Computer Shopper - UK (2020-05)

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ISSUE387|COMPUTER SHOPPER|MAY2020 73

STRAIGHTOUTOFthebox,theGladiator
Paradigmpresentsitselfasamorecompact
kind of home desktop.It’s amini tower,not an
outrightminiPC,butatonly358mmtalland
410mmdeepit’salotshorterandsquatter
thanmostoftheothersystemshere.
It’salsounusual(thoughnotunique)in
using an Intel CPU and motherboard chipset,
ratherthanbeingAMD-based.Insideisa
hexa-core,2.9GHzCorei5-9400F–basically
thesamechipasthemainstreammid-range
Corei5-9400,butwithoutintegratedgraphics
–and 16GB of DDR4 RAM, with a2GB
GeForceGT 1030 onvideoduties.
Forbasicbrowsing,thissetupworkswell.
There’s none of the hesitation you might see
fromabudgetdual-coreorquad-core
processor,andthere’smorethanenough
memoryontaptojuggleafewdifferent
applications at once.
Examined more thoroughly,however,
theGladiatorParadigmlacksthesheer
computingpowerofmanyofits
contemporaries.Our4Kbenchmarks
returned scores of 139inthe image test,
181 in the video test, 195 in the multitasking
testand 181 overall,soit’sfasterin
multithreadedtasksthantheAlphaBetaPC
AMDRyzen 53 400GGamingDesktopPC,
but behind the other four systems we tested.

WORKALONE

It’sworthnotingthatthei5-9400Flacks
HyperThreading,afeatureonsomeIntel
chips that ups its totalthread count by
adding digital ‘cores’ to share the workload.
TheCorei5-9600KwithinPalicomp’sInteli5
Mercuryisthesame,andalsohassixphysical
coresintotal,butcompensateswithahefty
5GHz overclock. With multiple cores
under load, the Core i5-9400F runs
much closer to its 2.9GHz base speed
thanits highest potential boost clock
speed of 4.1GHz.
What’s more,AMD-based systems
like the Wired2Fire Ultima WS and PC
Specialist Magma S1 use Ryzen chips
withAMD’s HyperThreading equivalent,
Simultaneous Multithreading, allowing
them to work with extra threads and
thus perform better in the video and
multitasking tests.
There is an upside to your quality
of life, as we foundthe Intel stock
CPU cooler installed in the Gladiator
Paradigm ran abit quieter than the
stock AMD cooler used by several
of the other PCs. Still, the Intel i5
Mercury has it beat here as well, as

ARIA Gladiator Paradigm

★★★★★

£590•Fromwww.aria.co.uk

VERDICT

Storageisplentiful,buttheGladiator
Paradigm’sperformanceisfarfromthebest

itsbeefyBeQuiet!cooleristheleast

audiblyintrusiveofthelot.

The Gladiator Paradigm’s SSD is also on

theslowside.Nottotheextentofthe

ChillblastFusionDauntlessFamilyPC’s

SATA-baseddrive,butitdoesn’treallytake

advantageofNVMe’shigherceiling:we

recorded asequential read speed of

761MB/sandasequentialwritespeedof

697MB/s.Thesearefineinpractice,butnot

apatchontheUltimaWSandMagmaS1,

bothofwhichblazepast2,000MB/s.

It’s not all bad news, however.SSD

capacityisaveryhealthy512GB,andwitha

1TBharddiskintandem,theGladiator

Paradigm actually has the highest total

storagecapacityofallsixPCs.Thatalone

couldbeacompellingreasontolookpast

itslowerperformance,ifyoucommonly

work with large files or applications and

you’re not keen on having to upgrade the

storageyourself.

MOREORWIRELESS

To be fair,storage-wise there’s not alot that

can be added. There are no drive cages or

traysassuch,justaseriesofmounting

holesdrilledintoaverticalpanelnearthe

frontofthecase.Empty,theycansupport

one of three configurations: three 2.5in

drives, two 3.5in drives, or one 3.5in and

one2.5indrive.TheSSDismountedinthe

motherboard’ssoleM.2slot,butthehard

diskstilltakesuponeofthe3.5insections,

so you basically have achoice of adding

either one 2.5in or one 3.5in drive.That’s not

exactlyablankcanvas.

Externalconnectivityislargelyverybasic,

too.TherearpanelsuppliesonlyfourUSB

portsintotal–USB2andtwoUSB3–whichis

less than some mini PCs, and the two PS/2

sockets don’t help make up the difference

unlessyou’restillusingoldperipherals.

TherearesingleUSB2andUSB3portson

thefrontaswell,soit’sausabletotal,but

there’s not much special here.

Audio connections come in the form of

basic3.5mmline-in,line-outandmicjacks,

whilethededicatedGPUonlycontributesone

HDMIandonedual-linkDVI-Doutputapiece.

The one highlight is 802.11n Wi-Fi, which

comes via aPCI-E x1 expansion card. This is a

genuinelyusefulinclusionthatbecomes

downrightessentialifyoucan’tconnectto

theinternetviaEthernet.

The fact that both this card and the GPU

provide vital functions mean it’s not massively

concerningthattherearenosparePCI-E

motherboardslotstoplaywithinthefuture,

althoughwithnoemptyRAMorM.2slots

remaining, that one unused drive

mounting spot remains the sole place

to make an upgrade.There is a5.25in

tray, which is rare in 2020, but it’s had

abundleofPSU cables stuffed inside it.

THINK BIGGER

Of course,the main issue with the

Gladiator Paradigm has nothing to do

with how many RAM sticks or disk

drives you can put inside it. As a

multitasking performer,it’s merely

passable: not quitethe level you want

it operating at when so much of the

competition is excelling. The Fusion

Dauntless does abetter job of stuffing

huge power in asmall chassis (the

exact same chassis, in fact), while the

Intel i5 Mercury and Ultima WS are

better workhorses in general.