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*** PLEASE NOTE: Due to the recent floods in Thailand, hard disk prices have doubled, and there is now a £60 surcharge on the Fusion Shadow, bringing its total price including delivery to £510. ***
We wouldn’t expect a £450 PC to include both a decent graphics card and a fast Intel Core i5-2500K processor, but Chillblast has done just that with the Fusion Shadow. The AMD Radeon HD 6670 graphics card looks rather toy-like with its cherry-coloured plastic casing, but it’s a significant improvement on Intel’s already good integrated graphics.
At a resolution of 1,920×1,080 with quality set to Ultra, we saw a frame rate of 21.9fps in Dirt 3. This isn’t quite fast enough for smooth play, but reducing the resolution to 1,280×720 and the quality to High boosted the score to a blistering 69.3fps. Its outputs include the usual DVI, VGA and HDMI ports at the back.
The Fusion Shadow’s Core i5-2500K processor is overclocked to 4.6GHz. It means that, despite its relatively low cost, this PC is among the fastest we’ve reviewed. Our test results bore this out with an overall score of 137. The chunky Arctic Cooling heat sink keeps the chip cool while emitting a low, unobtrusive hum. The case, although solidly made and well finished, does little to keep sound in or dust out, but noise from the CPU and case fans wasn’t loud enough to bother us.
Both the case and the Asus P8Z68-V LE motherboard allow for plenty of upgrades. There are three empty 51/4in bays and six spare 31/2in bays (two of which are external), along with four empty SATA ports. Two are of these SATA3: ideal for ultra-fast SSD storage. Chillblast has connected a DVD-RW drive and a 1TB hard disk to the remaining ports.
The graphics card blocks one of the motherboard’s PCI-E x1 slots, but one is still easily accessible, along with a second PCI-E x16 slot and two PCI slots. If you want a more powerful graphics card, you’ll have to use Molex power adaptors, as the unbranded 500W power supply lacks PCI-E power connectors. There are also two free memory slots – another two are occupied by twin 2GB modules.
At the front of the case, you’ll find a pair of USB ports alongside 3.5mm mic and headphone connectors. To the rear are another six USB ports – two of them USB3 – a PS/2 port for a keyboard or mouse that supports the older connection standard, Gigabit Ethernet, an optical S/PDIF output for digital audio and 3.5mm analogue connectors for 7.1 surround sound.
Chillblast bundles a fairly generic Cherry keyboard and mouse set. Both are easy to use without having to get used to any unusual layouts or design. We found the keyboard particularly good and comfortable for high-speed typing.
With masses of room to upgrade, excellent performance and – importantly – a generous two-year collect and return warranty, the Fusion Shadow is great value at £450. If you want a Blu-ray drive, Palicomp’s i5 Supreme is a worthy alternative, but the power of the Fusion Shadow’s graphics card gives Chillblast the edge in the battle for our coveted Best Buy award.
