Novatech Realm Pro review

With its dark grey case, the Realm Pro doesn’t look particularly special.

It’s the biggest PC on test and, thanks to tool-free screws, its components are easy to access. A large duct on the side panel helps to funnel heat generated by the processor, while a rear case fan aids the circulation of air.

Despite the large case, the components are a little cramped inside, with one end of the graphics card sitting right over a SATA port. In effect, the graphics card also writes off the two spare PCI slots: it sits directly over one slot, and placing a full-size PCI card in the other would block the graphics card’s fan, which could increase the temperature inside the case.

Novatech has opted for an AMD processor and 4GB of RAM. Instead of a quad-core Phenom, however, it’s chosen a 2.8GHz Athlon X2 7850 Black Edition. This has an unlocked multiplier, making it easy to overclock. Unfortunately for Novatech, it isn’t particularly fast to start with and is much slower than quad-core processors in our video-encoding test.

Thanks to an ATI Radeon HD 4830, the Realm Pro was able to post some decent results in our 3D tests, achieving 47.3fps in Call of Duty 4 at a resolution of 1,680×1,050. Novatech sells the base unit on its own for £447 including VAT, so you can choose your own monitor, but for this review it supplied a 19in Acer display. At the native resolution of 1,366×768, Call of Duty 4 ran at 63.9fps.

We weren’t hugely impressed with the VGA-only display, though. Viewing angles are a little restrictive and text wasn’t as sharp as it is on the Iiyama screen that comes with the Mesh Matrix II TT. We’ve no complaints with the bundled Logitech keyboard and mouse aside from the lack of extra function keys, such as media short cut buttons.

While the processor is a little underpowered, the Realm Pro is still well rounded, thanks to decent 3D performance. The problem for Novatech is that Mesh’s cheaper Matrix has a better monitor, plus a faster graphics card and processor for £33 less.