Chillblast Fusion Rapier review

Nvidia's mid-range graphics card, the GeForce GTS 450, is beginning to appear in an increasing number of PCs. It might not be able to keep up with the GTX 460, but it’s built around the same revised Fermi core and is obviously making a good impression with PC builders.

Its results show why: a score of 33fps in our 1,920 x 1,080 High quality Crysis gaming test is extremely impressive for a budget machine. Despite the low price, the Fusion rapier is clearly capable of playing top titles, even if you’ll have to reign in your resolution or quality settings: we had to scale the system back to 1,600 x 900 to get a near-playable 26fps from our Very High quality benchmark.

Chillblast's overclocked Intel processor is the ideal companion for the mid-range graphics card, and here the Core i3-530 has been overclocked from 2.93GHz to 4GHz. That results in an application benchmark score of 2.36: one of the best we’ve seen from a budget system, even if it can’t match the 2.56 of the Palicomp Core i3 Blast 530OC44, which achieved its score by running the same processor at a faster 4.4GHz. Still, it’s plenty of power and should sate all but the most demanding users.

It's the second time Chillblast has used the EZCool A200D chassis recently and we're glad to see it. It’s undoubtedly a budget enclosure, but few corners have been cut to meet the price. It’s one of the better looking low-end cases around and build quality is fine throughout. It’s also a little larger than most cheap cases, which allows for a motherboard tray and, consequently, an extremely tidy build.

Noise isn’t an issue, either. Barely a hum escapes from the graphics card cooler or the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro processor heatsink, although we’re disappointed by the heatsink getting in the way of one of the motherboard’s vacant DIMM slots. This is the only real black mark against the Chillblast’s upgrade potential, though, thanks to hard disk bays that face the side of the chassis and a decent selection of empty slots and sockets across the motherboard.

The monitor makes a good impression, too, with Chillblast plumping for the popular AOC F22+. This combines a 22in diagonal and 1,920 x 1,080 native resolution with decent quality. Colours are reasonably accurate and text is sharp. It lacks a little vibrancy when compared with more expensive panels, but it's fine for everyday use.

Elsewhere, the wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse set is comfortable and comes with a range of media buttons, and the Gigabyte speakers, which don’t come with a subwoofer, still offer reasonable quality alongside a surprising amount of bass.

We have few quibbles with this PC. Performance is strong, the monitor is good and we like the fact that speakers have been included too. Some rivals are better in individual areas but, thanks to its all-round excellence, the Chillblast Fusion Rapier is our new budget system of choice.

Author: Mike Jennings