The PCO Group Intel I7 Gaming PC

Introduction

Published: 18th April 2009 | Source: PCO Group | Price: £1499 | Author: Graham Newton

Introduction

Here at Overclock3D we get through a mass of different component reviews, as do most other self respecting hardware review sites. Today we're going to take a step back form the normal in-depth look at a single part, and review a full system. The machine under the spotlight today comes form a company that I for one hadn't heard of before, The PCO Group. The company boasts over ten years experience in the field and a dedication to providing the customers with guaranteed satisfaction from both the products and service they offer.

Here's a little snippet form their own site:

ThePCOgroup is an established provider and manufacturer of custom built PC systems. The systems we provide range from budget systems, professional workstations, high end gaming systems and media centres. Our aim as a company is to provide our customers with quality systems comprising of the only top quality branded hardware and software at the best possible prices. We know what you’re thinking... we say the same as every other company, but we guarantee that we do provide quality as well as providing a top notch service. We feel that it is important to offer a complete service whether it’s Budget, gaming, home theatre or maybe repair we have the option for you...

A bold and positive approach to solving any problems that their customers experience, focusing on care and honesty toward those who purchase a system. Weather it be a super high end gaming rig or a budget Internet machine.

The system that The PCO Group have sent us for testing falls into the 'high end gaming rig category' with ease. Consisting of the following jaw dropping (and wallet hammering) components:

CPU - Core i7 920 CPU Overclocked to 3.8GHz
HDD - 640GB Western Digital Hard drive
RAM - OCZ 6GB 1333MHz 3x2GB
Motherboard - ASUS P6T Deluxe
Optical - Samsung DVD-RW (SATA)
GFX - 1792MB Nvidia GTX295
PSU - Coolermaster 1000W Gaming PSU
CASE - Antec 1200 gaming case
CPU COOLER - Thermal take CL-P0310 CPU Cooler

Certainly not for the light hearted casual user, the system packs an awful punch. The I7 920 offering cutting edge processing power, able to handle modern multi threaded applications and games. 6GB of ram allowing multitasking as many applications as you like and the GTX295 will provide a solid frame rate in the most demanding of modern games.

All that power doesn't come cheap however. Weighing it at a hefty £1499.99, the system isn't designed with the cash light in mind.

Packaging

Packaging is always an area that concerns me. Especially when it comes to fully built rigs. They can easily be under packaged and end up tuned into mashed metal at the hands of abusive couriers. The system came packaged in the 1200 box, with the usual sturdy polystyrene inserts holding everything in place. It was nice to see an extra bit of packing paper shoved down the sides to aid protecting the valuable content. But it wasn't quite the extra mile.

Next up we'll take a look at the machine itself...

Most Recent Comments

18-04-2009, 19:31:40

°TheMadDutchDude°

Nice review. Appauling that they leave all of the settings on auto and let that poor CPU hit 100°c!

Looks fairly tidy to me for a PC build from a company so, well done there! :)

18-04-2009, 19:35:52

Diablo

That 100C is criminal. The sort of people who buy a prebuilt computer generally won't know them back to front, so won't bother checking the bios or CPU temps, leaving them with a smoking pile of silicon in next to no time.

18-04-2009, 23:26:46

Sleekit

Looks great, if you know how to build your own tho you may aswell, more fun that way :)

18-04-2009, 23:43:44

°TheMadDutchDude°

That 100C is criminal. The sort of people who buy a prebuilt computer generally won't know them back to front, so won't bother checking the bios or CPU temps, leaving them with a smoking pile of silicon in next to no time.

Fully agreed. It's shocking!

Yes, Sleekit, it is a lot more fun when you build it yourself! Although, unfortunately there are many people that do not have the confidence to do it as they're scared it won't work. Also, if they have limited knowledge, they will not be able to troubleshoot if it doesn't POST for example.

18-04-2009, 23:59:00

Diablo

Fully agreed. It's shocking!

Although, unfortunately there are many people that do not have the confidence to do it as they're scared it won't work. Also, if they have limited knowledge, they will not be able to troubleshoot if it doesn't POST for example.

I think there are also an increasing number of people who probably could (and did back in the late 90s) but now reckon that people like dell will give you something for the same money...this is very sad :(

21-04-2009, 19:54:06

Luigi

What i'd like to know is how asus manages to pull a 21x multi out of a 920... :S

21-04-2009, 20:05:33

PeterStoba

What i'd like to know is how asus manages to pull a 21x multi out of a 920... :S

turbo mode

21-04-2009, 20:09:53

Luigi

turbo mode

Nope, it's not single core, it's all the cores all the time, they must have found an overide...

Well, that's what I believe it to be, it was mentioned in another review I was reading the other day.

26-04-2009, 00:10:48

OmegaStalker

Tbh anyone that knows about an i7 and overclocking and so forth should just build it, its really not scary and it really doesn't take long i remember when i built mines from start to finish it took me about 2 1/2 hours if that and that was because i was actually reading manuals as i went through... i could probably disassmble this and and re do it now within an hour... The price is rather silly, the cooler is silly and the temps are just p*ss poor...

26-04-2009, 00:37:44

w3bbo

Nope, it's not single core, it's all the cores all the time, they must have found an overide...

Well, that's what I believe it to be, it was mentioned in another review I was reading the other day.

Turbo Mode adjusts the multi for all cores.