Review: Chillblast Fusion Sentinel desktop PC

Better known for creating high-end PCs, Chillblast is targeting the mainstream market with its Fusion Sentinel.

As with its more expensive systems, the Fusion Sentinel is based around an overclocked CPU; in this case one of Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q6600s.

As standard the Q6600 is clocked at 2.4GHz with a 1,066MHz FSB (front-side bus) and 8MB of L2 cache, but the Q6600 is very amenable to a bit of overclocking – even with standard air cooling it can be made to perform much faster.

Chillblast has done just that with the Fusion Sentinel, overclocking it to 3GHz. To ensure the stability of the system, Chillblast has opted for a third party cooler, the Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro, which not only keeps the CPU cooler than the standard heat-sink, but also does it extremely quietly.

The quad-core processor sits in an Asus P5K motherboard, based on Intel’s P35/ICH9 chipset combination. It uses passive heat-pipe technology to keep both chipset bridges and the MOSFETs cool; the lack of fans on the motherboard also helps keep the noise to a minimum.

The board has four Dimm slots supporting up to 8GB of 1,066/800/667 dual channel DDR2 memory. Chillblast has filled all four slots with four 1GB modules of Geil PC2-6400 800MHz fast DDR2 memory which, given the Fusion Sentinel’s price, is very impressive.

As you might expect, the Fusion Sentinel doesn’t hang about in terms of performance. The Windows Vista’s Experience index returned of a score of 5.9, which means there isn’t a weak link when it comes to the CPU, memory, graphics, gaming graphics and hard drive.

The PCmark05 score of 9,369 is also pretty impressive, putting it just outside the top 10 fastest systems we have tested – not bad for a system costing under £700.

Powering the graphics side of the PC is an Nvidia Geforce 8800GT, which has 512MB of dedicated GDDR3 memory. Interestingly, although the system comes with an Nvidia card, the motherboard supports rival AMD’s Crossfire technology, so if you wanted to upgrade the graphics to a dual-card system you would have to replace the 8800GT or switch the motherboard. However, the 8800GT is certainly a good bang-for-your-buck card, giving an overall 3Dmark05 score of 17,895 and an equally impressive 13,822 in 3Dmark06.

All of this is built into a black Coolmaster Dominator CM-690 case, which gives you plenty of room to work inside should you want to add or change the components. Despite having four cooling fans, including those for the CPU and graphics card, the Fusion Sentinel is pretty quiet – it’s not by any means silent, but neither is it obtrusively noisy. There is also a spare 120mm fan mount in the bottom of the case should you feel the need for more cooling.

Once inside the case, Chillblast’s attention to detail sees all the cabling tied up and tucked away. The Dominator CM-690 helps in this respect as the power supply is mounted at the bottom of the case, so only the eight-pin 12v power cable stretches across the motherboard.

The PSU is a Thermaltake TR2-500, 500watt unit, so there is plenty in reserve. However, if you’re thinking about upgrading the graphics to something more serious you may need to think about investing in a PSU with a bit more grunt.

Although it’s by no means the fastest PC we’ve seen, at under £700 Chillblast has done a great job with the Fusion Sentinel.

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