HOMEOFFICEPCs
76 MAY2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE387
LIKETHE CHILLBLASTFusion Dauntless, the
Magma S1 also looksback towards AMD
Ryzen’s second generation forits centrepiece
CPU, butplumps foralot more storagetoo.
The hexa-core,12-thread Ryzen 52600X is
accompanied by 16GB of DDR4 RAM, both a
250GB NVMe SSD anda1TB hard disk, anda
relatively powerful graphics card in Nvidia’s
GeForceGTX 1650. Emphasis on the‘relatively’
–it’s still only an entry-level gaming GPU, so
won’t take theperformance of video- and
photo-editing software to another level. It’s
mainly there as theRyzen 52600X lacks an
integrated graphics processor of its own.
OLDFRIEND
Following on fromthe glass-panelled Palicomp
Intel i5 Mercury,the Magma S1’s chassis looks
alot morebasic. It’s another mid-sizedblack
box with fewspecialfeatures, although the
faux-brushed aluminium effectonthe plastic
front panel looks decent. The lack of aside
window opens up the opportunity to mount
cooling fans on the side instead,adding
flexibility should youeverwant to upgrade,
and the magnetic dust cover on the top
detachesmagneticallyfor easycleaning.
Performance,luckily,isn’t nearlyas
humdrum as the exteriorlooks. TheRyzen 5
2600X wasagreat-value multitasker whenit
was new, andthat hasn’tchanged in thetwo
years since. In our4Kbenchmarks,itscored
146 forthe image test, 220 forthe video test,
260 forthe multitasking test and 228 overall.
That last resultnarrowly puts it fourthout
of six, as farasthese home office systems go,
but in use it feels closer to the best than
the worst.The MagmaS1will cope with
lots of browser tabs without issue,and
its high thread count ensuresitcan just
aboutkeep up with the newer,heavily
overclockedCore i5-9600Kchipinside
the Intel i5 Mercury.
That fact that its video test result is
slightly lower shows that the dedicated
GPU isn’tmuchofanadvantage for
editing and encoding compared to the
Inteli5Mercury’s integrated graphics,
but again, it doesn’t needthat boost;
forthe money,itrunsbetter than just
fine.The only problem is that other
PCs, particularly the Fusion Dauntless
and the Wired2Fire UltimaWS, manage
even better multithreadingpower.
The storage setup,however,isamong
thefinest. TheSSD component might
not be as largeasAlphaBetaPC’s and
Aria’s systems, but it’smuch faster:
sequentialreadspeedscomeinata
PCSPECIALIST MagmaS1
★★★★★
£599•Fromwww.pcspecialist.co.uk
VERDICT
Goodbutnotquitegreat,theMagmaS1shines
in some places but coasts along in others
fantastic 2,878MB/s, and sequentialwrite
speeds are also good at 2,210MB/s. There are
somemoments –suchasloading large files –
where the MagmaS1feels even nimblerthan a
PC with amore powerfulCPU,simply because
itsmainstorage drive is so fast.
Thefact that it’s‘only’ 250GBinsize
means you can’t really useitfor everything, as
youwould on the Ultima WS, but nonetheless
that’s room enough forWindowsand afair
fewofyour most-used applications. Thehard
diskisbetter suited forgeneralfile storage,
especially personal files thatyou won’t need in
aproductivity/work context.
PLAYING ITS CARDS RIGHT
Should youever needtoadd more,there’s
sadly no second M.2slot, butthe case can
hold one additional 3.5in drive as wellastwo
2.5in drives. That’s roughlystandard fora
cheap mid-towerofthis size,although there’s
also amore unusualtouchinthe empty 5.25in
tray. Unlike on theGladiatorParadigm,there’s
nothinghere blocking you from installing an
opticaldrive or multicardreader.
Both of these wouldcomplement an
already rather well-speccedfrontpanel.
Besides two USB2 portsand one USB3 –a
greater range thanthe average –the Magma
S1 has the very rare qualityofintegrated SD
andmicroSD card readers.Thesecould make
it avery appealing option to photographers
wanting an affordable system to edittheir
photoswith,asit’s possibletosimply popthe
SD card outofacamera,slotitdirectly into
the PC and transfer theimage files from there.
Be warned, however,that these are the only
modifications you’ll be able to make without
also throwing something out. TheMagma S1
opts foramicroATX motherboard instead of a
full-sizeATX board, as the case would allow,
and seems to at leastpartlysuffer forit: there
arenoavailable PCI-Ex16, PCI-Ex1, M.2 or
RAM slotswhatsoever.One of thex1slots
isn’t actually in use,but the graphics card is
thick enough to render it inaccessible.
In fairness, the other x1 slot is takenupby
aWi-Ficard, which wouldhavebeena
worthwhile upgrade if it didn’talreadycome
included in the price.Likethe rest of the
wireless cards we’ve seen in these PCs, it uses
the 802.11nstandardinstead of thefaster
802.11ac, butnot every desk setup suits an
Ethernet connection,sothat’s fine.
WELL BALANCED
SpeakingofEthernet, thesole Gigabit
port is in itsusual placeatthe back,
alongside two USB2 ports, four USB3
ports, twoPS/2portsand three
3.5mmaudiojacks. That’safunctional
if basic collection, as is theGPU’s
single HDMIand dual-link DVI-D
outputs.Wewere hoping adedicated
graphics card would provide more,
but most monitor configurations will
work wellenough.
Ultimately,thiswillingness to
settlefor the basics somewhattakes
the sheen off the Magma S1’s high
performance; and, let’snot forget,
it’s pipped on those qualitiestoo by
the Ultima WS. The MagmaS1isstill a
respectablebudgetsystem, however,
with agoodbalance of economical
and high-speed components.
