We've come to expect Ouiet PC to submit
something a little different to our PC group tests, and the Serenity Z77 Gamer
is no exception.
Serenity and gaming may not be concepts
you'd expect to find together, but even hardcore gamers spend some of their
time enjoying more peaceful activities. This system's low-noise design will be
appreciated when you aren't busy blowing up stuff.
Quiet
PC Serenity Z77 Gamer
The system is still overclocked (it is a
gaming PC, after all): Quiet PC has pushed the 3.4GHz Core i5-3570K to a modest
4.2GHz. Ivy Bridge processors quickly heat up as they’re fed extra voltage, so
the slower overclock means less cooling is required than with competing
systems. The Gelid Tranquillo cooler is very quiet in use.
The Dark Force system case is also made by
Gelid. It incorporates a pair of ultra-quiet fans, with room for up to eight.
There's also intelligent cable management; combined with the modular cabling of
the PSU, the case interior is kept very tidy, with good airflow.
The graphics card is another quiet model.
The MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin Frozr ll/OC uses a pair of cooling fans and custom heat
pipes to allow faster operation than the standard GeForce GTX 560 Ti.
Although it's quieter than the GTX 680 and
670, it's nowhere near as fast. The Ouiet PC can cope with many games at 1080p,
but it won't run challenging titles above 60fps at their highest settings.
The $1804 price is lower than others here,
but you’ll need to supply your own monitor, keyboard, mouse, Blu-ray drive and,
most surprisingly, hard drive. The 128GB SSD will quickly fill up. The Gigabyte
motherboard adds support for dual-band 802.11n wireless and Bluetooth 4.0.
Quiet
PC Serenity Z77 Gamer
Verdict:
Quiet PC's Serenity Z77 Gamer is a well-built and quiet gaming machine. It
offers adequate performance in Windows and games, but it lags behind the
competition in this group test. You'll want to add a hard drive at the earliest
opportunity, since the 128GB SSD will quickly fill up.
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Information
Price: $1,804
Contact: quietpc.com
Ratings
Build: 8/10
Features: 6/10
Performance: 6/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
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Vibox Juggernaut XL
The Juggernaut XL, our first chart entry
from Vibox, created a promising first impression. We were already a fan of its
Cooler Master CM 690 II system case (although this 'Lite' version lacks a
top-mounted SATA dock), and this Ivy Bridge PC appears to be very well put
together. It takes full advantage of the internal cable management and makes
use of a Corsair Hydro H60 liquid cooler.
Vibox
Juggernaut XL
Vibox has overclocked the Intel Core
i5-3570K processor from 3.4GHz to 4.4GHz and teamed it with an Evga-branded
nVidia GeForce GTX 670 graphics card.
The Juggernaut failed to impress in
WorldBench 6; in real terms its 200-point score is very fast, but it matches
that of the Quiet PC - a system clocked at only 4.2GHz and with half the system
RAM.
Thankfully, its gaming frame rates were
much better in our tests. The Juggernaut XL easily kept up with the rest of the
pack.
Unlike some of the competition here, Vibox
supplies a 24in BenO G2420HDBL monitor. You also get a decent input devices in
the form of the Arctosa Black keyboard and Death Adder Re-Spawn mouse.
The Gigabyte motherboard offers fewer
goodies than the similar model selected by Quiet PC. Audio support is inferior,
while Wi-Fi is provided by a plug-in card.
Vibox
Juggernaut XL
Verdict:
Despite an excellent build quality and some superb gaming peripherals, the
Vibox Juggernaut XL is expensive in the face of its rivals - particularly when
you consider its lower application performance and less versatile motherboard.
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Information
Price: $2,352
Ratings
Build: 8/10
Features: 8/10
Performance: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
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