In the spotlight – a prebuilt watercooled system featuring high-end components such as Intel’s Core i7-6700K, NVIDIA’s GTX 1070 and much more!
Product on Review: Dragon Shield
Manufacturer & Sponsor: Fierce PC
Street Price: £2049.95
In the world of computing not everyone has the expertise to building their own custom PC. To many it can appear a daunting task to undertake and not least of all because there is a requirement to choose compatible hardware. Further to this, adding in custom watercooling configuration is perhaps an even greater feat.
Although many computer etailers allow for the purchase of individual components, system integrators have put considerable time into designing and building their own systems for consumers to purchase. So if you don’t have the know-how, you can still get on the road to gaming stardom (or whatever else) without having to build the system yourself.
In the spotlight today is the Dragon Shield from Fierce PC. This computer system is a high-end offering which is laden with features. This rig takes advantage of Intel’s Z170 chipset and therefore makes use of the Intel Core i7-6700K. Accompanying this CPU there is 16GB DDR4, GTX 1070 and a trio of storage drives including M.2 NVMe technology. Not only has Fierce PC overclocked the CPU and GPU but they’ve also installed a custom water cooling configuration in order to achieve extremely low-temperatures.
About Fierce PC
Our Extreme Gaming PCs are tailored to meet any purpose. Featuring the latest processors, the fastest NVIDIA graphics cards and stupidly fast DDR4 memory, performance is going to be the last of your worries with these rigs. We specialise and build custom built computers, designed by gamers for gamers!
We handpick our parts from the leading manufacturers in order to give our customers the best performance combinations money can buy. Catering from VR gaming up to 4K surround, these PCs use record-breaking components and testing far beyond industry standard so you’ll always receive the fastest, most stable PC possible. All of our of systems are put through intense hours of testing to ensure you receive the system ready to go out of the box.
We handpick our parts from the leading manufacturers in order to give our customers the best performance combinations money can buy. Catering from VR gaming up to 4K surround, these PCs use record-breaking components and testing far beyond industry standard so you’ll always receive the fastest, most stable PC possible. All of our of systems are put through intense hours of testing to ensure you receive the system ready to go out of the box.
Technical Specifications
Below are the technical specifications supplied directly by Fierce PC:
OS
Windows 10
CPU
Intel Core i7-6700K (Overclocked to 4.6GHz)
CPU Cooler
Custom Water Cooling Configuration (More details below)
RAM
16GB ADATA XPG Dazzle 3000MHz DDR4
Motherboard
GIGABYTE Z170X-Ultra Gaming
GPU
EVGA GTX 1070 8GB (Overclocked)
SSD
Primary: Samsung SM951 256GB
Secondary: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB
HDD
2TB Seagate 7200RPM
PSU
Corsair RM 650i
Case
Fractal Design Define S Window
Weight
19KG
Warranty
2 Years Parts – 5 Years Labour
Windows 10
CPU
Intel Core i7-6700K (Overclocked to 4.6GHz)
CPU Cooler
Custom Water Cooling Configuration (More details below)
RAM
16GB ADATA XPG Dazzle 3000MHz DDR4
Motherboard
GIGABYTE Z170X-Ultra Gaming
GPU
EVGA GTX 1070 8GB (Overclocked)
SSD
Primary: Samsung SM951 256GB
Secondary: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB
HDD
2TB Seagate 7200RPM
PSU
Corsair RM 650i
Case
Fractal Design Define S Window
Weight
19KG
Warranty
2 Years Parts – 5 Years Labour
Below is a listing of all the watercooling components:
Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 Full Copper X-Flow 360mm radiator x1
Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 280mm x1
Alphacool NexXxoS XP³ Light – Acetal Nickel – Intel/AMD x1
Alphacool Eiszapfen 2-way ball valve G1/4 – Deep Black x1
Alphacool connection 3-way terminal TEE T-piece round, G1/4 – deep black x1
Alphacool Eiszapfen angled 45° rotatable G1/4 outer inner – deep black x3
Alphacool angled adaptor 90° revolvable G1/4 outer thread to G1/4 inner thread – deep black x3
Alphacool angled adaptor 45° – G1/4 revolvable – 2x inner thread – Deep Black x2
Alphacool Laing DDC310 – Single Edition – black x1
Alphacool Eisbecher DDC 250mm Acetal x1
Alphacool HardTube 16/12mm plexi clear 60cm – 4 pack 1
Alphacool Eiszapfen 16mm HardTube Compression Fitting G1/4 for Plexi- Hardline Hard Tube – Deep Black x10
Alphacool HF 10mm double nipple – extension combo, double outer thread G1/4 – Black x1
Alphacool double nipple G1/4 outer thread to G1/4” outer thread with O-ring – deep black x2
EKWB EK-FC1070 GTX – Nickel+Plexi x1
EKWB EK-FC1070 GTX Backplate – Nickel x1
Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 280mm x1
Alphacool NexXxoS XP³ Light – Acetal Nickel – Intel/AMD x1
Alphacool Eiszapfen 2-way ball valve G1/4 – Deep Black x1
Alphacool connection 3-way terminal TEE T-piece round, G1/4 – deep black x1
Alphacool Eiszapfen angled 45° rotatable G1/4 outer inner – deep black x3
Alphacool angled adaptor 90° revolvable G1/4 outer thread to G1/4 inner thread – deep black x3
Alphacool angled adaptor 45° – G1/4 revolvable – 2x inner thread – Deep Black x2
Alphacool Laing DDC310 – Single Edition – black x1
Alphacool Eisbecher DDC 250mm Acetal x1
Alphacool HardTube 16/12mm plexi clear 60cm – 4 pack 1
Alphacool Eiszapfen 16mm HardTube Compression Fitting G1/4 for Plexi- Hardline Hard Tube – Deep Black x10
Alphacool HF 10mm double nipple – extension combo, double outer thread G1/4 – Black x1
Alphacool double nipple G1/4 outer thread to G1/4” outer thread with O-ring – deep black x2
EKWB EK-FC1070 GTX – Nickel+Plexi x1
EKWB EK-FC1070 GTX Backplate – Nickel x1
Closer Look – Video Overview
For this review we’ve produced a video which reveals a detailed overview of Dragon Shield with some benchmarks. Please check out the video below for a comprehensive overview of this system:
Benchmarks: Temperatures
For our first benchmark test we observe the max. CPU/GPU temperatures of the system during a 20-minute run of Unigine Heaven 4.0. To report back on the temperatures we use RealTemp and GPU-Z which provide the peak figures.
