Building an advanced gaming PC for Forspoken

The Asus ROG STRIX B550-A GAMING is an example of a well-designed and well-equipped mid-range motherboard that can be used to build a fairly powerful 2K/4K gaming PC. It is part of the popular ROG STRIX overclocking line, but unlike most of its counterparts in the series, it is based on the mid-range AMD B550 system logic instead of the X570 chipset, and its average cost is around $200.

For this amount, a potential buyer gets a standard-sized ATX board with a high-end 14-stage power converter, high-quality alloy chokes and durable capacitors. In order to reduce overheating, the manufacturer has equipped the VRM zone and M.2 ports with additional radiators. And for the power ports and the video card slot, special reinforced mounts were used. The integration of the fourth generation PCI-E bus makes it possible to use high-speed M.2 SSDs with an average operating speed of around 5000 MB / s in the system. Support for DDR4 RAM with a maximum speed of 5100 MHz gives you a free hand in a future upgrade, when the price of such modules drops to the level of the current DDR-3200 memory.

It is worth noting that the use of the B550 chipset turned out to be the right decision, since when installing and overclocking the conditional Ryzen 7, the B550 does not heat up as much as the ROG STRIX boards with the X570 chipset. At the same time, it also reacts sensitively to auto-overclocking of the processor, without limiting it in any way. Plus, the B550 works great with Ryzen processors of all generations, sharpened for socket AM4. And now add to this cocktail the ability to pair video cards in Crossfire mode, high-quality ROG Supreme sound, built-in AI Networking optimization system, proprietary Armory Crate software, as well as numerous connectors for LED strips and water pumps, and you will get a perfectly balanced solution for gaming assemblies. near-top level.

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X is one of the most powerful and productive 8-core processors of recent years, which replaced the popular 8-core Ryzen 7 3700X(Matisse family) among gamers. It is based on the Zen 3 microarchitecture (Vermeer core, 7 nm) and is compatible with most motherboards equipped with an AMD AM4 processor socket. Like most mid-range and high-end Ryzen processors, the Ryzen 7 5700X supports SMT technology and is capable of processing up to 16 data streams simultaneously.

With an advanced function block architecture, it delivers impressive single-core performance. AMD is talking about a 19% increase in power compared to the Matisse generation. In terms of multi-core performance, the Ryzen 7 5700X is often compared in many media to the more expensive and powerful Ryzen 7 5800X processor. The hero of this review runs at 3.4 GHz, which is 400 MHz less than the 5800X, however, with a turbo boost, both processors are almost equal: the peak frequency of the 5700X is 4.6 GHz, which is only 100 MHz lower than the older brother. Both carry 32 MB of L3 cache on board, have a free multiplier and are friends with the PCI-E 4.0 bus.

As a result, the Ryzen 7 5700X looks like a slightly delayed gift to fans of the AMD brand, who at the sunset of the AM4 platform received a powerful and inexpensive 8-core gaming processor with low heat and high performance. And not just games. Fortunately, the computing capabilities of the device are ideal for resource-intensive tasks related to video processing and rendering, working with animation and special effects, as well as in many other areas.

The announcement of the 4th generation of GeForce RTX graphics cards did not go according to plan. First, the players were advertised for a long time with the DLSS version, then the “greens” made confusion with the versions of the RTX 4080 model, then the players went a little crazy with the difference between the announced and real prices. Nearly half a year later, NVIDIA came to its senses and re-released the RTX 4080 model with 12 GB of memory called the RTX 4070 Ti. In fact, this is the same card based on the NVIDIA AD104 core with 7680 CUDA cores and a 12 GB GDDR6X buffer with a 192-bit bus. However, the name is no longer misleading, and the price looks more adequate.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti has a very attractive price/speed ratio. At a lower cost, the new product demonstrates performance at the level of the flagship of the previous generation GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, providing a comfortable frame rate in most AAA projects of recent years in 2K / 4K resolution and mixed graphics settings. That being said, the RTX 4070 Ti has a couple of very serious architectural aces up its sleeve that greatly improve the quality and performance of hardware ray tracing and DLSS supersampling technology. You can read more about the use of tensor cores and Ada Lovelace architecture changes here.

