Assembling a gaming PC for Metro Exodus, Devil May Cry 5 and Sekiro Shadows Die Twice

Intermediate models Core i5-8500 and 8600, by analogy with 7500 and 7600, Intel, at least at the start of the eighth generation, did not release (perhaps they will appear later). The junior i5-8400 is immediately followed by the top-end 8600K — also six-core, but with a high base frequency (3.6 GHz), an even higher auto-overclocking frequency (4.1 – 4.3 GHz) and the possibility of manual overclocking (as evidenced by the "K" suffix). Integrated UHD 630 graphics included.

The overclocking potential of each particular processor instance is always a lottery. But judging by the reviews on east european and foreign hardware sites, the Core i5-8600K is almost guaranteed to hit the 5 GHz mark. And in the presence of a motherboard with a reinforced power subsystem, overclocking can reach 5.2 – 5.4 GHz. And this is not a dropsy or liquid nitrogen, but an ordinary tower air cooler.

Due to the lack of support for the technology of parallelizing physical cores to Hyper-Threading threads, the i5-8600K heats up less than the twelve- thread Core i7-8700K. This allows it to be overclocked to a higher frequency and, as a result, it can better cope with games that are demanding not so much on the number of cores, but on the performance of each of them. Examples of such games are PUBG and ARMA 3. If you are primarily interested in them, build a computer on 8600K. If you play all the new games in a row, then it’s better to bet on eight or twelve- thread AMD Ryzen 5.

SilverStone Tundra TD02-RGB is an updated version of the Tundra TD02 liquid cooling processor system that has been on the market for several years. As you might guess from the name, the new product received a customizable RGB backlight. And if the usefulness of backlighting in other computer components can be argued for a long time, then in the case of LSS, which is initially more decorative than an applied element of a PC, “lights” are just in time.

It is a Tundra TD02-RGB two-section maintenance-free (without valve for adding refrigerant) coolant. The copper pump included with the processor has numerous tiny (only 0.2 mm wide) microchannels for improved fluid circulation. The pump is connected to a remote aluminium radiator by a pair of rubber-coated tubes, 31 cm long.

Both the pump itself (the SilverStone logo in the form of a snowflake glows) and a pair of 12 cm fans with translucent blades received RGB backlighting synchronized with the motherboard. Their rotation speed varies from 600 to 2200 rpm, which results in a moderate noise level from 15 to 34 dB. The manufacturer carefully provided a set of adapters for connecting the backlight of the pump and two fans to a single 5050 connector on the motherboard.

Our tests showed that at a room temperature of 23°C, the Tundra TD02-RGB LSS was able to keep the temperature of the Core i5-8600K processor, overclocked from 4.3 to 5 GHz, at idle at 38°C, and under maximum load — 77 °C If the processor had not thermal paste under the heat sink cover, but metal solder, we are sure that the temperatures would be even lower. At the same time, the fan speed did not exceed the acoustically comfortable 1200 rpm. And in idle, the turntables generally worked at minimum speed and were absolutely silent. One could only hear the quiet "squishing" of the pump.

You can install SilverStone Tundra TD02-RGB on modern Intel LGA1151, LGA2011, LGA2066, AMD AM3 and AM4 processor platforms, as well as on old LGA1366, LGA1156, LGA775, AM2, FM1 and FM2 processor platforms. Another thing is that the high cooling efficiency along with the high cost of the LSS in the case of an old processor will be unjustified. But to assemble a new PC, which requires not only high performance, but also a stylish interior view through the transparent side window of the case, dropsy with RGB is simply a must have.

ASRock Z370 Pro4 is a representative of an early wave of motherboards for Intel Coffee Lake processors, which, with the de jure unchanged socket LGA1151, are de facto supported only by 300-series chipsets. It is important to note that in order to support the Core i3, you will first have to update the BIOS firmware, while the i5 and i7 work out of the box, as they say. Four DDR4 DIMM slots support memory modules up to 4266 MHz (if more than one is installed, the maximum frequency will be reduced).

Two PCI-E x16 slots allow you to organize a bunch of AMD CrossFireX video cards, but not NVIDIA SLI (the limitation is purely software, there are no hardware reasons for this). In addition, there are three PCI-E x1 slots and one "old-school" PCI for connecting network, sound and video recording cards. The disk subsystem can be built from six classic SATA drives and two newfangled M.2 drives (including high-speed Intel Optane). The third M.2 slot (shortened) is designed exclusively for the notebook Wi-Fi adapter.

