OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming System Review

1. Introduction2. Overclockers Prodigy Arctic Gaming System3. OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming System (Super High Res Gallery)4. Testing Methodology and Configuration5. Synthetic: PCMark 76. Synthetic: 3DMark Vantage7. Synthetic: 3DMark 118. Synthetic: Unigine Heaven Benchmark9. Synthetic: SiSoft Sandra10. Synthetic: Cinebench R11.5 64 bit11. Synthetic: SSD Testing12. Image Quality: HQV Benchmark 2.013. Real World: 3D Rendering14. Real World: BluRay Playback15. Real World: Flash HD Playback16. Real World: HandBrake 9.517. Gaming: Alien v Predator18. Gaming: Total War Shogun 219. Gaming: F1 201220. Gaming: Dirt Showdown21. Gaming: Max Payne 322. Technical: Thermal Performance23. Technical: Acoustics Performance24. Technical: Power Consumption25. Closing Thoughts26. View All Pages

The Bitfenix Prodigy has proven one of the most popular enthusiast cases, when we reviewed it in June this year it took our top award. Building on the success of the Prodigy, Overclockers UK decided to devote a whole gaming range to the Mini ITX wondercase. Today we are looking at the higher specified Prodigy Arctic Gaming system from Overclockers, with a starting price around a thousand pounds.

Overclockers have a huge following in the UK – they sell a plethora of components and they also build their own systems. While purist enthusiast users will surely look horrified, there are plenty of people who don't have the time, or skill set to build their own own gaming rig.

The company offer a variety of configurations which you can see over here. If you opt of the free software, operating system and are happy with a low profile HD5450 then the asking price drops to £980.00. Not really a ‘Gaming system' but perfectly suited for high definition media duties.

Our configuration today includes the high end KFA2 GTX680 LTD OC V2 graphics card and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT OEM for £1,463.99 inc vat.

System Specification

• Case: Bitfenix Prodigy Mini ITX Case – White
• Power Supply: OCZ ZS 750W PSU
• CPU: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz Ivybridge Processor overclocked to a staggering 4.20GHz
• Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 mini ITX Motherboard
• Cooler: Antec 920 Kuhler CPU Cooler
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
• Hard Drive: OCZ Agility 3 240GB SSD & 1TB HDD
• Graphics Card: Choice of DX11 Compatible Graphics Cards
• Sound: High Definition 7.1 Onboard Sound Card
• Optical Drive: LG Blu-Ray Reader / DVD±RW Drive – OEM

The OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming System arrives in a modest sized box with FRAGILE tape along the top.

OCUK build the system and place it back into the Prodigy case box. They also include the graphics card and motherboard box with all the accessories.

The Prodigy Arctic chassis is a beautiful design, almost like a miniature version of one of the earlier Apple G4/G5 cases. I was surprised that OCUK didn't put their own badge on the front of the case however. For those interested, we have already thoroughly analysed this case in a stand alone review which you can read over here.

Along the top of the case is the optical drive, in this case an LG Blu-Ray Reader / DVD±RW Drive. Everything is colour coordinated.

Bitfenix have cut a vent into the side panel which helps airflow over the confined components inside.

On the right-hand side of the case there are Power On and Reset buttons, as well as 2 x USB3.0 ports, a microphone and headphone socket. There are no vents on this side of the case.

Underneath the case is a filtered air intake position, for the power supply. We noticed some marks on the lower chassis, but we would assume this machine has been circulated and that the surface damage occurred due to rough handling.

The rear of the system, complete with missing screw on one of the side panels. This would verify that this case has been moving around for many weeks before reaching us. A large 120mm fan takes position at the top of the rear of the case.

The motherboard is to be mounted horizontally so the I/O panel is positioned to accommodate this. The BitFenix Prodigy also has 2 PCI slots, potentially allowing for a graphics card and sound card to be fitted.

