PCSpecialist Vanquish Z11 System Review

1. Introduction2. PCSpecialist Vanquish Z11 System (1)3. PCSpecialist Vanquish Z11 System (2)4. Testing Methodology & Configuration5. Synthetic: PCMark 76. Synthetic: 3DMark Vantage7. Synthetic: 3DMark 118. Synthetic: 3DMark9. Synthetic: Unigine Heaven Benchmark10. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra11. Synthetic: CineBench R11.5 64bit12. Synthetic: HDD & SSD Testing13. Image Quality: HQV Benchmark 2.014. Real World: 3D Rendering15. Real World: BluRay Playback16. Real World: Flash HD Playback17. Real World: HandBrake 9.518. Gaming: Alien V Predator (DX11)19. Gaming: Far Cry 2 (DX10)20. Gaming: Far Cry 3 (DX11)21. Gaming: Dirt ShowDown (DX11)22. Gaming: Sleeping Dogs (DX11)23. Gaming: Max Payne 3 (DX11)24. Technical: Thermal Dynamics25. Technical: Acoustics Performance26. Technical: Power Consumption27. Closing Thoughts28. View All Pages

There are no shortage of pre-built gaming systems available in the United Kingdom, customers are literally spoilt for choice this year, especially under the £1,000 mark.

PCSpecialist are marketing the Vanquish Z11 system to the gaming audience who want a modestly priced, yet powerful gaming system. The system takes part of the name from the Zalman Z11 chassis which it is built inside. This is the first time I have had a hands on with this particular case and considering the very competitive price point it really does manage to deliver a fantastic experience.

The Zalman Z11 produces a very high level of airflow ensuring that the overclocked processor maintains an effective thermal curve. The Corsair H40 may be a lower specified model in the current range, but PCSpecialist haven't increased the Core i5 3570k voltage significantly over reference settings, so it doesn't have to work that hard.

It isn't the quietest case we have tested, but the noise levels are unlikely to annoy the gaming audience contemplating a purchase. Personally I might think about swapping out a couple of the fans myself for super low noise models from BeQuiet!, but I am quite sensitive to fan noise.

Basing a gaming system around the Intel Core i5 3570k and Nvidia GTX660 ti is a no brainer. They are exceptional performance products which combine at the heart of a system to produce fantastic frame rates, even with the latest Direct X 11 titles. PCSpecialist have included a 120GB Kingston V300 Solid State Drive along with a 1TB storage drive. This ensures fast boot up time and nippy system response, while offering a back up solution for a large amount of data.

PCSpecialist have worked with Kingston in the construction of this particular system, including 8GB of Hyper-X 10^th Anniversary memory. The memory is solid, looks great and produces around 22 Gb/s of bandwidth – it is technically nothing out of the ordinary, but the results are commendable.

PCSpecialist invest a lot of time into their cable routing, which is doubly important in a windowed case system such as this. The routing is excellent and cables are all successfully hidden behind the motherboard tray, out of sight.

For £879.00 inc VAT and Delivery we think this is a killer gaming system and deserving of our highest award.

Buy direct from PCSpecialist over here.

Pros:

• Fantastic cooling efficiency.
• A wish list of enthusiast components.
• Overclocked out of the box.
• all round performance is stellar.
• Handles all the latest Direct X 11 games with high IQ settings at 1080p.

Cons:

• Fan noise is audible.
• Faces stiff competition under £1,000.

Kitguru says: We love this system and would be one of our first choices for a pre-built under £1,000.

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