Month: July 2022

A review of the Ultra 5 Dragon Edition from CyberPower, a gaming PC which combines great performance with consistent design and is also good value for money.

The Cyberpower Ultra 5 Dragon Edition is a technology showcase, not only for AMD, but also for MSI. Core components include an AMD CPU, in the form of the 3.5GHz quad core Ryzen 1500X, a MSI B350 Tomahawk motherboard and an MSI branded AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics card.

To top it all off, the whole system is finished in AMD’s signature red and black and then branded with a prominent MSI logo on the front. With a component selection like this, a very high degree of compatibility between components and drivers is assured, although you’re free to mix it up a little via the many customisation options available online.

CYBERPOWER ULTRA 5 DRAGON EDITION REVIEW: PRICE
You can buy the Ultra 5 Dragon Edition from Cyberpower’s website for £1059.60, which also includes delivery. A years’ interest free finance is also available.

The PC was designed to come in just under the £1,000 price point, but fluctuations in component prices mean it’s a little more expensive now.

If you’re flexible on the price, you can click the ‘Customise’ button to make any changes you wish. Some additions will make only a very small difference to the price, but may make a major difference to the user experience as we explain below.

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The Shuttle SZ270R8 Mini PC is an ultra-compact gaming PC you can put anywhere. Despite its small size, it remains surprisingly upgradable and packs a full-size high-performance graphics card. Here’s our review.

Shuttle has been making tiny desktop PC barebones systems for years. You simply add a processor, memory, a hard drive and a graphics card, if you need to. But while you can still do this, you can also buy a fully built system from iCubes in the UK.

SHUTTLE SZ270R8: PRICE
As reviewed, the Shuttle SZ270 R8 Mini PC costs £1,579.25 from iCubes. Alternatively, you can configure it on iCubes’ website with a variety of processors ranging from a Celeron G3950 up to a Core i7 7700K. There are also many storage options, allowing for up to four drives including NVMe support. You can also buy the barebone PC on its own for £320.72 and build a system with your own components.

Interestingly the price changes depending on how soon you want to receive your PC. The default option will see it built in seven to ten working days, but you can reduce this to five working days for an additional £37.52 or three working days for £56.29 extra.

SHUTTLE SZ270R8: DESIGN AND BUILD
Unlike the majority of desktop PCs constructed from carefully selected off-the-shelf components from any number of manufacturers, this mini PC is built around Shuttle’s XPC Cube Barebone system SZ270R8.

This comprises a 14.2 litre case containing a pre-installed motherboard, cooling system and power supply to which a processor, RAM, storage and other components can then be added. It’s around one-third the size of a typical gaming PC.

As its name suggests, the case is roughly cubic in form and has a minimalist design featuring a black brushed aluminium exterior with just a small silver power switch and a pair of tiny indicator LEDs on show. There are no external drive bays present, so you won’t be installing a DVD or Blu-ray drive in this PC.

A pair of front-facing USB 3.0 ports is concealed behind a small hinged flap alongside a pair of analogue audio jacks.

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The best and most powerful iMac ever assembled is an olive branch for creative professionals, but total and utter overkill for the consumer market. Reviewing it on balance proved tough.

Let’s face it. Just like when the iPhone 5 dropped, you lust after the iMac Pro because it is Space Grey. That phone was a substantial but reasonable upgrade – the same cannot be said for the iMac Pro.

This is a phenomenally powerful machine, one that far outstrips the needs of all but a select few users. It is the first Apple ‘Pro’ product that really will only be purchased by professionals with the need for its high-end internals.

Available with an already-insane eight cores up to an almost incomprehensible 18, this is the Mac upgrade the professional world has been clamouring for – except we probably all though it’d be in the form of a new Mac Pro, expected this year.

Instead, a brand new Apple product line is born in the iMac Pro. But do you have five grand spare?

The iMac costs from £4,899 in the UK. This price gets you the base model with a configurable 32GB RAM, 1TB storage and the 8-core Intel Xeon W processor. In the US, prices start at $4,999.