Removing the side panel is straightforward, exposing the components within. The system build is neat enough, considering the limited physical space.

The motherboard is mounted horizontally, with the liquid cooler and fan positioned at the rear of the case. We noticed this build uses the Coolit Liquid cooler, although the specification list on the OCUK website lists the Antec 920 H20 Cooler. Both are equally matched however. The inclusion of high grade, Corsair gaming memory with white heatspreaders is an added bonus. The white PCB of the KFA2 GTX680 graphics card can be seen from this position.

OCUK are using the ASRock Z77E-ITX motherboard, which is one of our highest scoring MINI ITX motherboards of all time. You can read our standalone review here.

The OCZ Agility 3 240GB SSD & 1TB HDD are stored vertically in a drive bay at the front of the case. A 120mm intake fan is positioned at the front of the case, close to the drive bay.

We would like to add that we received a OCZ Vertex 4 128GB drive with our review sample, which was slightly confusing. You can spot this if you look closely in the pictures above.

The other side panel can be removed easily enough, exposing the three fan cooler of the KFA2 GTX680 LTD OC V2. Underneath is the OCZ ZS 750W power supply.

If this graphics card is too expensive, there are a variety of options available, as shown above.

On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later.

The OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming System scores a bonus point for a minimal software install. The company leave the choice of software completely in the hands of the end user, apart from the basic driver installation routine.

We noticed immediately that the 1TB mechanical drive wasn't showing in Windows 7. So we formatted within the Disk Management software panel.

It is worth pointing out that this 1TB hard drive can not be removed without causing a problem. The Overclockers UK system builders have placed the system boot partition on this drive, even though the OCUK Prodigy Arctic ships with Windows 7 installed on the Solid State Drive. This is a fairly common mistake and if the mechanical drive is removed (or fails over time) then the system will not post.

An overview of the system in CPUz and GPUz. The Core i5 3570k processor has been overclocked to 4.2ghz and the memory is configured to 1,600mhz with 9-9-9-24 1T timings. There is an Intel HD4000 graphics processor built into the Intel chip.

OCUK have also installed the KFA2 GTX680 OC, running at 1,150mhz core and 1,500mhz memory (6Gbps effective). This GPU is powerful, with 2GB of GDDR5 connected via a wide 256 bit interface. The GTX680 has 1,536 unifed shaders and 32 ROPS.

We compare some of the synthetic tests against a mixture of desktop and mobile processors.

Validation of the OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming System is available here.

Comparison Systems (for specific synthetic test compares):
Intel E5 2687W x 2
Motherboard: Asus Z9 PE-D8 WS
Coolers: Corsair H80 x2
Memory: 64GB Kingston Predator 1,600mhz 9-9-9-24 1T
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory).
Power Supply: Seasonic 1000W Platinum Modular
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Lian Li X2000FN
Monitors: Dell U3011, 3x Ilyama ProLite E2472HDD
Boot Drive: Corsair 240GB Neutron GTX SSD
Secondary Drive: Corsair 240GB Neutron SSD

Intel E5 2660
Motherboard: Gigabyte X79S-UP5-WIFI
Cooler: Corsair H100
Memory: 16GB G.Skill ARES 2,133mhz @ 9-11-10-28
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory).
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Lian Li X2000a
Boot Drive: Intel 510 120GB
Secondary Drive: Patriot 240GB WildFire

Intel i7 3960X EE
Motherboard: Asus P9X79 WS WorkStation
Cooler: Corsair H100
Memory: 8GB Corsair Dominator GT8 2400mhz memory
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory).
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Cooler Master Cosmos 2
Monitors: Dell U3011, 3x Ilyama ProLite E2472HDD
Boot Drive: Crucial C300 128GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 240GB Pyro SE

Intel i7 3820
Motherboard: ASRock Extreme4-M
Cooler: Intel reference cooler
Memory: 8GB Corsair GTX8 @ 2133mhz
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: Lian Li PC60
Monitors: Dell U3011/La Cie 730
Boot Drive: Crucial C300
Secondary Drive: Patriot Pyro SE 240GB

