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Yoyotech Warbird i650cs review

Yoyotech Warbird i650cs
Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £700
inc VAT

This massively powerful overclocked Core i5 system is packed with great features and is simply brilliant value for money.

Specifications

4GHz Intel Core i5-650, 4.000000 RAM, 22in 1,680×1,050 display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Yoyotech’s Warbird i650 is insanely powerful. For your £700, you get a dual-core Core i5 processor, overclocked from 3.2GHz to 4GHz. An appropriately massive heatsink stuck on top ensures it doesn’t get too hot, while front and rear case fans ensure good airflow across the motherboard. Surprisingly, the system emits little more than a muted hum under normal working conditions.

As you’d expect, the Warbird did incredibly well in our benchmarks, helped out by its 4GB of RAM. The overall score of 144 makes this one of the fastest computers that we’ve ever seen, and capable of dealing with any job you throw at it. It’s faster than quad-core Intel Core 2 and AMD Phenom II-based PCs.

Graphics performance is similarly as good thanks to the powerful 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5750. This DirectX 11 graphics card managed 67.2fps in our Call of Duty 4 test and 32.9fps in our demanding Crysis test. High-resolution, high-detail gaming is easy for this PC. As with other cards in this range, you can drive up to three monitors (one of the three has to be DisplayPort) in Eyefinity mode to play a game across multiple screens.

The supplied 22in LG Flatron W2254TQ monitor has a native resolution of 1,680×1,050. While we would have preferred a full HD 1,920×1,080 model, this monitor is very high quality. We found the image was bright with accurate colours, and generally pleasing to the eye, while its base is sturdy and easy to adjust. It has DVI and VGA inputs, and is HDCP compliant. Using an adaptor, you can use the DVI input for HDMI devices, such as a Blu-ray players.

We were impressed to find an Asus P7P55D LE motherboard, a cut-down version of the Asus P7P55D Deluxe, one of our favourite P55 motherboards. This incarnation doesn’t have as many features; for example, it has fewer PCI-E x16 slots, uses a different variant of Asus’s motherboard power system and only supports dual graphics cards using ATI’s CrossFireX standard, rather than both ATI and Nvidia’s dual-card configurations. However, this is still an impressive motherboard with an excellent reputation for stable overclocking.

It has a pair of PCI-E x16 slots, two PCI-E x1 slots (one of which is completely blocked by the graphics card) and three PCI slots. In short, there’s enough room for almost any component upgrades you fancy, within the capabilities of the 500W power supply. There’s plenty of room to add drives to supplement the DVD writer and 500GB hard disk, too, with four free SATA ports, three spare 5.25in bays and six free 3.5in bays. Helpfully, all the free bays come with clip fittings, so you’re not even obliged to fiddle around with screws to add new drives. The motherboard even has an eSATA port on the back, so you can connect fast external storage.

Although nothing remarkable, the Viewsonic wireless keyboard and mouse set are perfectly functional, despite a slightly rough texture and clunky feel to the keys. In short, there’s nothing to fault on this system – it’s the best performing £700 PC we’ve ever reviewed. The Warbird i650 is, without any doubt, our Best Buy.

Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Processor Intel Core i5-650
Processor external bus 160MHz
Processor multiplier x25
Processor clock speed 4GHz
Processor socket LGA1156
Level 1 cache 4,096KB
Level 2 cache 4x 256KB
Memory 4.000000
Memory type PC3-10600
Maximum memory 16GB
Motherboard Asus P7P55D LE
Motherboard chipset Intel P55 Express

Ports

USB2 ports (front/rear) 2/8
Firewire ports (front/rear) 0/0
eSATA ports (front/rear) 0/1
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support none
Other ports none

Internal Expansion

Case midi tower
PCI-E x1 slots (free) 2 (1)
PCI-E x16 slots (free) 2 (1)
Free Serial ATA ports 4
Free memory slots 2
Free 3.5in drive bays 6

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Samsung HD502HJ
Interface SATA 300
Total storage capacity 500GB
Spindle speed 7,200rpm

Graphics

Graphics card(s) 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5750
Graphics/video ports 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort

Sound

Sound VIA VT1828S
Sound outputs 7.1 line out, optical S/PDIF out
Speakers none

Removable Drives

3.5in floppy drive no
Supported memory cards none
Optical drive model TSST SH-S223C
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Display

Viewable size 22 in
Screen model LG Flatron W2254TQ
Native resolution 1,680×1,050
Response time 2ms
Screen inputs DVI, VGA

Other Hardware

Modem No
Keyboard ViewSonic KBR0305
Mouse ViewSonic MSR0305T

Software

Software included none
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option Windows disc

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £700
Details www.yoyotech.co.uk

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