Eclipse Discovery Z77i345R777 review

Inside, there’s a decent amount of room for expansion. Five of the six internal 3.5in drive bays are available for adding extra hard disks. Even though the processor is multiplier-locked, Eclipse has installed an enthusiast motherboard with four spare SATA ports, as well as three PCI slots, two PCI-E x1 and two PCI-E x16 slots. The dual-slot graphics card occupies one of the PCI-E x16 slots and obscures the second x1 slot, so you’ll have to remove it to add additional expansion cards.

Even with a stock clocked processor, we were surprised that Eclipse has only fitted one 120mm intake fan. It’s fitted to the side panel, rather than the front, and there’s no exhaust fitted to the rear. This leaves the stock Intel CPU cooler, as well as the PSU and graphics cards fans, to dissipate all the heat from within the case. Although we didn’t notice any serious overheating, there are five empty 120mm fan mounts in the front, rear, roof and side panel that we would give serious thought to filling.

You get a no-brand keyboard and mouse set, but Eclipse has bundled a high-quality BenQ 22in LCD monitor. It’s a little smaller than the competition, but the GL2240 has a Full HD panel and a matt display finish that helps diffuse light reflections. Connectivity is limited to DVI and VGA inputs, and the internal speakers are basic, but it’s useful to have an option other than headphones if you don’t already own a speaker system.

At £596, the Discovery Z77i345R777 is around £50-£100 less expensive than similarly-powerful PCs. You lose the ability to overclock, but the Ivy Bridge processor is still fast enough for almost every task and the graphics card is powerful too. If you need a low-cost PC, this is an excellent choice.