Chillblast Fusion Jet review

The Chillblast Fusion Jet is a budget PC with an AMD A-series processor that combines capable on-chip graphics with all the processor power the average home user is likely to need. Unusually, given the recent launch of AMD’s new Kaveri processor range, the Jet uses an older Richland model from last year.

Chillblast has opted for a Gigabyte GA-F2A88XM-D3H motherboard, which is better equipped than many of the motherboards we see in budget systems. It has four memory slots, where many other budget PCs make do with two, a PCI slot, a PCI-E x1 slot and two PCI-E x16 slots. Note, though, that the second PCI-E x16 slot actually runs at x4 speed, and that the x1 slot will be blocked by almost any graphics card you install in the full speed x16 slot above it.

You’ve got eight SATA3 ports to play with, so there’s plenty of room to add extra storage. Not that you’ll need it. The PC comes with a massive 2TB SSHD, which is a hybrid drive that combines the low cost, high capacity storage of a standard hard disk an 8GB NAND flash cache. This proved to make a big difference when loading Windows; when compared to a PC with a standard hard disk, the Chillblast could boot Windows in 24s compared to 45s.

The PC has three vacant 3 1/2in drive bays and one empty 5 1/4in bay, the other 5 1/4in bay being taken up by a DVD-RW drive. The drive cages end half-way down the internal bay, giving you around 350mm length in which to install even the most powerful graphics cards in the future, and there’s also a vertical mounting point that’s ideal for an SSD.

The case is compact, attractive and well finished inside and out – it’s a cut above most of those we see at this price. There’s no sound proofing to speak of, but the system is still fairly quiet, despite its whirring PSU fan. There’s only one case fan installed as an exhaust, but there are front and side panel mounting points if you need more airflow.

The processor is an AMD A10-6790K, which is one of the last Richland CPUs to be put out before AMD switched to its new Kaveri chips. The 6790K did well in our benchmarks, with an overall score of 67, making its performance near-identical to that of the newer A10-7700K. However, the 6790K didn’t perform quite as well as the newer AMD processors when it came to 3D gaming. In Dirt Showdown at a resolution of 1,280×720 and High quality, we saw a smooth 44.5fps, but our 1,920×1,080 Ultra quality test showed the older processor’s limitations compared to Kaveri. At this higher resolution the chip produced a frame rate of just 15.5fps. Dropping the quality from Ultra to High produced an average of 29.5fps, but the game still juddered and jerked occasionally, sometimes dropping as low as 23.9fps.

The system is equipped with two 4GB modules of 1,600MHz DDR3 RAM, which serves as your graphics memory as well as your system RAM. 8GB is plenty for most home computing tasks, and two vacant memory slots mean that you can upgrade with ease if you ever need to. Also worth noting is the vacant USB3 header on the motherboard. The case’s front panel ports only use standard high speed USB, so if you invest in a backplate USB3 connector (£8.50 from www.ebuyer.com), you can add a couple more super-speed ports.

Alongside the pair of front panel USB ports, you’ll find mic and headphone ports. There are more audio connectors at the back, including three 3.5mm stereo ports for up to 5.1 analogue surround sound and an optical S/PDIF output to connect to a digital amplifier. There are also six USB ports, two of which are USB3, and a PS/2 port for a mouse or keyboard. The motherboard has a usual range of HDMI, DVI and VGA outputs for the on-chip graphics.

The supplied monitor is an AOC e2250Swda, one of our favourite budget models, which has a good contrast ratio of 854:1 and covers 89.2% of the sRGB colour gamut, as measured by our colour calibrator. Shadowy games look great on this screen, and the display’s matt finish means that you don’t have to worry about unwanted reflections. The monitor isn’t the best available for image editing, but we had no problems with its colour reproduction in our subjective tests.

The keyboard and mouse are also decent. They’re basic Cherry business models, and although the mouse isn’t a particularly comfortable shape, the keyboard feels more responsive than most budget models, with a greater range of vertical movement in the keys.

Although it uses an older processor, the Fusion Jet’s performance in desktop applications is on a par with that of many PCs at the same price with newer AMD Kaveri processors, although it’s not quite as capable when it comes to gaming. If you need lots of storage space for photos or music, then the big, fast 2TB SSHD disk is great, but we prefer the Palicomp AMD Kaveri Evolution with its 24in monitor.