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Eclipse Matrix i25z68 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £550
inc VAT

Eclipse's overclocked Matrix i25z68 has a decent set of components and room for expansion, but it's outclassed by similarly priced PCs with bigger monitors and Blu-ray drives

Specifications

4GHz Intel Core i5-2500K, 4GB RAM, 22in 1,920×1,080 display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

The advantage of buying a desktop PC over an all-in-one system or a laptop is that a PC gives you room for expansion, in the shape of drive bays, PCI slots and a wider range of outputs. Compared to most PCs we see, Eclipse’s Matrix i25z68 has more room for expansion, with a total of six PCI and PCI-E slots, 10 drive bays and a good range of outputs.

That’s not to say that it’s incomplete: you also get a fine BenQ 22in monitor, with a Full HD resolution, and it’s powered by the excellent Core i5-2500K processor. The K suffix indicates an unlocked multiplier: Eclipse has used this to boost speed from 3.3 to 4GHz. The Matrix’s overall score of 115 means it’s around 15 per cent faster thanks to this speed hike.

Eclipse Matrix i25z68

The G2220HD monitor won our Best Buy award almost two years ago, but it’s still a top display. Despite its non-LED backlight colours are strong and contrast very good. It’s a shame that Eclipse hasn’t included a DVI cable in the box to take advantage of the digital input, which generally produces a sharper image. Another worry was that the VGA port wasn’t firmly seated against the back-plate of the case, and the entire port assembly felt as if it might snap off from the motherboard if we pressed too hard.

Eclipse Matrix i25z68 Inside

Inside the spacious case, there are five free hard disk bays and three optical drive bays, as well as two PCI slots, three PCI-E x1 slots and one PCI-E x16 slot. The latter is for graphics cards, and there’s room enough for even the longest AMD cards. The 650W power supply should provide enough overhead to handle the extra power requirements. There are also two free RAM slots, so if you wanted to upgrade you wouldn’t have to dispose of the existing DIMMs.

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Basic Specifications

Rating ***
Processor Intel Core i5-2500K
Processor external bus 100MHz (Sandy Bridge DMI)
Processor multiplier x40
Processor clock speed 4GHz
Processor socket LGA1155
Memory 4
Memory type DDR3
Maximum memory 32GB
Motherboard ASRock Z68 Pro3
Motherboard chipset Intel Z68

Ports

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

Internal Expansion

Case tower
PCI-E x1 slots (free) 3 (3)
PCI-E x16 slots (free) 1 (1)
Free Serial ATA ports 4
Free memory slots 2
Free 3.5in drive bays 5

Hard Disk

Hard disk model(s) Samsung SpinPoint F1 HD103SJ
Interface SATA2
Total storage capacity 1,000GB

Graphics

Graphics card(s) Intel HD Graphics 3000
Graphics/video ports VGA, DVI, HDMI

Sound

Sound Realtek HD Audio
Sound outputs 7.1 line out, optical S/PDIF out
Speakers none

Removable Drives

Supported memory cards none
Optical drive type(s) DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Display

Viewable size 22 in
Screen model BenQ G2220HD
Native resolution 1,920×1,080
Screen inputs VGA, DVI

Other Hardware

Keyboard Logitech Deluxe 250 Keyboard
Mouse Logitech B110

Software

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

Buying Information

Warranty one year RTB
Price £550
Details www.eclipse-computers.com

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