Computeractive

PC ❘ £500 from Palicomp www.snipca.com/18748
Palicomp AMD Shockwave
A Windows 10 desktop PC that puts plenty of
power at your fi ngertips
What is it with PC makers and military
hardware? In Issue 462, we tested
Chillblast’s Fusion Drone, which to our
disappointment bore no resemblance to a
nuclear-powered unmanned aerial
vehicle. Palicomp’s Shockwave comes in
a rugged black case that actually does
look as if Prince Andrew should be
demonstrating it to an audience of Saudi
officials. LED lighting behind the grilles
even emits an eerie green glow. But it’s
really quite harmless.
Like the Drone, the Shockwave is based
on AMD’s Athlon X4 860K processor.
Palicomp has overclocked this from 3.7 to
4GHz, making it run even hotter. But
where Chillblast installed a water-cooling
system to prevent meltdown, this
machine just has AMD’s regular heatsink
and a plastic fan.
We monitored the processor during our
speed tests, and it wasn’t affected by
overheating. Within the Sharkoon VG5-W
case the fans were never noticeably loud,
although the Shockwave wasn’t as silent
as the Drone. But it did edge ahead in the
benchmark tests. For a £500 desktop PC,
this is pretty powerful. Just don’t expect
miracles: when editing video, for
example, you’ll still have to wait for
effects to render.
Unlike its rival Intel, AMD also makes
dedicated graphics cards, and the Radeon
R7 370, which costs around £100 by itself,
is becoming a popular choice for its
impressive games performance. Th e
Drone had it fi tted with 2GB of its own
memory, while the Shockwave doubles
that to 4GB. Th is allowed us to run
current 3D games smoothly at Full HD
resolution, with some quality settings
turned down for the most demanding
– not bad at all in this price bracket.
A 1TB hard drive with 8GB of fl ash
SPECIFICATIONS
4GHz quad-core AMD Athlon X4 860K processor
• 8GB memory • 1TB hybrid drive • AMD Radeon R7
370 graphics card • 4x USB 3.0 ports • 4x USB 2.0
ports • Gigabit Ethernet • HDMI port • DisplayPort • 2x
DVI ports • WIndows 10 Home • 430x200x445mm
(HxWxD) • Three-year warranty
www.snipca.com/18748
BUY IT!
★★★★★
storage provides decent capacity with a
bit of extra speed, and you also get a DVD
writer built in. Th ere’s room to add up to
six more internal drives on the fast SATA 3
connection as well as two PCI-Express
and one basic PCI slot for expansion. You
might want to order a Wi-Fi card because
it’s not included in the price. Th e
standard 8GB of memory can go up to
32GB. One missing feature is a fi bre-optic
audio output for modern amplifiers: you
only get traditional 3.5mm jacks.
How to choose between the Fusion and
the Shockwave? Palicomp’s three-year
warranty covers only labour after the fi rst
year, while Chillblast’s covers both parts
and labour for two years and then labour
for three more. Chillblast will pick up
your machine for service free of charge in
those fi rst two years; Palicomp only
includes this for the fi rst week.
Remember the warranty is in addition
to your statutory rights, which say that if
your PC goes wrong any time in the fi rst
six months, it’s presumed to have an
inherent fault that the supplier must fi x
at its own expense. You’re also entitled to
a free repair if a problem appears within
six years and you can prove that it’s due
to a defect, not just normal wear and tear.
We’d like to see all retailers being clearer
about this, but extra cover like Chillblast’s
is very welcome.
On the other hand, Palicomp’s PC
clearly gives you a little more
performance for your money. Overall, it
represents a great deal.
HOW WE TEST
Computeractive is owned by Dennis
Publishing, which owns a hi-tech facility
for testing the latest technology. You’ll
often read references to our benchmark
testing, which is a method of assessing
products using the same criteria. For
example, we test the speed of every
PC and the battery life of every tablet
in exactly the same way. This makes
our reviews authoritative, rigorous
and accurate.
Dennis Publishing also owns
the magazines PC Pro, Computer
Shopper, Web User and Micro Mart
and the website Expert Reviews
(www.expertreviews.co.uk). This
means we can test thousands of
products before choosing the most
relevant for Computeractive.
FAIR AND IMPARTIAL
Our writers follow strict guidelines to
ensure the reviews are fair and
impartial. The manufacturer has no
involvement in our tests.
OUR AWARDS
BUY IT!
★★★★★
VERDICT: You don’t need Intel inside
for a reliable system – the Shockwave
shows an alternative processor can give
you plenty of power per pound
★★★★★
ALTERNATIVE: Chillblast
Fusion Drone £500
With a mostly similar
specification in a slightly
more understated case,
this is also a good buy
We award every product
that gets five stars our
Buy It! stamp of approval.
It means we were
extremely impressed by the product,
and we think you will be too.
Every product that gets a
four-star review is given
the Great Pick award. We
highly recommend these
products, although they just fail to meet
the high standard of our Buy It! winners.
PRICES
Our reviews contain a link to the best
price we found online at the time of press.
9 – 22 December 2015 21