Overclockers UK Titan Forcebox VR10 Mini-ITX System Review

1. Introduction2. OCUK Titan VR Box 103. Testing Methodology4. 3DMark Firestrike5. Cinebench R15 & R11.56. Storage Performance7. SteamVR Performance Test8. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (1080p)9. Middle of Earth: Shadow of Mordor (1440p)10. Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor (4K)11. Rise of the Tomb Raider (1080p)12. Rise of the Tomb Raider (1440p)13. Rise of the Tomb Raider (4K)14. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt (1080p)15. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt (1440p)16. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt (4K)17. Grand Theft Auto V (1080p)18. Grand Theft Auto V (1440p)19. Grand Theft Auto V (4K)20. DOOM (1080p)21. DOOM (1440p)22. DOOM (4K)23. Acoustics Performance24. Thermal Performance25. Power Consumption26. Conclusion27. View All Pages

If you are shopping around for a new system in the £1200 range and don't want to compromise on graphics power, then today's review is one you won't want to skip. Today we are looking at the Titan Forcebox VR10 system from Overclockers UK, featuring the brand new GTX 1080. 

The OverlockersUK Titan Forcebox VR10 packs the brand new GTX 1080 Founder's Edition into a Mini-ITX package, resulting in a small but powerful machine that would be at home near your living room TV or up on your desk.

Specifications:

• CPU: Intel Core i5 6400 Skylake Quad Core Processor.
• CPU Cooler: 92mm Tower Cooler.
• Motherboard Chipset: Intel H110.
• Memory: Team Group Elite 8GB (2 x 4GB) 2400MHz DDR4.
• Primary Drive: Kingston SSDNow 120GB Solid State Drive.
• Secondary Hard Drive: 1TB Seagate Hard Drive.
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founder's Edition graphics card
• Power Supply: KOLINK 600W 80Plus Bronze.
• Lighting: Green LED lighting.
• Audio: Onboard 7.1HD Audio
• LAN: Gigabit LAN
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 64Bit.

The OCUK Titan Forcebox VR10 is a Mini-ITX system, using the excellent looking Phanteks Evolv chassis.

 

The front panel I/O consists of a reset button, two USB 3.0 ports and headphone/microphone inputs. The front panel comes off entirely, revealing a dust filter and a single large intake fan, along with some LEDs.

 

Taking off the side panel reveals all of the hardware we have to work with.

As usual, the team at Overclockers UK has done an excellent job creating a clean build, with all wires routed optimally, with nothing obstructing air flow. There is no exhaust fan on the rear of the case but given the efficient nature of the Intel Core i5 6400, this shouldn't really have an impact on CPU temperatures.

The secondary hard drive is hidden underneath the power supply shroud but the Kingston SSD is proudly on display.

 

This system comes equipped with a fairly standard 92mm air cooler, with six heat pipes and plenty of heatsink fins to help disperse of any heat efficiently.

For the graphics card, the OCUK Titan Forcebox VR10 comes with a GTX 1080 Founder's Edition, which is a very powerful GPU for an £1,100 system. The reference design here has been tweaked a bit, making room for a vapour chamber and exhausting all heat directly out of the back of the card.

An efficient PC needs an efficient power supply to go with it, so OCUK have included a KOLINK KL-600, an 80Plus Bronze rated 600 watt power supply that will provide more than enough power for this system.

As we already mentioned, cable management is excellent in this build. Behind the rear panel, you will find all of the cables grouped together as closely as possible and tied down, making it easy for the side panel to slide on and off.

Finally, we have the rear I/O, which offers just enough inputs, with two additional USB 3.0 ports and four more USB 2.0 ports. There is also Ethernet, DVI and a PS2 port for keyboard compatibility.

There is often a lot of debate surrounding the value that goes into a pre-built system and while parts can often be found slightly cheaper, there is a lot to be said for build quality. It is clear from this system that OCUK ensures a very high standard when it comes to presentation and cable management.

