU, 8GB of RAM and hard disks arranged in a RAID array, all designed with photographers in mind. It may have seemed a little over-specified then, but that seems positively tame by today’s enthusiast standards.
So Chillblast is back with the Photo OC III. As before, components have been chosen with performance computing and photo editing in mind, beginning with a 80GB Intel X-25M SSD that boots into Windows Vista Home Premium in a blistering 34 seconds.
There are practical benefits elsewhere, too, with intensive applications springing into life faster, and Vista feeling snappy and responsive at all times.
The rest of the rig is geared towards high performance computing. The Core i7-920 processor is a Chillblast favourite, here overclocked from 2.66GHz to a mighty 3.8GHz, and it returned a fantastic 2D benchmark score of 2.55 – a mere 0.03 points short of the current PC Pro record.
Those sick of waiting for Photoshop to load high-resolution images will be heartened by a massive 12GB of 1,333MHz DDR3 RAM, and plenty of standard storage has been provided alongside that SSD, in the form of two 1TB Hitachi Deskstar hard disks.
The ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card may be a mid-range part, but there’s plenty of power available for handling whole stacks of digital photographs: a score of 34fps in our 1,600 x 1,200 high-quality Crysis benchmark indicates the power available.
As usual, Chillblast’s meticulous attention to detail results in an exceptionally well-built PC. The Cooler Master Sileo chassis is a newcomer to the PC Pro Labs and makes an instant statement with its dramatic black façade.
Inside, the front, sides and bottom are all coated with sound-dampening foam, and the Intel stock CPU cooler has made way for a whisper-quiet Akasa Nero. The result is a PC that won’t even register when it’s tucked under or beside a desk – and is barely audible right up close.
Warranty | |
---|---|
Warranty | 2yr collect and return |
Basic specifications | |
Total hard disk capacity | 1,080 |
RAM capacity | 12.00GB |
Screen size | N/A |
Processor | |
CPU family | Intel Core i7 |
CPU nominal frequency | 2.66GHz |
CPU overclocked frequency | 3.80GHz |
Processor socket | LGA 1366 |
HSF (heatsink-fan) | Akasa Nero |
Motherboard | |
Motherboard | Asus P6T SE |
Motherboard chipset | Intel X58 |
Conventional PCI slots free | 2 |
Conventional PCI slots total | 2 |
PCI-E x16 slots free | 2 |
PCI-E x16 slots total | 3 |
PCI-E x8 slots free | 0 |
PCI-E x8 slots total | 0 |
PCI-E x4 slots free | 0 |
PCI-E x4 slots total | 0 |
PCI-E x1 slots free | 1 |
PCI-E x1 slots total | 1 |
Internal SATA connectors | 6 |
Internal SAS connectors | 0 |
Internal PATA connectors | 1 |
Internal floppy connectors | 1 |
Wired adapter speed | 1,000Mbits/sec |
Memory | |
Memory type | DDR3 |
Memory sockets free | 1 |
Memory sockets total | 4 |
Graphics card | |
Graphics card | ATI Radeon HD 4850 |
Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards? | no |
3D performance setting | High |
Graphics chipset | ATI Radeon HD 4850 |
Graphics card RAM | 512MB |
DVI-I outputs | 2 |
HDMI outputs | 0 |
VGA (D-SUB) outputs | 0 |
DisplayPort outputs | 0 |
Number of graphics cards | 1 |
Hard disk | |
Hard disk | Intel X25-M SSD |
Capacity | 80GB |
Hard disk usable capacity | 74GB |
Internal disk interface | SATA/300 |
Spindle speed | N/A |
Cache size | N/A |
Hard disk 2 make and model | Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B |
Hard disk 2 nominal capacity | 1,000GB |
Hard disk 2 formatted capacity | 931 |
Hard disk 2 spindle speed | 7,200RPM |
Hard disk 2 cache size | 16MB |
Hard disk 3 make and model | Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.B |
Hard disk 3 nominal capacity | 1,000GB |
Hard disk 4 make and model | N/A |
Hard disk 4 nominal capacity | N/A |
Drives | |
Optical drive | LG GGW-H20L |
Optical disc technology | Blu-ray writer |
Optical disk 2 make and model | N/A |
Optical disk 3 make and model | N/A |
Monitor | |
Monitor make and model | N/A |
Resolution screen horizontal | N/A |
Resolution screen vertical | N/A |
Resolution | N/A x N/A |
Pixel response time | N/A |
Contrast ratio | N/A |
Screen brightness | N/A |
DVI inputs | N/A |
HDMI inputs | N/A |
VGA inputs | N/A |
DisplayPort inputs | N/A |
Additional Peripherals | |
Speakers | N/A |
Speaker type | N/A |
Sound card | Realtek HD audio |
Case | |
Chassis | Cooler Master Sileo |
Case format | Full tower |
Dimensions | 200 x 480 x 437mm (WDH) |
Power supply | |
Power supply | OCZ GX5600 |
Power supply rating | 600W |
Free drive bays | |
Free front panel 5.25in bays | 4 |
Rear ports | |
USB ports (downstream) | 9 |
FireWire ports | 1 |
eSATA ports | 1 |
PS/2 mouse port | yes |
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports | 1 |
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 1 |
Modem | no |
3.5mm audio jacks | 6 |
Front ports | |
Front panel USB ports | 3 |
Front panel eSATA ports | 1 |
Front panel memory card reader | yes |
Mouse & Keyboard | |
Mouse and keyboard | N/A |
Operating system and software | |
OS family | Windows Vista |
Recovery method | Recovery disc |
Software supplied | N/A |
Noise and power | |
Idle power consumption | 147W |
Peak power consumption | 230W |
Performance tests | |
Overall application benchmark score | 2.55 |
Office application benchmark score | 2.16 |
2D graphics application benchmark score | 2.86 |
Encoding application benchmark score | 2.17 |
Multitasking application benchmark score | 3.03 |
3D performance (crysis) low settings | 34fps |
3D performance setting | High |
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