AMD FX 8150 Black Edition
Processor: AMD FX 8150 Black Edition
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB)
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3
Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire

Intel Core i7 990X
Processor: Intel Core i7 990x
Cooler: Corsair H100
Motherboard: Gigabyte G1 Assassin
Memory: Kingston HyperX 6GB
Drives: Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Chassis: Antec Twelve Hundred

Core i7 970 @ 4.6ghz
Graphics: Sapphire HD7970 6GB Toxic Edition (1,200mhz core 1,600mhz memory).
Cooling: Coolit Vantage
Motherboard: MSI X58A-GD65
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT
Power Supply: Corsair AX1200
Memory: 6GB ADATA @ 2133mhz 9-10-9-32
Storage: Kingston SSDNow V+ 512GB Gen 2 SSD (Storage) / Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB (OS boot)

Intel Core i7 2700k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2700k
Cooling: ThermalTake Frio OCK
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard
Chassis: Silverstone Raven 3.
Power Supply: Corsair 850W.
Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory
Storage: Intel 80GB SSD (boot) / Patriot Wildfire 120GB SSD.

Intel Core i7 2600k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2600k
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty Z68 Professional Gen 3
Cooler: Intel XTS-100H
Memory: ADATA 1600mhz DDR3 8GB (2x4GB)
Power Supply: Thermaltake Toughpower 850W
Boot Drive: Intel 510 SSD 250GB

Intel Core i5 2500k
Processor: Intel Core i7 2500k
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z68AP-D3 Z68 Motherboard
Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer Xtreme Rev.2 CPU Cooler
Memory: Corsair 1600mhz memory 8GB (2x4GB)
Power Supply: Corsair 850W.
Boot Drive: Patriot Pyro 120GB SSD.

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Processor: AMD Phenom II X6 1100T
Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FXA-UD7
Cooler: Noctua NH D14
Memory: G-SKill Ripjaws 1600mhz 8GB (2x 4GB)
Power Supply: ADATA 1200W
Chassis: SilverStone Raven 3
Boot Drive: Intel 40GB SSD
Secondary Drive: Patriot 120GB WildFire.

Software:
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
PCMark 7
Cinebench 11.5 64 bit
FRAPS Professional
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11
Cyberlink MediaEspresso
HQV Benchmark V2.
Super Pi
MaxxMem
Atto Disk Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
HQV Benchmark 2.0
SiSoft Sandra

Games:
Max Payne 3
Total War Shogun 2
F1 2012
Dirt Showdown
Alien V Predator

Technical Monitoring and Test Equipment:
Asus USB BluRay Drive
Lacie 730 Monitor (Image Quality testing)
Thermal Diodes
Raytek Laser Temp Gun 3i LSRC/MT4 Mini Temp
Extech digital sound level meter & SkyTronic DSL 2 Digital Sound Level Meter
Nikon D3X with R1C1 Kit (4 flashes), Nikon 24-70MM lens.

Game descriptions are edited with courtesy from Wikipedia.

PCMark 7 includes 7 PC tests for Windows 7, combining more than 25 individual workloads covering storage, computation, image and video manipulation, web browsing and gaming. Specifically designed to cover the full range of PC hardware from netbooks and tablets to notebooks and desktops, PCMark 7 offers complete PC performance testing for Windows 7 for home and business use.

The overall score of 5,783 points is very healthy indeed, indicating the well balanced configuration.

Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings.

A very impressive overall score, with the overclocked Core i5 3570k and GTX680 generating some fantastic figures. The overall score of almost 43,000 points indicates excellent Direct X 10 gaming performance.

3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading.

After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.

If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page.

The graphics score is fantastic, 11,469 points. The overclocked processor also scores 8,091 points in the Physics test. The overall score of 10,361 points is very high indicating very strong Direct X 11 gaming performance. We will look at this later in the review when we test some of the latest Direct X 11 games.

Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand.

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable:

• Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render
• Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux
• Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems
• Multicore CPU support
• Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles)
• Powerful C++ API
• Comprehensive performance profiling system
• Flexible XML-based data structures

We use the following settings: 1920×1080 resolution. Anti Aliasing off. Anisotrophy 4, Tessellation normal. Shaders High. Stereo 3D disabled. API: Direct X 11.

The GTX680 is a powerhouse graphics card when dealing with Direct X 11 and Tessellation, and the overall score of 90.4 frames per second is very strong indeed.

SiSoftware Sandra (the System ANalyser, Diagnostic and Reporting Assistant) is an information & diagnostic utility. It should provide most of the information (including undocumented) you need to know about your hardware, software and other devices whether hardware or software.

Sandra is a (girl’s) name of Greek origin that means “defender”, “helper of mankind”. We think that’s quite fitting.

It works along the lines of other Windows utilities, however it tries to go beyond them and show you more of what’s really going on. Giving the user the ability to draw comparisons at both a high and low-level. You can get information about the CPU, chipset, video adapter, ports, printers, sound card, memory, network, Windows internals, AGP, PCI, PCI-X, PCIe (PCI Express), database, USB, USB2, 1394/Firewire, etc.

Native ports for all major operating systems are available:

• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x86)
• Windows XP, 2003/R2, Vista, 7, 2008/R2 (x64)
• Windows 2003/R2, 2008/R2* (IA64)
• Windows Mobile 5.x (ARM CE 5.01)
• Windows Mobile 6.x (ARM CE 5.02)

All major technologies are supported and taken advantage of:

• SMP – Multi-Processor
• MC – Multi-Core
• SMT/HT – Hyper-Threading
• MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, SSE 4.1, SSE 4.2, AVX, FMA – Multi-Media instructions
• GPGPU, DirectX, OpenGL – Graphics
• NUMA – Non-Uniform Memory Access
• AMD64/EM64T/x64 – 64-bit extensions to x86
• IA64 – Intel* Itanium 64-bit

A good showing from the modest, overclocked Core i5 3570k, positioned slightly below mid way in our processor graphs.

CINEBENCH R11.5 64 Bit is a real-world cross platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. MAXON software has been used in blockbuster movies such as Spider-Man, Star Wars, The Chronicles of Narnia and many more.

CINEBENCH is the perfect tool to compare CPU and graphics performance across various systems and platforms (Windows and Mac OS X). And best of all: It’s completely free.

Even though this is a lower cost processor, at 4.2ghz it shows some grunt and would be perfectly capable for some medium demand rendering tasks. The final score of 6.63 points is good, and almost matches the previous generation Core i7 2600k, which is a quad core hyperthreading capable design (4+4).

Crystalmark is a useful benchmark to measure theoretical performance levels of hard drives and SSD’s. We are using V3.0 x64. We use this program to test the onboard Solid State Drive.

As we mentioned earlier in the review, OCUK are meant to ship a 240GB OCZ Agility 3 drive with their Prodigy Arctic Gaming system, but for some reason we received a 128GB Vertex 4 – which is faster, but obviously half the capacity.

The results below therefore are published with this caveat.

These scores are good, averaging around 450 MB/s and 413 MB/s in the sequential read and write test respectively.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.

These scores are good, if a little inconsistent throughout, with variance between sizes. As we said however, this smaller Solid State Drive is not supplied if you buy this system direct from OCUK.

HQV Benchmark 2.0 is an updated version of the original tool and it consists of various video clips and test patterns which are designed to evalute motion correction, de-interlacing, decoding, noise reduction, detail enhancement and film cadence detection.

There are two versions of the program, standard definition on DVD and high definition on Bluray. As our audience will be concentrating on HD content so will we.