The ASRock Z370 Pro4 costs about $140, which seems to be a lot, but due to the temporary lack of models on lower chipsets, it is one of the most affordable solutions on the market. We recommend it to everyone who builds a computer on Coffee Lake, except, perhaps, avid overclockers. Due to the relatively small size of the mosfet heatsink, this motherboard will definitely not be able to demonstrate record overclocking rates for CPU.

Apacer Commando DDR4 is a rare representative of overclocking RAM without RGB backlighting, which, firstly, not everyone likes, and, secondly, it does not synchronize with all motherboards (for example, Biostar AM4 cannot). Such memory modules, perhaps, should be included in the conditional computer "Red Book" as an endangered, but very valuable species, and therefore subject to protection.

Thick-walled metal radiators Commando DDR4 are made in military style. The manufacturer himself claims similarities with the Heckler & Koch G36c assault rifle, which is often found in various shooter games. But to us personally, they are rather reminiscent of bolters from the fantasy universe of Warhammer 40K.

Commando DDR4 is sold exclusively in sets of two 8 or 16 GB sticks. Factory frequencies start at 2400 and end at 3466 MHz. The supply voltage is 1.2 V for low frequencies and 1.35 V for high frequencies. Timings, that is, delays vary from 16-16-16-36 to 16-18-18-38 (other manufacturers often have higher timings at the same frequency).

Samsung B-die chips are hiding under the heatsinks, which have perhaps the best overclocking potential on the market. So, even the younger 2400-MHz version of the modules, with a solid motherboard, can be manually overclocked to the frequency of the older ones — 3466 MHz. The older versions are built on selected chips capable of taking a frequency of 3600 – 3733 MHz. By the way, Apacer Commando DDR4 memory modules have even more brutal-looking brothers — Apacer Blade DDR4. The drawback of Commando and Blade is the same — their high heatsinks can prevent the installation of a tower CPU cooler.

Inno3D GeForce RTX 2060 Twin X2 is a new favorite in the mid-high price segment of the graphics card market. Built on the TU106 chip of the NVIDIA Turing architecture (named after the English scientist Alan Turing), which includes 1920 stream processors, 120 texture units, 64 rasterization units, 240 tensor cores and 30 RT cores for tracing. The frequency of the GDDR6 video memory is a solid 14000 MHz, but only 6 GB of the memory itself is available, which by today's standards is not very much.

The Inno3D Twin X2 cooling system consists of thin aluminium fins and copper heat pipes, a pair of quiet fans and a back plate that acts as a stiffener. Thanks to such a spectacular Cooling system, the RTX 2060 automatically overclocks from the base 1365 to 1680 MHz on the core. If you wish, you can indulge in manual overclocking (it is quite achievable milestone of 2000 MHz).

The GeForce RTX 2060 stands out from the background of previous 1000-series models with support for the latest Ray Tracing and Deep Learning Super Sampling technologies. The first is responsible for realistic reflections in games, and the second is for smoothing the “ladders” of textures. Compared to the old TAA anti-aliasing technology, the new DLSS allows you to significantly increase the frame rate in games.

So, with a screen resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and ultra-graphics settings, the RTX 2060 averages 90 FPS in the popular multiplayer shooter Battlefield V. Activating Ray Tracing reflections reduces the frame rate to 65, but switching from TAA anti-aliasing to DLSS increases FPS to its previous level. If you are willing to play at 60 FPS and medium-high graphics settings, Inno3D GeForce RTX 2060 Twin X2 can easily make friends with a 4K monitor or a multi-panel of four 1080p monitors. Fortunately, in addition to one HDMI video output, three more Display Ports are available.

Apacer AS510S Pro II is one of the cheapest solid-state drives with durable MLC memory (withstands three times more rewrite cycles than TLC) in east european retail. While other MLC models cost almost twice as much as TLC, Apacer costs only a third. It turns out downright SSD dreams? Let's look "under the hood" and figure out what's the catch.

Inside the metal case of the AS510S Pro II are indeed the most real MLC flash memory chips. And this means that this SSD has a consistently high, by the standards of the SATA interface, the speed of not only sequential reading (530 MB / s), but also sequential writing (520 MB / s). Of course, there is no virtual SLC cache from the triple amount of free disk space, and as a result of drawdowns in write speed after it is full. This is another advantage of MLC over TLC, in addition to durability.

