PC Specialist Apollo Zen
Not quite the faultless PC we’d hoped for, but still a fine advert for AMD’s Ryzen 1700 CPU
SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪ PRICE £1,332 (£1,599 inc VAT) from pcspecialist.co.uk/reviews
While Chillblast’s first Ryzen system targets those who place value near the bottom of their priority list ( see opposite), PC Specialist has opted for a much more affordable price. The Apollo Zen promises premium performance in both desktop applications and games for only £1,599.
While cheaper than the Chillblast, that’s not exactly a tight budget, so you might be surprised to find your money only buys you a Ryzen 7 1700X processor, rather than the top-tier 1800X. That’s arguably a smart choice, however, as the price difference is close to £150, and the only technical difference between the two chips is their stock frequencies – which, since all Ryzen chips come unlocked, is somewhat moot.
In fact, PC Specialist hasn’t overclocked the 1700X, but it has equipped it with a Corsair H60 Hydro liquid cooling system. As with the Chillblast, this helps sustain the highest available speeds, and the benefit is clearly visible in our benchmarks. With an overall score of 258, the Apollo Zen was 20% faster than the Ryzen 7 1800X in our air-cooled test rig, and a mere 7% behind the Chillblast. This is still very much a system that can give any Intel chip a run for its money.
Of course, that overall score obfuscates Ryzen’s strengths and weaknesses. As we’ve come to expect from this architecture, single- threaded performance was fine, but not particularly remarkable – a score of 133 here was barely any faster than the current crop of Core i5 models. But the eight-core, 16-thread design really allows Ryzen to shine when it comes to multitasking, and here the Apollo Zen achieved an excellent 305.
There’s good news for gamers, too: the money saved by choosing the 1700X has gone towards an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card. This isn’t the supercharged Ti model in the Chillblast, but it’s still a real powerhouse. In Metro: Last Light Redux, with detail options set to very high, we got a smooth 84fps at 1080p. We could even step up to 2,560 x 1,440 with the same settings, and enjoy a perfectly playable 49fps. 4K wasn’t quite in reach – here the card averaged only 21fps – but there’s enough 3D power here to keep you happy for years to come.
That powerful CPU and graphics card don’t leave much room in the budget for other treats, but the Asus Prime B350-Plus motherboard comes fitted with a solid 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and two DIMM slots left free, meaning that you can add more in the future should you need to.
Meanwhile, storage is provided by a 250GB Western Digital M.2 SSD. Despite the high-bandwidth interface, this isn’t a particularly speedy drive: we recorded read and write speeds of 399MB/sec and 204MB/sec respectively. Still, that’s good enough to keep Windows feeling
“We can see how the smart shopper, seeking maximum performance on a tight budget, might well be won over by the Apollo Zen”
responsive, and it’s backed up with a 2TB mechanical drive for your personal data. Unexpectedly, there’s also a DVD writer – helpful, perhaps, for archival, or simply playing your old CDs and DVDs.
External connectivity comprises three USB ports at the front – one of which supports SuperSpeed USB 3 – and a further eight at the rear. Two of these support 10Gbits/sec USB 3.1 (denoted, oddly, by a tasteful turquoise colouring), but there’s no native USB Type-C connector in sight.
It all comes packaged up in a white InWin 503 case with a plastic window on the side. If we’re being honest, it looks a little cheap and cheerful for a PC costing this much. However, perhaps that’s a fair reflection of the Apollo Zen, which itself seems to combine extravagance with careful budgeting. Indeed, as with the Chillblast, we’re left wondering whether there’s a large constituency of computer buyers who are looking for this particular balance of components. When you’re spending £1,599 inc VAT on a powerful system, it seems odd to baulk at the cost of a high-spec SSD or a case with a more premium feel.
Yet, some clever thinking has evidently gone into this build. The 1700X processor and original GTX 1080 graphics card are canny choices; we can see how the smart shopper, seeking maximum performance on a tight budget, might well be won over by the Apollo Zen. After all, the appeal of Ryzen is all about bang-per-buck.
And there’s no denying that the Apollo Zen delivers a truly enviable amount of power, at a price that, until recently, would have been simply impossible. There are a few compromises involved, but if they bring this system within reach of a wider audience then it’s very hard to complain.