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Fusion Colossus

9.3

Format PC

Price £699

Manufacturer Unknown

Contact www.chillblast.co.uk

11-Sep-2007 Big, bad ass, and not too expensive

2 Comments

You can tell you're one of those sad, slightly maladjusted kinds of nerd when friends email you links to Jessica Biel playing volleyball on the beach and, rather than stare longingly at a physique that causes normal people to stop breathing, you notice a Google ad for Core 2 Extreme chips at £100 under RRP and exclaim, "Wow."

Start, run, calc. You begin doing the sums, ignoring those steely buns and wondering if it's possible to configure a dream PC - the one where Windows takes four seconds to load, applications jerk open the instant you double-click them and every game turns into a cinematic fairytale instead of a lurching, disjointed montage of polygons.

Once you've filled your basket, placed the order and the boxes have arrived - at least four or five days later than you were expecting them, naturally - it doesn't take too long for you to realise that not only have you left out the operating system and at least two important cables, but the whole idea of doing it yourself is a gigantic pain in the arse. And that you're now poor.

However, for little more than the RRP of a Core 2 Extreme, and with absolutely no bother at all, you can have your very own Fusion Colossus instead. It's the result of a collaboration between PC ZONE and Chillblast, with us wanting to create something we could review that would be pretty much half the price of the Fusion Hydra (issue 181, 91%), but just as potent in terms of games.

Here it is, then, complete with a two-year warranty and the peace of mind that's missing from any DIY rig. But what about the satisfaction you get from building it all yourself, you ask? Well, that comes from knowing you've saved yourself a colossal amount of money. Hence the name.

The secret is in the way the Fusion's E6550 chip has had its blood pressure artificially raised to run a hearty 3.0GHz overclock, some way off its more usual 2.33GHz. Unlike your grandad, however, it doesn't need beta blockers and actually relishes the added stress, turning in benchmark scores that are only a shade away from those of its award-winning bigger brother. It's hard to understand why you'd want to spend more. So... don't?

Phil Wand