Chillblast Fusion Hitman Gaming PC Review

Introduction Chillblast has received various accolades from respected media outlets and won more awards than any other system integrator on the market. This illustrates their commitment to providing the best possible value and upholding an unparalleled level of customer service. The company's talented team of engineers create a huge range professional systems which suit varying tastes and budgets. Typically, pre-configured PCs which arrive for review purposes feature a combination of an Intel processor and NVIDIA graphics card. However, Chillblast decided to buck this trend and dispatch an AMD focused rig which offers exceptional value. Hopefully, this showcases the price to performance ratio of AMD hardware and dispel some myths about the impact of using cheaper CPUs. The Chillblast Fusion Hitman opts for an AMD FX-8370 processor which has a core frequency of 4.0GHz and includes the new Wraith cooler. Not only that, the system is bundled with 16GB DDR3 memory, a highly-regarded Samsung 850 EVO 250GB boot drive and XFX AMD Radeon R9 380. As you can see, this a very solid specification and you shouldn't encounter any problems playing modern games at modest presets. Priced at £799, the Chillblast Fusion Hitman targets the mainstream user who cares more about silent operation than a lavish aesthetic design. Therefore, I'm interested to see how the system fares against rivals which fixate on parts from Intel and NVIDIA. Specifications Name: Chillblast Fusion Hitman Case: GameMax Silent ATX Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970-Gaming Processor: AMD FX-8370 Black Edition 8-Core CPU up to 4.3GHz Processor Cooler: AMD Wraith Stock CPU Cooler System Memory: Crucial 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz Main Boot Drive: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO Solid State Drive Additional Storage Drive(s): Seagate 1TB 7200RPM Hard Disk Graphics card: XFX AMD Radeon R9 380 2GB Power Supply: Aerocool 80 PLUS 600W Peripherals: N/A Monitor: N/A Optical Drive: N/A Wireless: N/A OS: Windows 10 Home 64-Bit Warranty: 5 Year Warranty, 2 Years Collect & Return UK only Price: £799 Packing and Accessories The system arrives in a hefty box made from thick cardboard and contains a fragile notice to ensure the courier takes every possible precaution to prevent any damage from occurring. Additionally, the top section is held down with heavy tape and able to withstand being carried around in a haphazard manner. Once opened, we can see the main chassis box is protected by paper inserts, and all the accessories are housed in their own compact package. During transit, it's extremely easy for dust filters to become dislodged. To resolve this common problem, Chillblast decided to position a dust filter in a sealed flap. This is a great idea and demonstrates how much attention has been given to the unboxing experience. The GameMax Silent chassis box opts for a rather unusual graphic and outlines key features using bullet points. As expected, the internal packaging is stellar with durable foam inserts and a protective cover which prevent the chassis from brushing against the cardboard which can cause annoying cosmetic marks. Chillblast includes an instructional label which informs the user to remove any internal packaging before powering the system on. Here we can see the remarkably strong foam pack which does a fantastic job of protecting essential system components. Evidently, Chillblast has taken every possible step to make sure the system arrives safely and in mint condition. In terms of accessories, the system comes with an easy to understand installation guide, component documentation, drivers disks, extra fittings, G Connector, spare PCI slots, SATA cables, PCI-E adapters, and an AC power cord. CPU-Z GPU-Z 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. Testing & Methodology To test each system or notebook, we want to stress every component of the system to check stability and performance, giving us an idea as to why those particular components were picked for this particular system. We use a wide variety of applications to gain a broad spectrum of results for comparing diverse aspects of system performance. Unless specifically stated, all games are running at maximum settings but any vendor-exclusive features such as TressFX or PhsyX have been disabled to make the results fair. There are some titles where the maximum preset can be altered further in regards to AA, AF, Tessellation, and Draw Distance. To allow our readers to make the most informed decision, any additional options will be clearly labelled in this section. Hardware Acoustic dBA meter AC "Killawatt" power meter Software 3DMark AIDA64 Engineer Cinebench R15 CrystalDiskMark CPU-Z GPU-Z HW-Monitor MSI Afterburner OCCT Passmark PerformanceTest 8.0 PCMark 8 Prime95 Super PI Unigine Heaven 4.0 Grand Theft Auto 5 Metro Last Light Tomb Raider Bioshock Infinite PC Mark 8 The PCMark 8 Home benchmark includes workloads that reflect common tasks for a typical home user. These workloads have low computational requirements making PCMark 8 Home suitable for testing the performance of low-cost tablets, notebooks, and desktops. Home includes workloads for web browsing, writing, gaming, photo editing, and video chat. The results are combined to give a PCMark 8 Home score for