Overclockers UK Titan Bayonet GTX 1080 Gaming PC Review

John Williamson / 8 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

At the time of writing, the Overclockers UK Titan Bayonet can be procured from the company’s website for £1349.90. 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. Please note all prices include shipping and we don’t permit Windows 10 keys from disreputable sites. Of course, you might want to acquire a digital code much cheaper, but it’s not something we’re happy to recommend as many keys can be MSDN-based with limited activations.

Case: Phanteks Eclipse P400 Midi Tower = £54.98
Motherboard: ASUS Z170-E = £116.98
Processor: Intel Core i5-6600K = £195.02
Processor Cooler: Alpenfohn Brocken 2 120mm Tower = £35.36
System Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 2400MHz = £56.99
Main Boot Drive: Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD = £69.99
Additional Storage Drive(s): Seagate 1TB 7200RPM 64MB SATA = £41.94
Graphics Card: Inno3D NVIDIA GTX 1080 Founders Edition 8GB = £634.99
Power Supply: SuperFlower Leadex 550W 80+ Gold = £70.49
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-Bit = £73.98
Lighting: Phanteks RGB LED Strip = £22.69

Once totalled up, an identical self-build comes to £1373.41 which is actually £23.51 more expensive than having Overclockers UK invest their time and expertise into building it themselves. Plus, you have the benefit of a 3-year warranty and superb after-sales service.

Overview

The only gripe I have with the Overclockers UK Titan Bayonet is the chassis which detracts from the system’s sophisticated appearance. While the Phanteks Eclipse P400 is functional and shares the same excellent internals of the Enthoo Pro, the paint finish is dreary and the shape is just devoid of any inspiration. I’m surprised to be lambasting on a Phanteks chassis because I strongly believe they’ve quickly become a market leader and products like the Enthoo Luxe are bordering on perfection. Sadly, I do not like the Phanteks Eclipse P400 for mostly visual reasons and this matters when recommending a premium gaming PC. I’m fully aware that beauty is a subjective matter and some users might enjoy the chassis. Thankfully, you can customise any build from Overclockers UK and select from a wide range of cases.

In my opinion, I’d recommend Overclockers UK ditches the Phanteks Eclipse P400 as the default chassis and swaps it out for something like the Enthoo Pro M Windowed Edition. Don’t get me wrong, the Phanteks Eclipse P400 has a wonderful power supply cover and it’s feature packed for the money, but the paint application is difficult to accept. Perhaps, a different colour would give me a more positive outlook and I may have just encountered a poor sample.

Putting this grievance aside, the Overclockers UK Titan Bayonet is a wonderful creation and I’m really fond of the stealth black theme. Throughout the build, there’s a superb level of symbiosis between various components and this gives the impression that they were meant to be paired together. For example, the black backplate on the GTX 1080 Founders Edition, CPU cooler’s black fan and striking memory headspreaders which employ a glossy black finish, combine in a seamless manner. The orange LED strip allows you to view each component through the side panel window and greatly enhances the system’s appeal. Additionally, the lighting isn’t too bright and shouldn’t distract you when focusing on a monitor.

The system’s cable management is impressive when you take into account the non-modular power supply. Throughout the build, Overclockers UK has attentively considered the best cable runs and executed it superbly. More specifically, the integrated velcro ties are very useful and help to route each cable in a clean manner. Thankfully, Overclockers UK didn’t solely rely on these and employed zip-ties to prevent any excess cables from pushing against the side panel. While it’s not the best cable management I’ve seen, it’s of a high quality and there are no glaring issues apart from the front fan cable which could be positioned better.

Despite having to contest with a fairly decent overclock, the Alpenfohn Brocken 2 cooler didn’t skip a beat and features a wonderful noise to performance ratio. Many systems revolve around closed-looped liquid cooling solutions and while they look the part, it’s common to experience an aggressive fan curve when the temperatures suddenly increase. Air cooling products still have many merits and the Alpenfohn Brocken 2 rivals sealed liquid coolers while being significantly cheaper. Throughout the testing procedure, the CPU remained well under 60C and has enough headroom to be overclocked further. Additionally, the system is exceptionally quiet and I’d presume more noise comes from the graphics card’s reference cooler.

The Intel i5-6600K doesn’t appear to fall behind the i7-6700K in the majority of mainstream applications and it’s a suitable choice for any gaming build. While there was a slight frame-rate drop when playing certain games at 1920×1080, this could be down to an external factor. Even then, the reduction isn’t massive and you’re able to enjoy a very fluid frame-rate. Once the resolution is increased beyond 1080p, there’s no difference between the system’s i5-6600K and i7-6700K. Clearly, the main performance hit comes when working with multi-threaded workloads like video editing. The i7-6700K’s extra four threads are useful outside of games but many people might not believe it’s worth the extra.

As expected, the GTX 1080 is a pioneering product and the first real graphics card capable of playing games on a 4K monitor while opting for demanding presets. Whatever resolution you’re using, the GPU upholds a smooth frame-rate and it’s a significant boost compared to the previous architecture. This is undoubtedly the graphics card of choice for an extreme build and you’ll be astounded by its capabilities.

Pros

Cheaper than an identical self-build
Exceptionally quiet
Good cable management
Impressive packaging
Low power consumption
Proficient overclock
Stunning gaming performance
Stylish colour scheme
Superb temperatures

Cons

None

Neutral

Phanteks Eclipse P400 may be too bland for some people’s tastes

“The Overclockers UK Titan Bayonet delivers a jaw-dropping PC gaming experience and isn’t held by selecting the i5-6600K in most games. Not only that, the system is really quiet under load and it’s actually cheaper than building it yourself.”

Editors-Choice