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Eclipse Matrix i75R577 review

Eclipse Matrix i75R577
Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £773
inc VAT

A well-made, quiet PC with potential for overclocking, the 24in, Full HD monitor and 1TB hard disk tip the scales in its favour against stiff competition.

Specifications

2.67GHz Intel Core i5-750, 4.000000 RAM, 24in 1,920×1,080 display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Eclipse’s Matrix i75R577 comes in an aggressive-looking case with rounded grilles protecting the empty drive bays and impressive fins running vertically down the front. It contains an Intel Core i5-750 processor with 4GB of RAM and a powerful ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card. We were surprised that Eclipse decided not to overclock the Core i5 as many other manufacturers have done, but although this meant the Matrix i75R577 dropped a few points in our benchmarks, it’s still incredibly powerful.

A HannsG 24in widescreen monitor and Microsoft keyboard and mouse set make up the bundle. The screen is a generous size for the price, and its Full HD 1,920×1,080 resolution is ideal for watching movies or playing games. We found colours bright and natural, but the backlight wasn’t entirely even and images felt slightly washed out. The matt finish on the screen is probably partly to blame for this, but at least you won’t be distracted by reflections.

The keyboard and mouse set are functional but hardly inspiring. The keyboard has spongy keys which have little bite at the top of the stroke and a bouncy action that touch-typists will find frustrating. The mouse has a comfortable shape and a precise, rubberised wheel, but if you like playing games, you’ll probably want to invest in a proper gaming mouse and a keyboard that will take a bit of punishment.

Inside the PC’s case, the first thing we noticed was the stock Intel CPU fan. If you want to try your hand at overclocking (bear in mind you’ll void your warranty), the fan should be your first upgrade. We were amazed however at how quiet it was, considering not only the stock CPU fan but the 60mm fan mounted on the rear 120mm fan bracket. Normally, the smaller the fan, the louder the PC, but this is a notable exception.

Two more 120mm fan mounts in the side panel plus holes for water-cooling equipment establish this case’s pedigree for enthusiasts, and there’s room for another PCI card and a couple more hard disks. Two free RAM slots should suffice for some time to come. Expansion options on the outside of the case include a generous complement of ports including FireWire and eSATA, but there are only eight USB ports, two of which are taken up by the mouse and keyboard.

Even without overclocking the CPU, the Matrix i75R577 managed an impressive 139 overall score in our benchmarks, and managed similar scores in all our tests, so it’s fast whether you’re running a single-threaded application such as image editing, or an application that takes advantage of multiple cores such as video encoding. The processor is also more than powerful enough for gaming, where the bottleneck is more likely to be the graphics chip.

Luckily, ATI’s Radeon HD 5770 is more than capable, storming through Call of Duty 4 at over 70fps and managing a playable 36fps in our demanding Crysis test. It even managed to surpass the magic 30fps in Crysis running at the monitor’s native 1,920×1,080 resolution. It has VGA, DVI and HDMI outputs, giving you great flexibility, and we were pleased to see a DVI cable in the box, which generally gives a crisper image than VGA.

A generous 1TB hard disk should handle most people’s storage needs, and rounds off what is an impressive package. Despite having only six free USB ports and a basic one year warranty, the inclusion of a 24in monitor tips the scales in the Matrix i75R577’s favour, and it wins our Best Buy award.

Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Processor Intel Core i5-750
Processor external bus 133MHz (2,400MHz QuickPath Interconnect)
Processor multiplier x20
Processor clock speed 2.67GHz
Processor socket LGA1156
Level 1 cache 4x 64KB
Level 2 cache 4x 256KB
Memory 4.000000
Memory type DDR3
Maximum memory 16GB
Motherboard Gigabyte H55M-UD2H
Motherboard chipset Intel H55

Ports

USB2 ports (front/rear) 2/6
Firewire ports (front/rear) 0/1
eSATA ports (front/rear) 1/1
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support none
Other ports optical S/PDIF output

Internal Expansion

Case midi tower
PCI-E x1 slots (free) 0 (0)
PCI-E x16 slots (free) 2 (1)
Free Serial ATA ports 2
Free memory slots 2
Free 3.5in drive bays 4

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Samsung SpinPoint F3 HD103SJ
Interface SATA 300
Total storage capacity 1,000GB
Spindle speed 7,200rpm

Graphics

Graphics card(s) 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5770
Graphics/video ports HDMI, DVI, VGA

Sound

Sound Realtek High Definition Audio
Sound outputs 7.1 line out, stereo line out, mic in
Speakers none

Removable Drives

3.5in floppy drive no
Supported memory cards none
Optical drive model Optiarc AD-5240S
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Display

Viewable size 24 in
Screen model HannsG HH241
Native resolution 1,920×1,080
Response time 5ms
Screen inputs VGA, HDMI

Other Hardware

Modem No
Keyboard Microsoft Wired Keyboard 400 v1.0
Mouse Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse v2.1

Software

Software included none
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option Windows disc

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB (first month collect and return)
Price £773
Details www.eclipse-computers.com

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