Chillblast Fusion Stealth review

The motherboard is an Asus P8Z77-V. This is a popular, well-equipped board, with an 802.11n Wi-Fi module to accompany its Gigabit Ethernet port, two PCI-E x1 slots (although one’s blocked by the graphics card), two PCI slots and three PCI-E x16 slots. Of the latter, one actually runs at x4 and the topmost slot runs at x16 unless the second slot is populated, in which case both will run at x8. There are four SATA3 and four SATA2 ports, but only one SATA2 and two SATA3 ports are in use, leaving plenty of room for expansion.

There are also two unused USB headers, along with two USB2 and two USB3 ports on the front panel and another four USB3 and two USB2 ports at the back. There’s also a PS/2 port for a keyboard or mouse, six 3.5mm analogue audio outputs and an optical S/PDIF output. The usual 3.5mm mic and headphone ports are available on the front panel.

The Fusion Stealth is available to buy with either Windows 8 or Windows 7 preinstalled. Our review sample had Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit installed. If you want a powerful PC that doesn’t sound like a box of irate bees, this is the PC for you, but quiet, high-quality components don’t come cheap and this is reflected in the PC’s £1,199 price. We’ve seen faster-performing systems for less, but this is an outstanding PC and our new favourite silent gaming system. If you’re after a hardcore gaming PC for the sitting room, you should also take a look at compact gaming rigs such as the Dino PC Microraptor.