Assembling a gaming PC for Counter-Strike 2 and Diablo 4

The Intel Core i3-13100F is currently the youngest processor in the Raptor Lake family and, apparently, will remain so due to the absence of Celeron and Pentium. Unlike the i5-121400F with its newfangled hybrid architecture, the i3-13100F has a classic homogeneous build. Only four powerful Golden Cove cores, each of which is divided into two virtual Hyper-Threading threads.

And in addition, a total of eight computing threads are obtained with a base frequency of 3.4 GHz and Turbo Boost auto-acceleration on one core up to 4.5 GHz. This is 200 MHz more than the previous i3-12100F. Most of the time, the i3-13100F runs at 4.3 GHz across all cores. The heat dissipation is declared up to 89 W, but in fact the processor heats up no more than 60 W.

Therefore, even the complete aluminium Laminar cooler with an 8 cm fan is enough for cooling. True, you can't call it silent, lovers of silence are better off forking out for a tower cooler with copper tubes and a 12 cm fan. We remind you that the F index for Intel processors means the absence or, more precisely, the deactivation of the integrated video card.

Xilence Performance X M906 is a single-tower and single-fan, but at the same time very massive air cooler weighing 900 grams. Able to cope with a non-hot processor in semi-passive mode or a moderately hot one in quiet constantly active mode. And the manufacturer's claimed TDP of 250 W makes it a suitable solution even for beginner overclockers.

The array of aluminium fins on one side is moved away from the DIMM slots so as not to interfere with the installation of high RAM modules. And on the other hand, a cutout is made so as not to conflict with the VRM heatsink of the motherboard. Both the fins and the copper heat pipes, of which there are six, are painted in a single black color. It adds style and protects against corrosion.

The tubes are in contact with the processor through a heat-distributing plate polished to a mirror finish. The rotation speed of the complete fan with durable hydrodynamic bearing varies from 500 to 1500 rpm. The height of the tower is only 154 mm. The cooler is suitable even for the latest Intel LGA 1700 and AMD AM5 sockets.

Biostar B760MX2-E D4 is one of the most affordable motherboards based on the new Intel B760 chipset for Core 12 and 13 generation processors without the need to update the BIOS. It has a powerful 10-phase VRM, and the side mosfets are covered with an aluminium radiator. But there is no cooler for SSD M.2, although even ultra-fast PCIe 4.0 drives are supported.

There are two slots for RAM, the classic DDR4 standard. If you need a 4-slot progressive DDR5 motherboard, take a look at the older Biostar B760MZ-E Pro. The slot for a discrete x16 video card is also represented by the PCIe 4.0 version. Therefore, you can safely install even graphics accelerators that are highly dependent on the bus bandwidth.

For the integrated vidyuhi, there are three video outputs: digital HDMI, DVI and analog VGA. Also on the rear interface panel there was a place for four USB Type-A, two of which are fast 3.2 Gen 1. And a mount for Wi-Fi antennas, and on the motherboard itself there is an M.2 Key-E slot for a wireless Internet adapter. Wired Ethernet network with speed up to 2.5 Gbps.

Transcend JetRam DDR4 is an inexpensive old-school green RAM. Complies with the JEDEC 3200 MHz standard, so it starts at this frequency immediately, without the need to activate the XMP profile. The timings of the CL22 are relatively high, but the supply voltage is very low - 1.2 volts. This actually explains the lack of need for a metal radiator.

There are no ready-made pair kits in the JetRam DDR4 series, so buy two separate 8 GB modules. The chips are most often made by SpecTek, a subsidiary of Micron. Overclocking records with them, of course, cannot be achieved, but manual overclocking from 3200 to 3600 MHz is almost guaranteed. This is still the ceiling for Intel Core 12 and 13 generations without an unlocked multiplier.

