Page 20 - Computeractive - January 2, 2018 UK

R e v i e w s New p roducts tested by our e xperts

PC ❘ £779 from P C S pecialist www.snipca.com/26306

PCSpecialistEnigma K 6

i3 times t wo equals i5?

Y o u d on’t have to be a m echanic to known a s C offee Lake (it’s t he name
buy a c ar, b ut most of us know a f ew of an actual lake in Wisconsin, n ot
basics. F or example, the b igger t he what you g et on your lap w hen
engine, t he more oomph y ou’ll g et when you’re distracted b y a n ew series of
you p ut your foot down. O f c ourse, i t’s processors while d rinking your morning
not quite t hat s imple, and a m odern beverage). This i s a q uantum l eap f or
one-litre engine might d o j ust a s g ood a the h umble i 3. The i3-3800 i n t his n ew
job a s a g as-guzzler o f y esteryear. The desktop PC has f our c ores – t wice a s
same applies with PC processor chips, many as any p revious i3. This i s
except that they tend to change faster. accompanied b y a s light r eduction in
clock s peed, w hich r eflects priorities
If you're l ooking similar t o A MD’s: you p robably w on’t
be too u pset if processes that are f ast
for a f ully r ounded PC, anyway are a f raction slower, b ut you’ll
be satisfied if tasks t hat u sually cause
the E nigma K 6 i s delays go much faster. t he same
PC Specialist h as taken
a g ood choice approach t o t he entire system: the 4K video p rocessing, which u se all t he
Enigma K6’s relatively modest C PU
cores, it performed as well as previous
comes w ith a v ery r espectable graphics i5-7500 P Cs.
In recent years, I ntel’s numbering card: a n N vidia GTX 1 060 w ith 6 GB of The Enigma K6 comes i n a m id-sized
system f or processors made things fast memory. I f y ou never p lay 3 D g ames case with a f ull ATX m otherboard and
relatively simple: i 3 w as suitable for b asic or use c reative s oftware that benefits plenty of room for d rives, including t wo
Windows u se, i 5 f or decent performance from a d edicated g raphics c ard, you m ay M.2 sockets for f ast SSDs. Th e o nly d rive
and i 7 f or number-crunching and be better off buying a P C w ith a t op-end fitted i s a 1 TB ‘hybrid’ – a h ard d rive with
creative jobs. E ach y ear’s n ew versions i5 or i7 processor and n o g raphics c ard a s mall cache to make it faster – a lthough
were a l ittle f aster t han t he last. Then i n (both h ave b uilt-in Intel g raphics this means slower booting and l oading
2017, A MD complicated m atters by processors that can handle general than if Windows 1 0 w ere i nstalled on an
bringing o ut rival p rocessors called tasks a nd some g aming). But i f y ou’re SSD. Y o u m ight w ant t o b udget a nother
Ryzen. These are a b it slower than Intel’s looking f or a f ully r ounded PC, t he £75 o r s o f or an SSD o r a n I ntel Optane
similarly p riced i5s and i 7s at basic t asks Enigma K6 is a g ood choice, as its card f or more advanced c aching. W e
that use o ne core, b ut a l ot faster i n m ore results in our s peed tests s how . weren’t t oo keen on the c ase’s styling,
demanding p rograms. In 3D games, the G TX 1060 wasn’t held though, a nd it lacks USB 3 .1 ports f or
In case that wasn’t confusing enough, back b y t he new i 3, and t he PC’s scores adding f ast e xternal s torage.
Intel h as now r eleased i ts latest update, were similar t o t hose of the R yzen 5
1600X-based Wired2Fire P yro R eactor VERDICT: The balance o f c omponents
(see Issue 5 16), which h as the s ame won’t s uit e veryone, and t he lack of
graphics c ard b ut costs o ver £ 200 m ore. USB 3.1 ports limits upgrades, but this i s
In our p rocessor tests, the i 3-3800 a f ast a ll-rounder at an attractive price
managed t o k eep u p w ith t he old i 3-7100 ★★★★☆
in image e diting, b ut in multitasking and
ALTERNATIVE: Overclockers T itan
SPECIFICATIONS Merlin £720 This cheaper
3.6GHz Intel i3-8100 quad-core p rocessor •• 8GB version of the l ittle R yzen
memory •• 6GB N vidia G eForce GTX 1 060 g raphics 5 1 400 we tested in
• • 1TB h ybrid drive •• 5x USB 3.0 ports •• 4x USB 2.0 Issue 509 i s a bout as
ports •• Gigabit Ethernet •• HDMI port •• 2x DVI p orts •• 3x fast as the K 6 b ut less
DisplayPort •• Windows 10 Home •• 522x256x558mm
(HxWxD) •• One-year w arranty upgradable
www.snipca.com/26306

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