Arbico Elite 8680 GTX Custom built gaming PC
Reviewed by PC ADVISOR, DECEMBER 2008

The Arbico Elite 8680 GTX Custom built gaming PC was reviewed in the December 2009 issue of PC Advisor magazine. The review starts “Arbico’s Elite 8680 GTX uses Intel’s Core 2 Duo E8600 to great effect, scoring 127 points in our WorldBench 6 speed tests. Meanwhile, nVidia’s GeForce GTX 280 helps this machine to produce the best graphics performance here.”

PC Advisor then goes on to say “The Arbico Elite 8680 GTX’s LG is a good-quality monitor, with dual inputs and a stand that tilts and swivels. It offers a spec well above budget level, with a high brightness display, automatic aspect ratio scaling and a 10,000:1 dynamic contrast. A Creative X-Fi XtremeAudio sound card has been installed, which is complemented by a set of Cyber Acoustics 5.1 speakers. Given the high quality of the Arbico Elite 8680 GTX’s display and audio system, it’s a shame that Arbico includes no Blu-ray drive with this system.”

Finally the reviewer states, “A terabyte of storage is provided with the Arbico Elite 8680 GTX, in the form of two 500GB drives. This allows for better performance, as well as reducing the potential for disaster by allowing you to spread your eggs across two baskets.”

At last ” The Arbico Elite 8680 GTX is housed in a rather unusual matt casing. The Xclio Coolbox is fitted with large, illuminated cooling fans, which can be adjusted via external knobs to achieve the best compromise between cooling and noise.”

A full copy of this review can be found at www.pcadvisor.co.uk

You can buy this PC or similar PCs on www.arbico.co.uk

Arbico Elite 8685 RDX Custom built gaming PC Reviewed by PC ADVISOR, DECEMBER 2008

The Arbico Elite 8685 RDX Custom built gaming PC was reviewed in the December 2009 issue of PC Advisor magazine. The review starts “Another excellent performer, the Arbico Elite 8685 RDX edges ahead of the Chillblast in our real-world speed benchmark with 128 points. Both PCs feature a 3.33GHz E8600 processor, yet the Arbico’s faster memory timings give it a slight edge in performance.”

PC Advisor then goes on to say “The Arbico Elite 8685 RDX’s EZ Cool H60 case is finished in an attractive glossy piano-black. It’s more stylish than the Chillblast’s Elite 330, but it doesn’t come with tool-free drive bays.”

Finally the reviewer states, “Arbico’s spec sheet suggests that the Elite 8685 RDX normally uses four 1GB RAM modules. The Gigabyte motherboard doesn’t support an additional graphics card in Crossfire mode, but two spare expansion slots are available. An additional PCI slot is taken up by a Creative Audigy SE 7.1 sound card.”

At last “The Arbico Elite 8685 RDX’s 22in LG W2252S is a good-looking monitor. With the popular ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card installed, the Arbico Elite 8685 RDX delivers solid games performance.”

You can buy this PC or similar PCs on www.arbico.co.uk

A full copy of this review can be found at www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Arbico OC 4870 XL Custom built power gaming PC
Reviewed by Personal Computer World SEPTEMBER 2008

The Arbico OC 4870 XL Custom built power gaming PC was reviewed in the September 2008 issue of Personal Computer World. The review starts, “Arbico’s OC 4870 XL might not have the striking looks of Acer’s Predator Trooper, but its plain black case belies the power that this PC has to offer. And, as always, it’s what’s inside that really counts.”

Personal Computer World then goes on to say, “The OC 4870 XL has one very obvious strength: two huge 180mm fans are fitted. One of these is situated on the front, the other on the side, with the end result being that a decent amount of air can be drawn across the components inside without making too much noise. A simple rotary fan controller is fitted, so you can find a balance between cooling and quietness, although you’ll have to reach around to the back panel to use it.”

Finally the reviewer states, “Two USB ports, along with headphone and microphone sockets, are positioned rather awkwardly on the very bottom of the case’s front panel. A DVD writer is fitted above, as is a multiformat memory card reader that includes a single, but more usefully positioned, USB port. Spin the case around, though, and you’ll find a more useful collection of sockets: another eight USB ports, digital and analogue audio sockets and Gigabit Ethernet. The abundance of audio sockets points to an unexpected bonus – as well as the Realtek audio chip included on the motherboard, Arbico has added a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio soundcard.”

