Evetech has been building systems aimed at gamers for a while now,
but many potential shoppers who visit their site might not be savvy
enough to understand the huge range of machines on offer. To simplify
the process, NAG sat down with the chaps from Evetech to agree on what
could be classified as the ultimate mid-range PC.
When we discussed the possible specs, we didn’t think that Evetech would be able to
reach the R10,000 mark that they aimed at. In truth, this machine is a little higher,
R11K excluding an operating system (or R11,899 including Windows 7 Home Premium),
but for the performance you get, it’s extremely impressive, so we’ll let the extravagance slide.
From the look of the NZXT Tempest Evo that wraps up these Gainward, ASUS and Corsair
components, you know that your rig will be impressive enough to get you a seat near the
cool kids at your next LAN. The entire machine is also quiet enough to not irritate you
(thanks to the water-cooling system), but the case has enough fan mounts (with six of
the seven occupied, excluding the WC radiator) to allow for some hardcore air cooling
if that takes your fancy. Evetech has assured us that if you’re not interested in the
water cooling, they’ll gladly swap it for a high-end air cooler, the Noctua NH-D14,
which you’ll find reviewed in the next issue of NAG.
We were happy to see the GTX 560 Ti
manage to slip into this price bracket, as it offers a fantastic balance between price
and performance, and pushes this machine into a level where it’ll run any current game
you throw at it, at the high or even ultra setting, at perfectly acceptable frame rates.
For a mid-range PC, you can’t ask for any more.
Benchmarks:
3DMark II Performanc - 4,234
Uniengine Heaven - 34.7FPS
S.T.A.L.K.E.R Call of Pripyat DX11 - 81.8FPS
AVP D3D11 - 56.8FPS
Bottom line: Aside from an even lower price, there’s not much else on this machine that we’d desire.
Pros: Great performance, Good price, Relatively quite
Cons: It's still not a R10,000 machine
Score: 9 Out of Ten
Aside from an even lower price, there’s not much else on this machine that we’d desire.
Specifications:
- Intel Core i5 2500K 3.3GHz Overclocked @
4.5GHZ 4x Cores CPU
- ASUS P8P67 Pro B3 P67 Motherboard
- Corsair Vengeance 4GB DDR3 1600MHZ Gaming RAM With Heat Spreader
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB 256bit Overclocked Edition Graphics Card
- WD Black 1TB Sata 6GB/s Hard Drive
- NZXT Tempest EVO High Air Flow Gaming Case (6 Fansa Included)
- Antec TruePower 750w Modular PSU
- Noctua D14 CPU Cooler or Corsair H60 Liquid Cooling System
