HOMEOFFICEPCsISSUE387|COMPUTER SHOPPER|MAY2020 75
IT’SNOSECRETthat hardwareoverclocking
can,ifdonecarefully,wringextraperformance
outofaPCwithoutaddinganythingtothe
cost. That’s why we’re alittle surprisedthat
only theIntel i5 Mercury hastried it.
It’sanambitious tweak, too. TheIntel Core
i5-9600K usually runsata3.7GHz base clock
speed with aTurbo Boost clock of up to
4.6GHz,but in this PC it’s set to target 5GHz
at all times. Palicomp’s approachalso hasa
knock-on effect on other individual
components, all forthe better: the
motherboard uses thehigh-end Z390 chipset,
as cheaperIntel chipsets don’t support
overclocking, andinstead of asmallstock
coolerthe system is fitted with atower-style
Be Quiet! Pure Rock air cooler.
BROUGHT LOW
This keeps the heightenedCPU temperatures
–anunavoidable aspect of overclocking –well
in control.Wemeasured arelatively high core
idle temperature of 38°C, buteven under
heavy load it stays in the70-80°C range,
whichisnowhere near cause forconcern.
It also helps keep the Intel i5 Mercury
beautifully quiet –noticeably more so than
any of theotherPCs on test.
The lack of adedicatedGPU also removes
apotentialsource of noise,withthe Core
i5-9600K providing integrated Intel UHD
Graphics 630 forthe job instead.Both the
front and rearofthe case feature a120mm
fan, though these aren’t tooloudeither, and
in fact are awelcome source of cyclical
airflow; another helping hand to deal withthe
overclocked CPU’s heat production.
Perhaps most importantly, the 5GHz
overclocksucceeds in boosting theIntel
chip’s power.Thishexa-core chiplacks
HyperThreading, so it only has six threads
in itsarsenal, butwith 16GB of DDR4
RAMitstill had the speedtocompete
with 12-thread CPUsinour 4K
benchmarks. Itsimagetest score of 176is
particularly impressive,justthree points
behind that of the Ryzen 53600-powered
Wired2Fire Ultima WS,and its video test
score of 228 isn’t farbehindeither. The
Ultima WS morehandilybeats its
multitasking score of 256, though that’s
still very good foramid-range Intel CPU,
and an overall score of 233 makesthe
Intel i5 Mercury the third-fastest PC here.
That’s notdamningwith faintpraise,
either.True,there arebetter choices for
heavy multitasking, but theIntel i5
Mercury is still alot better at this than
AlphaBetaPC’s and Aria’s systems, and
PALICOMP Inteli5Mercury
★★★★★
£600•From http://www.palicomp.co.ukVERDICT
TheInteli5MercurygoesbigonbothCPU
speedandstoragecapacity,withsuperbresults
thatcommandingsingle-corepowerisperfect
forkeeping lighter workloads fast and
responsive.Onlythe Ultima WS manages a
more appealing balance; theChillblast Fusion
Dauntlessisamultitaskingmonster, but isn’t
quiteasoutstandingonsingle-core tasks.
Palicomphas also beenbold with this PC’s
storage.It’s asingle NVMe SSD with no hard
disk, butunlike theFusion Dauntless,the 1TB
capacity is high enough to handle solo duty.
This is worth getting excited about. Of all
thePCs that passthroughShopper,it’s
typicallyonly the ultra-premium crowd that
deliver so much solid-statespace.Tosee a1TB
drive,and an NVMe model no less, in such a
cheap desktopisawelcome changeofpace.
It’s not the fastest SSDever –this is
another waythe Ultima WS claims an
advantage –but withasequential readspeed
of 1,731MB/sand asequential write speedof
1,594MB/s, it’s stillnice andquick. There’sa
tangibly greater sense of urgencytohow the
Inteli5Mercuryboots Windows and moves
files around than the likesofthe Fusion
Dauntlessorthe GladiatorParadigm.WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
Everything is contained insideaverytasteful
Kolink Stronghold chassis, which is easily
ourfavouriteofall six cases.It’sclassier
than the simplisticcasesofthe Chillblast,
Aria and PC Specialist systems, whilenot
being as overblownasthe AMD Ryzen 5
3400GGamingDesktopPC: the front panel
is plasticbut with anice-looking brushed-
metalfinish, andthe leftsidepanelis
genuinetempered glass. This addsapremiumtouch whilegranting atinted view
intothe maininternal chamber, which is kept
wonderfully cleanofunsightly cables.
More practically,the case is relatively
good foradding storage, with two 3.5in drive
trays under thePSU shroud andthreespots
forverticallymounted 2.5in drives.The
motherboard being ahigher-spec Z390
model also means it can offer enhanced
connectivity, including asecond M.2slot,
should you ever wanttoadd another
low-profileand more power-efficient SSD.
There are also two spare PCI-E x16 slots,an
excellent four spare PCI-E x1 slots, two empty
RAM slotsand four unusedSATAports. The
Intel i5 Mercury is therefore themost
upgradable PC of these six, and although we
wouldn’t have complainedifone of those
motherboard slots was taken up by aWi-Fi
card, thescope forfuturecustomisations is
highly impressive forthe price.
Ethernet handles internet forthe time
being, alongsideanenviableset of four
USB3 ports and twoUSB3.1ports–no
slower USB2 here,unless youcount the
two on the frontpanel, though there’s
another USB3 porthereaswell. TwoPS/2
sockets andthreestandard 3.5mm audio
jacksjointhe list of rear connections, as
do single HDMI andDisplayPort outputs.
The lack of dedicated graphics canoften
mean relying on an inferior selection of
video ports, butwe’ll take DisplayPort
over DVIorVGA any day.PLANETWORTH
The Inteli5Mercury has aheadline-
grabbing feature in itsoverclocked CPU,
but really thisisagreatPCall round.
We think the UltimaWS’s higher
computeperformance andfaster SSD
give it an edge,but if you’d prefer a
quieter, moreupgradable or better-
looking system, this will suit you just fine.