Resistance Beast AiO
The Beast is a little untamed
It’srare to find an all-in-one computer designed for gaming that is actually up to the task thanks to the size, power and cooling requirements of desktop graphics cards forcing manufacturers to compromise on performance in order to keep the machine cool and not unreasonably bulky. Well, Resistance, the gaming arm of Leader Computers hasn’t compromised on power to deliver a sleeper all-in-one computer. The Beast AiO is very aptly named. It’s huge and bulky, allowing for both a massive screen as well as some powerful innards. Built around a Samsung 21:9, 34” curved 3440x1440, 60Hz panel, the Beast measures 863.6mm wide, 127mm deep and 431.8 mm high and weighs in at 13.6Kg. As such, it needs a fairly deep desk, but if you have one, there’s a lot to like about the machine.
Behind the screen of the model we reviewed sits a Core i7-7700 running at 3.6GHz (with a turbo clock of 4.1GHz), 16Gb DDR4 RAM, an 8Gb GTX 1070 and a combination of 256Mb m.2 SSD and 1Tb 2.5” HDD. The Resistance website currently only shows a slightly cheaper model with a 3Gb GTX 1060, but presumably that will change at some stage. We were a little sceptical at first as to whether the 1070 would be up to the task of pushing the pixels required for a 4K monitor, but as the benchmarks show, we were pleasantly surprised. The performance of the card can’t push the pixels required for the highest settings, but can steadily hit 60 frames at medium to high detail with virtually anything you can throw at it.
The performance may be really quite good, but there are some definite problems with the Beast AiO, the first and most noticeable being the screen. As big and bright as it is, the 60Hz refresh rate leads to some serious screen tearing. It’s a pity because it has enough vertical resolution to really make the ultra- wide format look great, and the image is nice and bright with vibrant colour as well. If the Beast featured a GTX 1080 the tearing wouldn’t pose as much of a problem as the more powerful card would hit the 60 frames threshold much easier on most games, but with the GTX 1070 you can tell whenever the card gets a little overwhelmed and drops the frame count. The other significant problem is the cooling. It works well and keeps everything nice and cool, but it also makes the AiO sound like it’s about to take off any time you boot up a game and put some strain on the system. Loud cooling isn’t too bad a problem if you keep your PC under
as big and bright as the screen is, the 60Hz refresh rate leads to some serious screen tearing
a desk, but with an AiO that’s not a choice you can make.
We like the Beast AiO. It’s probably the best gaming all-in-one system we’ve seen to date, but the form factor still has a couple of issues that need to be ironed out before they become a truly tempting alternative to a standard desktop PC. Fingers crossed Resistance releases a new model with a G-Sync/ FreeSync screen and better cooling. If that happens then we’ll definitely be tempted. DANIEL WILKS