Cyberpower Gamer Infinity GT review

There's little point in having a monster of a gaming PC if you can't hear yourself think (or blow up all manner of incendiary objects) because it sounds like a leaf blower.

It's a common problem: the fastest graphics cards and processors both need beefy fans on board to keep them cool and running at peak performance, and the PC case will have more fans again to maintain the necessary airflow through the system.

However, Cyberpower has packaged its latest Gamer Infinity PC in a chassis that's designed from the ground up to minimise noise. The NZXT Hush is, as the name suggests, incredibly quiet. The top, bottom and sides of the case are coated with noise absorbing foam, which dramatically reduces the aural interference that escapes during use. NZXT has even gone as far as to mount the hard disk and optical drive with rubber washers, so that any vibrations are absorbed rather than left to rattle.

The result is that the Gamer Infinity GT is barely audible. Even when it was scything through our benchmark tests, which demanded maximum performance from all its components, you couldhear a pin drop in the vicinity. (We have a specially calibrated test pin to verify this, obviously.)

Stealth fighter

This was even more remarkable considering the sheer power that Cyberpower has packed into the machine. Intel's Core 2 Duo E8500 processor is a high-end chip, running at 3.16GHz, but here it's been subjected to some liberal overclocking to eke out even more performance. This resulted in a 2D (general) benchmark score of 289%, which is more than enough to handle the most demanding of applications, even when running several at once.

Gamers aren't left behind either, thanks to the inclusion of the ATI Radeon HD 4850. It's one of our favourite cards at the moment because of its great ratio of price to performance, and managed a score of 260% in our tough 3D benchmark. Even the very latest titles will be easily within reach of this system.

The rest of the specification is OK, but nothing particularly stands out. There are plenty of ports on the motherboard, but no modern extras like HDMI, the increasingly common all-in-one connection for monitors and HDTVs, and there's no Blu-ray drive to play the latest HD movies. The 500GB hard disk is certainly spacious, but we've seen even larger drives included with cheaper machines than this.

Unfortunately, the supplied peripherals follow suit. The monitor, a 22 inch Hanns.G Hi22DP, is an acceptable display if all you'll be looking at is work and the web, but for serious image editing it's a poor choice, and it can't do the best games full justice. Colours lacked depth at both ends of the scale, leaving images and video looking relatively dull. To output sound from the integrated Realtek High Definition Audio chipset you get Logitech's S220, a 2.1 speaker set that's popular with PC vendors because it's cheap. While it's perfectly fine for listening to music and playing games, more demanding users will be clamouring for an upgrade, either to a more audiophile-friendly stereo set or a full surround system.

Of course, it's always worth bearing in mind that Cyberpower will happily customise your PC with different peripherals before you buy, so if any of these issues concern you, it's a simple matter to spend a little more and improve them. As it stands, the selection of add-ons put a slight dampener on a superb PC. It's more than powerful enough for modern games and demanding applications, and its quietness is a huge bonus.