Inside the case, however, is where things get interesting. The first thing you notice is that, rather than using a standard Intel cooler, Arbico has fitted an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. This has a huge heatsink and a quieter fan, and has allowed the company to overclock the Core 2 Duo E8500 processor fitted underneath it to 3.8GHz. The memory installed is 800MHz DDR2, with 4GB fitted as two 2GB modules made by Corsair.
A 500GB Samsung hard disk is included in the front of the case. This seems a rather pedestrian choice when compared to some of the other components included but, with six free Sata ports on the motherboard, it would be easy to add more storage in future if needed. A sizeable chunk of the OC 4870 XL’s cost has, unsurprisingly, been spent on the graphics card. The Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R motherboard has a single PCI Express x16 slot, which is filled by a 512MB ATI HD4870 card.

The system produced impressive results in our benchmark tests. Its score of 5.7 in the Windows Experience Index is higher than that of the £1,700 Acer Predator, and it produced 5,484 points in the demanding PCmark Vantage test. The single ATI graphics card held up well in 3D tests, too, notching up a score of 15,604 in 3Dmark06. More impressive still, it produced an average of 45fps (frames per second) in our World in Conflict test – the Acer Predator, equipped with two Nvidia cards in SLI, averaged just 38fps.

At last, “No monitor, keyboard or mouse is included with the OC 4870 XL, making it most suitable for those wishing to replace an older computer. It faces stiff competition from the Chillblast Fusion Sentinel, which includes a quad-core processor and costs £100 less, but then it did produce slightly better scores in our 3D benchmarks. All in all, the OC 4870 XL may not be particularly pretty, but this is a powerful computer ideal for gaming, at a reasonable price.”

You can buy this PC or similar PCs on www.arbico.co.uk

Arbico Elite 8595 Custom built power desktop PC – PC ADVISOR BEST BUY AWARD.
NOVEMBER 2008

The Arbico CD 7900 Pro Custom built computer was reviewed in the November 2006 issue of PC Advisor magazine. The review starts, “The Arbico Elite 8595, the sort of top-performing machine we’ve come to expect from Arbico, uses a 3.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 to reach a blistering WorldBench 6 processing-speed score of 122 points. That’s faster than most PCs at twice the price.”

PC Advisor then goes on to say, “It also looks much better than we’d expect from a low-cost system. When costs are being cut, it’s common to find PCs housed in cramped, dull boxes that flex and creak to the touch. The Arbico Elite 8595’s EZ Cool H60 case, however, is sturdily built, spacious and finished in a high-gloss piano black, making the system look rather expensive.”

Finally the reviewer states, “The supplied 19in Hannspree New York monitor has a bold ‘love it or hate it’ design and comes with a build quality that belies its low price. With 4GB of RAM installed as standard and a top-of-the-range 22-speed DVD burner, the Arbico Elite 8595 offers superb value for money for general work and internet use.”

Arbico’s Elite 8595 is an excellent budget system boasting good looks and quite exceptional performance.

You can buy this PC or similar PCs on www.arbico.co.uk

A full copy of this review can be found at www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Arbico CD 4850 budget desktop PC
PC ADVISOR BEST BUY AWARD. OCTOBER 2008

The Arbico CD 4850 budget desktop PC was reviewed in the October 2008 issue of PC Advisor magazine. The review starts, “This time around, choosing our Best Buy PC has proved tougher than usual. However, we’ve plumped for Arbico’s CD 4850. The seemingly unbeatable Core 2 Duo E8500 from Intel powers this system to an impressive WorldBench 6 score of 126 points – the same level of general office performance you’d get from the best of our power PCs and significantly faster than some contenders with the same processor.”

PC Advisor then goes on to say, “The Arbico CD 4850’s graphics are provided by ATI’s new Radeon HD 4850, which delivers a significant boost in performance over the graphic cards we saw last time, such as nVidia’s GeForce 8800 GT, without an increase in overall system price. The Arbico CD 4850 has eight USB ports and, with a massive 750GB hard drive, you’ll have plenty of room for a large media collection.”

Finally the reviewer states, “With an almost identical specification – even the Logitech S220 speakers are the same model – the runner-up delivers identical performance to the Arbico CD 4850. However, what clinched it for us is Arbico’s inclusion of a Creative Audigy sound card. There can be only one winner and this is the result of our photo finish. The LG W2242S monitor supplied with the Arbico CD 4850 offers a good contrast ratio. The Arbico’s CD 4850 is a well-balanced PC with excellent performance.”

