Review: Chillblast Fusion Dimension – One of the Best High-End Machines
The advent of 3D has been hugely hyped, but it’s not yet used off. That is evidenced by the paltry number of 3D-enabled devices that have arrived within the Computer Pro Labs, with Chillblast’s Fusion Dimension the first desktop we’ve noticed to include the technologies.
Part with the problem has been the lack of suitable video games and mature drivers however it looks to be lastly settling down if this system is something to go by. It utilizes Nvidia’s 3DVision system, and once we loaded up Contact of Duty: Black Ops, Just Cause 2 and also the racing title GRiD they seemed excellent on the Asus monitor.
It helps the display provides good common quality to go using the 120MHz refresh price required for 3D. Colours had been vibrant and vivid, blacks deep, and detail sharp, and there was small signal of backlight bleed. We were happy to see a totally adjustable stand also.
The Chillblast’s other stand-out feature is, unquestionably, its chassis – a Silverstone FT02. Its matte black and glossy red end and clear curves make it 1 of probably the most visually striking enclosures we’ve noticed, and build high quality is merely excellent.
Pop open the aspect panel – launched by a pair of thumbscrews along the top edge – and a rather uncommon layout is uncovered. The motherboard is orientated vertically, rather than horizontally, with its backplate available via a detachable mesh cover at the leading of the situation. It’s a helpful method that provides simpler access towards the system’s ports and sockets than on a standard case – and beneath that panel are two USB three ports, six USB 2 ports and two eSATA sockets alongside FireWire, PS/2 and more.
To keep issues cool, a trio of 200mm followers occupies the bottom of the chassis, with a further single 120mm fan in the top, but despite all this, the Chillblast remained impressively quiet all through our exams. When idling, the Fusion Dimension was barely audible, and also the machine barely got louder during our tension tests. It’s significantly quieter than most of the expensive systems we’ve seen recently.
For upgrades, meanwhile, there are pairs of PCI Express x16 and x1 sockets lying totally free alongside 4 easy-access tough disk bays, and Chillblast has utilised the FT02’s motherboard tray to hide most of the system’s cables. It is not quite perfect, however, having a DIMM socket blocked by a cumbersome CPU cooler and the SATA 6Gb/sec ports difficult to access due to the motherboard’s orientation.
As befits a monster Computer such as this, the graphics card is really a little bit of a beast. Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580 gives the Fusion Dimension sufficient grunt to gain 56fps in our 1,920 x 1,080 Extremely High quality Crysis test, trumping the 36fps with the Yoyotech XDNA 760.
Certainly, it’s only beaten by the Wired2Fire Hellspawn Xtreme, a method outfitted with two AMD Radeon Hd 6850 cards. And the processor – an Intel Core i7-950 overclocked from three.07GHz to 4GHz – impressed us also, with an excellent benchmark score of 2.75, although here each the Yoyotech and the Wired2Fire beat it to the punch.
All this is backed up by a generous 6GB of DDR3 RAM, a Blu-ray combo drive and a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 tough disk, with the working system installed on an 80GB Corsair SSD. And as for extras, there is small to criticise, with Creative’s A500 five.1 speakers, a Razer keyboard with backlit keys, along with a Razer mouse – all good options.
Actually there is little wrong with this particular stunning machine. It’s distinctive, clever and tough chassis offers a superb basis, the components give blistering efficiency, and the peripherals are amongst the best we’ve noticed. The inclusion of 3D might not be to everyone’s taste (and it bumps up the price noticeably), but you can purchase it with a regular 24in and no 3DVision and reduce £169 in the price.
The advent of 3D has been hugely hyped, but it’s not yet used off. That is evidenced by the paltry number of 3D-enabled devices that have arrived within the Computer Pro Labs, with Chillblast’s Fusion Dimension the first desktop we’ve noticed to include the technologies.
Part with the problem has been the lack of suitable video games and mature drivers however it looks to be lastly settling down if this system is something to go by. It utilizes Nvidia’s 3DVision system, and once we loaded up Contact of Duty: Black Ops, Just Cause 2 and also the racing title GRiD they seemed excellent on the Asus monitor.
It helps the display provides good common quality to go using the 120MHz refresh price required for 3D. Colours had been vibrant and vivid, blacks deep, and detail sharp, and there was small signal of backlight bleed. We were happy to see a totally adjustable stand also.
The Chillblast’s other stand-out feature is, unquestionably, its chassis – a Silverstone FT02. Its matte black and glossy red end and clear curves make it 1 of probably the most visually striking enclosures we’ve noticed, and build high quality is merely excellent.
Pop open the aspect panel – launched by a pair of thumbscrews along the top edge – and a rather uncommon layout is uncovered. The motherboard is orientated vertically, rather than horizontally, with its backplate available via a detachable mesh cover at the leading of the situation. It’s a helpful method that provides simpler access towards the system’s ports and sockets than on a standard case – and beneath that panel are two USB three ports, six USB 2 ports and two eSATA sockets alongside FireWire, PS/2 and more.
To keep issues cool, a trio of 200mm followers occupies the bottom of the chassis, with a further single 120mm fan in the top, but despite all this, the Chillblast remained impressively quiet all through our exams. When idling, the Fusion Dimension was barely audible, and also the machine barely got louder during our tension tests. It’s significantly quieter than most of the expensive systems we’ve seen recently.
For upgrades, meanwhile, there are pairs of PCI Express x16 and x1 sockets lying totally free alongside 4 easy-access tough disk bays, and Chillblast has utilised the FT02’s motherboard tray to hide most of the system’s cables. It is not quite perfect, however, having a DIMM socket blocked by a cumbersome CPU cooler and the SATA 6Gb/sec ports difficult to access due to the motherboard’s orientation.
As befits a monster Computer such as this, the graphics card is really a little bit of a beast. Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 580 gives the Fusion Dimension sufficient grunt to gain 56fps in our 1,920 x 1,080 Extremely High quality Crysis test, trumping the 36fps with the Yoyotech XDNA 760.
Certainly, it’s only beaten by the Wired2Fire Hellspawn Xtreme, a method outfitted with two AMD Radeon Hd 6850 cards. And the processor – an Intel Core i7-950 overclocked from three.07GHz to 4GHz – impressed us also, with an excellent benchmark score of 2.75, although here each the Yoyotech and the Wired2Fire beat it to the punch.
All this is backed up by a generous 6GB of DDR3 RAM, a Blu-ray combo drive and a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 tough disk, with the working system installed on an 80GB Corsair SSD. And as for extras, there is small to criticise, with Creative’s A500 five.1 speakers, a Razer keyboard with backlit keys, along with a Razer mouse – all good options.
Actually there is little wrong with this particular stunning machine. It’s distinctive, clever and tough chassis offers a superb basis, the components give blistering efficiency, and the peripherals are amongst the best we’ve noticed. The inclusion of 3D might not be to everyone’s taste (and it bumps up the price noticeably), but you can purchase it with a regular 24in and no 3DVision and reduce £169 in the price.