your system. Download here. 3D Mark The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. Download here. Unigine Heaven Heaven Benchmark with its current version 4.0 is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions, as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms, such as Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Download here. Grand Theft Auto V Our GTA5 Benchmark is run on the standard benchmark with MSAA=Off, FXAA=On, Very High Preset, Advanced Graphics Disabled and the settings detailed below: Metro Last Light Metro: Last Light (formerly Metro 2034) is a first-person shooter and horror video game developed by Ukrainian studio 4A Games and published by Deep Silver for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It was released in May 2013. The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world and features a mixture of action-oriented and stealth gameplay. Metro: Last Light features technology which boasts new lighting effects and improved physics claimed to set a new graphical benchmark on the PC and consoles. Very High Preset, AF=16x, Tessellation=Very High, SSAA=Off, PhysX=Off Tomb Raider In Tomb Raider, the player is confronted with a much younger Lara Croft who is shipwrecked and finds herself stranded on a mysterious island rife with danger, both natural and human. Tomb Raider is a demanding game offering up ultra quality textures, full DirectX 11 support, SSAA, FXAA, MSAA and AMD TressFX technology. The benchmark is set to the Ultra preset without any modifications being made. Bioshock BioShock Infinite is the third and last game in the BioShock series. It is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. BioShock Infinite supports dynamic shadows, post-processing, light shafts, ambient occlusion, object level of detail, Diffusion Depth of Detail, FOV adjustment controls and other advanced DirectX 11 features. Here we set everything on the maximum preset and use Bioshock's integrated benchmarking utility. Cinebench R15 Cinebench is a widely respected benchmark for testing the performance of x86 CPUs. The program allows you to test single and multi-threaded performance as well as GPU performance by rendering with Open GL. Download here. Super Pi Super PI is a single threaded benchmark that calculates pi to a specific number of digits. Super PI is a single threaded benchmark ideal for testing pure, single threaded x87 floating point performance and while most of the computing market has shifted towards multithreaded applications and more modern instruction sets, Super PI still remains quite indicative of CPU capability in specific applications such as computer gaming. Download here. AIDA64 Engineer Edition AIDA64 Engineer is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for engineers. It has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives. AIDA64 is compatible with all current 32-bit and 64-bit Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. Memory and cache benchmarks are available to analyze system RAM bandwidth and latency. Download here. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a portable storage drive benchmark utility that enables you to measure sequential and random read/write speeds on different block size data. CrystalDiskMark will work with any storage drives including hard drives, SSDs and USB flash drives. Download here. Passmark The PassMark Advanced Network Test (which is part of PerformanceTest) is designed to test the data transfer rate between two computers both of which must be running PerformanceTest. One of the computers must act as the server and will sit waiting for a connection. The other computer acts as a client. It connects to the server machine and sends data to it for the duration of the test. You can download a trial version of PerformanceTest from here. Acoustic Performance The amount of noise produced by any computer is a vital consideration for most buyers, even gamers don't really want a noisy PC because less noise is always better. We use an acoustic dBA meter held 2 feet behind our test system at idle and under load to get the idle and load noise levels for the system. For idle we allow the system to sit at the Windows desktop, for load we let Unigine Heaven 4.0 and Prime95 to loop together - we take the acoustic measurements 5 minutes into both of these scenarios. Power Consumption To test power consumption we measure the total system power draw during idle and load scenarios. For idle we allow the system to sit at the Windows desktop, for load we let Unigine Heaven 4.0 and Prime95 to loop together – we take the power measurements from the “Killawatt” AC power meter 5 minutes into both of these scenarios at the same point. Temperatures To test thermal performance we measure average CPU and GPU core temperatures during idle and load scenarios. For idle we allow the system to sit at the Windows desktop, for load we let Unigine Heaven 4.0 and Prime95 to loop together - we take the temperature measurements from within CPUID HWMonitor 5 minutes into both of these scenarios at the same point. For load we take the average of the maximum temperatures, for idle we take the average of the minimum temperatures. Synthetic Benchmarks PC Mark 8 The system attained a good score in PCMark 8 considering its specification but I would have expected it to surpass the Vibox Element X Green because of the higher-end processor. Saying that, it's within an acceptable margin of error and the Vibox's FX-6300 has a 100MHz frequency boost. 