DinoPC Velociraptor 3450 Package review

Performance was commensurate with our Ivy Bridge i5-3540 experience. Running at 3.1GHz, but using Turbo Boost to reach 3.5GHz in certain applications, it scored 103 overall in our multimedia benchmarks. This makes it marginally faster than a previous generation I5-2500K, our current reference processor. Its four cores mean it can easily handle multithreaded applications.

The AMD Radeon HD 7770 was able to handle Dirt3 rather well, managing an average 41fps in our benchmark test. Crysis 2 was a tougher challenge, and it could only manage 20.9fps. If you want to play the latest games in DirectX 11 mode, you may need to lower the resolution to keep frame rates looking smooth.

The AOC i2352Vh monitor that DinoPC includes with the system uses a superb 23in IPS panel with fantastic viewing angles. It has a matt finish that helps eliminate light reflections, as well as VGA, DVI and HDMI inputs. A headphone socket lets you listen to HDMI audio. It’s an excellent budget Full HD monitor. The Logitech keyboard and mouse are very basic, however.

As it uses a microATX motherboard and a multiplier-locked processor, there isn’t huge potential for future upgrades. Even with its excellent monitor and SSD boot disk, we would still recommend the overclocked Palicomp Alpha Excite over the the Velociraptor 3450, but there’s no doubting it’s great package.