Ignore the Fermion Red’s name: whatever OP3’s website may want you to think, this PC is pink. Not garishly bright pink, but rose-coloured at least. The only visible red comes from the LEDs on fans behind the front and top grills, all of which combines to give this PC the look of a devilish pig when viewed head-on.
It’s a bit larger than your average shuttle PC, giving room for a mini-ITX motherboard, a full-sized graphics card and multiple hard disks. It’s also ready to buy now, as it uses no recalled Sandy Bridge parts; instead, we’re back on to the existing quad-core Core i5-760 and 4GB of DDR3, which pushed it to a perfectly capable 2.06 in our benchmarks. That looks weak by Sandy Bridge standards, but it’s plenty for a small PC like this.
The graphics card is also last-generation, but the overclocked AMD Radeon HD 5770 managed a reasonable 40fps in our High quality Crysis test at 1,920 x 1,080. Upping that to Very High quality dropped the average to 25fps, but with a few tweaks you’ll be gaming on a big TV without a hitch, and older games will be fine.
The other interesting component in the Fermion Red is the 60GB OCZ SSD that complements the 1.5TB hard disk and Blu-ray drive. Windows feels responsive in use, and boots in 65 seconds. It’s a combination we’re seeing more and more of as SSD prices continue to fall. Add in a pair of USB 3 ports on the front of the case and two more on the rear, along with optical S/PDIF, DisplayPort and all the usual suspects, and you have a fine core specification.
The OP3 Fermion Red’s big problem is that colourful Lian Li chassis. It’s not the pink that bothers us – we’re in touch with our feminine side – but the poor decisions Lian Li has made with the design. There’s an awful lot crammed inside, but none of it seems to be in the most logical place.
Warranty | |
---|---|
Warranty | 3 yr return to base |
Basic specifications | |
Total hard disk capacity | 1,560GB |
RAM capacity | 4.00GB |
Processor | |
CPU family | Intel Core i5 |
CPU nominal frequency | 2.80GHz |
HSF (heatsink-fan) | Akasa Blue Led Copper |
Motherboard | |
Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 |
Wired adapter speed | 1,000Mbits/sec |
Memory | |
Memory type | DDR3 |
Graphics card | |
Graphics card | Gigabyte GV-R577SO-1GD |
3D performance setting | Low |
Graphics chipset | AMD Radeon HD 5770 |
DVI-I outputs | 2 |
HDMI outputs | 1 |
DisplayPort outputs | 1 |
Number of graphics cards | 1 |
Hard disk | |
Hard disk | OCZ 2.5 SSD 60GB VERTEX 2E |
Capacity | 60GB |
Hard disk 2 make and model | Western Digital Caviar Green |
Hard disk 2 nominal capacity | 1,500GB |
Drives | |
Optical drive | DVD writer |
Case | |
Chassis | Lian Li PC-Q08B Red |
Case format | Mini ITX |
Power supply | |
Power supply | OCZ MODXSTREAM PRO |
Power supply rating | 500W |
Rear ports | |
USB ports (downstream) | 2 |
eSATA ports | 1 |
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports | 1 |
Front ports | |
Front panel USB ports | 2 |
Operating system and software | |
OS family | Windows 7 |
Performance tests | |
Overall application benchmark score | 2.06 |
Office application benchmark score | 1.75 |
2D graphics application benchmark score | 2.17 |
Encoding application benchmark score | 1.73 |
Multitasking application benchmark score | 2.58 |
3D performance (crysis) low settings | 140fps |
3D performance setting | Low |
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