Apple allows you to configure at point of purchase, and the fully specced-out iMac Pro will set you back a touch over £13,000. Yes, we put the comma in the right place.

As you have already balked at, this is a lot. We don’t normally review such expensive computers but, you know, it’s Apple and this is an important product in its history.

The model we had for review was the £9,188 version, with 3GHz 10-core Xeon processor, 2TB storage, 128GB RAM and Radeon Pro Vega 64 graphics with 16GB memory plus the Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Trackpad 2 in that alluring Space Grey.

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Shadow’s new cloud PC subscription could make expensive upgrades a thing of the past, letting you rent access to a top-spec gaming rig in the cloud – and play on it from just about any PC, Mac, tablet, or smartphone. We’ve tested Shadow out, and here’s what we think so far.

How would you like to play the latest AAA games on max settings, wherever you are, without spending hundreds on a console – or thousands on a high-spec PC? That’s exactly what Shadow, the first project from French startup Blade, claims to offer.

In brief, the new subscription service lets you rent a high-spec PC remotely, which you can then access from any PC, Mac, tablet, or phone – or the optional extra Shadow box. You can use that PC to play any of your own PC games – or just, y’know, use it as a PC. It’s up to you.

We got the chance to test Shadow out in a briefing ahead of the service’s UK launch, and here’s what we thought. We’re also running a competition to give away three free months of the service – head here to enter to win Shadow for yourself.

Shadow: Price and availability
Shadow first launched in France in 2017, picking up more than 15,000 subscribers by the end of the year. The company is now expanding rapidly to other markets.

The UK is first, with a full launch on 26 January. The US is coming later, thanks to the need to build local data centres, but a beta is beginning in California from 15 February, with plans to expand across the continent by the summer.

As for cost, make no mistake, this isn’t cheap – but it’s still a lot less than buying your own high-spec machine. The cheapest subscription is £26.95 per month for a one-year commitment, with the price rising to £32.95/month for three months, and £39.95 for one month at a time. You can sign up directly from the company’s website.

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The PC Specialist Vanquish Goliath Gaming PC is a great-looking mid-range gaming PC with plenty of additional performance for non-gaming tasks, but is this pre-configured system the best way to spend your money? Find out in our review.

The PC Specialist Vanquish Goliath combines Intel’s latest processor technology with solid gaming performance in a high-quality, yet tastefully understated, system case featuring extensive RGB (full colour) illumination.

It comes with a high-end Intel 8th-gen ‘Coffee Lake’ processor, coupled with an Nvidia GTX 1070 installed in an Asus Gaming motherboard and is capable of delivering Ultra-quality gaming at 60fps in 1080p and beyond, so it’s ideal for playing today’s demanding AAA games.

PC Specialist Vanquish Goliath: Price
You can buy the Vanquish Goliath from eBuyer for £1479.88, which also includes delivery. As an eBuyer special, the Vanquish Goliath – which doesn’t appear on PC Specialist’s website – is pre-configured and ready to ship.

This means you don’t get to customise the machine by picking and choosing individual components as you would when purchasing directly from the manufacturer.

Design & build
The Vanquish Goliath is constructed in an In Win 101 system case featuring clean, minimalist lines and a full-width tinted tempered glass panel forming the entirety of the left side of the case.

The front, however, is left entirely blank giving it a tidy, no-nonsense appearance – and no room for any external drive bays or optical drives. It also features a translucent tab illuminated in red and bearing the In Win logo, beneath which sits a rather well-concealed power switch.

The most striking feature of the case has to be that huge glass side panel which is perfect for showing off the PC’s various self-illuminating internal components, to which PC Specialist has added two 50cm user-controllable RGB LED lighting strips.

Access to the inside is quick and entirely tool-free thanks to In Win’s simple fastening system which replaces tiresome screws with simple plastic latches.

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Acer’s Predator Orion 9000 is one of the most extreme pre-built gaming PCs you can buy, but is it worth the money? Here’s our Acer Predator P9000 review.

