Yoyotech’s striking XDNA MKII has a distinctive look all of its own. The subtle curves of the Corsair Graphite Series 600T mid-tower case seem almost to bulge out slightly, scarcely able to contain the power within. See Group test: What's the best gaming PC?
An almost entirely meshed top surface allows for maximum air flow generated by a pair of white-illuminated 200mm fans which can be regulated by means of a large rotary control knob at the front, flanked by a generous helping of five USB ports, one of these USB 3.0, along with FireWire headphone and microphone ports for good measure. Take a look at Yoyotech Warbird 3570XTA too.
Most distinctive of all however is the transparent full-height drive bay half way up the front of the case, inside which a quantity of white fluid can be seen sloshing around. This, of course, forms a key part of the PC’s liquid cooling system. Rather than go for an off-the-shelf solution like the Corsair H60 or H80, Yoyotech has custom built this one specifically for the XDNA MKII SE. See all PC reviews.
Flicking the two catches on the side panel is enough to open up the case – no need for a screwdriver – and inside we can see the rest of the transparent plumbing in all its milky splendour. These tubes stand out in stark contrast to the black-on-black interior of the case and the black covering integral to the Asus Z77 Sabertooth motherboard which hides all components from view. See also Arbico 5300-HD Media Centre.
With a sophisticated cooling system like this we were ready for some serious overclocking. Surprisingly Yoyotech has only pushed the Intel Core i5-3750K as far as 4.4GHz, which is slower than many have achieved with simple air coolers. The liquid cooling is also for the CPU only. The graphics card, an EVGA nVidia GeForce GTX 670 is left to its own devices.
So what we have here is a hugely over-engineered PC with truly fantastic build quality, but ultimately disappointing performance. Something went horribly wrong during the PCMark 7 testing on this system, resulting in a score of only half what we would have expected. However, the gaming results show that in normal operation it performs as its specification would lead us to expect – and that is not as quick as the many systems using a GeForce GTX 680. We know that the GTX 670 wasn’t Yoyotech’s first choice of graphics card for this system, and we can see why. We would suggest buying something with a bit more poke if you’re prepared to shell out for a PC of this quality.
| PCMark 7 Score | 3327 |
| Hard Reset fps (Medium/Ultra) | 140.4 / 116.7 |
| Lost Planet 2 fps (Medium/Ultra) | 83.9 / 67.9 |
| STALKER CoP fps (Medium/Ultra) | 247.6 / 107.3 |
| Alien vs Predator (Medium/Ultra) | 95.7 / 55.2 |
| Sniper Elite V2 (Medium/Ultra) | 79.5 / 19.9 |
A 24incAsus VE247H HDMI monitor is included, which is rather better than most at this size although not a match for the IPS panels in sheer image quality. It features HDMI and DVI inputs and a standard 1920x1080 pixel resolution.
Also included are the same Corsair K60 keyboard and M60 Mouse found with the Scan 3XS system and a Corsair Vengeance 1500 USB 7.1 surround-sound gaming headset.
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