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Today we look at a new rig from system builder Cyberpower. The Achilles Pro incorporates the latest Intel i5 4690 processor, alongside a Gigabyte GTX780, Gigabyte Z97 Gaming motherboard and a 256GB Plextor PCIe SSD. Cyberpower have decided to adopt the exciting new In-Win 904 case as well in this £1,399 build. Is it worth the money?
For those readers who missed it – Cyberpower are working with KitGuru and Gigabyte to give away this PC! head over to this page.
CyberPower Achilles Pro specification (buy here):
- 5th Generation Intel Core i5 4690 Processor
- Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 3 Mainboard
- 3GB Gigabyte GTX780 Graphics
- InWin 904 Chassis
- 8GB Kingston DDR3 Memory
- 256GB Plextor PCI-E SSD
- Coolermaster Seidon Watercooling
- Corsair 750w Modular PSU
- Windows 8.1
- £1,399 inc vat value
The Cyberpower Achilles Pro ships double boxed and well protected. This is the first time we have had a ‘hands on' with the new InWin 904 chassis. It is not like anything we have seen in recent years, and is almost a throw back to the 1970's when we all had retro hi-fi equipment and smoked glass tables.
I like the look of the InWin 904 case. It certainly stands out in a market filled with very similar looking cases. The rear panel can be removed completely and can be reattached to clean up the appearance and to hide the cables.
Having never used the case before I had to hunt for a few minutes to find the power button. It is positioned underneath the ‘Cyberpower' sticker, alongside 4x USB 3.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks.
The build inside is clean and most of the cables are hidden from view.
Bottom left of the chassis, is the Corsair CX750M power supply – more than sufficient to power the components in this system build.
The Cooler Master Seidon all in one liquid cooler handles the Core i5 4690 processor. The Radiator is mounted at the front of the case, just above the side panel I/O section.
The In-Win 904 case has a front mounted bay section for installation of the hard drives. The 1TB SATA hard drive is housed here.
Cyberpower are using a Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 3 motherboard in this build – along with a Gigabyte GTX780 graphics card. Underneath this, a 256GB Plextor PCI-E Solid State Drive handles OS and boot duties.
The majority of the cables are hidden out of view behind the other smoked glass panel, as shown above.
When powered up – the system glows blue, 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 CyberPower Achilles Pro is built around the latest Core i5 4690 processor, which is locked. Intel will be launching their new ‘K' series range in the coming weeks. This Haswell ‘refresh' processor is clocked at 3.5ghz, with a max turbo frequency of 3.9ghz. It is equipped with integrated Intel 4600 graphics however we will be focusing on the GTX780 today.
The CyberPower Achilles Pro has 8GB of Kingston memory installed. It is running at 1866mhz with 10-11-10-30-2T timings. The Gigabyte GTX780 is clocked at 954mhz, with a boost speed of 1006mhz. The 3GB of GDDR5 memory is clocked at 1,502mhz (6Gbps effective). This is not the newest Ti model so it has 48 ROPS, 192 texture units and 2,304 Cuda cores.
System validation is available over HERE.
We are featuring results today with an Apple 30 inch Cinema HD Display at 2560×1600 resolution and an Asus PQ321QE Ultra HD 4K screen running at 4K 3840 x 2160 resolution.
Room ambient was held at 23c throughout testing.
Comparison Systems (for specific synthetic test compares):
AWD Ignis Aqua 290X 250D Mini ITX PC
Case: Corsair 250D Mini ITX
Power Supply: XFX XTR 650W Gold Certified Power Supply
CPU: Intel Core I5 4670K Overclocked @ 4.0Ghz (Liquid Cooled with XSPC Raystorm)
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z87N-Wifi Motherboard
RAM: 8GB DDR3 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit
Hard Drive: Seagate 1TB 7200RPM Hard Drive
SSD – Samsung 840 EVO 120GB Solid State Drive
Graphics Card: Radeon R9 290X (Liquid Cooled with R9 290x Block)
Sound: Realtek 7.1 High Definition Channel Sound (On-Board)
Optical Drive: N/A
Cooling: Custom XSPC Watercooling
Hazer Mini Gaming PC
Case: Bitfenix Colossus M Micro ATX Case – Black
Power Supply: Corsair VS450 450W Power Supply
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H81M-S2PV Motherboard
Processor: Intel Core i3 4130 3.4GHz Dual Core Processor
Graphics: Nvidia GTX 750 Ti 2GB Graphics Card
Audio: Onboard 7.1 Surround Sound Audio
Optical Drive: 24x DVD Re-Writer
SSD: Kingston SSDNow V300 60GB SATA3 6Gbs Solid State Drive
HDD: 1TB SATA3 6Gbs Hard Drive
Memory: Kingston HyperX 8GB 1600MHz Memory
Mesh Elite Mini Gamer Plus:
Power Supply: 750W Cooler Master GX RS-750, 85% Eff’, 80 PLUS Bronze, SLI/CrossFire.
Motherboard: MSI Z87I WIFI – Mini-ITX Motherboard Socket 1150.
Processor: i7-4770K Quad Core Processor (3.5GHz, 8MB Cache) @ 4.2ghz.
