Cyberpower Gaming Battalion 502 Windows 8 PC Review (FX 4170 / Radeon 7770)

The Cyberpower Gaming Battalion 502 is a good mid-range system that manages to offer playable 1080P frame rates for all but the most demanding of today's games.

Gaming performance of the Battalion 502 is what we would expect from the combination of 4.2GHz AMD FX 4170 CPU and 1GB Radeon HD 7770 GPU. Battlefield 3 was playable at the game's ‘Ultra' image quality pre-set, while Metro 2033's second most demanding – ‘High' – setting created an average frame rate of almost 40 FPS.

Crysis 2 proves a challenging title for low/mid-range hardware with its High Res textures and DX11 settings which are able to bring many medium-performance cards to their knees. The Cyberpower Gaming Battalion 502's stock-clocked 1GB MSI HD 7770 graphics card and FX 4170 CPU weren't able to offer playable frame rates at a 1080P resolution – we had to use 1680 x 1050 to establish a stable gaming experience in Crysis 2.

Productivity and general usage performance is weakness for the AMD-based Gaming Battalion 502. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the quad core's notably high stock frequency of 4.2GHz translates into excellent real-world performance – it doesn't. The system's media conversion time was poor and CPU usage during MKV and Flash HD playback was higher than we would have liked.

Build quality and system aesthetics are worthy of making a gamer pleased to receive their system. Cyberpower's system builders managed to achieve very good cable management from a case which offers limited routing options. The large side panel window and floor-mounted blue cold cathode tube create an eye-catching gaming style that can be halted, if preferred.

Temperatures, noise output and power consumption are all average for a mid-range system such as the Gaming Battalion 502. When a heavy CPU load is applied for an extended period of time, the stock AMD cooler can begin to get irritatingly loud as its fan speed ramps up. A cheap after-market CPU cooler may be worth purchasing, especially if you plan to make use of the unlocked BIOS by giving overclocking an attempt.

Given the system's price range, squeezing a small SSD into the budget would have been very tricky. Unfortunately, users wanting to purchase an solid state drive separately will have to choose their drive wisely or be prepared to face a noticeable SATA 3GB/s-imposed performance drop; the Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 motherboard doesn't offer any SATA 6GB/s ports.

Further component upgrades are limited by the basic 550W power supply built by Artic (no, not Arctic). The unit lacks an 8-pin CPU connector and PCI-E connectivity, unless used with molex adapters. Even drive upgrades are limited with only a solitary SATA and single molex connector spare.

Priced at £499.99, and you can buy from ebuyer here, the Cyberpower Gaming Battalion 502 may offer competitive gaming frame rates, given its sub-£500 price tag, but productivity and general usage performance are lacking in comparison. Performance-enhancing upgrades are also limited by the lack of SATA 6GB/s connectivity and very basic power supply.

As a mid-range gaming system, the Cyberpower Gaming Battalion 502 is actually an acceptable purchase due to its ability to offer playable frame rates, in most games, with demanding settings and a 1080P resolution. Unfortunately, weak productivity and general usage performance as well as a very limited upgrade potential drag down the system's overall rating.

If you are confident at installing an OS, we would opt for a more balanced system such as Aria's Gladiator X6300-HD Piledriver Gaming PC which is around the same price. If you would prefer not to install your own OS, the Cyberpower Gaming Battalion 502 is a system that is worthy of consideration, but only just.

Pros:

• Good gaming performance, even at 1080P with demanding image quality settings.
• Plenty of storage.
• Unlocked motherboard BIOS allows for overclocking.
• Gaming style – side panel window and blue light scheme.

Cons:

• Limited SSD upgrade potential – no SATA 6GB/s ports.
• Very basic power supply will hamper upgrade opportunities.
• Weak productivity performance from the AMD FX 4170 CPU.

KitGuru says: A system that offers good execution for a gaming-only machine, but the weak productivity performance and very limited upgrade potential give it a hard task of competing with similarly-priced options, especially those with faster processors.

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