Yoyotech Warbird RS14 review

The Warbird RS14 from Yoyotech is a very interesting gaming PC, not least because it delivers some of the best performance results, both inside and outside of VR gaming, but also because it costs less than some systems which can’t match its speed. See also: Best gaming chairs

Yoyotech Warbird RS14 review: Price

You can buy the RS14 from Yoyotech for £999.99 inc VAT. Gaming performance is, of course, largely determined by the capabilities of the graphics card and Yoyotech opted for an MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti Armor X2 which the Wired2Fire Diablo Predator VR also uses, but which happens to cost £200 more.

Note: As we were reviewing this PC, nVidia launched the GTX 1070 and 1080. Yoyotech now offers the Warbird RS14 with the GTX 1070 for the same price of £999 inc VAT. You can specify a GTX 1080 for £180 more if you want the extra performance. The GTX 1070 performs almost exactly to the level of a 980 Ti, so the benchmark results below will be essentially the same even with a GTX 1070 installed.

Yoyotech Warbird RS14 review: Design and specs

 

See also: The complete guide to virtual reality

It might seem like a no-brainer to save £200 and go for the Yoyotech rather than the Wired2Fire, but there are very good reasons why this PC is the less expensive of the two: First of all, the Warbird RS14 uses the standard, non ‘K’, version of the Intel Core i5-6600 processor running at a stock 3.3GHz, which puts it at a performance disadvantage. This choice of processor makes perfect sense though, as the MSI B150M Mortar motherboard in which it’s installed uses Intel’s budget chipset for business, the B150 Express, which isn’t built for overclocking.

The Warbird RS14 comes with 8GB of DDR4 memory and a 128GB Hynix SSD paired with a 1TB Toshiba hard drive. This should give reasonable storage performance for Windows, but its limited capacity will mean you won’t get to store much of your own content on the SSD. We also found the storage performance of this system to be rather poor when tested under PCMark 8.

If you’re really all about the gaming, then none of these other performance issues may matter to you In which case this PC offers truly excellent value for money. However, if you spend a significant amount of your time doing ‘other stuff’ with it, you may find yourself wishing you had spent a little more on the motherboard and CPU.

Externally, the Warbird RS14 certainly looks the part. The Aerocool QS-240 system case being one of the smarter-looking options available, featuring a full mesh front panel, which curves its way elegantly around the top of the case without and of the lumps and bumps which often give gaming PCs a more industrial, or even military, look. It does come with a transparent side panel, which thankfully draws most of the attention towards the graphics card rather than the motherboard.

Yoyotech Warbird RS14 review: Benchmark results

Rated ‘Very High’ in the SteamVR Performance Test, the Warbird RS14 achieves the joint highest VR quality rating of 11 alongside the Wired2Fire system and the two are pretty much evenly matched in the non-VR game tests, too.

The following benchmark results allows you to compare between all VR PCs tested in our group test. Please note that Yoyotech supplied the PC for review with a 980 Ti (as it was before the 1070 and 1080 were available), but will supply this PC with a GTX 1070 for the same price, or upgrade to a GTX 1080 for £180 more.

Specs

Yoyotech Warbird RS14: Specs

• 3.3GHz Intel Core i5-6600 (3.9GHz Intel Boost)
• Silentium Spartan PRO cooler
• 8GB DDR4 2400MHz RAM
• 1TB Toshiba 7K1000 HDD + 128GB SK Hynix SL301 SSD
• Aerocool Integrator 600W PSU
• MSI B150M Mortar motherboard
• Windows 10 Home 64-bit
• MSI GeForce GTX 980Ti Armor X2 graphics card
• onboard audio
• Realtek RTL8111H Gigabit LAN controller
• 4x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0 On Motheboard I/O
• 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort outputs
• Aerocool QS240 M-ATX Case With Window
• 3-years Return to base. First 30 days free collect on fault, First year parts and labour, 2 years labour only