Overclockers UK Titan Bayonet Review

Performance Analysis

The performance of systems like this is largely predictable, but it's still handy to run the numbers. In terms of gaming, the GTX 1060 means the Titan Bayonet is a solid little workhorse at 1080p and 1440p, and it will be able to run most games smoothly at these resolutions with settings at maximum or close to maximum. In some games, like Fallout 4, the GTX 1060 has a big lead on the RX 480, which makes this system look strong against Scan's, but if you've read our GTX 1060 review then you'll know the differences are typically not very much, as shown in Total War: Warhammer.

Performance in CPU-limited workloads tends to be mid-table at best, although in a lot of cases the differences are a matter of mere seconds. It's a shame OCUK didn't bump the overclock a little higher, if only to be in line with its competitors, but nonetheless the system holds up well in the PCMark 8 video and photo editing workloads, which aren't too heavily threaded. However, in the rendering benchmarks Terragen 3 and Cinebench, having “only” four threads hinders the CPU – if these are the sort of workloads you'll be doing regularly, it will be worth stepping up to a Core i7-6700K or even to the X99 platform.


Where the Titan Bayonet can't be faulted is power consumption and efficiency – the combination of a Skylake CPU and mid-range Pascal GPU sees peak power consumption hit just 251W, less than half of the maximum wattage the PSU is able to supply. In some ways, the PSU is actually overkill (SLI is off the cards with the GTX 1060, remember), but PSUs tend to be at their most efficient at around 50 percent load, so it is still a solid choice.

The storage benchmarks throw up no surprises – this is SATA SSD performance through and through. That's certainly no bad thing – it's only in very specific storage-intensive workloads where the benefits of a PCI-E NVMe drive, for example, come into play. Such a drive certainly isn't needed here, and the SSD here will be fine for general use and gaming.

The cooling system had no trouble dealing with the components. The CPU peaked at a core temperature of 69°C, for a delta T of 47°C, while our GPU had a delta T of 54°C (remember, though, that the final system won't be using a Founders Edition card. That CPU temperature is considerably lower than we saw in Scan's system (83°C), which was using a higher voltage and overclock. In terms of noise, the system isn't loud but it could be quieter – perhaps OCUK could have set the fans to Silent profiles in the BIOS, for example.

Conclusion

The raw cost of all the components here comes to, at the time of writing, about £1,065, were you to build this exact system yourself. With the retail price of £1,125, then, OCUK is asking for about £60 to build and warranty the system. This is a fair amount less than we saw with Scan's recent system, but you still want to know you're getting a good deal.

The two year collect and return part of the warranty is certainly attractive, and the quality of the build is high. Granted, it's hardly a difficult system to build, but it's still very neat and tidy everywhere that counts. The component selection, and consequently the performance, is solid. It is a little more expensive overall than Scan's system, but you do get a graphics card with a custom cooler, a much more efficient power supply, RGB LED lighting and proper USB 3.1 connectivity too. Scan's system does have a higher overclock and faster memory, but these don't change much benchmark wise. System noise is low here too, although we still think it could be even lower given the efficiency of the components here – perhaps an area for improvement.

If your system budget can stretch to a little past £1,000, then in all likelihood you'll be looking at getting a PC with a Core i5-6600K and either a GTX 1060 or RX 480. Overall, this is a solid system from the folks at OCUK – there are few areas of weakness and pretty much anyone looking for a great experience at 1080p or 1440p will be well served by the Titan Bayonet.