CyberPower Infinity Hades review

CyberPower’s Infinity Hades is strangely named, considering the blue surround on the case’s front and the three case fans lit by blue LEDs. However in terms of performance, the Infinity Hades is most definitely red-hot, with an Intel Core i5-750 processor overclocked from 2.67GHz to 3.2GHz, and a blisteringly fast ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card. Those worried about the dangers of overclocking should note the three year warranty that CyberPower provides.

Those three fans, as well as a large Cooler Master CPU fan, ensure that the inside of the case is kept cool, and they are surprisingly quiet. CyberPower has lined the bottom of the case, and small parts of the side panels, with sound-dampening foam, but it’s not really necessary, as even with the case open the sound is hardly distracting.

All the cabling inside the case is tidily bundled and routed, and there are plenty of free slots for disks and drives. There are also two free PCI slots, including a fast PCI-E x16 slot, but sadly there are only two memory slots, so to upgrade to the maximum 8GB of RAM you’d have to sacrifice the existing RAM. Expansion ports on the outside aren’t much better: there are enough USB ports, but no eSATA or FireWire ports.

Multimedia is well catered for, with a full set of 7.1 surround sound outputs, and an optical S/PDIF audio output. The graphics card has HDMI, DVI and VGA ports, so we were a bit disappointed to find the monitor only supported a VGA input. It’s an unusual display – instead of a stand, the bottom of the screen rests on what looks like a long carrying handle. To balance it, you fit a plastic phallus to the rear of the case, and adjust the tilt of the screen by screwing or unscrewing its rubber-tipped knob.

Despite the VGA connection, we found the display to be crisp, with vibrant colours. The backlight was a bit uneven and dull, but a slight red cast made images feel warmer. The Full HD 1,920×1,080 resolution is great for watching movies or playing games, and will let you tile application windows side-by-side.

A frame rate of 71.2fps in Call of Duty 4 is impressive, and even in Crysis the Infinity Hades managed a steady 36fps at our test resolution of 1,680×1,050. At its native 1,920×1,080 resolution it still got a playable 32fps. The Radeon 5770 is probably the best value gaming card on the market at the moment, and a great choice.

Most PCs ship with a poor keyboard and mouse, and are often the first things you’d upgrade. CyberPower has included a comfortable Logitech wireless set, which has the advantage of only using one USB port. The mouse has a prominent wheel with a light action and side-to-side scrolling, and the buttons were also light. Unlike budget mice, it has some weight to it which gives you a better feeling of control. The keyboard is similarly stylish, and although the keys don’t have much bite, they have a firm base which provides reasonably good feedback for touch-typists.

Overall the Infinity Hades is a decent performer, and it’s well-made. It’s let down by the limited potential to add more memory and a lack of input ports, and although we liked the Full HD monitor, we’d have preferred one with a digital input. On a purely cosmetic note, it doesn’t have the visual impact of Palicomp’s Ice Blast 750OC-22 or Eclipse’s Matrix I75R577 either. What is does have is a three year warranty, however, so if you want a powerful PC as well as peace of mind, the Infinity Hades is the best choice.