Detaching the side panels on Gladiator we are met by a rather sleek and very well-organised computer system. Element PC has certainly taken the time to carefully route the cables in a tidy arrangement.


Taking a closer look at the components selection, at the very heart of Gladiator is the Intel Core i5-4690K processor which is overclocked to 4.2GHz. Some might be querying why Element PC hasn’t opted for 6th Generation of Intel Processors (Skylake) in this build and the reason is quite simple. Element PC are still a young system integrator and as such lack the same buying power as some of the bigger names in the industry - but we’ve been told this week that they now have stock of Intel’s current chips.

The 4690K sits on a GIGABYTE GA-Z97P-D3 motherboard which as its name suggests utilises the Intel Z97 chipset and cooling this chip is the renowned Artic Freezer 7 Rev.2 – known for offering low-noise and great performance.

Since Gladiator adopts LED lighting from the Rise Glow chassis, Element PC has chosen to include Avexir Core Series 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 memory which displays a blue LED animation when the system is powered up.

For graphics delivery the EVGA GTX 970 graphics card has been used which provides mid-range 3D performance in the latest gaming titles.

Unlike many of the systems we usually come across which have a small capacity SSD and large capacity mechanical HDD, Gladiator opts for a single hard drive for storage – namely the Seagate Hybrid 1TB SSHD. This drive will offers solid state reliability in a larger capacity at a lower cost – so for this configuration its quite ideal.


Located at the front of Gladiator are a trio of 120mm cooling fans which emit a blue glow when the system is powered up and although this lighting can be switched off (via the fan controller switch) there is no denying that the lighting from these fans and the memory kit offer an impressive display.

On the subsequent pages we'll be testing our Gladiator to reveal the performance available.