Aria Dominator 560Ti System Review

Introduction and Component List

Published: 9th February 2011 | Source: Aria | Price: £1099 | Author: Tom Logan

Aria Dominator 560Ti Review

Introduction

Most of us 'enthusiasts' learnt to build our own computers for two main reasons.

The first is one simply of cost. PCs come in two flavours, the cheap Internet ready variety which are fine for the most basic tasks but useless for anything more strenuous than Freecell, and the Gaming PC, which can play pretty much anything but comes with a price-tag to match.

The second, and often overlooked, reason is the parts list. How often have you seen a specification and thought "if only it had a better cooler/more RAM/whatever"? So rather than paying through the nose to get a collection of bits you'll need to upgrade anyway it is easier to build it yourself.

Of course we're well aware that not everyone has the confidence or capabilities to build an entire system. There is quite a gulf between switching out a graphics card and installing a CPU and the relevant cabling.

What would be really fabulous was if a company came up with a system that had all the choicest bits of hardware, at an affordable price, without any of the hassle of building a system yourself. Aria have just the thing in the Dominator 560Ti so we just had to take a look.

What Do You Get?

If you're the type of person who keeps up with the hardware market, and thanks to OC3D that should be easy to do, then a quick run down of the specifications list here should get you nodding your head in approval.

The i5-2500K is our own weapon of choice here on the OC3D P67 bench table, we recently praised the GTX560 Ti very highly, Mushkin we love, Kingston make probably the best series of SSDs on the market, the Spinpoint F3 is probably the most popular hard-drive on the planet, MSI motherboards are bulletproof and the Corsair PSUs have been a mainstay of high-end rigs for a long time.

Wrap that all up in the fabulous CM690 II Coolermaster case and a years warranty, there really isn't anything to complain about at all. Even the DVD drive is Sony rather than some no-brand cheapo example. £1099.99 gets you an extraordinary amount of power these days.

• FREE CPU Overclocking to 4.70GHz
• Intel® 2nd Generation Core™ i5-2500K Processor
• GeForce GTX 560Ti OC 1024MB GDDR5 Graphics Card
• 8GB Mushkin (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz 9-9-9-24 Blackline - 996776
• Kingston 64GB SSDNow V100 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive
• 1TB Samsung HD103SJ Spinpoint F3 SATA-II 3.5" Hard Drive
• MSI P67A-GD55 Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 PCI-Express Motherboard
• Corsair TX Series 850W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant Power Supply
• Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced NVIDIA Edition Midi Tower
• Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler
• Sony 24x DVD/RW
• Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
• 1 Years RTB Warranty
• Pre-Installed Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

Most Recent Comments

09-02-2011, 15:02:28

tinytomlogan

If the recent hardware releases have you salivating but you want a one-stop upgrade, Aria might have just the thing. We take a look at their Dominator 560Ti Gaming PC.

Continue Reading Quote

09-02-2011, 15:18:21

marsey99

only a 9 for presentation?

dam your a hard man to impress, that looks like it took alot of time to put together and route the wires out of the way like that, id give that wiring 10/10 all day every day me

Quote

09-02-2011, 15:29:02

SieB

I was impressed with this rig, i'm usually against prebuilt systems but this ones actually a good deal and like Tom said this one has been built well and not just thrown together.Quote

09-02-2011, 15:47:54

bobkelso

I'm a bit 50/50 on the case I don't dislike it but the black and green just doesn't do it for me, I must say I like the build qaulity and the pictures I think do it justice. Also a nice beefy corsair psu 8gb of mushkin ram a nice ssd and the 560ti etc all for that price prebuilt is really good I think, I take my hat off to aria. Now if only I could afford this with a 570 I would be in heavan I reckon.....Quote

09-02-2011, 20:21:13

murphy7801

Quote:

Originally Posted by marsey99

The side of that actual case they used isn't that pretty and could have more bling lights. No I agree would like to know what only gives it a 9. Did it come in a ugly box ?Quote

10-02-2011, 06:50:31

JCBenton

"That's the way it should be."

I'll second that.Quote

10-02-2011, 08:51:07

Rastalovich

First looking at the review, I saw the cost and thought - "no freakin way".

Then I went to "another store" to list all the components in the review... .... and the cost came to £1k+. That's before postage and doesn't include doing the work yourself.

Granted, imo, I'd not use alot of the components listed, but especially if you favor what the review list of components presents and consider they're building it for you (to a decent spec), and you have the RTB, I can't mock it at all. It's a consumers' choice after all.

As an enthusiast, I'd chose different components, but as-is it's an outstanding purchase imo.Quote

10-02-2011, 11:49:25

Icekube

I was very impressed by the build quality, I didn't expect it to be as tidy as it would be when you build your own rig, all the little things like the amount of cable tying in just the right places make a huge difference. I think if I didn't enjoy building my own rig's I'd have a look at Aria's packages, as they seem pretty well priced for their spec's, big thumbs up to Aria

Quote

11-02-2011, 05:06:15

silenthill

I heard that sandy bridge M/Bs are being recalled by INTEL something to do with the SATA controller and it could damage your hard drive on the long run so what is the return policy on this system, or its a hush hush issue.

