Inside the slim case of the Chillblast Fusion Avatar lurks a beast of a Media PC. Featuring an Intel Core i5-2500K processor, it’s by far the fastest of the group. Its WorldBench 6 score of 174 points puts it in the same league as a regular high-spec desktop PC, providing plenty of power if you want a single system for general computing and entertainment.
The system case, while considerably larger than the Apple, Arbico or Quiet PC offerings, is a slim landscape affair with plenty of vents to assist air flow. Inside, we find mostly standard-sized PC components including a Samsung Blu-ray combo drive and a hushed BeQuiet-branded power supply.
It’s the only system other than the Apple Mac mini to include a dedicated graphics card – in this case an AMD Radeon HD 6570. With this card installed, the PC is capable of very creditable gaming framerates too, making it a powerful all-rounder.
While the graphic card is cooled without the need for a fan, the CPU is not. However, Chillblast has chosen quiet components including a low-profile Arctic Cooling Freezer CPU cooler to help minimise disturbance. Overall, this powerful PC is still a little quieter than Arbico’s noisome Zippy X35.
Chillblast has selected a Peak dual-channel DVB-T tuner, enabling the Fusion Avatar to watch one channel while recording another, although neither supports Freeview HD or Freesat HD.
The supplied Logitech Wireless Combo MK260 keyboard is a compact model incorporating media control functions but it doesn’t include a pointing device you can use from your lap. Instead you must wrangle with a standard desktop mouse. A basic hand-held remote control is also included.
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