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The Eclipse Discovery Z77i345R777 is built around a multiplier-locked Intel Core i5-3450 processor, which means it can’t be overclocked, but its dedicated AMD graphics and ample room for upgrades mean it’s a strong contender to be your next PC.
The Core i5-3450 runs at 3.1GHz. It’s a quad-core chip, with Turbo Boost pushing it to 3.5GHz under certain circumstances, but it doesn’t support Hyper-Threading so the four cores aren’t doubled within Windows. Paired with 8GB of RAM, it completed our multimedia benchmarks with an overall score of 110, which is fast enough for practically every desktop application.
Sadly, its AMD Radeon HD 7770 graphics card wasn’t quite as impressive in our gaming benchmarks. It managed a fairly smooth 40.6fps in Dirt3, but in Crysis 2 it could only produce a choppy 20.6fps. This means you must lower detail settings in order to play the latest games at maximum detail settings.
Eclipse builds the Discovery Z77i345R777 inside an EZ Cool chassis, which is built from a combination of steel and plastic. The mesh front panel helps increase airflow, and a transparent side panel lets you see the internal components. The few design flourishes include a downwards-facing blue LED that lets you see the front I/O panel, even if you’re working in the dark. Front-panel I/O includes four USB ports, as well as 3.5mm audio jacks for a microphone and a pair of headphones. One of the 5.25in bays is filled with a DVD optical drive, with two 5.25in and one 3.5in drive bay available for future upgrades.
The Asus P8Z77-V LX has more connectivity on the back of the case, with four USB ports, two faster USB3 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and one PS/2 port. There are also three 3.5mm audio jacks for a 5.1 surround sound system and a digital optical output. Finally, there are DVI, HDMI and VGA outputs in case you want to use the integrated GPU.
Inside, there’s a decent amount of room for expansion. Five of the six internal 3.5in drive bays are available for adding extra hard disks. Even though the processor is multiplier-locked, Eclipse has installed an enthusiast motherboard with four spare SATA ports, as well as three PCI slots, two PCI-E x1 and two PCI-E x16 slots. The dual-slot graphics card occupies one of the PCI-E x16 slots and obscures the second x1 slot, so you’ll have to remove it to add additional expansion cards.
Even with a stock clocked processor, we were surprised that Eclipse has only fitted one 120mm intake fan. It’s fitted to the side panel, rather than the front, and there’s no exhaust fitted to the rear. This leaves the stock Intel CPU cooler, as well as the PSU and graphics cards fans, to dissipate all the heat from within the case. Although we didn’t notice any serious overheating, there are five empty 120mm fan mounts in the front, rear, roof and side panel that we would give serious thought to filling.
You get a no-brand keyboard and mouse set, but Eclipse has bundled a high-quality BenQ 22in LCD monitor. It’s a little smaller than the competition, but the GL2240 has a Full HD panel and a matt display finish that helps diffuse light reflections. Connectivity is limited to DVI and VGA inputs, and the internal speakers are basic, but it’s useful to have an option other than headphones if you don’t already own a speaker system.
At £596, the Discovery Z77i345R777 is around £50-£100 less expensive than similarly-powerful PCs. You lose the ability to overclock, but the Ivy Bridge processor is still fast enough for almost every task and the graphics card is powerful too. If you need a low-cost PC, this is an excellent choice.