Quote

11-02-2011, 10:17:07

SnW

Of course i loved the F@H bit , very nice mate !Quote

12-02-2011, 03:17:02

JCBenton

Quote:

Originally Posted by silenthill

It's not a hush hush issue. Contact the board's manufacturer for details. For instance I have an ASUS board with several unaffected bonus SATA 3 ports and I firmly believe I won't be using all of them, so I should be fine in the long run unless another issue crops up.Quote

12-02-2011, 04:52:25

kryten_1st

I agree that this is an excellent system and the cable tidying is top notch, but call me cynical if you like, but Aria knew that Tom would be reviewing this system. I think it would be interesting to compare a system that a normal unknown customer had purchased to the one they sent to Tom. If they have lots of orders for this system and why wouldn't they it's brill, will the assembly line have time to put in the time needed for this top notch cable tidying.Quote

12-02-2011, 21:55:16

Filekutter

As a system, I think its absolutely gorgeous. I do agree, the cabling, the care put into it (and I would have to presume that keeping someone who could do such quality work, and with a time crunch as I would presume him/her to be under is indicative of a true geek), and then the absolutely lovely benches; make that plainly butt-kicking piece of furniture. Myself, I'm not that crazy on the case. I'd be happier without the window pieces on the side; they seem to lack a defined character and well, I have been thru my window phase. But, after that, the green and black color scheme is attractive and the lines are - though bold - almost minimal at the same time, which I like. I do have to admit now... that Sandy Bridge, after all the vids you've done, really is getting my attention. That'll be for a future dimension where I have employment though. ROFLMAO!

Thank you again TTL, very nicely done vid. oh, and the key ring... PURE GENIUS ! ROFLMAO! I'm getting ready to fire up my oven now with a few different old vid cards I have laying around.Quote

13-02-2011, 01:39:59

megamindstorm101

i am almost always against buying from someone else instead of building but wow this is very nice. THe price isnt 3k more expensive than it should be like an alienware system, and it doesnt come with cheap parts like an ibuypower/cyberpower pc system. its perfect. If the computer I have now wasn't the first build I did (maybe the 2nd or 3rd) i would certainly consider buying from these guys...though it seems they dont ship to us? but if they did and i already had enough experiance building myself i might just take it easy and get one from aria.Quote

13-02-2011, 01:41:14

megamindstorm101

Quote:

Originally Posted by kryten_1st

very true. is anyone willing to purchase one so that we all can see how it looks. I would hope they wouldn't lie and make the one given to Tom better than the rest.Quote

13-02-2011, 07:12:32

tinytomlogan

Quote:

Originally Posted by kryten_1st

I was at Aria Friday and saw about 5 of these rigs sat waiting to go out to customers.... Cabling was very good on every one.Quote

13-02-2011, 12:43:31

kryten_1st

I was at Aria Friday and saw about 5 of these rigs sat waiting to go out to customers.... Cabling was very good on every one.

Thanks for that Tom it's good to know Aria are putting the same amount of effort in for all these systems. Too many companies out there that don't unfortunately

Quote

13-02-2011, 13:14:10

megamindstorm101

Quote:

Originally Posted by kryten_1st

Thanks for that Tom it's good to know Aria are putting the same amount of effort in for all these systems. Too many companies out there that don't unfortunately

yes I hate it when you see someone get a review of a product and when I go to buy it its a peice of garbage, usually doesnt happen with computer parts but I can see it happening on a computer build like this. Man aria is such a nice company even though I can't purchase one I still think they are amazing. Whatever though I have my homebuilt rig XD Aria should get some serious thumbs up for their business and I wish someone in the US would start a company like that.Quote

13-02-2011, 16:08:59

MSIRawZ

Glad you like the system and a good fair review. A lot of our customers who do appreciate good cable management often comment on the good work out system guys do. Quite a few companies just dish them out without regard for quality, just to hit targets. We try where possible to make sure all systems meet our customer expectations and more no matter the price of the system.Quote

14-02-2011, 04:23:54

silenthill

Quote:

Originally Posted by RawZ@Aria

Hope you dont go down like BFG because they really had great care & customer service like gold but when they went down what did their customers do for them, Nothing Ive been working in sales all my life and know for a fact that quality doesnt pay anymore & thats why GM went down because they really made quality cars because I had one, the world is changing rapidly & cheep & cheerful products are what people want in this disaster world economy, in my company weve had to get rid of all our expensive brands & Ill tell you this for a fact a customer will rather buy a rig for half the price of yours & replace it in less than two years with a newer one because customers are aware that computer technology evolves every six months and do not want to invest long term in any system but I have to admit I admire your passion and wish you all the best in these bad & difficult times

Quote

17-02-2011, 18:23:34

theWarrden

Well I'll recommend it to someone I know who wants a new rig that's for sure! He ain't too confident in building them but he still wants a decent rig he knows is quality for gaming not just standard. So think this may suit him!Quote

20-02-2011, 10:58:12

Calico

Wow thats a great rig for that price-point! Is there any reason they didnt pre-overclock the graphics card?

Cabling was great though, VERY tidy front setup!

Thanks for the review

Quote

20-02-2011, 11:19:21

MSIRawZ

Quote:

Originally Posted by Calico

Wow thats a great rig for that price-point! Is there any reason they didnt pre-overclock the graphics card?

Cabling was great though, VERY tidy front setup!

Thanks for the review

There isn't much benefit overclocking graphics cards in general. Only benchmarks really. Increases the risk of gpu failure, and PC instability . Creates more heat and noise, and isn't really noticable in real time. Best kept at its stock settings.Quote

20-02-2011, 11:28:01

Calico

Quote:

Originally Posted by RawZ@Aria

ahhh I see, fair point. Thanks for the info

Quote

14-05-2011, 17:44:31

chucknorris

Hey Guys,

Just to let you know I've just put in an order for this machine, as soon as it arrives I will be comparing to what I've seen in the review.

CheersQuote

Aria Dominator 560Ti System Review

Introduction and Component List

Published: 9th February 2011 | Source: Aria | Price: £1099 | Author: Tom Logan

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