You can buy this PC or similar PCs on www.arbico.co.uk

A full copy of this review can be found at www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Arbico Elite 4870 XFire Custom Built Desktop Computer Reviewed by Personal Computer World AUGUST 2008

The Arbico CD 7900 Pro Custom built computer was reviewed in the November 2006 issue of Personal Computer World. The review starts, “Crossfire, the dual-graphics card technology from AMD’s graphics arm, ATI, hasn’t had the best of times in recent years. Despite its complete monopoly on Intel’s chipsets (SLI only works on Nvidia’s chipsets) and AMD working furiously on the drivers to allow four graphics cards to work together, SLI has had the biggest market share by far.”

Personal Computer World then goes on to say, “The reason is that until the Radeon HD 4800 series of graphics cards, AMD’s performance has lagged behind Nvidia’s. AMD has made big strides though and today a Radeon HD 4850 beats an Nvidia Geforce 9800 GTX in most scenarios and a Radeon HD 4870 competes comfortably with the Nvidia Geforce GTX 260, the slightly less powerful of the two wonder cards in Nvidia’s new GTX 200 series. Arbico has put two Radeon HD 4870s in this PC, each with 512MB of GDDR5 Ram ticking over at a terrifically fast pace of 3.6GHz.”

You need a fast CPU to keep such powerful graphics cards fed, so Arbico has fitted a Core 2 Quad Q9450 processor with 12MB L2 cache. By default, it runs at 2.66GHz, but Arbico has pushed the front side bus from 1,333MHz to 1,800MHz (with a 0.1V bump to 1.26V) so that the processor runs at 3.6GHz. Despite this big increase, the CPU temperature remained at 37°C after two days’ usage.

Finally the reviewer states, “Other components include 4GB OCZ Ram clocked at 900MHz (synchronised with the FSB), a Creative X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card and a Gigabyte X48 motherboard that provides astounding connectivity, including eight USB ports, two Firewire, two Gigabit Ethernet ports and two spare x1 PCI Express slots, so you could add both a TV tuner and Wifi card. Vista Home Premium comes installed on a Super Talent 64GB solid state drive (SSD), while a second 500GB hard drive is provided for extra storage.”

At last, “Gaming on this PC is, for the most part, awesome. Arbico has bundled a 24in Samsung 245B monitor, with an all-important 1,920×1,200 pixel resolution. Games look fantastic. A 3Dmark06 score of 20,297 is superb, as is the PCmark05 score of 13,696 (11,523 in the CPU section) and at 1,920×1,200, World in Conflict played through at 57fps (frames per second) with high settings. Crysis, on the other hand, didn’t suffer from such stutters and looked fantastic, producing 28.55fps on high settings. A £2,000 PC might sound like a lot, but considering the high calibre case and components, its top-notch 24in monitor and the fact you would struggle to buy the separate components and save any money, it’s excellent value for money.”

You can buy this PC or similar PCs on www.arbico.co.uk

Arbico Elite 4850 budget desktop PC
PC ADVISOR BEST BUY AWARD. SEPTEMBER 2008

The Arbico Elite 4850 budget desktop PC was reviewed in the September 2008 issue of PC Advisor magazine. The review starts, “Arbico is no stranger to the top of our charts. And the firm has delivered yet another stand-out system this month: the Elite 4850, based on Intel’s Core 2 Duo E8500 processor.”

This value-for-money chip powers PCs across all price categories and provides bags of performance. The Arbico Elite 4850’s processing power, extras and all-round quality set it apart from its more budget-conscious rivals.

PC Advisor then goes on to say, “The manufacturer has spurned the highly popular CoolerMaster Elite 330 case in favour of a GZ-X6 model from Gigabyte for the Arbico Elite 4850. It’s a basic-looking design, but it comes with a glossy black finish, optical drive bay covers and tool-free internal drive bays. The Arbico Elite 4850’s 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card provides plenty of power to keep even the latest games titles running smoothly.”

Finally the reviewer states, “A huge 750GB hard drive is provided as standard with the Arbico Elite 4850, so you’ll have plenty of room to install a decent games library, as well as a large multimedia collection. Rather than bundle the cheapest 22in monitor available with the Elite 4850, Arbico has opted for Samsung’s SyncMaster 223BW, which provides excellent image quality and stylish looks.”

At last, “With five Cyber Acoustic speakers and a subwoofer, the Arbico Elite 4850 is well-equipped for gaming, music and film playback, and it comes with a Blu-ray reader that also supports the now legacy HD DVD format. DVD burn speeds are a little slower than those of rival PCs, but ‘only’ 16-speed DVD-R doesn’t represent a huge sacrifice in order to enjoy high-definition (HD) movies. The Arbico Elite 4850 is an excellent all-round system that justifies the extra money.”

