The Best Gaming PC for Dragon's Dogma II

The Ryzen 5 7600 is the entry ticket for those who want to experience the capabilities of the AMD AM5 platform, DDR5 memory and PCI-E 4.0 bus without having to spend money on more expensive processors. It boasts outstanding single-core and multi-core performance, integrated graphics, and low power consumption, making it a great option for budget motherboards.

With an average cost of around 8000+ hryvnia, the Ryzen 5 7600 is confidently ahead of any Ryzen 5 processors of previous generations in both single-core and multi-core loads. By switching to the all-new Zen 4 architecture, AMD engineers were able to raise the clock speed ceiling to 3.8 - 5.1 GHz, while at the same time reducing power consumption to 65 W. In general, its performance level has increased by almost a quarter compared to the Ryzen 5 5600X of the previous generation. And this difference can be increased through manual overclocking.

Unfortunately, there were some downsides. Components on the AM4 platform are much cheaper and, for example, the predecessor Ryzen 5 5600 can now be purchased at almost one and a half times cheaper. And this can be quite an interesting option for an inexpensive and very productive system with very limited scope for upgrade. The second disadvantage is that the stock Wraith Stealth fan does not cope well with heating the chip during auto overclocking, so we would recommend replacing it with an inexpensive tower from Deepcool, Jonsbo or ID-COOLING.

Despite the gradual reduction in prices for components for the AMD AM5 platform, motherboards still remain quite expensive compared to the previous generation on the AM4 socket. And if you are faced with the task of optimizing costs, then a motherboard of the Gigabyte B650M D3HP level would be a rather interesting option for painless savings.

The Gigabyte B650M D3HP is a relatively affordable micro-ATX model, which, on the one hand, belongs to the class of home and office models, and on the other, has quite serious and modern equipment that allows you to assemble a very productive gaming PC or a conventional editing station. Despite the compact form factor, the Gigabyte B650M D3HP boasts support for the PCI-E 4.0 interface, is equipped with four slots for DDR5 RAM with a fairly high maximum frequency of 7600 MHz (note: with support for XMP and EXPO), plus it has 2.5- gigabit network controller. Well, the modern mid-level system logic AMD B650 is used as the brain.

Essentially, the difference with more expensive solutions like Asus TUF, Gigabyte Aorus and MSI MAG is a larger number of slots for M.2 drives and a more powerful power subsystem. The first is definitely not a problem, since the Gigabyte B650M D3HP has 2 M.2 slots, into which you can install a pair of SSDs of 2–4 TB each and get solid storage for games. Regarding the power subsystem, the available 9 power phases are quite enough to power processors of the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 level, but for the conventional Ryzen 9 you will definitely need a more serious board. Well, the possibilities for implementing backlighting and water cooling here are much more modest than those of specialized boards for gamers.

The Radeon RX 7800 XT is new for 2023, which promises to make up for the advantage gained by NVIDIA after the resounding success of the RTX 2000 and subsequent 3000/4000 series video cards. At the beginning of 2024, it is one of the most attractive options in terms of price-performance ratio in the entire middle market. Its pure performance means you won't have to worry about stuttering or stuttering in most modern blockbusters at 1080p/1440p resolution and high graphics settings.

Equally important, the Sapphire Radeon RX 7800 XT PULSE has a solid margin of safety for the next few years, because unlike its main competitor GeForce RTX 4070, Sapphire’s brainchild has on board not 12, but 16 GB of memory. This is a fairly important marker of longevity, since recent hits Hogwart's Legacy and Resident Evil 4 Remake can act up on video cards with 8 GB of memory if the image is increased above Full HD. And many studios that are already working with the breakthrough Unreal Engine 5 advise focusing on the minimum level of 12 GB VRAM.

Radeon usually has great deals on older models, but that doesn't make any sense in this case. The Radeon RX 7800 XT costs 10% less than its predecessor RX 6800 XT, while it has 4 GB more video memory, a more serious data bus and an overall more powerful engine. If we average the game results in the top popular games of 2023 (BG3, RE4, Starfield, Phantom Liberty, Alan Wake 2), then the new product is on average 20% ahead of its predecessor. And since the RX 7800 XT is a representative of the new generation of Radeons, its owner can fully use the improved AMD FSR 3 upscaling with a rather interesting HYPER-RX performance improvement mechanism, which can be called the answer to NVIDIA Reflex and DLSS.