3DMark When it comes to 3D performance, the Chillblast Fusion Hitman fared rather well and reported a much better Fire Strike score than its closest rival. As you can see, there's a large gap compared to the GTX 970, but this isn't a surprising revelation when you take the price difference into account. Putting this unfair comparison aside, it's clear that the R9 380 is capable of excellent scores for users on a tight budget. Unigine Heaven Throughout the Heaven 4.0 benchmark, the system remained competitive and recorded numbers within the range you would expect. Once again, it's able to output commendable scores and showcases the system's good synthetic 3D performance. Gaming Performance Grand Theft Auto 5 In Grand Theft Auto V, the system's R9 380 maintains a fluid 60 frames-per-second when paired with a 1920x1080 monitor. Of course, we are using hefty settings which exceed the GPU' 2GB memory buffer. Nevertheless, the experience is relatively smooth but increasing the resolution to 1440P results in major frame drops. Metro Last Light Metro Last Light's exceptionally high texture quality means the system's GPU falls just shy of 60 frames-per-second when using a 1080P panel. Saying that, its superb performance for the money and you should be able to reach the magical 60 figure by reducing the game's tessellation effects. While you can reach decent frame-rates with a 1440 display, it's going to be fairly taxing on the graphics card which is primarily designed for 1080P gaming scenarios. Tomb Raider Here we can see the system does fantastically well during the Tomb Raider benchmark and even allows for a smooth experience when using a 2560x1440 monitor. Bioshock Infinite On a similar note, the frame-rate when playing Bioshock is extremely consistent providing you stick to a 1080P display. Increasing the resolution results in some sudden frame-rate dips which detract from a flawlessly smooth experience. On the other hand, the frame-rate is impressive for a budget-friendly card and I highly doubt the sort of customer opting for a 380 will own an expensive monitor. CPU & Memory Performance Cinebench R15 The Chillblast Fusion Hitman's 8-core FX-8370 processor remains relatively competitive with Intel solutions although it manages to fall behind a 4-thread i5-6600K. Despite this, the multi-threaded performance is better than you might expect given the negative comments often made about AMD CPUs. Super Pi Unfortunately, the FX-8370 performs really poorly in single threaded applications. Saying that, you're unlikely to notice a huge difference in games barring CPU heavy titles like Arma III. AIDA64 Engineer The system's 16GB DDR3 memory has a frequency of 1600MHz and reports good read, write and copy rates. Of course, it's no match for the latest DDR4 standard which unofficially supports modules way beyond 3000MHz. Sadly, this isn't an option due to the AM3+ chipset's age. Storage and USB Performance CrystalDiskMark - Sequential Read The 250GB Samsung 850 EVO is one of the best SATA SSDs available today and managed to record an impressive read speed. Even though it's not the best example we've encountered, the performance is more than ample for normal usage scenarios. On another note, the mechanical drive reported good figures and the USB 3.0 performance remained very strong. CrystalDiskMark - Sequential Write In terms of write performance, the SSD fell a little short of my expectations and has some room for improvement. Despite this, it's not enough to cause alarm and still manages to exceed 500MB/s. Also, the mechanical drive attained commendable results while the USB 3.0 performance is towards the higher end spectrum. Networking Performance Passmark PerformanceTest 8.0 Ethernet (LAN) The system's Killer E2201 networking interface maintains a very stable connection with a small range between minimum and maximum figures. Acoustic, Power & Thermal Performance Acoustic Performance During idle conditions, the system is extremely quiet and the AMD stock cooler doesn't emit any irritating noise. Once stressed, the noise levels increase at a significant rate and it's far from being what I'd describe as a silent PC. Power Consumption As expected, the CPU's relatively high TDP increases the load power consumption compared to many Intel offerings. This is even the case when using a less powerful GPU such as the R9 380. Thermal Performance AMD's new stock cooler does a splendid job of keeping the FX-8370 cool under load and reached a maximum figure of 72C. Furthermore, the CPU hit a good average of 65C and didn't exhibit any throttling on its 8-cores. On another note, the GPU attained an average temperature of 72C which showcases the superb aftermarket cooling solution XFX have designed. Final Thoughts Pricing At the time of writing, the Chillblast Fusion Hitman is available from the company's website for £799 including delivery. To determine a system's value proposition, we endeavour to compile an identical self-build and compare the price. This allows us to analyse the fee (if any) that a system integrator is choosing to charge customers for its services. Case: GameMax Silent ATX = £42.94 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970-Gaming = £74.90 