Yoyotech XDNA Platinum review

It takes a special kind of case to overshadow one of Intel’s latest, fastest processors, but Yoyotech’s debut X79 system manages it, with the monumental SilverStone Fortress FT02. It’s the enclosure Scan chose for its Labs-winning Ultimate PC a few months ago, and it’s a class act.

The clean, curved, machined aluminium ensures this PC is a bit of a looker, and build quality is beyond reproach. There’s no give at all in the side panels, windows or strengthening struts inside – bomb-proof is the phrase that immediately comes to mind.

It isn’t all about looks, though; the chassis is also very practical. The motherboard is mounted at 90 degrees to the normal orientation with the backplane faceing skywards, giving easier access to all the ports. Inside, a cavity at the bottom of the case allows air to flow to a trio of 180mm fans for interior cooling.

The front of the SilverStone is given over to five vertically arranged hard disk slots and a trio of 5.25in bays, and the power supply hangs from the top at the rear. As a finishing touch, Yoyotech has installed a pair of white strip lights – one along the bottom, one attached to the side – illuminating the components through a side-window. This may sound garish, but it actually looks pretty good.

Internals

Inside, it’s an impeccable build, with chunky braided power cables lashed to the bottom of the case as they make their way to the graphics cards, and more cable ties employed to keep other leads out of the way. The motherboard tray is used to great effect in hiding cable mess, and the modular power supply also helps in this regard.

The system’s Asus P9X79 Pro motherboard offers two PCI Express x16 slots, but they’re of limited use as they’re limited to 8x speed, and are hidden beneath two chunky graphics cards with an SLI connector in the way. The SATA ports and the empty jumpers at the bottom of the motherboard are also obstructed by the sheer size of the graphics cards.

There are, fortunately, no such problems with the four vacant DIMM slots, with the low-profile Intel watercooling unit keeping well out of harm’s way. Three of those vertical hard disk bays are free, too, and you don’t need tools to access their sturdy caddies; the trio of vacant 5.25in bays function similarly.

Performance

Beneath the Intel cooler, is one of Intel’s new CPUs – a Core i7-3930K. This seems to be the Sandy Bridge E chip of choice, as it’s around half the price of the i7-3960X while still offering top performance.

Its six cores have been overclocked from 3.2GHz to 4.4GHz in this case, and in the PC Pro Real World application benchmarks it scored 1.37. That’s about on a par with the Chillblast Fusion Photo OC IV, and as much horsepower as any PC needs.