HWM (Singapore)

DREAMCORE ONE

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Dreamcore is the new kid on the block when it comes to boutique PCs. Its systems are sleek, polished, and quite dapper, and the good news is that it’s got the substance to back itself up.

The Dreamcore One is the company’s first outing in the market, and it slots neatly into the SFF segment. It’s constructe­d entirely from aircraftgr­ade aluminum, and the eagle-eyed among you may notice that the chassis is actually a Not From Concentrat­e S4 Mini.

With a capacity of just 4.3L and standing at 63mm wide, Dreamcore’s PC will take up just a fraction of your desk. That’s great news if you already have a problem with clutter, but it will also t in nicely on a spacious desk that you just want to keep clean.

The precision-cut vents on both sides of the case help improve airflow, which is always a concern in SFF desktops. That said, CPU – which is cooled by the low-profile Noctua L9i cooler and not the stock Intel one – and GPU temperatur­es were well within the acceptable range, so it’s probably not something you need to worry about here.

Our review unit came equipped with an MSI GeForce GTX 1070 Aero ITX, which comes with a small overclock over the reference specications. Other things like RAM, storage and CPU are all easily upgradeabl­e, though the 400W PSU it ships with may be a bit of a stretch if you want to go for a GeForce GTX 1080 and up.

The motherboar­d is an ASUS ROG Strix B250I Gaming, which comes with two M.2 SSD sockets so you can opt for two SSDs if you want. There are more than enough USB ports for such a small system, and you get four USB 3.0 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports on the rear alone.

There’s support for 802.11ac Wi-Fi as well, so you won’t strictly be limited to a wired connection, even though most gamers will probably choose the latter anyway.

This is a compact, powerful system, but one drawback is the bulky external power brick, which you’ll have to nd a way to accommodat­e on your desk.

Cool, quiet, and powerful.

Large and bulky external power brick.

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 ??  ?? The large power brick does interfere slightly with the system’s claims to portabilit­y and space efficiency.
The large power brick does interfere slightly with the system’s claims to portabilit­y and space efficiency.
 ??  ?? Removing these screws gives you easy access to the internal components.
Removing these screws gives you easy access to the internal components.

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