Computer Planet GX-A7700 review

The Computer Planet GX-A7700 is one of a new generation of PCs built using AMD’s Kaveri processors. These socket FM2+ processors are ideal for a general-purpose home computer, as they’re fairly powerful, have an excellent built-in graphics processor and are relatively cheap. The GX-A7700 is a well-built PC, with PSU cables neatly routed through the motherboard tray.

We’re fans of the Corsair Carbide 200R case, which has a pleasing matt internal finish and secure drive bays for up to four external 5.25in devices, four internal 3.5in drives and four internal 2.5in bays. The GX-A7700 is equipped with a DVD-RW drive, 2TB hard disk and 120GB SSD. As ever in such configurations, the SSD serves as your system disk, providing fast boot speeds and a responsive desktop, but you’ll want to keep most of your software and data on the larger hard disk. There are five unused SATA3 ports on the motherboard, so you’ll be able to add more storage in the future.

The Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H motherboard also has two PCI-E x16 slots, the top one running at x16 and the bottom one running at x4, as well as a PCI-E x1 slot and a PCI slot. Sadly, the system doesn’t include a graphics card. If you install one in the PCI-E x16 slot later, you’re almost certain to block the PCI-E x1 slot. There are four memory slots, of which only two are occupied.

With Kaveri, memory speed has an effect on 3D gaming performance, and it’s advisable to populate two slots for optimal performance, which Computer Planet has done here. In our usual Dirt Showdown integrated graphics test, which runs at a resolution of 1,280×720 with 4x anti-aliasing and High quality graphics, the PC produced an average frame rate of 34fps. It failed to produce a playable result at a resolution of 1,920×1,080 with 4x anti-aliasing and Ultra quality graphics, though, delivering a frame rate of just 14.5fps.

The processor is an AMD A10-7700K, which has four processor cores, six graphics processor cores and runs at a base clock speed of 3.4GHz with the ability to boost to 3.8GHz. The PC produced an overall score of 65 in our tests. That’s not the best score we’ve seen from a PC with this processor, but it’s easily good enough for regular, everyday computing. What is exciting is that the GX-A7700 is equipped with a Corsair liquid cooler that can easily diffuse the extra heat generated by an overclocked CPU if your interests lean that way. There’s loads of room for even massive graphics cards, but you may need to upgrade the 450W Corsair power supply if you choose to install a high-end graphics card.