The OCUK Titan Forcebox system is built using an Asus H110 motherboard and an Intel Core i5 6400 running at 2.7GHz as standard. The GTX 1080 also runs at its stock clocks with 5000MHz on the memory and 1607MHz on the core with a 1733MHz boost.

 

In the images above you can see all relevant CPU and GPU information. I have also included a GeForce Experience screenshot so that you can see which driver version we used throughout our testing.

The Windows 10 install is clean with no bloatware to be found. Many system builders will sneak an anti-virus trial or some other unwanted software onto a system before it ships out, so Overclockers UK get a thumbs up for avoiding that entirely.

For our tests today we have chosen a variety of benchmarks to stress just about every part of this machine. We will also be benchmarking several games, all of which you can see below:

Software tests: 

• 3DMark Firestrike
• Steam VR Performance Test
• Cinebench R15 and R11.5
• CrystalDiskMark
• Atto Disk Benchmark

Games:

• Grand Theft Auto V
• Rise of the Tomb Raider
• The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt
• DOOM
• Shadow of Mordor

3DMark Firestrike is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance. For our benchmarks today we will be using Firestrike (1080p) Firestrike Extreme (1440p) and Firestrike Ultra (4K).

As you can see from our results, this system works well with 3D workloads, scoring well across all tests. You can see detailed breakdowns of all of the results in the screenshots above.

CINEBENCH is a cross-platform testing suite that measures hardware performance and is the de facto standard benchmarking tool for leading companies and trade journals for conducting real-world hardware performance tests. With the new Release 15, systems with up to 256 threads can be tested. CINEBENCH is available for both Windows and OS X and is used by almost all hardware manufacturers and trade journals for comparing CPUs and graphics cards.

Cinebench primarily puts stress on the CPU. As you can see, the Intel Core i5 6400 isn't setting any performance records but given that this is a gaming machine, rather than a workstation, that shouldn't matter too much. The Core i5 should still be plenty for every day tasks and gaming.

We tested both the primary and secondary drives in the Titan Forcebox using CrystalDiskMark and ATTO to get a decent idea of read and write speeds alongside other performance characteristics.

  

Both of the drives found in the OCUK system offer up decent performance. On the Kingston 120GB SSD, we get sequential read speeds of 436 MB/s and 162 MB/s on the write speed.

It's not the fastest SSD on the market but it will get the job done just fine. Due to the ITX H110 motherboard used in this system, upgrading to a M.2 or even a PCIe SSD won't be possible due to the lack of support.

  

The SteamVR Performance Test measures your system's rendering power using a 2-minute sequence from Valves Aperture Robot Repair VR demo. After collecting the data it determines whether your system is capable of running VR content at 90fps and whether VR content can tune the visual fidelity up to the recommended level. For machines that are not VR Ready the tool can help determine whether capabilities are bound by Graphics Card, CPU, or both.

I don't personally have a HTC Vive or an Oculus Rift to benchmark any virtual reality titles. However, going by the SteamVR Performance Tool, the GTX 1080 has more than enough power to drive VR at the highest quality and frame rates.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a third-person open world video game, where the player controls a ranger by the name of Talion who seeks revenge on the forces of Sauron after his family, including his wife, are killed. Players can travel across locations in the game through parkour, riding monsters, or accessing Forge Towers, which serve as fast travel points.

Shadow of Mordor is still a great game and the Titan Forcebox clearly handles it with ease.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a third-person open world video game, where the player controls a ranger by the name of Talion who seeks revenge on the forces of Sauron after his family, including his wife, are killed. Players can travel across locations in the game through parkour, riding monsters, or accessing Forge Towers, which serve as fast travel points.

At 1440p, the Intel Core i5/GTX 1080 combination still prove more than capable, averaging over 100 frames per second at ultra settings.

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is a third-person open world video game, where the player controls a ranger by the name of Talion who seeks revenge on the forces of Sauron after his family, including his wife, are killed. Players can travel across locations in the game through parkour, riding monsters, or accessing Forge Towers, which serve as fast travel points.