The Asus GeForce RTX 4070 Ti TUF is a three-slot variant of the RTX 4070 Ti graphics card with three air coolers. It uses an updated cooling system with new 11-blade Axial-tech fans. Compared to TUF RTX 30XX graphics cards, the new coolers are capable of pumping a third more air volume, providing better airflow to the video core and memory. Traditionally, for models of the TUF series, the manufacturer used a denser textolite and durable system elements, equipped the board with dual UEFI / BIOS and built several alternative operating modes into the firmware.

Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR4 2x16Gb is a 32 GB DDR4 ready-to-pair RAM kit that, thanks to XMP technology, can run out of the box at 3600 MHz with CL18 latency (18-22-22). Due to its high quality control, high overclocking potential and optimal cost, it is an extremely popular option for mid-to-high-end gaming builds equipped with Full HD or 2K monitors.

It is quite difficult to compete with it in terms of "price - performance" since the cost of a set with a speed of 3600 MHz is only a little higher than similar models with a lower clock frequency. And as practice shows, the difference in gaming FPS between sets with frequencies of 2400 to 3600 MHz can reach 10%, which is a good performance bonus. At the same time, the user is not limited by stinging frequencies and, if the capabilities of the motherboard allow him, he can manually play with the voltage and delay settings in order to achieve an even higher clock frequency. Fortunately, the Fury RAM modules have always been excellently overclocked, and after the purchase of the HyperX brand by Kingston, the quality bar remained at the same high level.

In order to reduce the operating temperature and simplify overclocking, both modules were equipped with branded heatsinks. They were designed in the same style as the memory of the HyperX Fury series, leaving the same textured black heat exchangers with high combs and backlighting at the end. The backlight supports most popular control systems including Asus Aura Sync, Gigabyte Fusion and MSI Mystic Light, making it easy to build a system with an open window and powerful illumination. The height of the module is 41.2 mm, so the potential owner should not have problems installing a high CPU cooling system.

As you have heard from us more than once, the American brand Kingston, which is one of the largest players in the memory market, somehow slept through the boom in solid state drives. However, the well-equipped, fast, and relatively inexpensive M.2 SSDs from the Consumer and KS lines helped them get back into the big game. And it is the KC series models that are one of the most popular options for building a gaming PC in 2023. For a gaming PC of an average or near-top level, we would choose a compact M.2 SSD from the Kingston KC3000 series with a capacity of at least 1 TB.

The key feature of the Kingston KC3000 is the integration of the fourth generation PCI-E system interface. It has an impressive storage capacity of 1002 GB, its maximum rated write speed is 6000 MB/s, and the read speed can reach 7000 MB/s. The maximum speed of random reading and writing of 4K blocks reaches an impressive figure of 1 million operations per second. The guaranteed write resource is an impressive 800 TB. The icing on the cake is Micron's 176-layer flash memory, although 96-layer memory is the norm even for more expensive devices. As you can see, the passport characteristics of the KC3000 are impressive, it remains to check the drive in action.

As a control controller, Kingston engineers used the well-recommended Phison E18 chip, and to increase stability, the memory modules were covered with a low-profile black heatsink. In tests for linear reading and writing large files, the drive showed excellent results with a minimum of drawdowns and low controller heating. In PCMark 8, which simulates the work of real applications, the newcomer demonstrates a very significant performance - throughput has reached almost 965 MB / s. But when working with large arrays of small files for a long time, IOPS indicators go down, and the controller heats up to 80 ° C. This makes it not the best choice for working with 3D graphics and 4K video content, which requires constant copying and burning of heavy source files.