Another thing is that the memory, although MLC, is old, still planar (2D) — manufactured by Micron. She, like the Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller, has a low read and write speed of 4K blocks by modern standards. Simply put, the AS510S Pro II processes small files of the operating system and programs more slowly than a solid TLC SSD. Even a 256 MB cache from RAM doesn't help much.

As a result, we can recommend Apacer AS510S Pro II to those who often have to overwrite large files at work — these are, first of all, video editors. But for programmers working with databases, it is better to opt for a modern TLC SSD on the SM2256 controller and fast 3D memory IMFT (Intel-Micron joint venture), for example Apacer Panther AS340 AP240GAS340G-1 240 GB Price from 652 up to 1 719 ₴.

The Seagate BarraCuda ST4000DM004 4TB hard drive is very different from its 1TB and 2TB counterparts. The main difference is the rotation speed reduced from 7200 to 5400 rpm. However, due to the greater density of "pancakes" (magnetic plates on which information is written), the speed of sequential reading and writing is almost the same — 200 versus 220 MB / s.

The four-terabyte BarraCuda also differs from another low-speed Seagate IronWolf model in its technical characteristics. The rotation speed is slightly lower (5400 vs. 5900 rpm), but the speed of linear reading and writing, on the contrary, is higher (200 vs. 180 MB / s), which is again due to the increased density of the plates.

BarraCuda also handles small files more quickly thanks to a large RAM cache by the standards of hard drives — as much as 256 MB (IronWolf has only 64 MB). But the warranty period for BarraCuda is the usual 2 years versus 3 for IronWolf. Here, the focus is already on ordinary work or gaming PCs, rather than ultra-reliable RAID arrays and NAS servers.

In fact, it turns out that the Seagate BarraCuda ST4000DM004 is one of the fastest and at the same time quiet and cold hard drives that currently exist. You can install it even in computer cases without rubber vibration-absorbing sleds, it will definitely not make noise. In addition, it has a very favorable ratio of volume and price — not a lot, not a little, 36 GB for $ 1. Solid-state drives, although they have pleasantly fallen in price lately, cannot boast of such a thing.

Silverstone Strider Gold ST65F-G is the world's smallest (only 14 cm long) fully modular power supply. Usually, connectors for connecting removable wires are forced to lengthen the PSU case, but not in the case of Strider Gold. Moreover, you can easily dismantle absolutely all the wires, even seemingly mandatory — to power the processor and motherboard.

The Strider Gold ST65F-G wires are made flat and pliable, which is why computer enthusiasts jokingly call them "noodles". The length of the most problematic wires, the length of which is often not enough for hidden installation, to power the motherboard and processor is 55 and 75 cm, respectively, in principle, it is not longer. So fans of cable management will be able to lay them very neatly.

On the main +12 volt line, Strider Gold ST65F-G produces as much as 54 amperes, which equals 650 W, that is, one hundred percent of the claimed PSU power. An excellent result, because in most cases this ratio does not exceed 90 percent. There are four graphics card connectors: two 8-pin and the same number of 6-pin. This allows you to power a bunch of two vidyuhi power up to 200 watts each, such as GeForce RTX 2070 or Radeon RX Vega 56.

Inside the Silverstone Strider Gold ST65F-G is Enhance Electronics and a quiet 12cm fan (up to 18dB). The high efficiency is confirmed by the 80 PLUS Gold Energy Efficiency Certification, i.e. at 230 V supply voltage and half load, only 10 percent of the electricity is converted into waste heat. All the main types of protection are implemented: against overheating, overload, power surges, etc. In addition, this PSU has a very wide input voltage range — from 90 to 364 volts, which is especially important for countryside areas, where the voltage in the household electrical network often sags.

Frime Bifrost is a stylish-looking computer case made with all the latest technology trends in mind. Its main advantages, of course, are a transparent side window made of scratch-resistant tempered glass and customizable LED backlighting of the front panel and complete fans.

One 12 cm fan is placed behind the Bifrost to blow heated air out, and the second of the same diameter is placed below to direct cold air flows towards the graphics card, traditionally the hottest PC component. A couple more propellers or a two-section liquid cooling system can be installed on the front panel. However due to the lack of a pronounced ventilation grill on it, the air intake leaves much to be desired. But nothing can be done, RGB beauty requires sacrifice. The top panel is also deaf, but this is rather a plus, because dust will not fall through it.

The Bifrost is very spacious inside: two 3.5-inch drives, three 2.5-inch drives, a graphics card up to 38 cm long (excluding the LSS installed on the front panel) and a CPU cooler up to 165 mm high can easily fit. The legs of the case and the seat for the power supply have rubber vibration-absorbing pads. The PSU is covered with a decorative casing that hides the wires sticking out of it. Between the motherboard tray and the rear panel there is ample space for cable management.