Processor: *AMD FX-8370 Black Edition 8-Core CPU up to 4.3GHz = £166.23 Processor Cooler: AMD Wraith Stock CPU Cooler = £0.00 System Memory: Crucial 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz = £51.59 Main Boot Drive: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO = £69.99 Additional Storage Drive(s): Seagate 1TB 7200RPM Hard Disk = £41.41 Graphics Card: XFX AMD Radeon R9 380 2GB = £149.99 Power Supply: Aerocool 80 PLUS 600W = £37.98 Operating System: Windows 10 = £71.99 Prices donated with * refer to a predicted retail value because the product is out of stock. In the CPU's case, we decided to find a unit which has the latest Wraith cooler. Please note, at the current pricing levels you might be able to obtain the processor cheaper in the older package. Once added together, an equivalent self-build comes to a total of £702.02 which is £96.98 cheaper than Chillblast's custom creation. This is a very reasonable price point when you consider the comprehensive warranty period and excellent cabling. Overview Chillblast decided to forgo the widely adopted flashy colour schemes on gaming rigs and opted for a more subtle design strategy. The lack of LED illumination and acrylic side panel window is going to be divide opinion and greatly depends on your own individual preferences. Personally, I find it refreshing to see a professional, sleek aesthetic which focuses on noise isolation instead of vibrant lighting effects. It's important to remember that many people simply position their PCs on the floor and only care about how it performs. Honestly, when you're looking at such an affordable price point, concessions have to be made and it's better to include faster components than flashy extras which fail to improve the user-experience in visually demanding titles. The system's chassis features remarkable build quality and greatly exceeded my expectations. For example, the strong steel frame, dust filters, and brushed front cover evoke a luxury feel. Not only that, the power supply cover is fantastic and helps create an exceptionally clean build. Even the chassis' frame doesn't buckle under pressure and has a surprising amount of rigidity. On another note, the soft foam inserts help with noise isolation and attempt to create a silent user-experience. During low CPU utilisation, this is easily achieved and results in one of the best desktop experiences I've encountered. Sadly, the CPU's stock cooler tends to ramp up suddenly under load and the isolating foam cannot deaden the sound in an effective manner. This means that the system can be rather noisy when playing games. Saying that, you can adjust to it fairly quickly and it's far from being obnoxiously loud. In terms of temperatures, the CPU remains extremely cool and this is expected at the chip's stock frequency. Nevertheless, this entire system is about optimising the price to performance ratio which means adding aftermarket cooling hardware would have been a wasteful endeavour. Of course, AMD CPUs have a poor standing among hardware enthusiasts which is unfair when you consider the age of the AM3+ platform. Additionally, the FX-8370 has good multi-threaded performance and you're able to access 8 CPU cores without paying a hefty fee. Annoyingly, the CPU does struggle in synthetic single-threaded tasks and is a significant margin behind Intel alternatives. Most importantly, the CPU isn't a noticeable bottleneck during games, and the additional cores could help in the future with modern game engines being tailored towards multi-threaded workloads. Also, the advent of DirectX 12 can potentially reduce CPU overheads and make the weaker single threaded performance a non-issue. On another note, the system's cable management is brilliant especially when you consider it's been achieved with a non-modular power supply. Chillblast has employed tight zip-ties, a logical cabling arrangement and taken advantage of the chassis' power supply cover. This all contributes to a very sleek cabling job which looks fantastic. Furthermore, closing the side panel door doesn't require any effort and exemplifies the quality of cabling on offer. The machine's R9 380 is able to maintain good, stable frame-rates provided you're using a 1920x1080 monitor. Theoretically, you could pair the GPU with a 1440P panel, but it's going to be difficult to avoid huge frame drops which create a jarring user experience. While it's possible to reduce the graphical preset the limiting 2GB frame buffer could easily become problematic. In all honesty, I can't see many people owning a fairly expensive 1440P display opting for a budget-orientated graphics card. Overall, the R9 380 is a good card for the money and should please the mainstream consumer. Pros Chassis' build quality is astounding given the budget Enjoyable 1080P gaming experience Good packaging Great warranty Neutral styling should appeal to a large audience Proficient cable management Ridiculously quiet during idle tasks Very balanced specification Cons Can become loud under heavy load "The Chillblast Fusion Hitman prioritises solid build quality and higher-end components over ostentatious extras. This allows owners to leverage extra performance and ensure every last penny has been used in the most effective manner." Chillblast Fusion Hitman Gaming PC Review Thank you Chillblast for providing us with this sample.