At $1,700, the Arbico Elite 7768 OCX
appears to be a great-value gaming rig, but that’s before you factor in the
additional cost of a monitor, keyboard and mouse, and speakers or headphones.
At least this way you get to choose peripherals that suit your needs.
The PC comes with a 3.4GHz Intel Core i5-3570K
processor, which Arbico has overclocked to 4.4GHz. This modest increase allows
for a decent boost in performance, without the demand for an overly expensive
case and cooling system.
Tweakers
will appreciate the MSI Z77A-G45 motherboard
The Arbico’s 1TB Seagate hard drive is
complemented by a 120GB OCZ Vertex 4 SSD, which offers good read/write speeds.
Arbico has selected a CIT Jupiter system
case. It’s a snug fit for the many internal components, yet cable-management
features help keep things tidy. The CPU Is fitted with a twin-fan Xigmatek Gaia
cooler, and both storage drives are mounted in right-angle bays.
Arbico
Elite 7768 OCX
A generous 16GB of RAM Is supplied, along
with a Blu-ray reader and Creative X-Fi Xtreme sound card. The latter offers up
to 7.1 channel surround sound processing and support for OpenAL and EAX 4.0
gaming effects, as well as optical digital input and output connections. The
Creative card lacks the hardware acceleration of the more advanced Recon 3D
seen elsewhere, though.
Tweakers will appreciate the MSI Z77A-G45
motherboard. Its graphical UEFI is mirrored by its Windows-based counterpart,
which has an identical user interface. This board supports easy one-click
overclocking and nVidia SLI, should you want to add a second graphics card to
boost gaming framerates.
The supplied Gainward-branded nVidia
GeForce GTX 680 graphics card provides ample power for gaming, although this
particular version isn’t as fast as some of the factory-overclocked models seen
in other PCs in this group. In our tests this resulted in slightly less
impressive framerates than other PCs based on the GTX 680.
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Information
·
Price: $1,700
·
Contact: www.arbico.co.uk
·
Model: Elite 7768 OCX
·
Processor: 3.4GHz (OC @4.4GHz) Intel Core i5-3570K
·
CPU cooler: Xigmatek Gaia
·
Memory: 16GB DDR3 1,600MHz
·
Storage: 120GB OCZ Vertex 4 SSD + 1TB Seagate
HDD
·
Power supply: 600W Xilence
·
Motherboard: MSI Z77 A-G45
·
External USB ports: 4x USB 3.0, 8x USB 2.0
·
Display: Not supplied
·
Graphics card: Gainward nVidia GeForce GTX
680, 2GB VRAM
·
Sound: Creative XtremeAudio
·
Networking: Gigabit ethernet
·
Other ports: HDMI, 2x DVI, optical digital
input, audio ports
·
Case: CIT Jupiter Case
·
Keyboard & mouse: Not supplied
·
Optical drive: Samsung BD-ROM/DVD ± RW combo
·
Operating system: Windows 8
·
Extras: None
·
Case dimensions: 435x190x478mm
·
Warranty: 2-year return-to-base
Verdict
·
PCMark 7 score: 6,239
·
Hard Reset: 129, 123
·
Lost Planet 2: 88, 74
·
Stalker CoP: 233, 117
·
Alien vs Predator: 107, 58
·
Sniper Elite V2: 90, 22
·
Arbico’s base-unit-only system is available
with a low initial purchase price, and affords you full choice over the
monitor and gaming peripherals you want to use.
·
It delivers more than adequate performance,
but is outclassed by much of the more expensive and better-equipped
competition in this round-up.
·
Build: 3.5/5
·
Features: 2.5/5
·
Performance: 4.5/5
·
Value: 3.5/5
·
Overall: 3.5/5
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