DinoPC Predator Extreme 3570K OC Review (4.7GHz i5 3570K / GTX 670 OC)

DinoPC‘s Predator Extreme 3570K OC gaming system is an ultra-fast, aesthetically-pleasing and user-friendly machine. Combining an Intel Core i5 3570K processor with Gigabyte's class-leading GTX 670 provides the foundation for a formidably powerful system.

The system comes heavily-overclocked, courtesy of DinoPC's engineers. A praiseworthy 1.3GHz (1.1GHz for retail samples) speed boost has been provided to the Core i5 3570K making it a frighteningly fast quad core CPU. Gigabyte's GTX 670 is factory-overclocked, augmenting the GPU's already remarkable gaming performance.

Not once did the Predator Extreme drop below 50 FPS in any game, throughout our testing. Considering the fact that we were repeatedly making use of the highest possible image quality settings and a 1920 x 1080 resolution, this is an commendable feat.

High-quality 2560 x 1600 gaming is certainly a possibility with the DinoPC Predator Extreme gaming system.

Productivity is also an area in which DinoPC's product shines. 16GB of Corsair Vengeance memory, Crucial's outstanding M4 SSD and a faster-than-anticipated 2TB ‘Green' hard drive from Seagate, offer the exceptional performance required when not gaming.

A swift 22 second boot time and rapid file transfers will keep most users happy when using the Predator Extreme as their day-to-day system.

An ever-growing importance on the enthusiast and gaming scenes, attractiveness is a characteristic that the Predator Extreme possesses in abundance. Based around the Arctic White variant of Corsair's gorgeous Carbide 500R, DinoPC has created, by far, one of the cleanest system builds that this editor has ever seen or had the pleasure of working with.

Thoughtful touches such as tucking away the fan headers and concealing front panel cables don't go unnoticed; they speak leaps and bounds for a company's quality.

The Predator Extreme isn't a faultless system, though. Noise is an issue when using the Corsair H100's ‘Performance' mode due to the loud 2600 RPM fans. Switching to the unit's ‘Balanced' fan speed mode limited the 2600 RPM beasts to 2000 RPM, decreasing the load/gaming acoustic output by a noticeable 4.3dbA. The impact on CPU temperature was only 3°C increase, too. We would advise DinoPC to make use of the Corsair H100's ‘Balanced' fan speed setting, rather than the louder ‘Performance' alternative.

Using both the ‘Balanced' fan speed mode and a lower CPU Core voltage of 1.375V, load temperature of the i5 3570K decreased by 2°C in comparison to the default configuration of ‘Performance' mode and 1.400V VCore. By itself, the 0.25V Core voltage reduction decreased CPU temperature by 4°C and had no effect on system stability. DinoPC should take note and make the necessary tweaks.

A 64GB SSD is on the border of sensible for a modern gaming system. With games such as Battlefield 3 demanding over 15GB of storage, the M4's 46.6GB of free space will rapidly diminish. A preferable configuration would be to decrease the storage drive's size to 1.5TB, and increase the SSD to a 90/96 or 120/128GB model. This change shouldn't warrant an increase in the system's price, either.

Another small negative comes from the quantity of installed memory. 16GB kits consisting of 2x 8GB DIMMS aren't cheap, but have yet to prove their worth in today's gaming environments. 8GB of RAM is still plenty for a large majority of users, especially gamers. There is, however, the option to ‘downgrade' to 8GB of 1866MHz memory, removing £52.90 from the system's price. This money could be put towards a larger, or extra, SSD that is of more use to a primarily-gaming system.

As much as we'd like to criticise the Carbide 500R's ability to securely house its installed drives, the issue remains Corsair's fault, not DinoPC's. As we pointed out earlier in the review, DinoPC should now be aware of this potentially-problematic issue and work towards some type of solution. They could ship the drives separately, use more protective padding to reduce movement during transit or employ a completely different case. The Carbide 500R is an excellent chassis, but the drive bays need some careful protection for shipping.

Available for £1,249 and customisable to your preference, the DinoPC Predator Extreme 3570K OC is a competitively-priced, formidable gaming system. Buying the components separately from Overclockers UK would cost just over £1,300, and that's without the guaranteed overclock. This makes the system good value, although it does meet stiff competition from Palicomp's Alpha Pulse gaming system.

Making use of a great Z77 motherboard, 16GB of Corsair memory, an overclocked i5 3570K processor and Gigabyte's GTX 670 OC graphics card, modern games have met their match in the DinoPC Predator Extreme 3570K OC system.

Pros:

• Excellent gaming performance.
• Fast for general usage.
• High overclocks.
• Attractive and tidy build.
• Plenty of storage.
• Good value.
• SLI capability.
• 3 year PromoCare warranty.

Cons:

• Loud CPU cooler when using the default ‘Performance' mode.
• 64GB SSD will fill quickly.
• Corsair 500R has the potential for damage to occur during shipping.

KitGuru says: A powerful, attractive and competitively-priced gaming system that is well-worth its £1,249 fee.

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