Aria Gladiator Sparta Haswell i5 4670K Nano Overclocked Bundle Review

Aria Gladiator Sparta i5 Nano Overclocked Bundle Review

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As with any prebuilt system, the biggest fear is it arriving in good condition. Aria have got the perfect solution with the anti-static bag wrapped around the components, which is then attached to the motherboard box (containing all the goodies) for stability, and all that is placed in a robust box and surrounded with all the airbags one could hope to fit into the box.

On an mATX motherboard such as the Sniper M5, the cooler utterly dominates proceedings. It means the Sparta Nano is almost as tall as it is square.

Aria Gladiator Sparta i5 Nano Overclocked Bundle Review     Aria Gladiator Sparta i5 Nano Overclocked Bundle Review

With such a simple set of ingredients it’s hard for the solidity of Aria’s work to shine shine though at a glance. However, the placement of the fan cable gives you a nice idea about what you can expect once you fire it up. It would be all too easy to just plonk the cooler on and plug it in.

The choice of the Crucial Ballistix matches the M5 heatsink beautifully. As we’re so often saying here at OC3D, it’s the little touches that make the difference.

Aria Gladiator Sparta i5 Nano Overclocked Bundle Review     Aria Gladiator Sparta i5 Nano Overclocked Bundle Review  

The Scythe is a monster cooler. 140mm of air-pushing goodness. We like the Carbon look of the fan too. It lends a little bit of class to an otherwise plain item. 

Because the Sniper M5 has the DIMM slots the other way around to the norm, the RAM ends up with a label pointing inwards, so we’ve removed one of the sticks so you can see it’s the CAS9 Ballistix Elite. We’re sure that soon manufacturers will be reversing their heat-spreaders and selling it as ‘specifically designed for the LGA1150’.

Aria Gladiator Sparta i5 Nano Overclocked Bundle Review     Aria Gladiator Sparta i5 Nano Overclocked Bundle Review  

We’re sure that most people will be sticking a graphics card in their Sparta Nano, but there are plenty of display output options should you not wish to do so. 

One of the things that used to be a problem when purchasing a pre-built system was that you didn’t get the various bits and pieces that would be included if you’d have brought them separately. In the guitar trade it’s known as ‘case candy’ and it’s good to see the recent move to include everything. This is especially so because of the adjustable sound chips on the Gigabyte range of Z87 motherboards.

Aria Gladiator Sparta i5 Nano Overclocked Bundle Review     Aria Gladiator Sparta i5 Nano Overclocked Bundle ReviewÂ