Memory: 16GB DDR3 1866MHz Memory (2x8GB) Kit.
Graphics: 4GB AMD Radeon™ R9 290 – 4GD5 Gaming Series Graphics.
SSD: 240GB SSD – Solid State Drive.
HDD: 2TB SATA III 6Gb/s, 7200rpm, 64MB Cache, 8ms Hard Drive.
PCSpecialist Vanquish 230X:
Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K @ 4.2GHz
Memory: 16GB Kingston HyperX BEAST @ 2400MHz
Motherboard: ASUS Z87-A Motherboard
SSD: 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K SSD
HDD: 1TB SATA III 6Gb/s HDD
Graphics: 3GB AMD Radeon 280X Graphics
Cooler: CoolerMaster Seidon 120M Liquid Cooler
Power Supply: Corsair TX650M Modular PSU
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 8
Cinebench R11.5 64 bit
Cinebench R15
FRAPS Professional
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra 11
Cyberlink MediaEspresso
Atto Disk Benchmark
CrystalDiskMark
SiSoft Sandra
Games:
Tomb Raider
Wolfenstein: The New Order
Total War: Rome 2
GRID 2
All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.
Some game descriptions edited with courtesy from Wikipedia.
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 GTX780 may have been replaced by the Ti version in the high end, but the older model still scores well. The overall score indicates excellent performance with older Direct X 10 titles.
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.
A good first indicator of overall gaming performance, which looks excellent.
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.
Futuremark say “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.”
Strong results in the latest Direct X 11 benchmark from Futuremark – scoring 8,449 points in the intensive Fire Strike test.
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 settings shown above, at 1920×1080 and 2560×1600.
No problems powering this benchmark at both 1080p and 1600p although we did get the occasional microstutter (shown at 1080p in our benchmark result).
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.
We use the settings shown above, at 1920×1080 and 2560×1600.
Good performance throughout.
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
The reference clocked Core i5 4690 isn't going to break any performance records, but it is well balanced.
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 Core i5 4690 scores 6.2 points at the default clock speed. Not the ideal solution for intensive 3D rendering duties, but acceptable for some lighter demands.
CINEBENCH 15 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.
The final score of 557 points slots the reference clocked 4690 in between the 4670K @ 4ghz and the i5 4430 at reference clock speeds. A Core i5 processor is not the ideal first choice for intensive 3D duties.Crystalmark is a useful benchmark to measure theoretical performance levels of hard drives and SSD’s. We are using V3.0.1 x64. We test the Samsung 840 Evo Solid State Drive, and the Seagate mechanical drive.
The Plextor PCIE SSD drive delivers better results than the fastest SATA 3 drives, achieving 731MB/s in the sequential read test. 4K QD32 performance is also very strong.
We also tested the Plextor PCIE SSD drive in AS SSD which deals only with incompressible data. The scores are very well balanced throughout, as indicated by the final score of 1,231 points. We reviewed the 512GB version of this drive back in January and it scored well. Read our indepth analysis over here.
To test the USB 3.0 capabilities of the system, we use one of the fastest drives we have – the Patriot SuperSonic Magnum 256GB. We reviewed this way back in February last year.
The Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 3 motherboard USB 3.0 controller scores highly in this test, pushing the drive to a record 316.6MB/s in the sequential read test.
This USB 3.0 drive never scores as highly in ATTO, although the read results are still very strong – hitting peaks of 270 MB/s.
Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far.
We cranked the image quality settings to ULTIMATE, the maximum possible.
No problems maintaining frame rates close to 40 at all times, even at these demanding settings. Great results.
Tomb Raider received much acclaim from critics, who praised the graphics, the gameplay and Camilla Luddington’s performance as Lara with many critics agreeing that the game is a solid and much needed reboot of the franchise. Much criticism went to the addition of the multiplayer which many felt was unnecessary. Tomb Raider went on to sell one million copies in forty-eight hours of its release, and has sold 3.4 million copies worldwide so far.
We switched over to the ASUS Ultra HD 4K monitor and set to the ULTIMATE profile for maximum image quality.
Frame rates drop significantly when cranking the resolution to 4K. The system manages to maintain smooth frame rates, although it does drop below 30fps in the more intensive sections of the environment.
Total War ROME 2 is the eighth stand alone game in the Total War series, it is the successor to the successful Rome: Total War title. The Warscape Engine powers the visuals of the game and the new unit cameras will allow players to focus on individual soldiers on the battlefield, which in itself may contain thousands of combatants at a time. Creative Assembly has stated that they wish to bring out the more human side of war this way, with soldiers reacting with horror as their comrades get killed around them and officers inspiring their men with heroic speeches before siege towers hit the walls of the enemy city. This will be realised using facial animations for individual units, adding a feel of horror and realism to the battles.
We test at 1600p with the ULTRA image profile, as shown above.
Smooth frame rates at 1600p,. holding above 30 at all times.
Grid 2 is the sequel to the racing video game Race Driver: Grid. It was developed and published by Codemasters. The game includes numerous real world locations such as Paris, numerous United States locations, and many more, and also includes motor vehicles spanning four decades. In addition, it includes a new handling system that developer Codemasters has dubbed ‘TrueFeel’, which aims to hit a sweet spot between realism and accessibility.
