PC Spespecialist Enigma K3 GT Budget PC with some new Intel

K3 GT

Like many of today’s budget desktop PCS, the Enigma K3 GT is based on an i3 processor from the bottom end of Intel’s Kaby Lake range. However, it does have a speed-boosting trick up its sleeve: Intel’s new Optane technology (see box below), which promises to make its bog standard 1TB hard drive perform more like an SSD.

In our tests, read speeds under the most favourable conditions zoomed up to over 750 megabytes per second, not quite the advertised 846 but extremely quick nonetheless. Write speeds, peaking at just under 120MB/S, were still in standard hard-drive territory, but unless you often save or copy huge files, or transcode video, that won’t affect you much. So we’d chalk this up as a win.

Compared with systems that pair a 1TB hard drive with a separate 240GB SSD, you’re not getting as much storage space, and you may want to think about whether a really fast drive plus a bigger (albeit slower) one might suit you better than a single relatively fast drive.

For future expansion, though, the Enigma K3 GT does have a second M.2 slot as well as two empty 3.5in bays and a 2.5in bay for more storage. This comes courtesy of the relatively fancy Asus ROG Strix B250H motherboard, which is aimed at gamers but well specified for anyone wanting performance and flexibility. The four memory slots give you room to add to the supplied 8GB, even though it’s installed as two matched 4GB modules for speed. With a full set of USB and audio ports (though no Wi-fi), the setup’s only obvious limitation is that there are only two monitor outputs, which might limit multi-screen fans. The case is functional, with adequate cooling.

Back to that i3 processor, though. Fast it ain’t. In our photo- and video-editing tests it was significantly slower than i5 desktop PCS. On the other hand, its multitasking score beat several PCS that should have ranked above it, probably thanks to that dual-channel memory. And although you’d want a separate graphics card for serious gaming, the i3 has the same built-in Intel HD Graphics 630 as current i5s, so we were able to get quite a few games running smoothly.

As befits the name, we’re not sure what to make of the Enigma. Optane definitely helps, but the weakest link in this PC is the processor, which is the trickiest and priciest part to upgrade.

SPECIFICATIONS

A decent PC with Intel’s new system pushing up speeds

3.9GHZ Intel Core i3-7100 dual-core processor • 8GB memory • 1TB hard drive • 16GB Optane cache • 3x USB 3.0 • 5x USB 2 • PS/2 port • Gigabit Ethernet • DVI port • HDMI port • Windows 10 Home • 415x192x418mm (HXWXD) • Three-year warranty www.snipca.com/24779 VERDICT: For £500 this is a very decent desktop PC, but bear in mind that upgrade potential will be held back by the relatively slow processor ALTERNATIVE: Palicomp i5 Titanium £500 This i5-7400 PC is fast and comes with a 1TB hard drive and 250GB SSD, a DVD writer and two M.2 sockets