Palicomp Phoenix i5 Nitro review

At the top of the PC are two USB ports, an eSATA port and a panel that slides away to reveal standard internal SATA data and power connectors, ready to slot in an internal hard disk. The motherboard’s back panel is home to eight USB ports – two of them USB3 – along with two eSATA III ports, a Firewire port and a pair of PS/2 ports. Audio sockets comprise six 3.5mm analogue stereo ports and both optical and co-axial S/PDIF outputs. An additional backplate provides another two USB3 ports.

The PC comes with a 24in Samsung B2430 monitor, which is nicely designed and does the job, although we noticed uneven backlighting that produced a bright white line along the bottom bezel when we viewed dark scenes. The keyboard and mouse are a generic wireless set from Labtek. They feel a bit cheap but are still comfortable. A compact set of Logitech S220 2.1 speakers is similarly inexpensive, but produces a pleasingly well-rounded sound. The warranty is a basic one-year affair.

The Phoenix i5 Nitro is powerful, well built and comes with a large display. However, the Wired2Fire Hellspawn XFire comes with an even bigger monitor and better graphics card.