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Chillblast Fusion Hitman Gaming PC Review


A Closer Look


Chillblast has opted for an understated design philosophy and relied on a clean, sophisticated look instead of ostentatious LEDs. This is a sensible approach because the chassis doesn’t incorporate a side panel window which means any lavish additions would be a complete waste of money. The chassis is unbelievable for the price point and exhibits wonderful build quality from the robust steel frame. Furthermore, there’s a power supply dust filter, brushed front section and good arrangement of cable management holes. The power supply cover really makes cable management a rudimentary task and adds to the system’s sleek aesthetic.

The AMD Wraith cooler is a vast improvement on the previous design and evokes a more premium feel. Not only that, a subtle AMD logo lights up when powered on and looks rather special. Sadly, it’s difficult to see because of the solid side panel and cooler alignment. Another notable feature is the motherboard’s stainless steel PCI-E shielding which prevents GPU droop and adds stability when a long discrete GPU is installed. Chillblast rightfully selected fairly basic DIMMs to avoid spending extra money on lavish headspreaders which cannot be viewed unless the side panel is removed. On another note, the XFX R9 Radeon 380 is fairly efficient and doesn’t take up much room due to its compact size.

Here we can see the dual 6-pin PCI power connectors are held in place using a tight zip-tie. This tidy cable run emphasises the professional build quality you can expect throughout the system. Chillblast installed a speaker to help with diagnostics and communicate with the customer to discover the root cause of stability problems.

From this image, it’s abundantly clear how much effort has gone into the system’s cable management. Everything is neatly tucked away and none of the cables are slanted at an unsightly angle.

The XFX R9 380 utilises a potent cooling solution to keep thermals low and maintain quiet operation during visually demanding games.

I was absolutely stunned by the premium noise isolating foam attached to the side panels which isn’t something traditionally seen on cases under the £50 mark. Furthermore, the fitting is worthy of recognition because I didn’t detect any evidence of the foam cover having an uneven finish.

In terms of cable management, Chillblast has kept everything really simple which results in an exceptionally clean cable arrangement. As you can see, they’ve employed logical cable runs and an abundance of tight zip-ties. Additionally, there’s ample space to add other hardware in the future and easily remove the disk drives for cleaning purposes.

When using any non-modular power supply it can be tricky to hide excess cables in an effective manner. Thankfully, Chillblast coupled numerous SATA and Molex connectors together within the chassis’ frame. While it might look slightly messy upon closer inspection, the cabling is good and you can effortlessly shut the side panel.

The fan controller Molex has been clearly labelled and it’s another great addition to help reduce clutter around the motherboard. This isn’t really necessary from an aesthetic standpoint given the solid side panel. Nevertheless, the clear label is really handy if the fans suddenly misbehave and you need to check the connector to make sure it hasn’t become dislodged.

Here we can see the 8-pin EPS cable is held down using zip-ties and has a direct run to the motherboard. On another note, Chillblast decided to mount the SSD alongside the mechanical hard disk to allow for a more optimised cable layout.

Finally, the 24-pin connector and front panel connectors have been grouped together rather nicely and there’s no undue stress placed on any of the cables. This illustrates the thoughtful layout which to many people will be worth paying extra for.

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John Williamson

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