Benchmarks: Boot Time & Power Consumption
In this test we observe how fast the boot into Windows 10 is by using a digital stopwatch. Power consumption is another important observation, for this we observe the wattage from the wall while the system is running Heaven 4.0.
Benchmarks: Cinebench R15 & x264 HD
CINEBENCH can measure systems with up to 64 processor threads. This test scene contains approximately 2,000 objects which in turn contain more than 300,000 polygons in total, and uses sharp and blurred reflections, area lights, shadows, procedural shaders, antialiasing, and much more. The result is displayed in points (pts). The higher the number, the faster your processor is.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8
PCMark 8 combines performance benchmarking with battery life measurement and includes tests based on popular Adobe and Microsoft applications. Whether you are looking for long battery life, or maximum power, PCMark 8 will help you find the devices that offer the perfect combination of efficiency and performance for your needs. It’s the complete PC performance benchmark for home and business.
Benchmarks: 3DMark & Heaven 4.0
The new 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark your hardware. With three all new tests you can bench everything from smartphones and tablets, to notebooks and home PCs, to the latest high-end, multi-GPU gaming desktops. And it’s not just for Windows. With 3DMark you can compare your scores with Android and iOS devices too. It’s the most powerful and flexible 3DMark we’ve ever created.
Benchmarks: DIRT Rally, DOOM, TW: WARHAMMER, Deus EX MD
Dragon Shield uses a single GTX 1070 (Overclocked) for graphics delivery, in this section we test the latest gaming titles to see how effective the 3D capabilities are at 1080p resolution. We report on the average framerate using FRAPS.
Benchmarks: SteamVR Performance Test
The SteamVR Performance Test measures your system’s rendering power using a 2-minute sequence from Valves Aperture Robot Repair VR demo. After collecting the data it determines whether your system is capable of running VR content at 90fps and whether VR content can tune the visual fidelity up to the recommended level. For machines that are not VR Ready the tool can help determine whether capabilities are bound by Graphics Card, CPU, or both.[/quoteConclusion
In our first outing with Fierce PC we’ve jumped to one of their more powerful offerings in the Dragon Shield and we aren’t disappointed.
Component selection is crucial in any pre-built system and throughout Dragon Shield there is a huge selection of high-quality hardware from reputable brands. Some of these products we’ve actually reviewed ourselves independent of this review, and so we can vouch for their validity within this build.
At the very heart of Dragon Shield, Fierce PC has chosen to use Intel’s Core i7-6700K which takes advantage of Skylake architecture. Fierce PC’s system builders have boosted the 4GHz default clock speed to 4.6GHz with a commendable overclock which sees an appreciated gain in performance. This isn’t the only thing to receive a performance increase either – the EVGA GTX 1070 has had its GPU and memory clock speeds modified to significant levels, which again, provides substantial benefits. In fact, we rolled back the overclock on the graphics card to see how much of an impact this overclock had on the framerates in game and the improvement qualifies a 10-18 FPS boost – very impressive indeed!
One of the main highlights with Dragon Shield is the custom watercooling configuration. The requirement for a prebuilt system usually comes because users perhaps lack the technical experience to select a group of suitable components and construct their own PC and the inclusion of this cooling solution is the icing on the cake in such a scenario. For those who might regard such an avenue as an intimidating task, all the work has been done and the benefits are crystal clear; not only does such an arrangement look impressive but it yields ultra-low temperatures. Most notably, the watercooled EVGA GTX 1070 remained at under 40 degrees while under load, even with a significant overclock applied to its GPU and memory.
In a time when RGB lighting is all the rage, the addition of lighting strips and a controller is particularly relevant, especially since this set up compliments the watercooling components with visual splendour.
Dragon Shield is priced at £2049.95 GBP. Since the components within our system are widely available, we calculated the overall costs and to build this type of configuration separately would cost you the in region of £1700-1800. So, given the fact we get the system ready for use straight out the box and Fierce PC’s prestige warranty service (2 years parts, 5 years labour) we believe this to be a good deal; this is definitely a solid system.
Dragon Shield is an outstanding watercooled system which not only boasts a catalogue of superb hardware, but has been optimised by Fierce PC with a significant overclock to the CPU and GPU which translates to brilliant performance in a range of varying scenarios.
VIDEO REVIEW – VORTEZ TV
Pros
+ Eye catching design
+ Watercooled – extremely low temperatures
+ Low noise operation
+ Reliable brands/components used
+ Features overclocks to CPU/GPU
+ Offers excellent 3D performance
+ Three fast storage drives
+ Includes lighting strips & controller
+ Decent warranty service
Cons
– Motherboard/Memory lighting fixed to red
+ Eye catching design
+ Watercooled – extremely low temperatures
+ Low noise operation
+ Reliable brands/components used
+ Features overclocks to CPU/GPU
+ Offers excellent 3D performance
+ Three fast storage drives
+ Includes lighting strips & controller
+ Decent warranty service
Cons
– Motherboard/Memory lighting fixed to red
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
