Conclusion
The Cryo Nano i7 had set itself up for seriously high expectations before we received it, and if we were being perfectly honest we would say that this system blew us away. The attention to care and detail throughout - from the hand picked D0 stepping 920 CPU to the enhanced fan selection and custom carbon fibre chassis reassured us that these guys know exactly what they are doing and they know how to make it sexy looking into the bargain.
When you analyse the bios - the technican building this system was not just entering in a preset defined set of 'safe' figures - he was testing and adjusting this exact system to find the absolute limits. Not every processor will overclock exactly like the next and this configuration was right on the limit - we could not get anything else from it without entering into the realms of instability.
Surprisingly the Cryo system is good value for money - the asking price of £1,266 inc VAT is very reasonable, especially when you take into consideration that you have a full 2 year return to base warranty - even if the hardware fails due to the exceptionally high overclocks.
Many people could build a very similar system to this if they really tried, but unless you are handy with a dremel to cut out the carbon fibre sheets and can locate all the hand chosen components then it would prove a rather time consuming experience. There is also the risk that by pushing everything so hard in such in a confined chassis you could end up frying some components - Cryo take all the risk and guarantee their work for 24 months.
We think this system is killer value and we have never seen such a small team so ultimately aware of this particular market - they really do know system building and have produced the fastest small form factor PC we have tested in our labs... by a long shot.
