Evetech have made a name for themselves in the South African consumer market for their range of unique components as well as their pre-built computers.

In this review we have the best of both worlds – a pre-built system in a unique Bitfenix case. Let’s see how it stands up.

System specifications

The system on offer has the following specifications:

• AMD FX 8150 3.6GHz Eight Core CPU
• ASUS M5A99X EVO Motherboard
• Corsair Vengeance 8GB 1600MHZ RAM
• XFX 6850 1GB in CrossFireX
• AMD Liquid Cooling for FX processors
• Corsair TX750M PSU
• Seagate 1TB Hard Drive
• Bitfenix Colossus Case
• 24x DVD Writer

As previously mentioned the system comes pre-built by Evetech, and features a 2 year warranty.

The above system configuration can be had from Evetech for R14,499 when paying by EFT on their website, while the regular price is R15,223.96.

Component choice in our opinion is good. The motherboard is feature rich without being too high-end. The graphics cards offer a budget alternative to a single, more powerful card, and Evetech have gone with a 2 x 4GB RAM set, leaving room to upgrade in the future.

The Bitfenix case is new to the South African market, and is large enough to install all of the components easily. The case also offers good cable management options, another benefit.

Pre-installed components

One of the main benefits of buying a pre-built system is that the assembly is done for you. This saves you the time you would’ve spent assembling the components yourself and you know the installation has been done by professionals, and you don’t run the personal risk of damaging components during the install.

This is particularly appealing to those who don’t have the technical knowledge or inclination to do the install themselves.

One of the major benefits of doing their own install is that Evetech can test the system before shipping it out; making sure everything is as it should be. This benefits the client in that Evetech can offer a 2 year warranty, knowing everything has been installed carefully.

Speaking of the installation, the only word we can use to describe it is impressive. Components are installed as they should be, but the attention to detail really does become apparent when you open up the case and see the cable management.

Rather than leaving cables all over, the system has each cable measured out to reach the components exactly. The remaining length of cable is hidden neatly behind the motherboard tray.

Performance

We tested system performance across a number of games and synthetic benchmarks included below. These aren’t compared with previous reviews of graphics cards as the base system differs greatly from the MyGaming test rig.

The benefit of this however, is the performance you see is the performance you get.

Metro 2033 average FPS

Metro 2033 is still considered one of the most demanding games currently available. With this in mind, we played through the same test level we use for graphics card tests three times, then averaged the frames per second recorded by Fraps.

With settings at high and a resolution of 1920 x 1200 we recorded an average framerate of 29.7fps, meaning the game was completely playable apart from one slowdown where framerate dipped to 15fps for a few seconds.

The Witcher 2 average FPS

For The Witcher 2, we threw in a mix of combat and non-combat situations with all graphics settings on high, and the resolution at 1920 x 1200. During combat the framerate dropped noticeably, however it still remained playable throughout the entire test. We recorded an average framerate of 37.9fps during our tests.

Unigine Heaven score

For synthetic testing we made use of Unigine Heaven, and set test settings to the HWBot Xtreme preset option. These are the same settings we use for graphics card testing. The system returned a score of X1201.16, nearly as high as a GTX570 in our slightly less powerful Mygaming test rig.

3D Mark Vantage score

3D Mark Vantage was also used for synthetic testing. We made use of the Performance pre-set, and achieved a score of 21105. This score actually exceeds the score by a single GTX570 in our test bed. The Vantage GPU score was 22395.

It’s hard to draw comparisons between pre-built PCs and individual components as previously stated. However, what we can take away from the above performance testing is that this Evetech system is capable of playing modern games at high detail levels and resolutions without too much of a sweat.

Conclusion

As a pre-built system, the machine from Evetech succeeds in a number of ways.

The first is in the cost. The price of the system is very fair when you take into account the labour that went into assembling the system, as well as the testing to verify that it is indeed working. We also need to factor in the 2 year warranty that comes with the system.

With this in mind, the machine ends up priced very close to Evetech retail prices.

The second is the convenience factor. Not having to assemble your own PC is a big plus for those who aren’t hardware enthusiasts (the real target market of a pre-built PC), as is the peace of mind that comes with knowing the machine was assembled correctly and tested before it has been sent to the customer.

Evetech continues to live up to their impressive reputation with the above test system, which comes highly recommended if you’re a non-hardware-enthusiast who is looking for a pre-built gaming PC capable of handling the latest games around the R15,000 mark.

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