You can buy this PC or similar PCs on www.arbico.co.uk

A full copy of this review can be found at www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Arbico Elite 8440 budget desktop PC
PC ADVISOR RECOMMENDED. SEPTEMBER 2008

The Arbico Elite 8440 budget desktop PC was reviewed in the September 2008 issue of PC Advisor magazine. The review starts, “Arbico’s PCs are generally top performers, and the 8440 is no exception. Based on a Core 2 Duo E8400 processor, the Arbico Elite 8440 scores 118 WorldBench 6 points.”

PC Advisor then goes on to say, “The new Elite 8440 model comes with an extra 2GB of RAM and one of the latest 22-speed DVD burners from Samsung. It’s great to see 4GB of RAM included at this price.”

Finally the reviewer states, “The Arbico Elite 8440 drops the popular CoolerMaster Elite 330 case in favour of the rather sleeker EZ-Cool H60 model, with concealed optical drive bays. Although the Arbico Elite 8440’s WorldBench performance is good, gaming performance on this system is average. The Arbico Elite 8440 is an impressive all-rounder that offers decent gaming performance.”

You can buy this PC or similar PCs on www.arbico.co.uk

A full copy of this review can be found at www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Arbico Elite 8070 EX budget desktop PC
PC ADVISOR BEST BUY AND GOLD AWARD. AUGUST 2008

The Arbico Elite 8070 EX budget desktop PC was reviewed in the August 2008 issue of PC Advisor magazine. The review starts, “Intel’s superb Core 2 Duo E8500 processor continues to deliver tremendous performance at an appealing price, dominating our desktop PC charts across three categories. Arbico has put the chip to stunning use in the Elite 8070 EX. This system outperforms the competition in the budget price range, then beats all of the power systems for good measure.”

PC Advisor then goes on to say, “The Arbico Elite 8070 EX’s utter dominance when handling general office and productivity applications doesn’t extend to games, but it’s no gaming slouch. With 4GB of DDR2-800 memory and an ATI Radeon HD 3870 512MB graphics card, it’s able to deliver a very playable experience.”

Finally the reviewer states, “This monitor has proved highly popular in our charts. The design is basic, but it delivers relatively good performance for the price and provides the Arbico Elite 8070EX with both analogue VGA and digital high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) inputs. Once again, Arbico has opted for the reliable Coolermaster Elite 330 casing. This is smart and practical, with just enough style to prevent it looking boring and plenty of space inside for expansion. In any case, the Arbico Elite 8070 EX’s supplied 465GB hard drive is ample to be getting on with.”

You can buy this PC or similar PCs on www.arbico.co.uk

A full copy of this review can be found at www.pcadvisor.co.uk

Arbico Elite 8400 budget desktop PC
PC ADVISOR BEST BUY AWARD. AUGUST 2008

The Arbico Elite 8400 budget desktop PC was reviewed in the August 2008 issue of PC Advisor magazine. The review starts, “Arbico is used to sitting at the top of the pile when it comes to performance, and this sub-£500 system is no exception. With a WorldBench 6 processing-speed score of 119, the Arbico Elite 8400 is a clear winner in this category, even beating a couple of the latest £751-£1,000 models.”

PC Advisor then goes on to say, “The key to the Arbico Elite 8400’s success is a 3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 processor, which offers exceptional performance for the price and is widely used throughout our charts. The Arbico Elite 8400’s 1,024MB model of the NVIDIA 8600 GT offers a distinct advantage over the 512MB version in other PCs in this chart.”

Finally the reviewer states, “The Arbico Elite 8400 boasts 2GB of RAM – a standard offering at this price point – while sound is limited to the motherboard’s onboard audio, played through the monitor’s rather tinny integrated speakers. The Arbico Elite 8400 comes with Hannspree’s popular and distinctive-looking XM New York flat-panel. It’s a well-made product that’s high on style and low on flimsy plastic components. Image quality isn’t the greatest, but it’s much better than you generally get at this price.”

At last, “Arbico has plumped for the popular CoolerMaster Elite 330 case with the Elite 8400, which has room for plenty of additional drives. The supplied 250GB SATA hard disk is plenty to be getting along with. The Arbico Elite 8400 turns in noticeably stronger gaming performance, and it’s quicker at general computing tasks, managing five more WorldBench points than the second placed PC.”

You can buy this PC or similar PCs on www.arbico.co.uk

A full copy of this review can be found at www.pcadvisor.co.uk