This powerful PC has a wonderful
range of hardware, fast boot speed and excellent general performance but the
graphics card is not the best that you will find in systems at this price.
Price: $1,204
Ranking: 5/5
PC
Specialist Vanquish 650Ti
PC Specialist’s first Windows 8 PC has an
updated hardware with an Intel Core i5-3570K processor that is overclocked to 4.4GHz,
the Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti graphics card and an SSD hard disc to get a
superfast speed.
It looks chic on the outside thanks to
elegant blue details on the front of the Cooler Master case. On the inside, it
is not that attractive with a plain layer of grey metal and also lacks
interesting details which can be found in more expensive cases. However, it is
well built and dust proofing, though there’s a wide mesh on the side panel. The
sound proofing of the case is not effective, but it helps reduce the grumble of
the CPU cooler.
The 450W power supply is a common model, good
for the current components of the PC, but we are not going to trust its ability
to provide power for any significant graphics card upgrade. The PC has a 128GB SSD
which ensures the fast boot speed and a 1TB hard disc to have more storage.
There is also a Blu-ray drive and a multi-format memory card reader that can
handle all the popular formats.
Even with many storage options like that,
there is plenty of room for expansion inside the case, with three vacant 3½-inch
drive bays and two vacant 5¼-inch drive bays. On the motherboard, although one SATA2
port and two SATA3 ports are all used, there are still three vacant SATA2 ports.
There are also three empty PCI slots, as well as an accessible PCI-E x1 slot (the
other is blocked by the graphics card) and one spare PCI-E x16 slot which runs
at x4 speed.
Two of the four memory slots of the Asus
P8Z77-V LX motherboard are both in use, each of which has one 4GB module
running at 1600MHz. This is pretty much for Windows 8 and the motherboard can
use up to 32GB if you ever need more. At the back of the motherboard, you can
find two USB3 ports, four USB ports, one PS/2 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, an
optical S/PDIF for digital audio and 5.1 analogue audio outputs.
Two
of the four memory slots of the Asus P8Z77-V LX motherboard are both in use,
each of which has one 4GB module running at 1600MHz.
The graphics card, Nvidia GeForce GTX 650
Ti with 2GB of memory, has two DVI ports and two HDMI ports. It achieved a
frame rate of 24.5fps in Crysis 2 at 1920x1080 Ultra quality a little shaky, but
can easily become a smooth gaming experience with a few tweaks in the settings
of the game. In our benchmark tests, which examined the image adjustment, video
encoding and multi-tasking power, the PC’s overclocked processor helped it gain
an impressive overall score of 141, turning it into one of the fastest PCs
we’ve ever seen.
The 23.6-inch AOC E2450SWDA monitor with a
matte surface has a spectacular image quality with natural and even colors. The
PC is accompanied with the usual Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse set. They
are practical and comfortable to use, but have nothing special to mention.
You
can find two USB3 ports, four USB ports, one PS/2 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, an
optical S/PDIF for digital audio and 5.1 analogue audio outputs.
PC Specialist Vanquish 650Ti is one of the
best PCs you can find at this price and competed fiercely for the award.
However, though it has a faster boot speed, its gaming performance can’t be
compared with that of Chillblast Fusion Blaze, which voted against it for the
Best Buy award.
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Basic
Specifications
·
Part Code: Vanquish 650Ti
·
Rating: 5/5
·
Processor: Intel Core i5-3570K
·
Processor external bus: 100MHz (DMI)
·
Processor multiplier: x44
·
Processor clock speed: 4.4GHz
·
Processor socket: LGA1155
·
Memory: 8
·
Memory type: PC3-12800
·
Maximum memory: 32GB
·
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V LX
·
Motherboard chipset: Intel Z77
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