At the beginning of the new decade, the eminent Scandinavian computer chassis manufacturer Fractal Design launched an unusual line of Pop cases. The unusual idea was to try to make affordable premium cases, albeit with some reservations. The Swedish designers took the popular Fractal Design Define chassis as a basis, after which they tried to unobtrusively simplify and reduce the cost, while maintaining the brand identity. The hero of this review, the Pop Silent case is the most popular and interesting option in the new series.

As you might guess from the name, in the Pop Silent version, the emphasis is on high-quality soundproofing of the case. With a hollow front panel, soundproof mats, noise-absorbing pads, and three silent case fans, the Aspect 12 chassis effectively dampens the hum of case fans, a powerful power supply, and a three-section graphics card. The other side of the coin is the low ventilation of the case, so it will look most appropriate when assembling a silent workstation, a mid-range gaming PC, or a powerful gaming machine with an emphasis on liquid cooling.

Given the interesting pedigree, it is not surprising that the Pop chassis is distinguished by high quality workmanship, thoughtful layout and the brand's traditional minimalist approach to visual design. The two-tier structure allows you to place the power supply with drives at the bottom, and leave the main area for the motherboard, video card and other components, as well as case fans or water pumps. As befits a high-level chassis, it is equipped with a transparent viewing panel, dust filters, a window for installing a Cooling system processor and a hidden wire-drawing system.

The Corsair iCUE H100i ELITE LCD Display is part of a new generation of liquid cooling systems from Corsair. The key feature of the updated line is support for new generation processor sockets (Intel LGA 1700 and AMD AM5), as well as a fundamentally new approach to design and lighting. We got a middle-class version with two fans for reviews. In addition to it, the series also released more powerful LSS ELITE with three fans with a diameter of 120 and 140 mm.

The hero of the review belongs to the class of closed-cycle cooling systems, which is immediately out of the box for installation. It consists of a 240 mm long aluminium radiator, which is attached directly to the processor, and a separate block with a pump for pumping coolant. Hanging over the radiator are two turntables with maglev bearings. They support PWM speed control, based on the temperature of the processor and the degree of heating of the radiator. Optimized heatsink design, fan power and a dense array of fins provide quiet and efficient cooling for a powerful 8/12/16-core processor with automatic or manual overclocking.

However, you won’t surprise anyone with a simple dropsy these days, so Corsair designers re-invented the lighting system by hiding the LEDs inside the fan blades and scattering them over the water block. At the same time, the water block cover was equipped with a separate 2.1-inch LCD display, on which the user can display system information such as the processor temperature, loop a nice animation, or place a static image. In general, this is definitely an interesting solution for an open case with one or more viewing windows. The only negative is that such an LSS is noticeably more expensive than similar options a la Corsair Hydro, devoid of backlight and LCD display.

MSI MPG GF is a powerful 850W AA power supply with 80 Plus Gold certification, 90% efficiency, detachable modular wires, comprehensive protection system and a limited 10-year manufacturer's warranty. Given that MSI has been harnessing the market for second-tier components (mice, monitors, etc.) for quite some time, they have to compensate for their delay with affordable prices and some features that competing solutions with an identical price tag cannot offer.

Among the main advantages of the GF A850GF model, the manufacturer highlights the use of Japanese high-temperature capacitors, an efficient fan with a diameter of 140 mm and all the necessary protection measures (against short circuit and overheating, over and under voltage, overcurrent and power). All available 850 W are available to power the +12VDC main bus, there is no channel separation, which allows using this PSU in fairly powerful systems with one top-end video card or two mid-range GPUs.

At the same time, the cost of the model in most stores does not exceed $140, which makes it one of the most affordable solutions of this level that can be found in retail. The main competitors in the same weight category are Chieftec Polaris, Gigabyte P850GM and be quiet! System Power 10. Perhaps the only negative of the device is its disproportionate volume, which, apparently, is associated with the use of a mesh grille. At a load in the region of 500-550 W, the MSI MPG GF operates quieter than water, but as the voltage increases, the noise level grows disproportionately: at a load of around 80% it becomes noisy, at 95% it is quite loud.