Published: February 26, 2016 | Source: PC Specialist | Author: Bryan Waters

PC Specialist Devcon 32″ AIO PC Review

Conclusion

The PC Specialist Devcon 32 is one of those products that comes completely out of left-field. It sits in a curious half-way house between a laptop and a regular gaming PC. It is often the case that if you attempt to do too many things then you end up failing at all of them, but the PC Specialist Devcon 32 actually bucks this trend by being the best of both worlds. It’s easy to compare it to a laptop, because it’s an all-in-one system and unquestionably portable. But the use of full-scale hardware means you can also consider it a system because it’s perfectly upgradable.

The build quality is the first thing that strikes you. Every element of the chassis is of a high quality, with sturdy metal components throughout. As a product you’re more likely to move around than a regular tower it’s important that everything stays where it is put and survives some bumping and banging about. The Devcon 32 is so robust that we would have no qualms throwing it in the back of the car. The actual building of the system by PC Specialist is up to their always high standards too, with cables neatly routed despite the very tight space inside the Devcon 32.

Component choice is something that has been done with a lot of care too. The ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming motherboard has all the bells and whistles you’d hope from a modern system; USB 3.1, GigaLAN, DDR4 etc; and that is enhanced by the Core i5-6600K, 16GB of Kingston DDR4 and all fed by a Kingston SATA 6 SSD. Graphics are provided by the most popular graphics card around, the GTX 970, here in Zotac trim. All of these elements combine to produce a seriously powerful gaming system easily capable of running anything you throw at it at the screens 1080P resolution. The great benefit is that, because it’s not a laptop, you can upgrade as you go if you wish. It’s as easy to tweak as any regular system, just with the fun of it being portable because it’s bolted to the screen.

Speaking of the screen, all these parts would be rendered cool but pointless if the display wasn’t up to snuff. It might be a case of you thinking “only 1080P?” but that’s plenty of resolution for all but the most pixel obsessed gamer. 4K is nice, but we still require way too much hardware to use it sensibly. 1080P is the most popular resolution for a reason. With a 32″ screen it’s a massive difference when compared to the 22″ monitors you might be used to. It’s a vision filling display. Surprisingly there aren’t any compromises when it comes to viewing angles or colour reproduction. A system as portable as this inspires social gaming, or showing off at least, and the monitors size means you’re far more likely to catch someone’s eye. So it’s a boon that the display looks this great whether you’re right in front of it playing, or ten feet off to the side having a sneaky glance.

That social aspect is a part of the Devcon 32 we weren’t expecting. Laptops tend to be small and thus quite personal. Our main gaming systems are immoveable – or at least a pain to move – and so they end up being personal just because of their location. The PC Specialist Devcon 32 though is easy enough to move around and big enough that you end up wanting to share your prowess and it’s simple to do. It unquestionably is a new idea done brilliantly, and beautifully straddles the line between an upgradable gaming system and a portable laptop option. At a mere Â£1099 for all this hardware, gigantic display, robust build quality and the PC Specialist attention to detail, the Devcon 32 is an easy winner of the OC3D Gold Award.