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Palicomp Ice Blast 750OC-22 review

Palicomp Ice Blast 750OC-22
Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £774
inc VAT

Palicomp's adventurous overclock makes this one of the fastest PCs you can buy, but the lack of a Full HD monitor or a longer warranty means it just misses out on an award.

Specifications

3.8GHz Intel Core i5-750, 4.000000 RAM, 22in 1,680×1,050 display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

This is the first PC we’ve seen from Palicomp, and it gives a great first impression. The CM Storm case has aggressive lines, a large side panel window and a chunky carrying handle, with red highlights and internal LEDs that add a bit of devilry – even the graphics card has red DVI outputs. Palicomp has overclocked the Intel Core i5-750 processor from its stock 2.67GHz to a sizzling 3.8GHz, making it the fastest PC we’ve seen at this price.

We’ve never tested a PC with so many expansion ports and options. For a start, there are a staggering 14 USB ports, with four on a front panel along with an eSATA port, audio sockets and a button that turns off the internal fan LEDs. The rear panel includes another eSATA port, and both optical and coaxial S/PDIF digital audio outputs. Palicomp has fitted an extra header board with two more USB ports and a second FireWire port. Whatever peripherals you own or plan to buy, you’ll be able to plug them in.

Inside the case is much the same story. The bottom-mounted power supply makes access easier, and there are free PCI sockets of each kind, although one PCI slot is blocked by the extra ports mentioned above. There are two free memory slots, and plenty of space for extra hard disks and optical drives. The water-cooling apparatus has a couple of large tubes feeding its fan, but all other cabling is neatly tucked away.

Overclocking your own PC will void your warranty, so having it done for you is the safest bet. The Ice Blast not only has water-cooling, but an impressive array of fans to keep the internal temperature stable (these make quite a lot of noise, but it’s an acceptable low-pitched hum). Be warned however that there’s a button marked “clr CMOS” on the rear panel which, if pressed, will reset the BIOS to default values and clear the overclock.

We weren’t disappointed by the Ice Blast’s performance: an overall score of 166 beats a previous best set by a £1,200 PC. Image editing, video encoding and other high-performance applications will fly along. The ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card breezed through Call of Duty at 72fps, and managed an outstanding 38fps in Crysis. It has two DVI ports as well as HDMI and DisplayPort, so is ideal for a multi-monitor setup.

At this price, you’d expect the output of such a powerful graphics card to be shown off on Full HD (1,920×1,080) monitor, but instead Palicomp has supplied a 1,680×1,050 model. BenQ make some excellent 22in Full HD-capable monitors, but the G2200W isn’t one of them. It’s bright and even, with vibrant, natural colours, and has a matt finish that cuts down on reflections, and Palicomp ships it with a chunky DVI cable. While the lower resolution is still decent, it’s just not what we’d expect for our budget.

Replacing the generic keyboard and mouse might be your first upgrade – the keyboard is spongy and the mouse has no heft – but replacing the monitor is a much bigger investment, and we’d prefer to buy a decent monitor from the start. Compared to Eclipse’s Matrix i75R577 with its 24in, Full HD monitor and 1TB hard disk, the Ice Blast is only marginally faster and doesn’t offer quite as good value, and so it just misses out on an award. It’s still impressive for a first showing, and we look forward to seeing more products from Palicomp.

Basic Specifications

Rating *****
Processor Intel Core i5-750
Processor external bus 190MHz (3GHz QuickPath Interconnect)
Processor multiplier x20
Processor clock speed 3.8GHz
Processor socket LGA1156
Level 1 cache 4x 64KB
Level 2 cache 4x 256KB
Memory 4.000000
Memory type DDR3
Maximum memory 16GB
Motherboard ASRock P55 Pro
Motherboard chipset Intel P55

Ports

USB2 ports (front/rear) 4/10
Firewire ports (front/rear) 0/2
eSATA ports (front/rear) 1/2
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support none
Other ports coaxial and optical S/PDIF output, clear CMOS button

Internal Expansion

Case midi tower
PCI-E x1 slots (free) 1 (1)
PCI-E x16 slots (free) 2 (1)
Free Serial ATA ports 3
Free memory slots 2
Free 3.5in drive bays 4

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Seagate Barracuda (ST3500320NS)
Interface SATA 300
Total storage capacity 500GB
Spindle speed 7,200rpm

Graphics

Graphics card(s) 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5770
Graphics/video ports 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort

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-7241S
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Display

Viewable size 22 in
Screen model BenQ G2200W
Native resolution 1,680×1,050
Response time 5ms
Screen inputs DVI, VGA

Other Hardware

Modem No
Keyboard generic wired keyboard
Mouse HiPoint 3D Optical Mouse

Software

Software included Nero Burning ROM 9
Operating system Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Operating system restore option Windows disc

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £774
Details www.palicomp.co.uk

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