Wired2Fire Diablo Ultima review

There’s a small amount of room for expansion on the microATX Asus H81M motherboard, with two PCI-E x1 slots available just below the graphics card. There are also two spare SATA2 connectors; the DVD-RW drive and 1TB Seagate Desktop hard disk both have both been connected to the SATA3 ports. If you choose buy an SSD at a later date, you should move the DVD-RW drive into one of the SATA2 slots so your SSD can take advantage of the higher speeds of SATA3.

There’s no room for extra RAM, as both memory slots have been filled by 4GB sticks. If you want to double your memory to 16GB at a later date, you’ll have to buy two 8GB sticks and ditch your existing memory; 8GB should be enough for most users right now, however.

The rear of the motherboard has two USB3 ports with a further four USB ports while the case has two front-mounted USB ports, one of which is a USB3 connector. There are also three 3.5mm audio jacks at the rear in addition to the two at the front of the case. The graphics card has two DVI outputs as well as single HDMI and DisplayPort connectors, so you’ll easily be able to create multi-monitor setups if you wish.

The bundled LG 22MP55 monitor uses an IPS panel instead of the cheaper TN screens we normally see with lower-cost PCs. It has a pleasing quality to it, with high contrast levels and deep blacks, but colour coverage and accuracy is poor with just 83.6% of the sRGB colour gamut covered by the screen. Colour coverage isn’t everything, though, and if you’re not too fussed about seeing faithfully recreated colours, it’s perfectly adequate.

The bundled Octigen mouse is dinky but agreeable for those with smaller hands, but it doesn’t have any extra buttons. The keyboard, meanwhile, is awful thanks to the tiny backspace key, spongy action and wafer-thin build. You should budget for buying a better keyboard because this one certainly won’t cut the mustard even for the most casual user.

Wired2Fire’s standard warranty is one of the best in the business in terms of parts cover; you get two years of replacement parts and a total of three years labour cover; however, you’ll have to pay for the shipping of the PC back to base after the first month.

The Wired2Fire Diablo Ultima is a great all-rounder with a powerful processor and great mid-range graphics performance. That, in addition to its generous warranty, makes it a great buy. There are PCs with better graphics performance available at this price, such as the Chillblast Fusion Cyborg, but the Wired2Fire Diablo Ultima is unmatched in terms of CPU performance. If you’re looking for something completely different, our list of the best desktop PCs will help.