If you are looking to play at Ultra-HD, then this system manages just fine even at Ultra settings, averaging 60 frames per second.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013’s Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story. It uses a Direct X 12 capable engine.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is one of the first DirectX 12 titles to make it into our test suite. The game clearly runs quite well, holding well above 60 frames per second even in the most demanding scenario.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013’s Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story. It uses a Direct X 12 capable engine.

At 1440p, we continue to be impressed, with this system averaging 83 frames per second and managing to stay above 60 at all times.

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013’s Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story. It uses a Direct X 12 capable engine.

Even at 4K resolution, Rise of the Tomb Raider remains playable, though you won't be hitting 60 frames per second with all of the details turned up.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt  is an action role-playing video game set in an open world environment, developed by Polish video game developer CD Projekt RED. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt concludes the story of the witcher Geralt of Rivia, the series’ protagonist, whose story to date has been covered in the previous versions. Continuing from The Witcher 2, the ones who sought to use Geralt are now gone. Geralt seeks to move on with his own life, embarking on a new and personal mission whilst the world order itself is coming to a change.

Geralt’s new mission comes in dark times as the mysterious and otherworldly army known as the Wild Hunt invades the Northern Kingdoms, leaving only blood soaked earth and fiery ruin in its wake; and it seems the Witcher is the key to stopping their cataclysmic rampage. (Wikipedia).

The Witcher 3 is an excellent game but it is also a demanding one. Today, we will be testing with the full Ultra preset with Hairworks on. It is worth noting that we are also running the latest 1.21 patch with the Blood and Wine expansion installed, which made some additional graphical and performance improvements.

At 1080p, the Titan Forcebox system managed to average just over 80 frames per second. The minimum frame rate also stayed well above 60 at all times, resulting in a perfectly smooth experience.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an action role-playing video game set in an open world environment, developed by Polish video game developer CD Projekt RED. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt concludes the story of the witcher Geralt of Rivia, the series’ protagonist, whose story to date has been covered in the previous versions. Continuing from The Witcher 2, the ones who sought to use Geralt are now gone. Geralt seeks to move on with his own life, embarking on a new and personal mission whilst the world order itself is coming to a change.

Geralt’s new mission comes in dark times as the mysterious and otherworldly army known as the Wild Hunt invades the Northern Kingdoms, leaving only blood soaked earth and fiery ruin in its wake; and it seems the Witcher is the key to stopping their cataclysmic rampage. (Wikipedia).

The Witcher 3 is an excellent game but it is also a demanding one. Today, we will be testing with the full Ultra preset with Hairworks on. It is worth noting that we are also running the latest 1.21 patch with the Blood and Wine expansion installed, which made some additional graphical and performance improvements.

Stepping things up to 1440p and the GTX 1080 still holds strong, averaging 70 frames per second and not really dipping below the 60 frames per second sweet spot.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an action role-playing video game set in an open world environment, developed by Polish video game developer CD Projekt RED. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt concludes the story of the witcher Geralt of Rivia, the series’ protagonist, whose story to date has been covered in the previous versions. Continuing from The Witcher 2, the ones who sought to use Geralt are now gone. Geralt seeks to move on with his own life, embarking on a new and personal mission whilst the world order itself is coming to a change.

Geralt’s new mission comes in dark times as the mysterious and otherworldly army known as the Wild Hunt invades the Northern Kingdoms, leaving only blood soaked earth and fiery ruin in its wake; and it seems the Witcher is the key to stopping their cataclysmic rampage. (Wikipedia).

The Witcher 3 is an excellent game but it is also a demanding one. Today, we will be testing with the full Ultra preset with Hairworks on. It is worth noting that we are also running the latest 1.21 patch with the Blood and Wine expansion installed, which made some additional graphical and performance improvements.