This has a total of 39 video tests which is increased from 23 in the original and the scoring is also up from a total of 130 to 210. As hardware and software gets more complicated, the software has been tuned to make sure we can thoroughly maximise our analysis.

Read our initial analysis over here.

	KFA2 GTX680
Dial	4
Dial with static pattern	5
Gray Bars	5
Violin	5
Stadium 2:2	5
Stadium 3:2	5
Horizontal Text Scroll	3
Vertical Text Scroll	5
Transition to 3:2 Lock	5
Transition to 2:2 Lock	0
2:2:2:4 24 FPS DVCAM Video	5
2:3:3:2 24 FPS DVCam Video	5
3:2:3:2:2 24 FOS Vari-Speed	5
5:5 FPS Animation	5
6:4 12 FPS Animation	5
8:7 8 FPS Animation	5
Interlace Chroma Problem (ICP)	5
Chroma Upsampling Error (CUE)	5
Random Noise: Sailboat	5
Random Noise: Flower	5
Random Noise: Sunrise	5
Random Noise: Harbour Night	5
Scrolling Text	5
Roller Coaster	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Bridge Traffic	5
Text Pattern/ Scrolling Text	5
Roller Coaster	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Bridge Traffic	5
Luminance Frequency Bands	5
Chrominance Frequency Bands	5
Vanishing Text	5
Resolution Enhancement	15
Theme Park	5
Driftwood	5
Ferris Wheel	5
Skin Tones	5
Total	192

The hardware scores 192 points out of a possible 210 which is excellent.

V2011 is the first release of 3DStudio Max to fully support the Windows 7 operating system. This is a professional level tool that many people use for work purposes and our test will show any possible differences between board design today.

Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 software offers compelling new techniques to help bring designs to life by aggregating data, iterating ideas, and presenting the results.

Streamlined, more intelligent data exchange workflows and innovative new modeling and visualization tools help significantly increase designers’ creativity and productivity, enabling them to better explore, validate, and communicate the stories behind their designs.

Major new features:

• Slate: A node based material editor.
• Quicksilver: Hardware renderer with multithreaded rendering engine that utilizes both CPU and GPU.
• Extended Graphite Modeling Toolset
• 3ds Max Composite: A HDRI-capable compositor based on Autodesk Toxik.
• Viewport Canvas toolset for 3D and 2D texture painting directly in the viewport
• Object Painting: use 3D geometry as ‘brushes’ on other geometry
• Character Animation Toolkit (CAT): now integrated as part of the base package
• Autodesk Material Library: Over 1200 new photometrically accurate shaders
• Additional file format support: includes native support for Sketchup, Inventor
• FBX file linking
• Save to Previous Release (2010)

We created a new 8200×3200 scene and recorded the time for the hardware to finalise the render.

A final time of under 7 minutes is really impressive, especially considering the modest price point of the i5 3570k. The overclock helps reduce the time.

Our good friends at Cyberlink kindly supplied the software for our BluRay and conversion tests.

Cyberlink PowerDVD 12 is one of the finest solutions for the BluRay experience on Windows and we found this software to work perfectly with this chipset. We tested with the new Bluray Disc of ‘The Road’.

No problems handling high definition bluray discs, averaging 7.1 percent CPU time.

Many people using this system will be enjoying Flash related content so we feel it is important to test with some of the more demanding material available freely online.

Flash HD doesn't cause a problem for this system, demanding an average of 8 percent CPU time.

Handbrake is a fantastic free program which we wanted to include to confirm findings with Media Espresso, earlier in the review. HandBrake is an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows.

We used the latest V 0.9.5 for testing today across all platforms. We encoded an DVD.MPG file.

A demanding test which works best when you can throw more than 4 cores at all. Still the final results aren't bad at all.

Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today.

To test the cards we used a 1080p resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on. We use this with most of our graphics card testing so results are comparable throughout reviews.

