VERDICT A plush PC that values versatility over the very best performance.
SHINY AND EXPENSIVE, the Vulcan Elite S is a reminder of what PC luxury can look like without tipping into outright ridiculousness. Everything save for the Wi-Fi antenna is housed inside an enormous Cooler Master MasterCase H500M chassis, with tempered glass side panels and twin 200mm intake fans, and the whole system is dripping with RGB LEDs, from the fans and motherboard to the RAM sticks and AIO watercooler pump.
The key internals are all high end: there’s a hexa-core Intel Core i7-8700K processor, an 8GB GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics card and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. Even if it’s not all quite top of the range – the CPU is only running at stock speeds, and the GTX 1070 Ti is third in the GeForce 10-series hierarchy – we had high hopes for performance.
These were realised about as well as they could have been, especially in the CPU-heavy 4K benchmarks. The Core i7-8700K may not come overclocked but the image test score of 163 it produced is seriously high, a testament to the CPU’s single-core muscle. Scores of 236 in the video test and 276 in the multitasking test, resulting in an overall score of 244, are also enough for occasional media editing.
CARD SHARK
Denne historien er fra November 2018-utgaven av Computer Shopper.
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Denne historien er fra November 2018-utgaven av Computer Shopper.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
XIAOMI Mi Mix 3 5G
VERDICT This is the most affordable of the first 5G smartphones, but even with great hardware, the service isn’t yet worth the expense
RHA T20 Wireless
VERDICT They’re not cheap, but these well-designed earphones deliver superb sound quality
Protect And Preserve
Data might be A Valuable Commodity, But It’s Remarkably Easy To Lose Or For Others To Get Their Hands On. Mike Bedford Provides Guidance On How To Preserve, Recover And Destroy Data, And Looks At The Technologies Involved
NZXT H510i
VERDICT Some qualities shine through, but this is an underwhelming case from a maker we know can do better
Kicking Off A New Era Of Football?
With the new football season well and truly under way, David Crookes talks to Jon Hare about reviving the spirit of Sensible Soccer with a new, more sociable offering that he hopes will avoid an own goal
NAIM Mu-so 2
VERDICT A luxurious and fine-sounding slab of metal, but for most homes it won’t be worth the expense
Motorola One Vision
VERDICT The One Vision comes close to being a brilliant mishmash of tech – shame about the camera
JBL Xtreme 2
VERDICT With top-quality sound and a versatile design, this is a great – if expensive – rugged Bluetooth speaker
HUAWEI MateBook 13
VERDICT What the MateBook 13 lacks in flourish, it makes up for in value and performance
GIGABYTE X570 Aorus Master
VERDICT A loaded and forward-thinking motherboard, but not one that fully justifies its high price