Ultra-HD/4K is where this system begins to struggle a little bit with all of the settings cranked up. We still don't have a perfect 4K/60fps GPU yet for people wanting to play with all of the eye-candy. However, if you turn a few settings down, this system should get pretty darn close.

Grand Theft Auto V is an action-adventure game played from either a first-person or third-person view. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, players may freely roam the open world. Composed of the San Andreas open countryside area and the fictional city of Los Santos, the world is much larger in area than earlier entries in the series. It may be fully explored after the game’s beginning without restriction, although story progress unlocks more gameplay content.

 

We test Grand Theft Auto V using maximum settings, with the exception of Anti-Aliasing due to its heavy impact, particularly at Ultra-HD, which doesn't really require AA.

Grand Theft Auto V is a very well optimised title but it can still be difficult to drive at maximum settings. At 1080p, the Titan Forcebox has no problem delivering a smooth experience, averaging 105 frames per second.

Grand Theft Auto V is an action-adventure game played from either a first-person or third-person view. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, players may freely roam the open world. Composed of the San Andreas open countryside area and the fictional city of Los Santos, the world is much larger in area than earlier entries in the series. It may be fully explored after the game’s beginning without restriction, although story progress unlocks more gameplay content.

 

We test Grand Theft Auto V using maximum settings, with the exception of Anti-Aliasing due to its heavy impact, particularly at Ultra-HD, which doesn't really require AA.

At 1440p, the system still maintains high frame rates at all times.

Grand Theft Auto V is an action-adventure game played from either a first-person or third-person view. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, players may freely roam the open world. Composed of the San Andreas open countryside area and the fictional city of Los Santos, the world is much larger in area than earlier entries in the series. It may be fully explored after the game’s beginning without restriction, although story progress unlocks more gameplay content.

We test Grand Theft Auto V using maximum settings, with the exception of Anti-Aliasing due to its heavy impact, particularly at Ultra-HD, which doesn't really require AA.

Jumping up to 4K, GTA V gets close to 60 frames per second but can't quite get there. Turning down a couple of settings should make it easily achievable.

DOOM is a science fiction horror first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is a reboot of the Doom series and is the first major instalment in the series since the release of Doom 3 in 2004 and the fourth title in the main series of games. The game is played entirely from a first-person perspective, with players' taking the role of an unnamed marine, as he battles demonic forces from Hell that have been unleashed by the Union Aerospace Corporation on a future-set colonised planet Mars.

DOOM doesn't have its own built-in benchmark so for our tests today I will be benching the first Hell Spawner room in the game's campaign mode. This is the same place we used for the DOOM PC Game Analysis as it is easily repeatable and offers an accurate representation of what performance to expect throughout the game.

DOOM is an excellent title graphically and clearly, the GTX 1080 has no issues driving it at high frame rates consistently at 1080p.

DOOM is a science fiction horror first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is a reboot of the Doom series and is the first major installment in the series since the release of Doom 3 in 2004 and the fourth title in the main series of games. The game is played entirely from a first-person perspective, with players' taking the role of an unnamed marine, as he battles demonic forces from Hell that have been unleashed by the Union Aerospace Corporation on a future-set colonized planet Mars.

 

DOOM doesn't have its own built-in benchmark so for our tests today I will be benching the first Hell Spawner room in the game's campaign mode. This is the same place we used for the DOOM PC Game Analysis as it is easily repeatable and offers an accurate representation of what performance to expect throughout the game.

At 1440p, performance remains solid with the system managing to hover close to the 100 frames per second mark at all times.

DOOM is a science fiction horror first-person shooter video game developed by id Software and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is a reboot of the Doom series and is the first major instalment in the series since the release of Doom 3 in 2004 and the fourth title in the main series of games. The game is played entirely from a first-person perspective, with players' taking the role of an unnamed marine, as he battles demonic forces from Hell that have been unleashed by the Union Aerospace Corporation on a future-set colonised planet Mars.

