2019-09-01_Computer_Shopper

22 SEPTEMBER 2019 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 379

PCSPECIALISTVortexS2

★★★★★

£1,599•From http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk

IT’SBEENTHEbest part of ayear since

Nvidia’s RTX20-seriesGPUs went on sale,

and there’s still little sign of the two most

expensiveones –the RTX2080 and RTX2080

Ti –droppingdown to less dumbfounding

prices. Luckily,you can still find agood deal

on apre-builtPC containingone of these

cards, as the Vortex S2 ably demonstrates.

In additionto its 8GB GeForce RTX2080,

PC Specialisthas tricked out this desktop with

16GB of RAM, an AIO watercooler,Intel Z390

motherboardand aCore i7-9700FCPU. If

you’re unfamiliar with Intel’s F-series,they’re

similar to other Core chips (in this case,the

Core i7-9700),but lack integrated graphics.

FFOR FAST

Not that this is aproblemwhen there’s a

premiumgraphicscard alreadyonboard,and

since clock speeds are unchangedfrom the

standardCore i7-9700,you’re getting the

same high performance.Inour 4K

benchmarks,the Vortex S2 scored well

throughout,with 170 in the image test, 273 in

the video test, 317 in the multitaskingtest and

278 overall. Impressively,that last result is

only 22 points behind

that of the Palicomp Intel

i7 Supernova (Shopper

376), which packs an

even more powerful–

and overclocked–Core

i7-9700K.There’s very

little that this PC would

strugglewith, including

tough editing and

encodingworkloads.

In away,that’s a

relief, as the Core

i7-9700F–like the

standardCore i7-9700–

can’t be overclocked.In

other words, the

performanceyou see is

the performanceyou get,

and you won’t be able to

wring out any additional

speedinessby tinkering

with the processor’s

clock speeds.Still, as

the Vortex S2 is already

fairly competitivewith

overclockedCore

i7-9700Ksystems, this

shouldn’t be abig loss

to anyoneoutsideof

enthusiastPC fans,

VERDICT

ThisPCoffersimmensegraphicspowerforthemoney,

anddoessowithoutmakingbigcutselsewhere

DESKTOPGAMINGPC

who probablywouldn’t buy a

pre-builtdesktop anyway.

Since the Intel i7 Supernova ‘only’

hasaGeForceRTX2070,theVortexS2

beats it as agaming system, too. The

only test in which Palicomp’s PC came

out on topwas in Dirt Showdown,

runningat 1,920x1,080:the Vortex S2

produced163fps, 9fps lower than the

Intel i7 Supernova.That’s likely down

to the CPU taking over from the GPU

as abottleneckingpoint; becausethe

Palicomp PC’s Core i7-9700Kis faster

than the Core i7-9700F,itcould

manageafew more frames.

At 2,560x1,440, where the

additionalstrain keeps GPU power

more of adeterminingfactor,the two

PCs were equal at 162fps, and at

3,840x2,160 the Vortex S2 took the

lead with 124fps. Metro: Last Light

Redux, which is more GPU-reliantin

general,furthershowcasedthe advantagesof

an RTX2080, with the Vortex S2 averaging

112fps at 1,920x1,080,66fps at 2,560x1, 440

and 29fps at 3,840x2,160, all significant

victories over the Intel i7

Supernova.Getting

smooth4K with the

highesttexture and

effect qualitiesisn’t hard,

either: by simply

disablingSSAA, 29fps

leapt to 59fps, with the

high resolutionnaturally

offsetting the lack of

anti-aliasing.

Finally,the SteamVR

PerformanceTest

benchmarkreturneda

perfect score of 11, so

the Vortex S2 will easily

run any currentVR game

at its best quality

settings.It’s therefore

fitting that the graphics

card caters specifically

forVRwith aVirtualLink

port at the back; this

looks like ahumble USB

Type-C port, but can

deliver video,audio,data

and power to aheadset

all at once.That’s amuch

more connector-efficient

wayofhooking up a

headset,which typically

requireat least one HDMI output and one for

power,even if you also have to get an adaptor.

There’s only one,very specificmeasure

in which the Vortex S2’s performance

disappoints:SSD writespeeds. Using AS SSD,

we measuredthe 256GB NVMe drive hitting

asequentialwritespeed of only 981MB/s,a

world apart from its excellentsequentialread

speed of 2,380MB/s.

The Intel i7 Supernova’s 1TB SSD is much

faster at writing data, besidesenjoying the

obvious benefit of it being nearly four times

as spacious.Not that the Vortex S2 is poor

forstorage: a256GB SSD and 2TB hard disk

is still agood combinationat this price,and

even 981MB/sis nearly twice what agood

SATA SSD could manage.Wejust wish the

main drive was abit more consistent in its

file-transfer speeds.

CALLINGTHE SLOTS

Besides,that £1,599 also nets aselectionof

smaller–oratleast less pivotal –goodies.

In additionto watercooling,there’s an 802.11n

Wi-Fi card, supportforupto128GB of RAM

(most Z390 motherboardsonly go as high as

64GB) and awell-madecase in NZXT’sH500

(Shopper368). This sturdy,matt-finish chassis

is virtuallydevoid of cheap plastics,and we

like how the PSU shroudis integrated into

the leftside panel. The temperedglass

window,which covers the rest of this side,is

also securedby athumbscrewat the back,

rather than having multiplescrews go

throughthe glass itself.This contributes

furtherto aclean, maturelook.