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Today we are looking at the latest gaming rig from ARIA, a high powered compact system featuring an AMD HD7950 and an overclocked Core i5 3570k. ARIA have decided to use the sexy, diminutive Bitfenix Prodigy case, paired up with a mini-ITX ASUS P8Z77-I Deluxe motherboard. ARIA recently dropped the price from £1,299 inc vat to £1,199 inc vat, but is it a good deal?
The Bitfenix Prodigy has been a popular product since it was launched, targeting the audience who don't want to live with a huge super tower chassis in their living room or bedroom.
Gladiator Punisher Overview:
- AMD Radeon HD7950 3GB
- Core i5 3570K @ 4.3ghz
- 8GB DDR3 memory
- 250GB SSD
- 2TB HDD
- 300MBPS Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth 4.0
- 7.1 Channel HD Audio
- Corsair Water Cooling
- Bitfenix Prodigy
Our review system shipped inside a large box with the Prodigy chassis box inside.
ARIA include the motherboard box with all the accessories and left over components from the build phase. There is also a drive dock bay supplied which they removed from the Prodigy.
The Bitfenix Prodigy is a gorgeous case, predominately white, with black accenting. A very high contrast chassis design which looks very clean. You can read our indepth review of this chassis, over here.
ARIA have installed a DVD rewriter at the top of the case. Not a BluRay player, sadly.
The Prodigy has little handles at the front and back, this makes it very easy to carry around.
Along the side of the Prodigy is a power button, reset switch, headphone and microphone jack and two USB 3.0 ports.
The rear of the case is home to the CPU cooling fan (Corsair liquid cooler in this build). The ASUS Mini ITX motherboard is fully loaded and even has video output if you don't use a discrete graphics card.
When the side door is removed, we can see the HD7950 graphics card, in this build an XFX dual fan model. All of the cabling is well hidden on this side, quite difficult to achieve with a physically small chassis such as this. Underneath we can see the Corsair CX600M power supply. We reviewed this over here, if you want further information.
We removed the other side panel which has cables connected directly to the motherboard. We can get a better look at the Corsair liquid cooler from this side. Many of the cables are routed underneath the motherboard section, hidden out of view from the other side.
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.
Our sample of the ARIA Gladiator Punisher 7950 shipped with Windows 8 installed.
An overview of the hardware via CPUz and GPUz. The Core i5 3570k is overclocked to 4.3ghz and the Corsair DDR3 memory is running at 1,600mhz with 9-9-9-24 timings. The XFX HD7950 is clocked at 925mhz core and 1,250mhz memory (5Gbps effective). AMD’s Tahiti core is built on the 28nm engineering process, equipped with 32 ROP’s/112 TMU’s and 1792 unifed shaders. The 3GB of GDDR5 memory is clocked at 1,250mhz, or 5Gbps effective and is connected via a wide 384 bit memory interface.
We are using the 30inch Dell U3011 for this review today.
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
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
Boot Drive: Crucial C300
Secondary Drive: Patriot Pyro SE 240GB
Intel i5 3570K @ 4.2 – OCUK Prodigy Arctic Gaming System
Motherboard: ASRock Z77E-ITX Intel Z77
Cooler: Coolit Liquid
Memory: Corsair Vengeance White 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit
Power Supply: OCZ ZS 750W PSU
Chassis: Bitfenix Prodigy Mini ITX Case – White
Boot Drive: OCZ Vertex 4 128GB
Secondary Drive: 1TB HDD
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
3DMark
PCMark 7
Cinebench 11.5 64 bit
FRAPS Professional
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11
Cyberlink MediaEspresso
HQV Benchmark V2.
Atto Disk Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
HQV Benchmark 2.0
SiSoft Sandra
Games:
Max Payne 3 (DX 11)
Total War: Shogun 2 (DX11)
Dirt Showdown (DX 11)
Sleeping Dogs (DX 11)
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.
A strong overall score, helped by the inclusion of the fast Solid State Drive.
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.
The system scores 29,102 points which indicates very strong performance with Direct X 10 games.
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 ARIA Gladiator Punisher scores 8,414 points in this benchmark, indicating strong performance with Direct X 11 games as well.
3DMark 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.
Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system.
Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good.To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.
The HD7950 helps push the score to over 6,000 points. The final score of 6,165 points is very healthy and we will see how this translates into real game performance shortly.
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
The system averaged 70.1 frames per second at these high settings.
Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user.
Strong performance in this benchmark, averaging 68.7 frames per second.
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
At 4.3ghz, processor performance is very good, even without hyperthreading. Memory performance also scores well, just over 20GB/s.
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.
The system scores 7.08 points. In real world terms this means it could comfortably handle some heavier rendering duties, although it would make sense to move to the 3770K or a Xeon processor if this is a primary function of the system.
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 storage options in the system.
Performance of the Samsung 840 Solid State Drive is strong, averaging over 540 MB/s read and around 260 MB/s write. The mechanical drive averages around 150 MB/s in both sequential read and write tests.
ATTO results mirror the CrystalDiskMark findings. Performance from the Samsung Drive is excellent and the mechanical hard drive is perfectly suitable for storage duties.
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.
The Intel Core i5 3570k scores well in this real world rendering test, finishing the benchmark in 6 minutes and 47 seconds.
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’.
The system scores well, demanding only 7.2 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.
No performance problems in this test either, averaging just under 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.
The system takes 5 minutes and 41 seconds to complete the encoding task.
CyberLink MediaEspresso 6 is the successor to CyberLink MediaShow Espresso 5.5. With its further optimized CPU/GPU-acceleration, MediaEspresso is an even faster way to convert not only your video but also your music and image files between a wide range of popular formats.
