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Palicomp’s Phoenix i5 Laser has a fairly boring Cooler Master Elite case that we’ve seen many times before. However, it’s what’s inside that counts. Fortunately, there’s an Intel Core i5-2500K processor, overclocked to a blistering 4.6GHz. The overall score in our benchmarks of 132 makes this one of the fastest PCs we’ve seen – not bad going for a £550 PC. Along with 4GB of RAM and a 1TB hard disk, the Phoenix i5 Laser can able to handle any application you care to throw at it.
To keep things cool, Palicomp has fitted a massive CPU heatsink and fan, along with a case fan at the rear and one behind the front panel to keep air flowing through the case. As a result, the Laser makes a bit more noise than PCs with a standard Intel cooler and no other fans, but it’s a low hum and not annoying.
While it’s not designed to play games – the i5-2500K’s integrated graphics chip barely managed to run our Dirt 3 test – the Laser has plenty of room inside the case for upgrades, with a multitude of drive bays and room for six expansion cards. If you move the hard disk to a different caddy, there’s room for even the longest of today’s graphics cards. The only issue is that the 450W power supply may not be able to handle the most power-hungry cards.
There are two free memory slots, which means if you want to add more memory you won’t have to replace the existing modules. The free card slots include two PCI slots and three PCI-E x1 slots, so you can add a variety of expansion cards, such as TV tuners, sound cards or extra ports. Externally, you get a total of eight USB ports, two of which support the faster USB3 standard.
Palicomp has saved a USB port by including a wireless keyboard and mouse set that has a single USB transceiver. The mouse has a nice rubberised top surface which aids grip, and its batteries give it a bit of weight, but the keyboard isn’t great and the page navigation keys are bunched up to save room. You also get a set of 2.1 speakers from Logitech, which will suffice for YouTube and the odd movie.
With a Blu-ray player and HDMI, optical S/PDIF and 7.1 surround audio ports, the Laser can double as a home cinema PC. Unfortunately, it’s paired with an AOC F22+ monitor. This may have a DVI input (and Palicomp includes a DVI cable in the box) but image quality is relatively poor. The backlight is dull and uneven and, as a result, colours lacked punch and the image looked washed-out.
This monitor lets the package down, but the Laser can be bought without the monitor for £485, leaving you with the freedom to choose your own, or use an existing one. As a bundle, it’s not as good value as the Dino PC Jurassic 2500, which is almost as fast and comes with an excellent 24in monitor. If you’re looking for a complete package, the Jurassic is the better choice.
