Chillblast Fusion Photo OC III review

The numerous cables snaking out of the 600W OCZ PSU have been tidied away, too, with some bunches hidden behind the motherboard, others lashed to the sides of the case and yet more bundled into empty 5.25in bays. The combination of this tidiness and the tool-less entry onto every expansion port and bay means working inside the Sileo is simple.

It may be easy to access, but the superb core specification leaves little headroom for the future. The six DIMM slots, three 3.5in hard disk bays and pair of front-facing 3.5in bays are all occupied, and the four free empty 5.25in bays are crammed with spare cables – and expanding into these areas would potentially disrupt vital airflow in this silenced system.

The Asus P6T SE motherboard offers more upgrade potential, with a pair of PCI-Express 16x and two PCI sockets free although, again, cramming these sockets with other components – perhaps an additional graphics card, for instance – could potentially heat the chassis up to unstable levels. It’s a relief that the sheer power of this machine means that the need for upgrading will be limited for several years.

Conclusion

At £1,260 exc. VAT, this is one of the more expensive base units we’ve seen, and adding peripherals will increase that price to Ultimate PC levels. Chillblast’s own Fusion Katana was not quite as fast in our 2D graphics benchmark test, but it has a faster graphics card and includes excellent peripherals for £1,477 – near enough what you’d be paying if you added a decent monitor to the Photo OC’s specification.

With such healthy competition, the Fusion Photo OC III becomes more a niche offering. If photo editing is one of multiple primary uses for your PC, you may be better off opting for the more rounded and affordable Katana. But this PC's SSD and monstrous amount of RAM do make it a beast of a graphics companion, so if that's what you spend the bulk of your time doing it's a front-runner for your cash.

Author: Mike Jennings