Aria GLADIATOR i5-Predator GTX review

This PC was provided to us as a base PC system with a variety of internal and external upgrade options, contact the manufacturer to get the exact specification you require

The Aria Gladiator i5-Predator GTX is £650 in its base configuration, and Aria offers upgrades such as a more powerful graphics card, an SSD system disk and a 24in monitor. Unlike other PCs we’ve reviewed with multiple configurations, you’ll only get the upgrade prices we’ve quoted if you buy them as part of a complete system. You can still buy the components individually if you want them, but you save £119 on Aria’s usual prices by buying them all at once.

The basic system has an Intel Core i5-4670K, connected to a liquid cooler. The processor has been overclocked to 4.3GHz and achieved an excellent overall score of 134 in our benchmark tests. You also get a 2GB MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti OC Boost graphics card, which managed a slightly jerky frame rate of 24.5fps in Crysis 2 at 1,920×1,080 and Ultra quality and a smooth 44fps at Extreme quality. Due to a driver conflict with this model of Nvidia graphics card, the GTX 650 Ti wouldn’t run our Dirt Showdown graphics test.

If you want to turn the PC into a real gaming powerhouse, the upgraded system comes with a 2GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 graphics card, which managed a blistering 63.3fps in Dirt Showdown and 42fps in Crysis 2, both at Ultra quality.

The PC’s motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3. It has two PCI-E x16 slots, one of which is free, two PCI-E x1 slots, one of which us blocked by the graphics card, and two free PCI slots, giving it plenty of capacity for expansion cards. It’s also worth noting that the second x16 slot actually runs at x4 speed, and also shares bandwidth with both x1 slots. This means that if you put a graphics card in this slot, the x1 slots will both stop working. The motherboard also has six SATA3 ports and four memory slots. Two of these are occupied by 4GB memory modules running at 1,866MHz.

The motherboard’s backplate has four USB ports, a PS/2 port for a mouse or keyboard and four USB3 ports, as well as a Gigabit Ethernet port and six 3.5mm stereo ports which can be used for up to 7.1 analogue surround sound. There are also two USB3 ports on the case’s front panel, alongside the usual 3.5mm mic and headphone ports.

We particularly like the PC’s Corsair Carbide 200R case. Rather than having a large bank of 3 1/2in drive bays running all the way up the front of the chassis, there are just four 3 1/2in bays, with another four 2 1/2in bays above them for SSDs. Above that, there’s some free space which makes it easier to fit larger graphics cards, with room for their cables. Finally, at the top you’ll find three 5 1/4in drive bays for optical drives. The case doesn’t have much soundproofing, but it’s attractive, sturdy and the system as a whole isn’t very noisy. If you have the upgraded £900 version of the system, one of the 2 1/2in bays is occupied by a 120GB SSD system disk, while all versions of the PC have a 1TB hard disk and a DVD-RW drive.

For an extra £156 you can have a Benq RL2455HM LED monitor. It’s a nice big 24in display with a matt finish, and it has great image quality, with accurate colours and no unwanted tints. Our calibration tests backed this up, showing the monitor as covering 93.1% of the sRGB colour gamut. The screen didn’t do as well in our contrast tests, though, with a measured ratio of just 195:1. This showed in our darker test photos, where there was a lack of detail in darker areas.

The PC doesn’t come with a mouse or keyboard, but Aria can supply you with a Microsoft Desktop 400 set for £15 or, if you want to splash out on something a bit more responsive, a mechanical Corsair K65 keyboard and M40 mouse for £70 and £45 respectively.

This is an excellent system, even though Aria doesn’t provide particularly flexible upgrade options; the PC is definitely the best value if you choose to upgrade the graphics card and storage and to buy a monitor with the PC, rather than pick and choose. The specified monitor’s poor contrast ratio is also a mark against the PC, despite the display’s large size. If you don’t want any upgrades, the £650 base system isn’t as cheap as some, but it’s very powerful and has plenty of room for expansion. The lack of flexibility in the PC’s optional upgrades will frustrate those who wish to pick and choose, though, so we prefer the Chillblast Fusion Kestrel overall.