 

DOOM doesn't have its own built-in benchmark so for our tests today I will be benching the first Hell Spawner room in the game's campaign mode. This is the same place we used for the DOOM PC Game Analysis as it is easily repeatable and offers an accurate representation of what performance to expect throughout the game.

As with our other game benchmarks today, we can't quite hit 60 frames per second using Ultra settings at 4K. However, you do get pretty close- turn down a couple of settings and you will hit it with ease.

We measure acoustics performance using a Decibel Meter. We take noise measurements with the system running idle at the desktop and then once again under load in Grand Theft Auto V running at 4K.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20–25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refrigerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

Overclockers UK have done a fantastic job with this system in terms of acoustic performance. At idle, this PC can barely be heard and then even under gaming load, the level of noise is not intrusive.

We use CPUID HWMonitor to measure the maximum CPU and GPU temperature after 30 minutes in Grand Theft Auto V running at 4K. To measure idle system temperatures we leave the system running at the desktop for 30 minutes before taking the reading.

As was the case with acoustics, thermal results are also fairly good. The graphics card in this system uses Nvidia's reference design cooler, so hitting 83 degrees Celsius is fairly typical, the processor on the other hand does not exceed 40 degrees under load, which is excellent.

We test power consumption at the socket with a calibrated meter while the system is idle and under load while running Grand Theft Auto V at 4K. This will accurately show how much power the system performs under a typical gaming load. The monitor is not factored in to the power draw, just the power drawn by the system itself.

Intel's Skylake processors are notoriously power efficient, as are Nvidia's new Pascal graphics cards. Pairing the two together results in a system that just barely hits 260 watts at its peak.

The Overclockers UK Titan Forcebox VR10 is an excellent system, the name might be a little over the top but when it comes down to it, this is a well spec'd PC built to the highest standards. Priced at £1,211 (with Windows) for the configuration we tested here, this system will be more than capable of delivering high frame rates at 1080p and 1440p- 4K is a little trickier but if you lower some settings, you should get a smooth experience.

When I first looked at the system specifications, I was a little concerned that the Intel Core i5 6400 would hold the GTX 1080 back at high resolutions like 4K. However, in my testing I found that not to be the case at all. When it comes to gaming, this CPU is surprisingly capable.

Our main man Zardon reviewed the GTX 1080 Founder's Edition at launch several weeks ago and came to the conclusion that it is one hell of a card. Now that I have personally spent some time with it, I can fully agree with that conclusion, the GTX 1080 is the best GPU around right now — and one that I wouldn't necessarily expect to be featured in a £1200 system.

There is one criticism I have with the overall spec, I would have liked to have either seen some Power Supply options in the system configuration tool on the website, or I would have liked to have seen a better known brand used by default. I know that the team at Overclockers UK undertake extensive testing on the parts they select for pre-builds but still, seeing a recognised brand would be preferential.

Aside from that, I had no issues with the TeamGroup Elite RAM used, nor the ASUS motherboard. For storage drives, this system uses the tried and true SSD boot and HDD storage configuration, the system comes with a Kingston 120GB SSDNow by default but you can upgrade all of the way up to a 1TB Samsung Evo. As for the hard drive, a 1TB model should be enough for a fairly decent library of games but you can upgrade to a 3TB HDD if you need more space.

If you are after a pre-built system and want the very best in graphics, then I have no problem highly recommending the Titan Forcebox VR10- It's fast, stable and VR/4K capable. You can buy and upgrade this PC from Overclockers UK, HERE.

Pros:

• Excellent cable management.
• Phanteks Enthoo Evolv case.
• A GTX 1080 in a £1200 system is good value.
• Well balanced specs.
• Cool and quiet.

Cons: 

• A more recognisable Power supply brand would have been welcomed.

KitGuru Says: At just over £1200, the OCUK Titan Forcebox VR10 is a fantastic system that delivers where it counts. Aside from being VR capable, this system can easily drive the latest titles smoothly at 4K. 

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