Reviews - Novatech Allspark VHP64 system review: low-power Core 2 Quad at the helm

[HEXUS]

Core 2 Quad S, GeForce GTS 250 in a SFF box. Does it make sense? We find out.

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[Michaelv]

I hate the new Hexus rating system....everytime I see a new review I think "oh well that's crap"..then read on (every time) about the 50% thing BUT...I hate it. I much rather you go back to the old system where good products get awards..and Alienware/Dell stuff get's battered

my 2 pennies..

[stavroshamster]

I hate the new Hexus rating system....everytime I see a new review I think "oh well that's crap"..then read on (every time) about the 50% thing BUT...I hate it. I much rather you go back to the old system where good products get awards..and Alienware/Dell stuff get's battered

my 2 pennies..

Completely agree. So many times something comes in above 50% which is supposed to be a safe buy, but it's clear from the article that it's no good. They either need to give harsher ratings or up the threshold for a 'safe buy'

[scaryjim]

Completely agree. So many times something comes in above 50% which is supposed to be a safe buy, but it's clear from the article that it's no good. They either need to give harsher ratings or up the threshold for a 'safe buy'

I think you're missing the point of "Safe Buy". The Allspark is not "no good" - it's a well featured and well performing mid-range system in a very small chassis. It runs rings round most of the benchmarks thrown at it, and the price point is reasonable considering the premium you always pay for space- and energy-saving solutions (discounting AMD's lowerer powered 3 and 4 core processors, that is - but they have lower clock speeds so it's swings and roundabouts). Basically, if you bought this as a gaming rig you would not be dissappointed - it'll run most modern games at resolutions up to 1920 x 1200 with dsecent image enhancement.

It's not perfect, sure, but there's nothing wrong with it, and it does everything it should without defect, so it deserves a reasonable rating. I don't think a smallish hard drive and a bit of fan noise are that problematic, are they?

[stavroshamster]

Okay, in this case its not a bad product, and probably its rating is about right - but almost all the ratings given in reviews fall between about 60 and 70%, with a few exceptions where things have got about 80%. Given that most products seem to have scores in a very similar range how are we supposed to differentiate between them? It would be much better, I think, just to stick with a star rating or medal system and be done with it.

[Hicks12]

good system but i agree with the hdd, thats really small especially when you cant have more than 1 in that case. The GPU needs changing imo, get a 4850 vapour-x or a 4770 and then you will shave about 70/80w off the load figure and it would be alot quieter(with the vapourx)

[simonw]

The Sugo SG05 can actually take 2 HDDs, one 3.5" and one 2.5".

In addition to the previous comments made about hdd, gpu and noise issues, I think an aftermarket cpu cooler should have been included instead of the stock Intel cooler.

And if I had paid for this, I would be really disappointed with the cable management, they seem to have put absolutely no thought into it, they just lumped all the cables in front of the fan which in turn blocks most of the intake of air.

[Badbonji]

good system but i agree with the hdd, thats really small especially when you cant have more than 1 in that case. The GPU needs changing imo, get a 4850 vapour-x or a 4770 and then you will shave about 70/80w off the load figure and it would be alot quieter(with the vapourx)

The 4850 uses as much power as the 8800gts roughly, what they should do is have a card which vents the heat out the back grill so the fans on the cpu and psu etc don't get louder as the temperatures increase, and have a try at some cable management. A 1.5Tb hard drive would be nice for that system, for £700 I wouldn't consider it that cheap.