We test at 1600p with the highest 16x QCSAA image quality settings.
A perfectly smooth experience, almost holding at a constant 60 frames per second.
Grid 2 is the sequel to the racing video game Race Driver: Grid. It was developed and published by Codemasters. The game includes numerous real world locations such as Paris, numerous United States locations, and many more, and also includes motor vehicles spanning four decades. In addition, it includes a new handling system that developer Codemasters has dubbed ‘TrueFeel’, which aims to hit a sweet spot between realism and accessibility.
We test at 4K with the highest 16x QCSAA image quality settings.
The game is playable on the Cyberpower Achilles Pro system, holding an average of 40 frames per second.
Wolfenstein: The New Order is a first-person shooter video game developed by MachineGames and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game takes place during 1960 in a world in which the Nazis won the Second World War. The player assumes the role of series protagonist William “B.J.” Blazkowicz, voiced by Brian Bloom, who is tasked with launching an “impossible” counter-offensive against the Nazi powers that have taken over the world.
We used the settings shown above – triggered via the ULTRA graphics quality slider.
An excellent, smooth experience at these settings, with no indication of slow down during the first 3 levels of the game.
The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 23c – 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 Tomb Raider 2014 for 60 minutes and measuring the peak temperature.
This system is not overclocked and the resulting temperatures are very low.
Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa. We measure from a distance of around 1,5 meters from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.
We use a calibrated meter.
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 CyberPower Achilles Pro is a very quiet system, generally not audible at all in a ‘normal' environment. Under heavy load the fans do speed up a little, however it is still a very quiet system and ideal for a living room environment – for instance connected to a high definition television.
We test power consumption at the socket with a calibrated meter under the following conditions.
1: when idle
2: under Cinebench load
3: : running Tomb Raider at Ultra HD 4K with ‘ultimate’ image quality settings.
The monitor is not included in the power draw – just the demand via the system power supply.
When idle, the Cyberpower Achilles Pro only consumes 65 watts of power. This rises to 113 watts when the processor is loaded with Cinebench. When the system is under heavy demand in Tomb Raider, the power consumption peaks at 320 watts.
The CyberPower Achilles Pro is the first system we have tested which uses the latest Core i5 4690 processor. Intel have yet to release their new ‘K' series of unlocked processors, so until then we have to make do with the locked variants. Overall performance of the new chip is certainly good, although as it is locked there are serious, forced limitations.
Cyberpower do deserve praise for this build. The Gigabyte Z97 Gaming 3 motherboard is rock solid and never caused a single issue for us over a full week of stress testing and gaming. Additionally, the Gigabyte GTX780 is a high performance graphics card, capable of powering the latest engines at 1600p with the image quality settings maxed. At 4K some of the latest Direct X 11 titles may need the image quality settings dialed down a little, but overall – performance is fantastic.
The In Win 904 Chassis is the talking point of this system build. It is an eye catching case designed to grab attention of anyone in the vicinity. It fell under the admiring eye of my colleagues during the review process. The smoked glass side panels did stir a lot of nostalgia – the In Win 904 constantly reminded me of hi-fi equipment from the 1970's … in a pleasant rose tinted way.
While the CyberPower Achilles Pro has plenty of frame rate prowess, I really was smitten with the chassis. Under load, the system was barely audible and some of the credit goes to the design of the case and the choices made by CyberPower. The all in one liquid cooler doesn't have to work hard at all, as the 4690 isn't overclocked, the cooling fan barely spins up at all under heavy, sustained load. It is only when gaming that the GTX780 fan makes its presence known.
The Achilles Pro is very responsive and some of the credit has to go to the adoption of a very fast 256GB Plextor PCIe based Solid State Drive. Access times are very quick, and sustained sequential performance peaks at around 730 MB/s – comfortably exceeding the 600 MB/s limitations of the SATA III interface.
You can change any aspect of this system over at the Cyberpower website, here. At £1,399 inc vat, the Achilles Pro offers good value for money and there are no discernible weaknesses or problems. Obviously if you want a pre-overclocked system then you need to wait until Intel release the new K range of processors.
Cyberpower are working with Gigabyte and KitGuru to give away this system to a lucky KitGuru reader. To find out how you can save £1,399 then head over to this page and follow the simple instructions.
Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.
Pros:
- Quiet under load.
- The In Win 904 case is beautiful to behold.
- Solid, well balanced performance characteristics.
- quality components used in the build.
Cons:
- Intel's new ‘K' series processors are just on the horizon.
Kitguru says: We like the Cyberpower Achilles Pro. It looks spectacular, is quiet and runs cool under load.
Its a nice build, a little dull as you can’t overclock the CPU, but nice to see the new in win case, thats pretty sexy
I love the case, interested in buying it – any prices for the case? (alerady entered the competition for this pc :))
Yes you can buy the case here: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-037-IW
Great review. I was sure it will have higher temperatures, bcoz the airflow in the case is a bit weak. But they are much better than expected