In general, Frime Bifrost is a solid case for building not very hot gaming PCs. If you need a cheaper solution, take a look at Frime Sakaar without PSU with an acrylic (plastic) side window, and if it's more expensive, then the flagship Frime Magneto black with three transparent panels and a complete remote control for backlighting.

The Defender Renegade GK-640DL is a cleverly designed membrane-type gaming keyboard, and therefore very quiet compared to the mechanics, of course with the now fashionable RGB backlight, you can’t do without it now. If you like the glow — you use it, if you don't like it — you turn it off by pressing one button, everything is fair. Fortunately, in addition to the glow, Claudia has a lot of other undeniable advantages.

The substrate under the keys is made of brushed metal: it looks spectacular and pleasantly cools the hands. In addition, it is protected against spilled liquids. Anti-Ghosting technology allows you to read the simultaneous pressing of up to 19 keys, which is much more than the fingers on two human hands. Fans of MOBA and MMORPG games, running their fingers over the keys like virtuoso pianists, will obviously be pleased. There are no separate multimedia keys, but their role is played by F1 — F2 while pressing the Fn button. The Win key is blocked if desired, so as not to accidentally turn off the game in the midst of an online battle.

The backlight can be adjusted directly from the keyboard without any additional software. For example, you can separately programme the glow of six zones of the keys in order to highlight only the buttons that are frequently used in games. The icing on the cake is the "light music" mode, when the flicker is synchronized with the music played on the computer.

The gold-plated USB connector and ferrite filter in addition to the braided cable are nice bonuses. Their usefulness in the transmission of a digital signal, of course, is not as great as in the case of an analogue one, but, as they say, let it be. Moreover, the price of the Defender Renegade GK-640DL is only slightly higher than ordinary office keyboards. Another interesting feature of Claudia is the built-in elegant smartphone stand.

Defender sTarx GM-390L is a low-cost gaming mouse without strict binding to any particular gaming genre. Complete weights allow you to easily adjust the weight of the manipulator: lighter for RTS strategies and MOBAs, or heavier for shooters. In the first case, the high speed of moving the cursor from one edge of the screen to another is important, and in the second, the ability to abruptly stop the mouse for precise aiming.

The shape of the sTarx GM-390L is slightly asymmetric, for the right hand, with stops for the thumb and little finger, so that the hand is less tired. Lefties can theoretically use this mouse, but it's not recommended, they'd still be better off choosing a fully symmetrical model. The cover of the case is made of grippy soft-touch plastic. All this is complemented by a colorful iridescent RGB backlight.

Especially for those who complain about quickly erasable plastic mouse legs, the sTarx GM-390L has them made of metal, that is, they are as durable as possible and slide well. The resolution of the optical sensor can be adjusted with a pair of dedicated keys from 800 to 3200 DPI. The Defender sTarx GM-390L cable has a fabric braid and reliable protection against bending at the point of attachment to the mouse.

On the right are three additional keys, on the left — one more. On all of them, through the Defender Game Centre application, you can bind macros, that is, quickly performed sequences of actions in games, for example, the procast of several spells in order. The Fire software function deserves special attention, it allows you to programme one of the keys to shoot single shots to reduce spread.

The Samsung C24FG70F is an interesting option for those buyers who are looking for their first immersive monitor but don't want to overpay for a large diagonal, gaming backlight and quantum dots.

For around $300 you get a wide-angle 27-inch monitor with Full HD resolution (1920×1080 pixels) and a 1800R degree of curvature, like in iMax cinemas. Aspect ratio 16:9. The C24FG70F features a state-of-the-art VA panel with rich colour reproduction (119% sRGB) and deep blacks.

In fact, this means that in films and games you will get a more colorful and rich picture. And its black depth is several times greater than that of IPS and TN + Film matrices. However such colorfulness may be superfluous if you work with photo and video content.

In general, Samsung C24FG70F is difficult to record in the "state employees" even with a strong desire. With a stylish chassis and bezel-less design, it looks on par with much more expensive monitors. The quality of the body materials and assembly also do not give out its low-cost.

As for additional functionality, here are mostly essentials. For example, support for AMD FreeSync technology, which “smoothes” the picture when the frames change too quickly in games. Or built-in speakers with a power of 5 W, which, although they do not demonstrate miracles, sound decent overall.