Gladiator Computers Studio review

The BitFenix Comrade case feels well-made and is nicely finished inside. The system’s very quiet, partly because of the case’s substantial materials, but also because the only sources of noise are the CPU cooler’s fan and a single rear exhaust fan. You can add a couple of fans behind the front panel if you need greater airflow. The case has a USB and a USB3 port on the front right-hand side, along with the usual 3.5mm mic and headphone ports.

At the back, the motherboard has four USB ports, two USB3 ports and a PS/2 port. There are HDMI, DVI and VGA graphics outputs, an optical S/PDIF audio output and five 3.5mm software-configurable 3.5mm stereo ports for up to 7.1 surround sound. The Studio comes with a Microsoft Wired Keyboard 400 and Basic Optical Mouse v2.0. Both feel a little cheap and plasticky, but are functional and comfortable enough for everyday use. The mouse is a little small but is still comfortable in your hand, but we found the keyboard to be a little unresponsive, with less key travel than we’d like.

The monitor is a 21.5in Benq DL2215. It’s a matt display with rather restricted viewing angles, and we measured its black levels as a poor 0.47cd/m2. Its contrast isn’t too impressive, either, at just 345:1. The screen’s colour reproduction isn’t too bad for a cheap monitor, though: our test device reported it as displaying 88.8% of the sRGB colour gamut. This screen is fine for general desktop work, but isn’t ideal for image editing.

Although invited to submit a system at £500, Gladiator Computers has opted to launch the Studio at the fantastically low price of £420 with a monitor or £380 without. This will go up to £500 for the full system on the 25th of May 2014, so snap this PC up quickly if you want it. Other PCs we’ve tested have better monitors and gaming performance, but none offer quite so much at such a good price as the Studio. It’s a Budget Buy.