Cyberpower Infinity Quad Elite review

'Infinity Quad Elite' would be a poor choice of name if you weren't confident that your PC was going to do some serious damage.

It sounds more like a military installation than a computer, and that impression isn't dispelled by the hardware, with slats, grilles and angry, angular sections jutting out from the huge Cooler Master chassis as if to ward off unwanted attention. The Cyberpower is just being coy, though: round the side there's a sizeable window through which to admire the components within. A bright red striplight in the bottom of the case bathes everything in a portentous glow.

So much for the theatre; what about the performance? A look at the list of specifications reveals why the Infinity wants to draw attention to its parts - especially the graphics card. It's one of ATI's newest units, and crams two graphics processing units (GPUs) onto one large board. You'll recall that ATI has recently leapfrogged its rival, nVidia, to produce what are currently the graphics cards of choice among the PC cognoscenti, and this one poses no risk to its reputation.

Twin engine

The ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 is, as the name suggests, basically two HD 4870 cards stuck together. One of these alone would have put the Infinity Quad Elite among the more capable 3D machines currently on sale, but the dual unit propelled it to a frankly ridiculous score in our 3D gaming benchmark. We don't have room for 527% on our chart, but you won't need to compare it with other PCs we've tested; if maximum 3D performance is what you're after, you can simply forget about them.

The main processor, Intel's Core 2 Quad Q9550, is relatively staid by comparison, but certainly doesn't let the side down. As well as a formidable clock speed of 2.83GHz across its four cores, it has a massive 12MB of Level 2 cache, which stores data as it moves between the processor and the rest of the system to help avoid bottlenecks. It works. In our 2D (general) benchmark, a combination of application based tasks, the Cyberpower scored 273%, indicating that you'll have no trouble running several demanding applications at once.

The rest of the specifications are perhaps not quite so mind-blowing, but more than adequate. It could be argued, perhaps a little churlishly, that 4GB of RAM is now merely sensible rather than generous, but it's enough to keep Windows Vista running at a decent pace, and there are two slots left free for more. The 750GB hard disk, again, isn't the biggest we've seen offered as standard, but it gives you plenty of space for most purposes. The optical drive is a conventional DVD writer rather than a Blu-ray drive, but since we can't think off hand of anyone who owns a Blu-ray disc, we can hardly claim that's a big miss. It could feel like it in a few months' time, but there's nothing to stop you adding one, and they'll be cheaper then.

That impressive chassis has plenty of practical benefits as well as aesthetic effects. For a start, the components inside - despite the power they offer - are kept reassuringly cool by several fans. In fact, the sheer number of fans means this isn't the quietest of PCs, and that could get distracting during quiet game or movie moments. Headphones help.

There's also plenty of room for expansion. The extra PCI Express socket could provide a home for a second graphics card using ATI's CrossfireX system, though games makers will have to work hard in the next few years to make you feel you need it. There are lots of bays for more drives, all cleverly accessible without any tools.