YOYOTech XDNA Platinum review

£2,500 worth of raw computational power

TechRadar Verdict

An immensely desirable, beautifully-built rig, but the extra CPU performance comes at a hefty price.

Pros

  • +

    New Intel CPU

  • +

    Blazing benchmarks

  • +

    Impressive spec

Cons

  • -

    Do you really need the CPU power?

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System builders YOYOTech is no stranger to high-end PCs, and this new XDNA Platinum is right up there with the fastest machines you'll find on a desktop.

Words like 'extreme' and 'ultimate' get bandied around a lot in the technology space, with every year something more 'extreme' and/or 'ultimatier' hitting our desktops.

With graphics cards on a bit of hiatus until the Spring it's been left up to the processor market to give us our fill of needlessly speedy computing.

Assuming you've already checked out our review of the first of Intel's latest Sandy Bridge E chip, the Core i7 3960X, you'll understand what we mean by needlessly speedy.

Going along with that you could also call it crazy expensive, a little cheeky in the core-hobbling, but owns both those 'extreme' and 'ultimate' monikers in the desktop space too.

That super-high-end chip though is not really going to be the one we see in the wild very often.

More likely you're going to see the processor that's used as the heart for this rather lovely XDNA Platinum machine from YOYOTech, the Core i7 3930K.