This is true for AMD Ryzen 3600 and 5000, except for models with the G index. The latter have two memory controllers, one for each channel, so overclocking RAM above 4000 MHz is possible. In addition to DDR4 DIMMs, Transcend's JetRam series also includes progressive DDR5 memory and shorter SO-DIMMs for laptops.

Aerocool Aero Bronze 650M is a fully modular power supply with 80 PLUS Bronze energy efficiency certification. But in fact, the efficiency is even higher - 90%. The wires are made flat, which contributes to their neat laying inside the PC case. The cross section is 18AWG, which allows you to power even the most powerful processors and video cards.

There are two four-pin connectors for CPU, which fans of overclocking will appreciate. On the main +12 V line, the power supply delivers 100% of its rated power - 648 watts. Another 120 W is supplied through the +3.3 and +5 V lines, that is, the real power of the PSU is even higher than the declared one. A progressive DC-DC conversion scheme is applied.

Japanese capacitors are used, which can withstand heating up to 105 degrees Celsius. Thanks to this, the fan can operate at low speeds. Up to half the load on the PSU, the noise level does not exceed 10 dB, which is not audible at all, and at full load it is still a moderate 25 dB. Multiple electrical protections are implemented: against short circuit, overheating, overload and power surges.

Biostar GeForce GTX 1660 Super is the most affordable graphics card with more than four gigabytes of memory, namely 6 GB. This allows all modern games, even the most demanding ones, to switch from medium texture quality to high quality. The optimal screen resolution is 1080p, although thanks to FSR and NIS smart anti-aliasing technologies, you can also upgrade to a 1440p monitor.

The FSR technology produces a clearer picture, but requires embedding directly into the game by the developers themselves. Whereas alternative NIS works at the driver level on top of any game. GTX 1660 Super can speed up video editing and stream to YouTube or Twitch. The built-in NVENC media encoder is responsible for this, H264, H265 and VP9 codecs are supported.

As for the Biostar version, its cooler is equipped with two fans and occupies two expansion slots in thickness. There are also two heat pipes, and three video outputs, all digital: HDMI, Display Port and DVI. The latter is deprived of the ability to output an analog VGA signal. The video card is powered by a single 8-pin connector and consumes 125 watts of electricity.

The Transcend MTE250S is a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD with ultra-fast PCIe 4.0 bus and a thin graphene heatsink. This alloy of aluminium and carbon is one of the best thermal conductors, which allows you to install SSDs not only in desktop PCs, but also in laptops and PlayStation 5. It is backward compatible with PCIe 3.0, but the speed in this case will be about half as slow.

The full speed of the terabyte model on the PCIe 4.0 bus is 7200 and 6200 MB / s for sequential reading and writing large files, respectively. Random processing of small files can reach 530 thousand IOPS (read and write operations per second). Versions of 2 and 4 terabytes are even faster.

This is achieved not only by an 8-channel controller, but also by a separate RAM-buffer chip. The operating time resource for the terabyte model is declared to be a solid 780 TB, which clearly indicates the use of durable 3D TLC flash memory (three bits per memory cell). Transcend's SSD Scope app helps keep track of wear and temperature.

Chieftec Elox AS-01B-OP is a full-size Midi-Tower for motherboards up to Full-ATX with a conservative design. No glass and luminous elements, even the front panel is deaf, not mesh. At the ends of the front panel, of course, there are narrow air intake grilles. The fan in the kit is only one 12 cm behind for blowing.

But maybe this is for the best, because it gives the user complete freedom of choice how to organize a PC cooling system: only with air or also with water. A long three-section liquid cooling system of 360 mm does not fit, but a wide two-section 280 mm fits. The air tower will fit up to 170 mm high, and the power supply - up to 180 mm.

But the length of the video card 320 mm for some modern models may not be enough. The flagship representatives of the GeForce RTX 4000 and Radeon RX 7000 series turned out to be too large. The case is made mainly of steel sheets with a thickness of 0.5 mm, only the front panel is plastic and on top there is a magnetic dust filter. The whole structure together weighs a moderate 4.3 kg.