PC Specialist Infinity A10 review

For its Infinity A10, PC Specialist has created a well-balanced PC that excels in pretty much every task you can throw at it.

When building on a budget, the choice of processor is incredibly important, so we were pleased to see an AMD A10-5800K CPU and Asus F2A55-M LE motherboard. It’s a great combination of high quality components.

Combined with the 8GB of RAM, this PC managed an overall score of 65 in our benchmarks. Generally speaking, PCs with Intel processors at this price will do better, but this PC is still capable of running any task.

The real Ace in its sleeve is that the A10-5800K processor also has excellent integrated graphics. In our Dirt Showdown laptop test, run at a resolution of 1,280×720, the Infinity A10 managed 48fps. It couldn’t manage the same test at a resolution of 1,920×1,080 until we dropped the detail settings: going to medium quality gave us a frame rate of 36.8fps. Anyway you cut it, this processor’s capable of playing games.

Should you want more performance, you may want to upgrade to a decent dedicated graphics card at some point. There’s plenty of scope to do so, as the motherboard has two PCI-E x16 slots, one of which actually runs at x4. This means you can run CrossfireX with two graphics cards or one graphics card and the CPU’s onboard graphics.

For other expansion, there’s a PCI slot and a PCI-E x1 slot. The x1 slot will be blocked by the fans of most graphics cards. There are only two memory slots, each occupied by a 4GB module for a total 8GB of RAM, which is plenty for most users.

A single 1TB 3.5in drive is screwed vertically into position at the front of the case, while the externally facing 3.5in bay is occupied by a memory card reader. This means that there’s no standard drive cage, so you’ve got less expansion space, but there’s enough room inside the case to fit a large graphics card, such as an AMD Radeon HD 7950. Above the heard dis are two 5.25in bays, one of which is occupied by a DVD-RW drive.

The hard disk and disc drive take up two of the motherboard’s six SATA3 ports, while the memory card reader is connected to two of the motherboard’s three USB headers. The card reader can handle a variety of common formats including SDXC, MicroSD and Memory Stick. It also has a USB port, bringing the total number on the front panel to three. The case very basic, but this quiet system doesn’t need much sound proofing and all the internal edges are well finished. There’s only a 350W power supply, though, so if you have any particularly ambitious upgrades planned, you may want to invest in a more powerful one.

At the back of the case are six USB ports, but it’s disappointing that there are no USB3 ports. You also get a PS/2 port and a Gigabit Ethernet port. There are HDMI, DVI and VGA outputs for the on-chip graphics, which supports up to three displays at once. There’s both an optical S/PDIF output for digital audio and three 3.5 analogue audio outputs capable of up to 5.1 surround sound. There are also 3.5mm headphone and mic ports the front of the PC.

The system comes with a Logitech K200 keyboard and B110 mouse. Both of these are comfortable and accurate to use. The monitor is an AOC e2250Swda. It’s a matt 21.5in display with even backlighting and excellent contrast. It has DVI and VGA inputs.

Combining one of our favourite budget monitors with a great Trinity processor, all at a low price, the Infinity A10 is a perfect Budget Buy, but the lack USB3 ports is disappointing. If you can stretch a bit further, the Wired2Fire Velocity VX is a better all-round PC.