Overclockerss UK Kinetic H3

More than just a gaming PCC

Overclocking is the practice of forcing a processor to run faster than intended so you can get more performance for your our money, and Overclockers UK is a company that markets computer components to the kind of user who’s into that sort of thing, such as gamers.s. But you don’t necessarily need to be a Call of Duty fanatic to make the most of the performance edge its PCS offer.

Five hundred pounds is still on the low side of mid-range for a tower PC, so you don’t get top-end processors, but the clever people at Overclockers have put together the Kinetic H3 to make the most of what it’s got. The case, Kolink’s Refractor, is of the chunky gamingoriented variety. Compact it ain’t, but it gives you plenty of space for future upgrades, with seven general-purpose 2.5in drive bays inside and three 5.25in bays behind removable front panels. Below them is a tinted acrylic window, complemented by another on the side, giving you a clear view of the icy blue LEDS built into the multiple fans.

Installed on the slim Asus H110-plus motherboard is a 3.7GHZ Intel i3 processor from the Skylake series. You can find £500 PCS with superior i5 chips inside, but in our tests the Kinetic H3’s ‘lesser’ chip was up to the job. Although the scores for video editing and encoding weren’t great, multitasking was fine, and the photo-editing results were up there with i5 systems.

The Kinetic H3’s modest CPU means there’s a budget for a graphics card –a big advantage if you want to run 3D games or other apps that can make use of a dedicated GPU. The Nvidia Geforce GTX 750Ti card often has trouble keeping up with newer componentscomponents, and it did begin to struggle when we tried seriously demanding games such as Metro: Last Light Redux in Full HD at ‘very high’ graphics settings. But with some minor compromises, things ran pretty smoothly, making this a credible all-purpose configuration. Thanks to the roomy chassis and large coolers, the Kinetic H3 never bothered us with excessive fan noise even when we pushed the processors to their limits.

Having said there’s scope for future expansion, it’s not quite as impressive as you might think at first glance. There’s no second Pci-express x16 slot for a dual graphics setup, although the two x1 and three basic PCI slots are plenty for other additions, such as a Wi-fi card or TV tuner. Despite all those bays, only four SATA connectors are available for internal storage, one of which is used by the 1TB hybrid drive, which uses a small amount of flash memory for a slight speed gain. There’s no DVD or Blu-ray drive as standard and there are only two memory slots, both occupied by ththe two 4GB modules supplied. However, Overclockers will double this for just £20 extra, which is worth considering.

Still, there are four USB 3.0 ports for fast external connections as well as four USB 2.0 ports, evenly split between the front and rear of the case. There’s also Gigabit Ethernet to connect to your router and even vintage PS/2 and parallel ports for older peripherals. The now commonplace Displayport output is missing, but with two dual-link DVI ports, ready for higher-resolution screens, plus HDMI and two oldfashioned VGA connectors, you shouldn’t have any problems adding monitors.

The UK Kinetic H3 might appeal most obviously to gamers, but this would also make a good family or student PC at a reasonable price.

A gaming PC with the specs and muscle to carry out generalpurpose tasks

Robert Leicester

The main alternative to Wi-fi is a 3G or 4G network connection, available on any