Chillblast Fusion Diablo review

The Asus P8Z77-V LX has three empty PCI slots, as well as two PCI-Express x1 slots, although the double-width HD 6870 obscures the second slot. There’s a second PCI-Express x16 slot, but it only runs in x4 mode if you install a second graphics card. Its 700W PSU should easily power more expansion cards.

In terms of performance, it should come as no surprise that the Fusion Diablo blitzed our multimedia benchmarks, scoring a whopping 144. With four physical processor cores, even heavily multithreaded applications shouldn’t prove a problem. Its graphics performance was equally magnificent, thanks to its 1GB AMD Radeon HD 6870 GPU. It sped through Dirt3 at an average 55fps, and could even play Crysis 2 at 23.8fps. Drop the anti-aliasing and most games should be playable.

Chillblast bundles an Asus VS247H 24in Full HD monitor with the Fusion Diablo, as well as a Logitech KM260 wireless mouse and keyboard set. The matt display helps reduce light reflections and gives colours a muted yet lifelike quality. HDMI, VGA and DVI inputs provide plenty of flexibility, as do the internal speakers.

With one of the highest Ivy Bridge overclocks we’ve seen so far, the Fusion Diablo is definitely powerful, has good graphics performance and lots of I/O ports for your peripherals. We think the Palicomp Alpha Excite is the better buy because of its superior graphics card, but the Chillblast Diablo is a cracking option nonetheless.