Now you can easily playback and display your favourite movies, songs and photos not just on your mobile phone, iPad, PSP, Xbox, or Youtube and Facebook channels but also on the newly launched iPhone 4. Compile, convert and enjoy images and songs on any of your computing devices and enhance your videos with CyberLink’s built-in TrueTheater Technology.
New and Improved Features
- Ultra Fast Media Conversion – With support from the Intel Core i-Series processor family, ATI Stream & NVIDIA CUDA, MediaEspresso’s Batch-Conversion function enables multiple files to be transcoded simultaneously.
- Smart Detect Technology – MediaEspresso 6 automatically detects the type of portable device connected to the PC and selects the best multimedia profile to begin the conversion without the need for user’s intervention.
- Direct Sync to Portable Devices – Video, audio and image files can be transferred in a few easy steps to mobile phones including those from Acer, BlackBerry, HTC, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Palm, as well as Sony Walkman and PSP devices.
- Enhanced Video Quality – CyberLink TrueTheater Denoise and Lighting enables the enhancement of video quality through optical noise filters and automatic brightness adjustment.
- Video, Music and Image File Conversion – Convert not only videos to popular formats such as AVI, MPEG, MKV, H.264/AVC, and FLV at the click of a button, but also images such as JPEG and PNG and music files like WMA, MP3 and M4A.
- Online Sharing – Conversion to video formats used by popular social networking websites and a direct upload feature means posting videos to Facebook and YouTube has never been easier.
For our testing today we are converting a 4.4GB 720p MKV file (1h:58mins) to Apple Mp4 format for playback on a portable device. This is a common procedure for many people and will give a good indication of system power.
Hardware acceleration is enabled.
The system took 10 minutes and 45 seconds to complete the encoding task. The fastest Intel systems have rated between 7 and 8 minutes. Good results.
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 run the DX11 Graphics High 1080p benchmark, available for this game in STEAM. You can therefore directly compare against your own system. Frame rates are rounded up or down to the nearest digit.
Real in game performance varies substantially across the environments and levels, but we include these results so you can compare directly with your own system. If the game delivers good frame rates with the 1080p benchmark, you can sure it will run well with high image quality settings in game too.
Solid performance, averaging 68 frames per second.
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 configured the game at the ULTRA preset with a 1080p resolution and 8x MSAA.
Dirt Showdown runs well on AMD graphics cards and this system is no exception. It drives 67 frames per second at our given settings, dropping to 48 frames per second a couple of times.
Sleeping Dogs started development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series. As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights.
We are using the highest possible image quality settings at 1080p, including the high resolution texture pack.
This is a very demanding engine, bringing lesser video cards to their knees at these settings. The HD7950 is capable however and manages to maintain playable frame rates at these settings.
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 used the image quality settings, highlighted above. Total video memory demand was 1270MB.
The Gladiator Punisher system averages 45 frames per second, dropping to 35 frames per second in a few of the environmental sections.
The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.
Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes. Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic.
Considering the small chassis, the results are actually very impressive and well within what we would expect.
Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.
Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.
KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
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
The system is reasonably quiet under general conditions, rating between 32.5dBa and 33.4 dBa. Under load, the noise levels rise to 36.8dBa.
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.
Gaming Load: 3Dmark 11 ‘combined test’.
The little system only drains 85 watts of power when idle. This rises to 254 watts under load, which is a very good result.
It is hard not to like the ARIA Gladiator Punisher 7950 system. First impressions are hugely positive because it is built inside the diminutive, attractive BitFenix Prodigy Chassis.
ARIA have placed a high focus on the gaming capabilities of the system by adopting the excellent XFX HD7950 graphics card. This is a custom dual fan solution which doesn't emit a lot of noise and can handle the latest Direct X 11 games at 1080p resolution.
The internal build quality is excellent and the cables have been routed out of sight, underneath the motherboard cage. ARIA have adopted a Corsair builder series power supply and liquid cooler and have overclocked the Core i5 3570k to 4.3ghz for real world speed benefits.
This system is not only great for playing games, but it is perfectly capable of handling moderate rendering duties and video editing.
The Gladiator Punisher isn't the quietest system we have tested, however considering the small chassis and the overclocked configuration, the noise levels are more than acceptable. At idle, the fan noise is barely noticeable, only under load does the Corsair liquid cooler make an impact.
The Mini ITX ASUS P8Z77 I Mini ITX motherboard proved rock solid throughout a week of solid testing, even in this overclocked state.
You will need to be careful if you are ordering this Gladiator Punisher system as ARIA sell several models such as this one, a lower specification version which features the HD7870 LE. The model we tested today is a little more expensive, although ARIA have reduced the price by £100 recently from £1,299.95 inc vat to £1,199.99 inc vat.
Many companies are using small Solid State Drives in their systems, so it is a bonus to see ARIA have included a large 250GB Samsung SSD for the operating system/boot duties and a 2TB mechanical drive to handle storage and backups.
I think this is a first rate system and ideal for an enthusiast user who doesn't want a physically large chassis taking up a lot of room in their house. It is easy to fall in love with the Prodigy chassis, it really does look fantastic.
Pros:
- small physical footprint.
- well built.
- great gaming prowess.
- overclocked CPU helps drive the frame rates.
- reasonably quiet under load.
- SSD and HDD combo works well.
Cons:
- the Mini ITX form factor makes it more difficult to upgrade.
Kitguru says: A compact, well built gaming rig that performs exceptionally well. It also looks great, which we like.
I love that case, but im not generally a fan of mini itx motherboards as they are generally compromises.
Great system, a little expensive for me. but I can see why that would sell well. not so sure on those cheap corsair power supplies however, they are meant to be bad.