Yoyotech XDNA Platinum review

£2498
Price when reviewed

It takes a special kind of case to overshadow one of Intel’s latest, fastest processors, but Yoyotech’s debut X79 system manages it, with the monumental SilverStone Fortress FT02. It’s the enclosure Scan chose for its Labs-winning Ultimate PC a few months ago, and it’s a class act.

The clean, curved, machined aluminium ensures this PC is a bit of a looker, and build quality is beyond reproach. There’s no give at all in the side panels, windows or strengthening struts inside – bomb-proof is the phrase that immediately comes to mind.

Yoyotech XDNA Platinum

It isn’t all about looks, though; the chassis is also very practical. The motherboard is mounted at 90 degrees to the normal orientation with the backplane faceing skywards, giving easier access to all the ports. Inside, a cavity at the bottom of the case allows air to flow to a trio of 180mm fans for interior cooling.

The front of the SilverStone is given over to five vertically arranged hard disk slots and a trio of 5.25in bays, and the power supply hangs from the top at the rear. As a finishing touch, Yoyotech has installed a pair of white strip lights – one along the bottom, one attached to the side – illuminating the components through a side-window. This may sound garish, but it actually looks pretty good.

Internals

Inside, it’s an impeccable build, with chunky braided power cables lashed to the bottom of the case as they make their way to the graphics cards, and more cable ties employed to keep other leads out of the way. The motherboard tray is used to great effect in hiding cable mess, and the modular power supply also helps in this regard.

The system’s Asus P9X79 Pro motherboard offers two PCI Express x16 slots, but they’re of limited use as they’re limited to 8x speed, and are hidden beneath two chunky graphics cards with an SLI connector in the way. The SATA ports and the empty jumpers at the bottom of the motherboard are also obstructed by the sheer size of the graphics cards.

Yoyotech XDNA Platinum

There are, fortunately, no such problems with the four vacant DIMM slots, with the low-profile Intel watercooling unit keeping well out of harm’s way. Three of those vertical hard disk bays are free, too, and you don’t need tools to access their sturdy caddies; the trio of vacant 5.25in bays function similarly.

Performance

Beneath the Intel cooler, is one of Intel’s new CPUs – a Core i7-3930K. This seems to be the Sandy Bridge E chip of choice, as it’s around half the price of the i7-3960X while still offering top performance.

Its six cores have been overclocked from 3.2GHz to 4.4GHz in this case, and in the PC Pro Real World application benchmarks it scored 1.37. That’s about on a par with the Chillblast Fusion Photo OC IV, and as much horsepower as any PC needs.

Warranty

Warranty1 yr return to base

Basic specifications

Total hard disk capacity1,060GB
RAM capacity16.00GB

Processor

CPU familyIntel Core i7
CPU nominal frequency3.20GHz
CPU overclocked frequency4.40GHz
Processor socketLGA 2011
HSF (heatsink-fan)Intel water-cooling

Motherboard

MotherboardAsus P9X79 Pro
Motherboard chipsetIntel X79
PCI-E x16 slots free2
PCI-E x16 slots total4
Internal SATA connectors4
Wired adapter speed1,000Mbits/sec

Memory

Memory typeDDR3
Memory sockets free4
Memory sockets total8

Graphics card

Graphics cardNvidia GeForce GTX 580
Multiple SLI/CrossFire cards?yes
3D performance settingMedium
Graphics chipsetNvidia GeForce GTX 580
Graphics card RAM1.50GB
DVI-I outputs4
HDMI outputs2
VGA (D-SUB) outputs0
DisplayPort outputs2
Number of graphics cards2

Hard disk

Hard diskOCZ Agility 3 SSD
Capacity60GB
Hard disk usable capacity54GB
Internal disk interfaceSATA/600
Hard disk 2 make and modelSamsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ
Hard disk 2 nominal capacity1,000GB
Hard disk 2 formatted capacity931
Hard disk 2 spindle speed7,200RPM
Hard disk 2 cache size64MB

Drives

Optical disc technologyBlu-ray reader/DVD writer combo

Additional Peripherals

Sound cardRealtek HD Audio

Case

ChassisSilverStone Fortress FT02
Case formatFull tower
Dimensions212 x 616 x 497mm (WDH)

Power supply

Power supplyEnermax ERV850EWT
Power supply rating850W

Free drive bays

Free front panel 5.25in bays3

Rear ports

USB ports (downstream)8
eSATA ports2
PS/2 mouse portno
Electrical S/PDIF audio ports0
Optical S/PDIF audio output ports1
Modemno
3.5mm audio jacks8

Front ports

Front panel USB ports2
Front panel memory card readerno

Operating system and software

OS familyWindows 7

Noise and power

Idle power consumption238W
Peak power consumption942W

Performance tests

3D performance (crysis) low settings129fps
3D performance settingMedium
Overall Real World Benchmark score1.37
Responsiveness score1.08
Media score1.53
Multitasking score1.49

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