22 OCTOBER2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE392
BUYINGAPCwith alaser-like focusona
specific usage –beitgaming, media editing or
simple office work –isusually less of arisky
business than trying to find one that’s all
things to all people.With the right specs, you
can get adesktop that aligns neatly with your
personal requirements, without needing to
blow cash on hardware or features that would
be surplus to requirements.
The Chillblast PhotoZen is aperfect
example.While the inclusion of aGeForce GTX
1660 Super graphics card might give the
impression that this is agaming rig, it’salmost
top-to-bottom adedicated photo-editing PC.
There’s an octa-core Ryzen 73700X processor
to ensure your preferred editing software runs
smoothly; ahefty32GBofDDR4RAM to
maintain efficient multitasking; andloads of
storage to keep rawphotosand editedimages.
Thegraphics card is there mainly to provide
hardware acceleration in applications that
support it, such as Photoshop,and while
something from Nvidia’s pro-grade Quadro
series wouldseemingly make more sense,the
GeForce card offers agood amountofdiscrete
CHILLBLAST PhotoZen
★★★★★
£1,560•From http://www.chillblast.com
VERDICT
Atop performer in media editing that’s nonetheless
cheaper than other ‘prosumer’systems
WINDOWSDESKTOP
video memory–6GB, tobe
precise–for muchlessmoney.
This,in part,allowsthebase
modelPhotoZen tosellfor
£1,500,whichcomparedtosome
otherhigh-end productivity PCs
we’vetested -suchas the
£2,000-plus AsusProArtPA90
(Shopper384)and Acer
ConceptD 500 (Shopper385) –
is more than competitive.
The model we receivedadds
asecondary2TB hard disk,
which bumps things up to £1,560;
as with many of Chillblast’s
systems, you canmakecertain
customisations to the spec
before committing.
HEAVY METAL
As this is aseriousPC, it comes in aserious
case: FractalDesign’s DefineR6, a543mm-
long, 12.6kgtitan of achassis. Build quality is
acut abovemost mid-tower cases, with the
outer panels made of thick, flex-resistantsteel;
these are partlywhy it weighs so much(andis
suchapain to get out of the box),but
together with largesheets of sound-damping
fabric on theinside,this solidity makes fora
whisper-quietPC. Even though the high-
clocked, octa-core CPUisonly fitted witha
single-fan aircooler, the noiseitproduces isn’t
disturbingatall, leaving youtotouch up
photographs in peace.
Although it couldbesaid to be lacking in
flair, the PhotoZen does have avery nice
brushed aluminium finish on its front panel
–and it’s real aluminium too, notaplastic
facsimile like some cases try to pulloff.
What’s more,thispanel is actually ahinged
door,which opens to reveal aseven-slot
multicard readernestled in the 5.25in drive.
This is especially useful forphotographers,
as there’s no need to buy aUSB adaptor or
connect asyncing cable: simply pop outthe
camera’s SD card and slide it intothisreader.
Besides full-size SD,there are also slotsfor
microSD,M2, Sony Memory Stick, CFI andxD
cards,soit’shighly versatile,and should you
somehowfill allfour of theUSB portsonthe
topI/O panel –two USB2, two USB3 –the
multicard reader’sfinal connector is another
USB3 port. That’s fivefull-sizeUSB ports at
the front, awonderfulconvenience.
At the rear,there’s nothing as unusual or
as interesting as the multicard reader,but the
essentials are covered well. Youget two USB2
ports, twoUSB3 ports and four USB3.1ports,
with focuswiselybeingplaced on thefastest.
Thereare no reversible USB Type-C sockets,
however,nor any kind of built-in Wi-Fi. That
leaves GigabitEthernet on internetduties, the
only other connections being aPS/2 jackfor
olderperipherals, astandard setofthree
3.5mmaudioportsand single HDMI,
DisplayPort and DVI-D outputs apiece.
Forthismuch moneywedon’t thinkit’s
excessive to wantType-Cconnectivity; some
of the best external drives,which arenigh-on
essentialfor serious photography and image
editing work,use this standard. Otherwise,
however,the PhotoZen is wellequipped for
connectivity, especially when it comes to
removable memorycards.
IMAGE CONSCIOUS
Performance,too,isashigh as it vitallyneeds
to be.Perhaps even better: in theimage-
editing portion of our 4K benchmarks, the
PhotoZen scored 200, which is arecord fora
pre-built PC.We’ve tested numerous systems
basedonthe Ryzen 73700X before and they
tend to land in the185 to 190 range, so we
think the unusually generous 32GB of memory
is makingthe difference here.
Thisalso appearstobeafantasticPCfor
otherkinds of serious content production, as
it scored 328 in the video-encodingtestand a
storming 406 in the multitasking test, fora
sky-highoverall score of 345. Tweaking
photos, in other words, will be abreeze.
What’sparticularly impressive is that the
CPU is running at its stockclock speeds, or
3.6GHz base with amaximum4.4GHzboost.
We’d be cautiousabout overclocking it
