Review: PC Specialist Magma A10

Conclusion

When AMD took the wraps off the latest-generation Kaveri APU at the turn of the year, our opinion was that the chip "makes most sense housed in a quiet, unobtrusive mini-ITX system that's more than able to meet the needs of the vast majority of regular PC users."

Fast forward a few months and PC Specialist's Magma A10 is a good example of what the APU has to offer. Served in a reasonably compact and tidy-looking form factor, this is a base unit that combines four of AMD's CPU cores with latest-generation graphics based on the GCN architecture for an affordable £469 fee. Knowing that this particular amalgamation of processing cores benefits from having the right supporting cast, PC Specialist has the APU paired with ideal accompaniments that include 8GB of high-speed, dual-channel memory and a 1TB hybrid hard drive.

The end result is a well-rounded package with numerous upgrade paths, and at this price it's easy to see the Magma A10 as a solid all-round workhorse that can handle just about any workload - including light gaming - to a reasonable degree. Multi-core, GPU-accelerated computing is its strength, and though fully-optimised software is still thin on the ground, this is a PC with broad appeal and visible potential.

The Good

Quad-core CPU
Top-of-the-range integrated graphics
High-speed and dual-channel DDR3 memory
Hybrid 1TB storage device as standard
Roomy chassis with ample upgrade potential
Backed by a three-year warranty
Competitive £469 price tag

The Bad

APU gets hot with the reference cooler
Relatively high power draw under load
Can get noisy at full whack

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PC Specialist Magma A10

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The Magma A10 base unit is available to purchase from PC Specialist.

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