Dino PC Sandyvore review

Dino PC’s Sandyvore is a sleek and quiet system built around Intel’s Core i5-2500K processor, a Shopper favourite that automatically makes this PC a processing powerhouse. It’s been overclocked enough to put its overall score of 125 comfortably above our baseline score of 100 for a non-overclocked i5-2500K.

Dino PC has focussed on build quality, with a sturdy case, quiet CPU cooler and virtually silent case fans. Dust filters prevent grit and fluff from being drawn into the case from below, but the side panel’s ventilation holes are wide and do little to reduce either noise or dust. Fortunately, the system only makes a low hum, so noise isn’t a major issue. There are five well-designed internal 3½in bays, an external 3.5in bay for a memory card reader – although there isn’t one fitted – and four 5.25in bays. Four SATA2 and two SATA3 ports make it easy to add extra drives, with two occupied by connections to the DVD re-writer and hard disk.

The Asus P8P67 LE motherboard has two PCI-E x1 slots (one of which is blocked by the graphics card), three PCI slots and a pair of PCI-E x16 slots. One is home to the graphics card, while the other can be used for any PCI-E card. 4GB of RAM is installed in two 2GB modules. Adding further RAM modules could be a pain, as you’ll find have to unbolt the CPU cooler to access one of the two free slots.

The massive 2GB ATI Radeon HD 6950 graphics card is well worth the space, with frame rates of 51.9fps in STALKER and 67.2fps in Crysis. It also supports ATI’s Eyefinity multi-display system for up to four monitors. At the back is a pair of DVI ports, an HDMI port and two mini DisplayPort connectors.

With eight USB ports at the back and four on the front panel, you won’t run out of external connections. Two of the rear ports are USB3. There’s also an eSATA and a Firewire connection. A pair of PS/2 ports lets you connect a mouse and keyboard the old-fashioned way, and 7.1 analogue stereo outputs plus an optical S/PDIF output cater for all your surround-sound needs.

The Sandyvore comes with a BenQ G2420HD monitor, an outstanding widescreen display with a bright backlight and accurate colours. It has an HDMI input as well as the usual DVI and VGA ports, so you can connect a standard Blu-ray player, but it lacks the built in speakers that would make it a viable substitute for a TV. You also get a pair of Creative Inspire T10 stereo speakers. They sound pretty good, with surprisingly solid bass despite the absence of a subwoofer. The wireless Logitech MK300 wireless keyboard and mouse set are basic and the keyboard’s legs feel rather fragile. It’s not the most comfortable keyboard to type on but it’ll do.

The Sandyvore is a powerful PC with a great monitor and a generous three-year RTB warranty, although parts are only covered for the first year. The lack of a Blu-ray drive means that the Wired2Fire Hellspawn XFire is much faster and is a better deal.