T
heWired2FireBlizzardisoneofthemosteye-
catchingPCswe’veseenrecently.Asitsname
suggests,it’sdominatedbywhitecomponents;
theLian-Licaseisfinishedinwhite,andthecooling
hardware,braidedpowersupplycablesandgraphicscard
areallwhitetoo.Meanwhile,therestofthecablingisdarker
andorganiseddiscreetly.
Combinethewhitehardwarewiththeenclosure’s
hugetemperedglasspanels,plusthebrightRGBfanson
theCorsairliquidcooler’sradiator,andyouendupwitha
systemthatwillattractplenty ofattention,andwithoutthe
usinga costlyanddelicatecustomwater-coolingloop.
Theshapeofthechassisisdistinctiveaswell.Thecase
measuresa huge272mmwide,and
almostlookscube-shaped.The
unusualshapeisnecessarybecause
there’snoPSUshroud– instead,
thepowersupplyishiddenina large
cavitybehindthemotherboard.The
lackofa PSUshroudandthewealthof
temperedglassmeantheBlizzard’s
whitecomponentsarehighlighted
throughthewindows.
Thereareloadsofmagneticdust
filters,andthefrontofthechassishas
a Type-Cconnection.Buildqualityis
consistentlyexcellent,althoughgetting
insideis awkward.Theroofhastobe
removedbeforeanyofthesidepanels,
andwhiletheneatcablingatthefront
meansexpansionoptionsareeasyto
reach,therearis messy,whichmakes
theharddiskbaydifficulttoaccess.
Meanwhile,theIntelCorei9-9900K
haseightHyper-Threadedcores,and
it’sbeenoverclockedfrom3.6GHz
toa whopping4.9GHzonallcores–
just100MHzshortofitstheoretical
single-coreTurbopeak.Elsewhere,
there’s16GBofmemory,a 500GBWD
SN750NVMeSSDanda 2TBharddisk.
Thepowersupplyis a modularKolink
Enclavewithan 80 PlusGoldrating.REVIEWS / PC SYSTEMS
SPEC
CPU
3.6GHzIntelCorei9-9900K
overclockedto4.9GHz
Motherboard
MSIMPGZ390GamingProCarbon
Memory
16GBADATAGammixBlack
3000MHzDDR4
Graphics
PalitGeForceRTX 2080 Super
Storage
500GBWDSN750M.2SSD,2TB
SeagateBarracudaharddrive
Networking
GigabitEthernet
Case
Lian-Li 011 Dynamic
Cooling
CPU:CorsairHydroH100iwith2 x
120mmfans;GPU:2 x 90mmfans
PSU
KolinkEnclave700W
Ports
Front:1 x USB3.1Type-C,2 x USB3,
2 x audio;rear:3 x USB3.1Gen2,1 x
USB3.1Gen2 Type-C,2 x USB2,1 x
PS/2,1 x opticalS/PDIF,5 x audio
Operatingsystem
MicrosoftWindows 10 Home64-bit
Warranty
Twoyearspartsandlabourcollect
andreturn,plusthreeyears
labouronlyreturntobaseATX GAMING PC
WIRED2FIRE BLIZZARD/£2,099inc VAT
SUPPLIER wired2fire.co.ukGraphics power comes from a Palit Game Rock Premium
GeForce RTX 2080 Super card, which improves the
GPU boost clock from 1815MHz to 1,860MHz. The MSI
motherboard fits the theme too, with a monochromatic
black and white colour scheme.
Get beyond the bold heatsinks and you’ll find two M.2
ports, vacant memory slots, Realtek ALC1220P audio
and Intel Gigabit Ethernet, plus three USB 3.1 ports and a
Type-C connection at the rear, although there’s no Wi-Fi.
The Blizzard has a good warranty too – it’s a five year labour
deal with two years of collect and return parts coverage.Performance
The overclocked CPU is quick, but it’s still a little
underwhelming. Its single-threaded image editing score
of 65,508 is good – around five thousand points ahead
of systems that use a stock-speed AMD Ryzen 7 3800X.
However, that result is still a little behind the Ryzen 9 3900X,
which can be found in some PCs in this price league. The
Blizzard’s Handbrake result of 597,041 beat the AMD Ryzen 7
3800X but couldn’t outpace AMD’s Ryzen 9 chips.
The huge overclock and 8-core design means this CPU
remains effective in single-threaded applications and most
work software – it’s a great all-rounder. The SSD helps too- its read and write speeds of 3,433MB/sec and 2,563MB/
sec are excellent.
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