Announced in the middle of last year, but only now becoming available to buy in the UK. Acer’s Predator Orion 9000 made headlines thanks to its eye-catching design coupled with ultra-high-end components including processors with up to eighteen cores.

You can buy the Predator Orion 9000 directly from Acer’s website (currently on a waiting list). There are two models available, starting from £2,999 for the 6-core version and rising to a whopping £4,999 for the ten-core version with dual graphics cards.

The Acer Predator Orion 9000 is a huge, imposing beast of a PC both inside and out. Housed in Acer’s ‘monolithic’ custom-designed system case, the Orion 9000 features an angular space-age design with customisable RGB lighting, easily removable side panels and plenty of space inside.

It’s so big and heavy that Acer has decided to fit it with a pair of wheels at the rear so you can lug it around behind you like a luggage trolley. It’s also fitted with two sturdy handles at the top to make it easier and safer to lift.

At the front, there’s a handy pull-out bar purpose-built as a place to hang your gaming headphones. Acer has also thrown in a DVD RAM drive for good measure.

As you’d expect from a PC at this price point, the build quality is excellent, and because it’s designed entirely by Acer rather than built from off-the-shelf components, everything fits together perfectly, including the Predator Orion 9000’s custom-designed Icetunnel 2.0 cooling system which forms an integral part of the case.

Icetunnel 2.0 maintains four distinct thermal zones within the case, separating off the power supply from the GPU, CPU and storage areas, each of which is delivered its own carefully controlled share of cool air.

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The Overclockers UK Radiance RZ is a well-balanced gaming PC that does a great job of showing off Asus components, with a top-tier motherboard, overclocked GTX 1060, AMD Ryzen 5 and plenty of RGB LEDs. Find our more in our full review.

The latest machine from Overclockers UK represents the first salvo in a partnership between the Staffordshire-based firm and Asus – and that means you get loads of good tech, but a hefty weight of expectation because of each company’s respective reputations. Find out the result in our full Radiance RZ review.

Radiance RZ: Price and availability
The Radiance RZ costs £1,499 from Overclockers UK, and it includes an Asus ROG Cerberus gaming mouse and mechanical keyboard. It’s also covered by the standard Overclockers UK warranty, which offers three years of collect-and-return and labour coverage.

As usual, the specification can be altered. You can pick from beefier processors, meatier graphics cards, alternative storage options and additional components like sound cards and Wi-Fi modules.

For a gaming PC, the price of £1,499 won’t break the bank, which bodes well for this mid-range gaming desktop – but it also brings the Radiance into a particularly busy area of the market.

The Acer Predator Orion 9000, for example, is a whopping £2,999. See more options in our best gaming PC chart.

Radiance RZ: Design and build
The Asus influence can be seen as soon as the chassis is heaved from its box. The NZXT Noctis is a ROG-branded case (republic of gamers) that comes in an exclusive shade of gunmetal grey and with Asus logos on its side panel.

The grey finish looks great, and the Noctis has eye-catching design elements. The front panel mixes angled panels of plastic with dark mesh that allows three 120mm fans to pull air into the case. At the top you get pairs of USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports alongside more angled plastic and mesh, and the side panel provides a plastic window. Every material used throughout is sturdy.

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The Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut 2080 is pricier than the competition, but it justifies the extra cost with a high-quality overclocked CPU, faster gaming speeds and good components elsewhere. That means you’ll be able to handle games and productivity software with more pace and versatility – and inside a case that’s smart, eye-catching and well-built.

The Chillblast Fusion Juggernaut 2080 has a name that suggests computing dominance – but, pleasingly, a price that sees this machine fall comfortably into the gaming market.

Instead of breaking the bank, this machine has a specification that may break benchmarks. Its new Core i5 processor has a hefty overclock, and it’s packing an overclocked version of one of Nvidia’s latest graphics cards.

Price & Availability
This machine will set you back £2,049 from Chillblast. That’s around £500 more than the recent Overclockers UK Radiance RZ, and it’s also a little pricier than the Yoyotech BlackBox SP, which weighed in at £1,649.