The KFA2 GTX680 OC LTD ED V2 is a powerful graphics card and the final results are very impressive, averaging 108 frames per second.

Shogun 2 is set in 16th-century feudal Japan, in the aftermath of the Ōnin War. The country is fractured into rival clans led by local warlords, each fighting for control. The player takes on the role of one of these warlords, with the goal of dominating other factions and claiming his rule over Japan. The standard edition of the game will feature a total of eight factions (plus a ninth faction for the tutorial), each with a unique starting position and different political and military strengths.

We use the built in STEAM benchmark with this game, so you can compare directly against your own hardware.

The system is powerful enough to handle this demanding Direct X 11 engine, even at high 1080p settings. The experience is very smooth at both settings.

F1 2012 is a video game developed by Codemasters. It is based on the 2012 Formula One season, and is the sequel to F1 2010 and F1 2011. It is the fourth Formula One game developed by the Codemasters studios after the company renewed its licence to develop the official games of the series. It was announced on March 18, 2012, co-inciding with the first race of the 2012 season. The game features all twelve teams and twenty-four drivers competing in the 2012 season (except for mid-season changes), as well as the twenty circuits and Grands Prix — including the brand new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas — included in the championship.

We configure the game to maximise the image quality settings, enabling 16x CSAA and the ‘Ultra' in game profile.

This game really does look fantastic with a high level of AA (8x or 16x). With 16 x CSAA enabled, the game is smooth as silk and a joy to play. Full marks from the OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming system.

Dirt Showdown is the latest title in the franchise from Codemasters, based around the famous Colin McRae racing game series, although it no longer uses his name, since he passed away in 2007.

We configure the game to maximise the image quality settings, enabling 16x CSAA and the ‘Ultra' in game profile.

This engine is particularly demanding although the system still manages to maintain smooth frame rates at these very high image quality settings. Some people may like higher frame rates, so a drop to 8x Anti Aliasing would prove beneficial to the overall experience.

Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter in which the player assumes the role of its titular character, Max Payne. Max Payne 3 features a similar over-the-shoulder camera as its predecessors, with the addition of a cover mechanic, while also retaining much of the same run-and-gun style of gameplay. Max Payne 3 also marks the return of bullet-time in action sequences, for which the franchise is notable. In bullet-time it is possible to see every bullet strike an enemy in detail. New to the series is a “Last Stand” mechanic, which gives the player a grace period after losing all health during which time the player may kill the enemy that wounded them in order to continue playing, however this mechanic is only usable if the player has one or more bottles of painkillers in their possession.

We set the Direct X 11 game engine to 4 times MSAA and 16 times anisotropic filtering. The total memory demand from the KFA2 GTX680 is 1,421MB.

In a similar fashion to Dirt Showdown, Max Payne 3 is a very demanding game, especially when configured to Direct X 11 with AA enabled. At these tough settings, the OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming system maintains smooth frame rates, averaging almost 60 fps.

Our room environment is held at 23c, which is a comfortable temperature for most people. We measure temperatures of the processor, memory, motherboard and graphics card when idle, and under load.

Idle results are measured when the system is resting at the desktop. After 20 minutes the results are recorded. CPU load results are measured when tasked with Cinema4D. Gaming results are measured when loaded with Crysis.

The Coolit liquid cooler handles the overclocked temperatures well, peaking at under 50c when loaded with Cinema4D.

The KFA2 GTX680 OC LTD peaks at 77c when gaming – this rises to 84 when loaded with the synthetic Furmark stress test. The fan has to spin quite high to compensate within such a diminutive chassis, and we will measure noise emissions shortly.

We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the chassis and 4 foot from the ground with our Extech digital sound level meter to mirror a real world situation.

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 take off/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

The system is audible, even when idle. The fans generate a fair bit of noise with an annoying ‘hum' noticeable from even a modest distance. When loaded, the fans spin up dramatically, emitting over 36 dBa of noise. The CPU cooler fan isn't too bad, but the graphics card within such a confined space is clearly heard.

