Computer Shopper 2019-11-01

ISSUE 381|COMPUTER SHOPPER|NOVEMBER 2019 23

SPECIFICATIONS

Windowsoverall

Multitasking

DirtShowdown

Metro:LastLight

0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100

Seepage94forperformancedetails

PROCESSOROcta-core3.6GHzAMDRyzen73700X•

RAM16GBDDR4•FRONTUSBPORTS2xUSB3,2xUSB2•

REARUSBPORTS2xUSB2,2xUSB3,2xUSB3.1,1xUSB

Type-C•GRAPHICSCARD8GBAMDRadeonRX5700XT•

STORAGE1TBSSD,2TBharddisk•DISPLAYNone•

OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows10Home•WARRANTY

Threeyearscollectandreturn•DETAILSwww.cclonline.

com•PARTCODEGAME-PBME0202030401000200

020000000000020001

330

96fps

185fps

389

THESECONDOFthis month’s Ryzen 73700X
desktops is the CCL Paladin. Like the Chillblast
FusionAxion,itmatchestheRyzen7processor
with all-in-one watercooling, an up-to-date
X570 motherboard, 16GB of RAM and a
powerful gaming GPU. This time,however,it
doesn’t even come close to the £2,000 mark.
Not that it’s acheap PC, but the relatively
low cost of the Radeon RX 5700 XT (next to
the Fusion Axion’s GeForce RTX2080)
undoubtedly helps keep the price down. As we
saw from its standalone review (Shopper380),
the RX 5700 XT is acomfortable 1440p
graphics card and can even have afair crack at
4K –qualities that are on show here as well.

CONFIDENCE GAME
In Dirt Showdown, it was never farbehind the
Fusion Axion, averaging 185fps at 1,920x1,080,
180fpsat2,560x1,440and112fpsat3,840x2,160.
This isn’t aterribly taxing game,but those are
still sky-high scores, and encouragingly shows
that even aCPU-reliant game such as Dirt isn’t
bottlenecked or otherwise held back by the
AMD chip.Previous Ryzens weren’t quiteas
good as their Intel counterparts forgaming,
but that looks to have changed.
Metro: Last Light Redux wasn’t tootough a
challenge,either: 96fps at 1080p and 58fps at
1440parebothfineresults,andalthough26fps
at 4K is short of what we’d consider playable,
disabling SSAA will produce afar smoother
51fps. The resolution alone is enough to avoid
jagged-looking edges, so it’s no big loss.
The Fusion Axion comes out ahead in every
one of these tests, but forthe most part, only
by afew frames. Both systems also scored a

CCL Paladin

★★★★★

£1,675•From http://www.cclonline.com

VERDICT

AnotherstrongshowingforRyzen’s3rdgen,withstronggraphicsandacresofstoragespace

WINDOWS 10 DESKTOPPC

perfect 11 in Valve’s SteamVR Performance

Test, so they’re capable of top-quality VR.

We’d therefore saythe Paladin is much better

value specifically forgaming performance;

you’d be missing out on Nvidia’s ray-tracing

and DLSS features, but these are still poorly

supported among games, so they’re not worth

spending more on unless you’re particularly

enthusiastic about acertain game from the

all-too-short list of compatible titles.

Because the Paladin also runs its Ryzen 7

3700X at stock speeds, there are no CPU

performance differences between it and the

Fusion Axion. By scoring 193 in the image test,

309 in the video test and 389 in multitasking,

it ends up with 330 overall –eight points lower

than that of the Fusion Axion, but when the

processor is already so nimble in both single-

and multithreaded loads, that’s not going to

represent anoticeable disadvantage.

This PC will have no problems at all with

photoediting or 3D modelling, so the Ryzen

makes forabrilliant multipurpose system. The

similarlypricedPCSpecialistVortexS2(Shopper

379)ishardlyslow,butundertheheaviestloads

it will start to sweat well before the Paladin.

ONTHE UPSIZE

Forstorage,the Paladin almost has astandard

SSD-plus-hard-disk combo,except the SSD

is huge.It’s a1TB NVMe drive,accompanied

by a2TB hard disk forone of the largest

total capacities we’ve ever seen on a

straightforward gaming system.

It would be even more impressive had the

Fusion Axion not already amazed with its dual

SSDs; it’s only the respective secondary drive,

but we’d always sooner have the speed

of even aSATA-based SSD over a

mechanical drive.Nonetheless,

the Paladin’s setup is more than

fine forthe money, especially

knowing how fast the main SSD

can go: asequential read speed

of 2,967MB/s and asequential

writespeed of 2,689MB/s,

according to AS SSD.

Youcould potentially replace

this with an even faster PCI-E 4.0

SSD,asthe X570 motherboard’s

topmost M.2 slot supports the

newer standard. The second slot is

PCI-E 3.0 only,although it’s still

nice to have.You get avery

agreeable selection of expansion

slots in general, from the seven

empty SATA ports to the single

PCI-E x16 slot, three PCI-E x1 slots

and two unused RAM slots. The case’s

storage support isn’t as extensive as the

Fusion Axion’s, but you can still add one

3.5in drive and two 2.5in drives.

HARDTO BEAT

Back on the outside,the main I/O panelisa

mix of USB2, USB3 and USB3.1ports: two of

each. There’s also aUSB Type-C port, aPS/2

port forolder peripherals, S/PDIF and C-SUB

jacks, three DisplayPorts and one HDMI

output; not abad assortment at all. Unlike the

Fusion Axion, you also get achoice of wired

Ethernet or integrated 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Forthe

latter,apair of antennas screw on to the rear

I/O panel, so you’re not losing aPCI-E slot.

All in all, there’s hardly abad word to say

about the CCL Paladin. It’s expensive,but

nowhere near as much as some of its Ryzen 7

competition, and it achieves high performance

without compromising or corner-cutting on

features or connectivity.For the time being, at

least, it’s the high-end Windows PC to beat.

JamesArcher