Most users will find a PC with an Intel Core i5-3570K processor running at 4.3GHz more than powerful enough for their needs, regardless of whether it's overclocked or not. Although we appreciate extra speed and performance, many performance systems can be noisy, but not the Fusion Stealth.
The Stealth is built into a Fractal Design Define R4, one of our favourite cases. It has heavy-duty sound proofing on the side panels, on the front panel’s lid and on the removable covers that cover the fan mounts at the top of the case. Another nice touch, which has nothing to do with soundproofing, is an extra bracket mounting slot at the back of the PC. You could use it to provide extra USB ports without blocking any of your PC's valuable expansion slots, for example.
The case fans are also engineered for quiet operation and the neatly designed drive trays use rubber grommets to mute any vibrations from HDDs. There are eight 3 1/2in bays, but one cage can be removed, leaving you with three slots and extra space in case you want to install an unusually long graphics card such as the AMD Radeon HD 6690. 3 1/2in bays are occupied by a 120GB SSD system drive and a 2TB HDD storage disk, while one of the case's two 5 1/4in bays holds a Blu-ray re-writer. The CPU cooler is also a silent model, a Gelid Tranquillo Rev.2, while a 680W Be Quiet! PSU completes the specification.
Even the graphics card, a 2GB Nvidia-based Asus GeForce GTX 670 DirectCU II, is virtually inaudible unless you open the case and put your ear to it. The card has a pair of DVI outputs, an HDMI port and a DisplayPort output, and it can handle up four simultaneous displays for desktop use and three for gaming. Using a single 1,920x1,080 monitor we got brilliant frame-rates of 61.4fps in Dirt Showdown and 45.1fps in Crysis 2, both at Ultra quality.
The Fusion Stealth’s processor is an Intel Core i5-3570K that has been modestly overclocked to 4.3GHz, producing an overall score of 110 in our benchmark tests. Although it's by no means the highest score we've ever seen from this processor, it's more than powerful enough for gaming and desktop use. The system has 16GB of RAM in the form of two 8GB modules, so it’ll easily handle memory-intensive tasks such as high-level graphics and video editing, and there are two vacant slots that will let you upgrade it to the motherboard's maximum 32GB of RAM.
The motherboard is an Asus P8Z77-V. This is a popular, well-equipped board, with an 802.11n Wi-Fi module to accompany its Gigabit Ethernet port, two PCI-E x1 slots (although one’s blocked by the graphics card), two PCI slots and three PCI-E x16 slots. Of the latter, one actually runs at x4 and the topmost slot runs at x16 unless the second slot is populated, in which case both will run at x8. There are four SATA3 and four SATA2 ports, but only one SATA2 and two SATA3 ports are in use, leaving plenty of room for expansion.
There are also two unused USB headers, along with two USB2 and two USB3 ports on the front panel and another four USB3 and two USB2 ports at the back. There's also a PS/2 port for a keyboard or mouse, six 3.5mm analogue audio outputs and an optical S/PDIF output. The usual 3.5mm mic and headphone ports are available on the front panel.
The Fusion Stealth is available to buy with either Windows 8 or Windows 7 preinstalled. Our review sample had Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit installed. If you want a powerful PC that doesn't sound like a box of irate bees, this is the PC for you, but quiet, high-quality components don't come cheap and this is reflected in the PC's £1,199 price. We've seen faster-performing systems for less, but this is an outstanding PC and our new favourite silent gaming system. If you're after a hardcore gaming PC for the sitting room, you should also take a look at compact gaming rigs such as the Dino PC Microraptor.
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