Computer Shopper - July 2017

DESKTOP GAMING PC
BOX Cube Panther
★★★★★
£850 • From www.box.co.uk
VERDICT
The cheapest GTX 1060-based system we’ve seen yet is an unsurprisingly strong performer
£850 MAY BE a sizable chunk of the average
pay cheque, but in desktop terms, it’s a fairly
middling amount – hence why it’s particularly
crucial to judge where exactly the budget is
being spent. High-end processor or a fast
SSD? Luxury chassis or expansive
motherboard? With any reasonably priced PC
build, there are big component choices to be
made, even if you’re not building it yourself.
With the Cube Panther, Box has focused on
gaming, forgoing higher-end parts elsewhere
to include a GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card.
It’s the 3GB VRAM version, rather than a 6GB
model, but that generally only means the loss
of a few frames per second – not a huge issue
when you’re already getting high frame rates
at both 1080p and 1440p.
SMOOTH OPERATOR
Indeed, Dirt Showdown running at Ultra
settings was no match for the Cube Panther’s
capable GPU. It returned performances of
114fps at 1,920x1,080, 90fps at 2,560x1,440
and even a very playable 51fps at 3,840x2,160.
Dirt Showdown is a very undemanding
game compared to our other test game,
Metro: Last Light Redux, but even here the
Cube Panther runs well. With Very High
settings and SSAA enabled, it averaged 47fps
at 1,920x1,080, which is perfectly fi ne without
the need to tone down any textures or
graphical effects. 2,560x1,440 proved a greater
challenge, as the Cube Panther only managed
27fps (30fps or higher is ideal), but this was
easily fi xed by switching off SSAA, which
doesn’t have much of a pronounced effect at
this resolution anyway. Once that’s done, it
jumps to a much smoother 44fps.
The frame rate plummeted to 11fps at
3,840x2,160, and turning off SSAA wasn’t
enough this time, so we switched to Medium
quality as well. This resulted in a 49fps average
– not bad for a graphics card that wasn’t really
intended for 4K gaming in the fi rst place.
Overall, the Cube Panther is broadly on a
par with the more expensive Yoyotech
Warbird G2 (Shopper 351) and Chillblast Fusion
Hubble (Shopper 350), making it an excellent
choice for anyone primarily interested in
games. It even achieved a high score of 7.5 in
Valve’s punishing SteamVR Performance Test,
so it’s ready for virtual reality as well.
CHIP SERVICE
As we said, everything else about Box’s PC is
less impressive. That’s not to say it’s actually
bad. Take the quad-core, 3.7GHz Intel Core
i5-7500 processor – it’s non-overclockable
and would likely limit the performance of
more powerful GPUs, were you to upgrade
in the future, but here it’s fi ne enough for
home use, and evidently doesn’t bottleneck
the GTX 1060. Together with 8GB of DDR4
memory, it scored (amusingly) 108 in every
single part of our processing benchmark,
naturally including the overall score. You’ll
need more muscle for things like video editing
or heavy multitasking with large fi les, but it’s
still a respectable performance at this price.
There’s also no dedicated SSD, though at
least you’re not stuck with a simple hard disk
either. Storage comes in the form of a
decent-sized 1TB hybrid drive – the bulk of
this is traditional mechanical storage, but
there’s also an 8GB cache, which can help
speed up your most-used applications.
We do feel it could have
done with a few more full-size
USB ports, mind. There are
only two USB3s on the front
panel plus two USB3 and four
USB2 ports at the rear, which
is about the minimum we’d
expect from a desktop PC.
There are only basic 3.5mm
audio jacks as well, though
some fl ashes of bonus utility
do come via a single USB
Type-C port and a 802.11n
Wi-Fi card, which has two
antenna mounts on the rear
I/O panel. Credit where it’s
due, this is not only a useful
inclusion on its own, but if
you have to go wireless
instead of using the Ethernet
socket, it will save one of the limited USB
ports being taken up by a receiver.
A more premium touch is the inclusion of
two M.2 slots on the motherboard, with
support for Intel’s new, ultra-fast Optane
drives. Even if you eventually go for a more
basic NVMe SSD, we’d defi nitely recommend
it over another SATA drive, though with three
3.5in, two 2.5in and two 5.25in drive bays,
you’ve got a fair few options.
MOODY VIEWS
The interior is bathed in a moody red light,
which you have a good view of through the
acrylic side window. Unfortunately, the rest of
the case doesn’t look quite as slick, especially
the storm drain grate-looking plastic bars
running across the front fan intake.
Looks aside, this is a competent and quiet
gaming rig that we wouldn’t mind keeping
under the desk (though perhaps not on it). It
may lack a huge array of exceptional features,
but not everyone can stretch to the £1,000 of
our current Best Buy, the Chillblast Fusion
Hubble, and as long as you avoid serious
data-crunching or multimedia tasks, this
cheaper system will get things done just fi ne.
James Archer
SPECIFICATIONS
PROCESSOR Quad-core 3.7GHz Intel Core i5-6500 • RAM
8GB DDR4 • FRONT USB PORTS 2x USB3 • REAR USB
PORTS 4x USB2, 2x USB3, 1x USB Type-C • GRAPHICS CARD
3GB Asus Dual GeForce GTX 1060 • TOTAL STORAGE 1TB
SSHD • DISPLAY None • OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 10
• WARRANTY Two years labour inc one year collect and
return and one year parts • DETAILS www.box.co.uk •
PART CODE CU-Pani5GTX10608Win10
Windows overall
Multitasking
Dirt Showdown
Metro: Last Light
0%
-50
108
108
114fps
47fps
Reference +50 +100
See page 72 for performance details
24 JULY 2017 | COMPUTER SHOPPER | ISSUE 353