When synthetically stressed the noise levels are very annoying. Part of the problem is that the KFA2 GTX680 LTD ED OC V2 needs more airflow, placed behind a sealed side panel with no vents or fan flow isn't ideal.

I wouldn't be happy with the noise levels from this system long term and would need to experiment with different fan combinations and perhaps even cut a hole in the side panel to improve the airflow.

We used a calibrated meter to measure the power at the wall. No monitors were factored into the readings. The system power drain was measured in the following states:

Idle: when resting at the desktop.
load: when primed with Cinebench R11.5 64 bit. Only the processor is stressed.
Gaming Load: running the ‘combined' test in 3dMark 11. Processor and graphics card are stressed.

The OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming system only demands 71 watts when idle, rising to 127 watts when all four cores are loaded to 100%. The KFA2 GTX680 OC LTD ED V2 demands the most power as we would expect, increasing total system demand to just under 300 watts.

We have been singing the praises of the Bitfenix Prodigy chassis since we reviewed it in June this year. The case is attractive, well built and ideal for space restricted environments. It is also designed with a certain amount of flair, which has attracted the eye of the enthusiast gamer.

When OCUK announced their new range of gaming systems incorporating this diminutive case, we were interested in how they would approach the system build. As a business decision it made sense for them to focus on the Prodigy, especially as it has proven so popular with such a wide audience.

In regards to this specific gaming range, OCUK are offering a wide range of discrete graphics cards, from the entry level MSI HD5450 to the flagship Asus GTX690. This upgrade option alone will add £675 to the overall system price.

All of these systems are based around the Intel Core i5 3570k processor which OCUK have overclocked to 4.2ghz. This low cost processor has proven very popular for Intel, as it performs well, will overclock easily and doesn't produce a lot of heat. OCUK are liquid cooling the 3570k, and in our testing it peaked at just under 50c when loaded. Commendable results.

This review system included a fast OCZ solid state drive and 1TB mechanical drive, a combination which has been proven to work well for many system builders over the last year. This pairing offers both lightning fast boot times and plenty of storage space for important documents and images.

The choice of ASRock Z77E-ITX Mini ITX motherboard is inspired. We previously rated this product as the finest Mini ITX motherboard on the market, and our opinion hasn't changed. Our testing highlighted complete stability when overclocked, which is exactly what a system builder demands when selling to the end user. A lower failure and return rate means less man power dealing with RMA issues. More importantly, it also means less issue for you, the customer.

There is little to fault with our OCUK review system, although my only concern is also sadly one that I can't ignore. Under load this system does emit a lot of noise, and even when idle it is clearly heard – the rotational tone of the Xigmatek fan mounted on the radiator is irritating as there are some vibrational emissions in the mix.

I would personally need to swap out the fans in this case for higher grade models and look into a way of reducing the GTX680 noise. If I was building this system myself, I would probably select a GTX660Ti with the intention of resolving this problem.

The Prodigy case in my opinion has never been designed to handle such a high end graphics card and would benefit from venting holes cut into both side panels, not just one. This is worth bearing in mind when you configure the system. Unfortunately I would be very unhappy with the noise levels and couldn't live with this system on a regular basis, certainly not for gaming anyway.

In closing, this is a fantastic system, which is well built and sure to appeal to a wide audience. Unless you can deal with a lot of noise however under load from a high end graphics card, we would recommend you look at a larger chassis for a dedicated high end ‘gaming' system. Otherwise, a few modifications to the case and a new selection of higher grade fans may improve the situation.

You can spec out your own system at this page on the Overclockers UK website.

Pros:

• Looks beautiful.
• OCUK have opted for ‘white' components in our system. looks great!
• competitively priced.
• good build quality.
• small footprint.

Cons:

• can get very noisy.

Kitguru says: An eye catching system. Our review sample emitted a lot of noise when gaming however.

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