Overclockers UK Ultima 460i Scimitar Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

As you can probably imagine, this system like other top end pre-built systems does carry a fairly strong price tag. Naturally the 7990 and the custom water cooling loop do account for a large amount of this cost, but for just over £2700 (inc VAT) you do get a top spec lineup of components to accompany the GPU and water cooling loop. That is not all though as your system is built, overclocked and then stress tested for 48 hours by one of the leading companies in the country followed by a courier who will give you notification of when your system is due to arrive at your door in a 1 hour bracket.

Overview

Overclockers UK are very well-known for the wide range of systems that they offer up, catering for many different user groups and these systems range from those that give the fundamental basics that a person may need for basic office work or web browsing right up to the exclusive systems by 8Pack that have been recently launched. The Ultima 460i Scimitar is nestled in amongst the high-end gaming systems that most gamers will be aiming for, both in terms of performance, but also the looks and more importantly the price.

Anyone that is looking to spend £3000 on a system is ultimately going to be expecting a lot, and with this system, that is what you get. Some people may not be totally happy with the baseline specification that has been given to this system, but this can easily be sorted if you give the guys at OcUK a call to discuss upgrading certain parts as you can do with all their systems.

Looking at the specification of this system, there are only two components that I feel need to be altered in the baseline specification. The first of these is the SSD. Whilst there is a 2TB hard drive installed for mass storage, when you are paying this much for a pre-built system it would be nicer to see a larger capacity SSD inside to install more applications to, as 120GB soon fills up and you may find yourself upgrading this after a short while. The other aspect though is one that I feel is more fundamental towards this system as a whole. To cool down the system, OcUK have chosen Noiseblocker’s Black Silent Pro 120mm fans and whilst [on paper] these are some of the best fans to be had, in the real world I’m afraid I cannot agree with them at all.

In our office I have a number of systems running, but the bearings and coils in these fans are just too noisy for me and even after having a number of fans replaced, I can still hear these fans with a significant buzzing noise coming from them. As an alternative, I recommend that Overclockers change the systems six fans over to the likes of BeQuiet’s Shadow Wings 2, which offer up nearly the same air flow, but are known to be virtually silent during operation. Granted these fans do cost a little more each when bought separately, however I feel that this would benefit the system on the whole.

Looking at the performance, it’s safe to say that with the temperatures of the overclocked 4770k and 7990 kept under control with the custom cooling loop, the frame rates that we experienced during our gaming benchmarks would keep anyone happy for a number of years, with some of the best frame rates that we’ve seen from a 7990 to date. This just goes to show how cooling efficiency is directly related to performance in the real world.

Overall I’m extremely happy with this system and with the recommendations that I’ve made to make the system more desirable and quieter at the same time, any gamer that wants a system that doesn’t mess about when it comes to cooling performance and gaming performance should have a think about a system like the Ultima 460i Scimitar from OcUK.

Pros

• Well known system integrator
• Top spec list of components
• Fully water-cooled CPU and GPU
• Overclocked to 4.5GHz
• Upgradeable 2-year collect and return warranty
• Fast-Track build times available (at additional cost)

Cons

• Big and heavy – not the ideal LAN going system
• Noise blocker fans are not as quiet as claimed by the manufacturer
• 120GB SSD

“The Ultima 460i Scimitar is not only a cool looking system, but with cool running temperatures and ultra high-end gaming performance, this is one Ultima-te system for anyone who wants to spend up to £3k on a pre-built, pre-overclocked system”

Thanks to Overclockers UK for providing this review sample.