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Palicomp Phoenix i5 Supreme review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £450
inc VAT

Palicomp has combined our favourite processor with plenty of RAM and a Blu-ray drive to make a versatile all-rounder

Specifications

4GHz Intel Core i5-2500K, 8GB RAM, N/A display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Palicomp’s Phoenix i5 Supreme is a relatively inexpensive PC base unit with a powerful Intel Core i5-2500K processor and a whopping 8GB of RAM plus a Blu-ray reader. These are excellent components but Palicomp has made some obvious savings on the case and peripherals to keep the overall price down.

Palicomp Phoenix i5 Supreme

The case is a simple black and silver box with a plain grey interior. Some of the mesh grilles that cover unused drive bays are prone to bending at the least pressure. We were pleased to find two case fans, neither of which is loud enough to make more than a faint rushing sound with the side panel fitted. There’s also plenty of room for upgrades with three unused 5 1/4in drive pays and space for six more 3 1/2in drives, one of which can be used for card readers and the like.

Palicomp Phoenix i5 Supreme front

The Core i5-2500K processor has been overclocked to 4GHz. It’s not the fastest speed you can push either the motherboard or the processor to, but it performed well, with an overall score of 112 in our tests. The processor is installed on an Asus P8Z68-V LX motherboard. It has six SATA ports, two of which support high-speed SATA3. Both of the latter are free – two of the SATA2 ports are connected to a 1TB hard disk and the Blu-ray drive. This means that the Supreme is well equipped for both storage and entertainment.

Palicomp Phoenix i5 Supreme inside

The motherboard also has two free PCI-E x1 slots, two PCI-E x16 slots and three PCI slots. If you add a large graphics card to the primary PCI-E x16 slot, the x1 slot below it will be blocked, but that still leaves one free. Serious upgrades may require a replacement power supply, as the supplied 450W PSU only has a couple of spare Molex connectors.

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Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Processor Intel Core i5-2500K
Processor external bus 100MHz (DMI)
Processor multiplier x40
Processor clock speed 4GHz
Processor socket LGA1155
Memory 8
Memory type PC3-12800
Maximum memory 32GB
Motherboard Asus P8Z68-V LX
Motherboard chipset Intel Z68

Ports

USB2 ports (front/rear) 2/6
Firewire ports (front/rear) 0/0
eSATA ports (front/rear) 0/0
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support none

Internal Expansion

Case midi tower
PCI-E x1 slots (free) 2 (2)
PCI-E x16 slots (free) 2 (2)
Free Serial ATA ports 4
Free memory slots 0
Free 3.5in drive bays 6

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Western Digital Caviar (WD10EARS-00Y5B1)
Interface SATA2
Total storage capacity 1,000GB

Graphics

Graphics card(s) Intel HD Graphics 3000
Graphics/video ports HDMI, DVI, VGA

Sound

Sound Realtek ALC887
Sound outputs 7.1 line out, optical S/PDIF out, stereo line out, mic in
Speakers none

Removable Drives

Supported memory cards none
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL BD-ROM

Display

Screen model none
Native resolution N/A
Screen inputs N/A

Other Hardware

Keyboard CIT KM-001UB
Mouse CIT KM-001UB

Software

Software included Nero 9, CyberLink Instant Burn & PowerDVD9
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option Windows disc

Buying Information

Warranty three years RTB
Price £450
Details www.palicomp.co.uk

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