Performance PC manufacturer Chillblast is best known for its heavily overclocked gaming computers, but the firm's latest PC proves it's more than just a one-trick pony. The Fusion Spirit differs from the company's usual machines in that its unique selling point is a claim of complete silence from a distance of just three feet.

This is achieved through the careful selection of components, the core of which is the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550. This processor may lack the grunt of the latest Core i7 CPUs at its stock speed of 2.83GHz but Chillblast has kept performance competitive by overclocking the chip to 3.2GHz. Even with this speed bump the firm claims temperatures are far easier to keep in check than the latest Nehalem-based alternatives, though the choice of the Core 2 platform will limit your ability to upgrade the CPU later.

The processor is backed up by an Asus P5Q Turbo motherboard, an Akasa Nero CPU cooler and a somewhat excessive 8GB of PC2-6400 memory. As you'd hope, the CPU cooler is one of the largest models on the market, and its vast expanse of copper heat pipes and aluminium fins ensures the 120mm fan only needs to spin at a nominal speed to keep the processor happy.

The system's low noise credentials are underpinned by the impressive Cooler Master Sileo 500 case. Featuring a classy black aluminium facia, this model boasts noise-dampening material on all internal surfaces, extremely low-noise fans and special slide-out caddies that serve to reduce vibrations from your hard disks. One of these is occupied by a single Seagate 7200.12 1TB drive which should provide plenty of space for most, and houses Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

Special attention has been paid to the graphics card, where Power Color's ‘PCS Extreme' version of the HD4870 provides powerful gaming performance without compromising quietness.

The final component of note is the Cooler Master Silent Pro 500W PSU which, as you'd hope, is of a semi-passive design. Its modular cables are used to good effect, and Chillblast has provided an exemplary, clean build. The few leads that are visible have been carefully tethered and stowed away from airflow channels, and there's plenty of scope for you to upgrade the system with add-in cards should you wish.

True to Chillblast's claims, we struggled to hear the Spirit in operation even close up, and from a normal operating distance it is only the bright blue system LED that confirms it is actually turned on. Considering the system's performance this is mightily impressive and should serve as a lesson to certain other manufacturers that speed doesn't always necessitate wind tunnel-like fan noise.

Loading up Prime 95 and CoreTemp proved that temperatures were kept under control as well, though the CPU did reach a somewhat toasty 60°C once we heated up the video card using Furmark. Still, this represents a worst-case scenario when it comes to loading and, although warm, the chip was still kept well below dangerous levels.

Performance-wise, the Spirit was extremely impressive for a system optimised for low noise, with scores in Sysmark slightly above our Core i7 920-powered reference system. The machine also ably dealt with video encoding, completing our test just 4 seconds slower than the 920, whilst its scores in PCMark Vantage were in line with what we'd expect for a heavily overclocked Core 2 Quad system. Our gaming tests were also dealt with capably, though the 4870 is a little slower than the 4890 or GTX 275 cards you can find in many other systems at this price point.

All in all the Spirit is an exceptional system and a suitably impressive swan-song for Socket 775-based computing. Its £799 asking price may be high for a Core 2 Quad-based machine, but all of those low noise goodies add significantly to the cost so you do get what you pay for.

We were also pleased to see Chillblast offering a 2-year collect-and-return warranty with lifetime telephone support, which is considerably better than the 1-year RTB option normally provided. If you are in the market for a powerful quad core computer this autumn and are a real stickler for system noise, this is undoubtedly one of the finest PCs you can buy.

Verdict
An extremely powerful quad core system that also manages to be virtually silent. Component selection and build quality are both first rate, though the noise-dampened case and Socket 775 CPU somewhat limit future upgradability. Nevertheless, this is an exceptional PC and a suitably impressive swan-song for one of Intel's greatest ever processor lines.

Company: Chillblast

Contact: 08454567831

Tags: central processing unit intel core i7 intel core 2 personal computer computer cooling advanced micro devices hardware components