CyberPower Infinity i3 Apollo Elite review

CyberPower’s Infinity i3 Apollo Elite has a design that’s certainly going to split opinions. The imposing Cooler Master Elite 310 case features a side window that shows off the excellent cable management, and is illuminated by bright the three bright blue LED case fans. While the bold exterior might not be for everyone, there’s a seriously powerful PC underneath.

Everything should arrive safely thanks to the fact that the case is stuffed with bubble packs to keep the internal components in place. You’ll need to open the side panel to remove the packaging and attach the case fan, but the thumbscrews mean a screwdriver isn’t required. Installing extra components won’t void the three year warranty, but parts and labour are only included for the first year. The final two years cover labour only.

The Intel Core i3-540 processor has been overclocked from 3.06GHz to a heady 4.02GHz, which meant it flew through our benchmarks. A score of 173 in the image editing test was seriously impressive, but the dual-core processor was slower at multitasking. Still, an overall score of 139 is still remarkable at this price, and only the most intensive multi-threaded applications such as 3D rendering or video editing will slow the Apollo down. With such a huge overclock, CyberPower has sensibly swapped the stock Intel CPU cooler for a Cooler Master model. The three 120mm fans make a reasonable amount of noise, but do a good job of keeping the components cool.

An Nvidia GeForce GT430 graphics card has been installed for gaming. A score of 25.7fps in our Call of Duty 4 test is much higher than what can be achieved with the processor’s integrated graphics, but newer games will struggle on higher detail settings. As with the 2D benchmark score, this is still impressive considering most PCs at this price can’t play 3D games.