The Yoyotech Warbird i7S is another option if an RTX 2070 will suit.

As usual with Chillblast, it’s possible to customise this machine if you need to its components.

Beefier Core i5 and Core i7 chips are available. The graphics can be upgraded to an RTX 2080 Ti, and the memory and storage can also be given a boost. There are sound cards, power supply and cooling tweaks available, and dozens of different cases. You can even choose different thermal paste, better cable management or an expedited build time.

There are hundreds of different configurations available if you want to change an aspect of the Juggernaut’s specification. That’s good, but bear in mind that the specification we’ve reviewed here is the most affordable version of this rig – so you can’t cut back in any department to save some cash.

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The Yoyotech’s mighty Core i7 CPU delivers enough power to handle virtually any task, and its RTX 2070 is a capable graphics card that’ll run anything bar some games at 4K. We review the Warbird i7S, available via GAME.

The Warbird i7S may have a Yoyotech logo, but this machine isn’t actually available to buy direct from the Basingstoke-based builders. If you want to get your hands on this PC, you’ll have to head to high-street retailer GAME.

The Warbird is one of ten machines that are now available from the firm – one of the UK’s most recognisable gaming retailers.

Price & Availability
The Warbird i7S costs £1,899, and it can’t be customised when buying from the GAME website. If you do want to tweak specifications before you buy, you’re better off going to Yoyotech directly and getting a different machine.

This machine sits in the middle of Game’s Yoyotech range. It’s possible to spend under £1,500 on the Warbird i5 Ultra with its older Core i5 and last-generation Nvidia GPUs – that still offer plenty of power. Also check out the Overclockers Radiance RZ at the same price.

Alternatively, you could spend £2,500 on the Yoyotech Warbird X2 with an RTX 2080 graphics card and a Core i9-9900K processor – or £4,500 on a monstrous PUBG-themed build that includes limited-edition components and incredible water-cooled design.

Check out our chart of the best gaming PCs.

Design & Build
It’s easy to be suspicious about the Warbird i7S – after all, PCs from big-brand retailers don’t have the best reputation.

Haul the Yoyotech from its box, though, and worries disappear. The NZXT H500 case is a sensible and welcome choice – it’s a popular option for mid-range builds, and it mixes good looks with solid strength and features.

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The Shadow Ghost could be our first look at the PC gaming setup of the future. Find out why in our review.

Gaming on a PC is arguably the best way to enjoy games; depending on the hardware, PC games usually run at higher frame rates and resolutions and boast higher-quality textures than console counterparts. The issue is that, traditionally, gaming PCs are very expensive, with some of the most powerful gaming PCs on the market costing well over £1000/$1000 – not affordable for the average gamer.

But thanks to advances in cloud technology and internet infrastructure, a new kind of gaming experience is emerging; cloud-based gaming. The highlight is that you don’t have to slam down hundreds to get access to a high-end gaming rig – instead you can buy a budget-friendly box (called the Shadow Ghost) and pay a monthly subscription to play your favourite PC games.

Intrigued? You should be, because the Shadow Ghost (and Shadow streaming service in general) has the potential to change the way that we game. Find out why in our Shadow Ghost review.

Pricing and availability
Unlike with a traditional gaming PC, there’s not just an up-front cost for the Shadow Ghost – you’ll have to pay for the Shadow Ghost, and then pay for the monthly cloud gaming PC subscription. The Shadow Ghost costs £109.95 in the UK and $139.95 in the US, and then either £26.95/$29.95pcm with a 12-month contract or £29.95/$34.95pcm on a rolling contract. If you’re interested, simply head over to the Shadow website to find out more.

That may seem expensive on the surface but compared to a decent gaming PC that can cost upwards of £1000 and will need to be upgraded every few years, the Shadow Ghost is a cheaper and more convenient option for those with high-speed internet connectivity.

You don’t even need the Shadow Ghost if you’ve already got a PC or Mac, as you can download the Windows and Mac app and access your cloud PC that way. There are options available, you just need to figure out which is best for you.

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