Digital Trends

Uberclok Reactor February 21st, 2008 | by Josh Norem

Is it Stable?

Stability is always a concern on an overclocked system, especially one that is overclocked in multiple ways and running on air-cooling. To test the stability of the system we ran five instances of CPU Burn-in to max out CPU usage, and then we looped 3DMark06 for 24 hours. Surprisingly, the system had no trouble grinding through this torture test. Its temperatures never even got super-high like you would expect. In fact, the CPU only got up to 49C under load, which is amazing considering it’s an overclocked quad-core CPU running on air-cooling and we had the CPU fan set to “low” the whole time, which makes the system whisper quiet.

Conclusion

Uberclok has clearly done its homework here. We’ve reviewed countless PCs over the years and they always have a few glaring faults – always – but not this time. We can’t find much to complain about here. Everything from the documentation to the build quality to performance was simply top-notch, and we didn’t have any issues with the machine at all. In fact, we can’t remember the last time we sampled a PC that provided such a comprehensively awesome experience. About the only gripe we can muster is that there’s no recovery DVD or separate partition with a “stock” image of the system as it shipped from the factory. Most PC builders include this functionality so we’re not sure why Uberclok skimped on it. If pushed we’d also note that despite this machine’s awesomeness its “off the shelf” chassis isn’t as sexy as the custom enclosures from other boutique builders, the HP Blackbird 002 being the most notable example. However, we’ll cut them some slack; the Reactor costs $2,000 USD less than the Blackbird and is just as potent, if not more so.


Pros:

• Highly overclocked
• Stable and quiet
• Great build quality and documentation


Cons:

• Chassis is a bit generic as a boutique offering
• No recovery process