Kingston Fury Beast is a set of two DDR5 RAM modules with a total capacity of 32 GB and a frequency of 6000 MHz. In general, the Fury Beast series includes paired whales with a total memory capacity of up to 128 GB (4 dies of 32 GB each) and a maximum clock frequency of 6000 MHz. The memory is dressed in coal-black radiators, decorated with the Kingston Fury brand logo and the name of the Beast series.

The highest speed mode for this set is 6000 MHz with CL40 timings and a supply voltage of 1.35 volts. If your processor or motherboard does not support such a high memory frequency, you can switch to 4800, 5200 and 5600 MHz, which can also be called a very decent speed, especially in comparison with DDR4 memory. Plus, the Kingston Fury Beast supports PMIC temperature control, profiles with Intel XMP settings, and On-Die ECC automatic error correction.

In general, we would recommend this option to casual users who plan to order a PC assembly directly from a store and never get under the hood of their PC. Despite the reputation of overclocking memory that the Fury Beast series has earned, after the release of the DDR5 standard, Kingston became more careful with marketing and for overclocking they now advise choosing Fury Renegade memory sticks first.

The PX series from the Polish brand GOODRAM comes out with affordable 2.5 format drives that combine high quality control, moderately high data exchange speeds and memory controllers that are good by the standards of the budget segment. The PX600 was one of the biggest hits of last year and was widely recommended for use in gaming PCs and consoles. The PX700 drive, released in December 2023, successfully develops the ideas of its predecessor: the controller is more solid, the linear speeds are faster, the IOPS is higher, and the heating is lower.

As the brain, the GOODRAM PX700 uses a four-channel bufferless controller from Maxiotek with support for the PCI-E 4.0 bus, which, traditionally for inexpensive SSDs in 2023, lacks a full-fledged DRAM buffer, but can work with modern QLX memory and supports Host Memory Buffer (HMB) technology. which uses existing system memory instead of dedicated DRAM. In this way, the manufacturer saves significant money without any significant loss of quality and productivity.

And thanks to its built-in thermal protection mechanism and high thermal conductivity graphene pad, the PX700 control controller doesn't suffer from overheating during particularly intensive tasks. Thus, the drive can achieve read speeds of up to 7400 MB/s without suffering from sudden drops in performance, has a 5-year warranty and is much cheaper than flagship SSD drives from Samsung, Corsair and WD. It seems that we have finally come to the point where SSD manufacturers have gotten rid of all childhood pains, producing high-quality drives in any price segment.

The Cougar Duoface RGB case is distinguished by well-thought-out technical solutions that make it easy to maintain and assemble a PC for any task. The kit includes two quick-release front panels. The glass complements the side viewing window, made in the form of an opening door, providing a panoramic view of components, full visualization of lighting effects, and reduced noise levels. The mesh option guarantees maximum airflow for improved cooling. To implement any ideas, 3 ARGB fans are already pre-installed in the system unit. There are a total of 5 places for 140 mm turntables, which are connected to the included hub controller to synchronize the backlight and speed. The front dust filter deserves special attention. It is made in the form of a removable fine-grained metal plate that can be cleaned with various brushes or running water.

The Cougar Duoface RGB box belongs to the midi tower form factor, but has increased dimensions, which allows you to accommodate advanced gaming components. To effectively cool the processor, you can use tower coolers with a height of up to 190 mm or a liquid cooler based on a 280 mm radiator. The chassis is compatible with E-ATX motherboards, supports up to 10 expansion slots and vertical installation of the video card. The width of the case has been increased to 230 mm, so behind the side panel there is enough space for hidden wiring of power cables and cables.

Deepcool AG500 BK ARGB is a tower cooling solution for Intel and AMD processors, equipped with a massive heatsink and one 120mm fan. The device turned out to be quite weighty (approx: 861 grams), which is due to the thick fins of the radiator and the presence of five copper heat pipes. Despite the modest price, costing less than 2000 hryvnia, the manufacturer promises that the device is capable of removing up to 240 W of excess heat even from powerful and hot processors like Ryzen 7 or Core i7. Overall, this model has one of the most attractive price-to-feature ratios among tower coolers in this price category.

A 120 mm fan with a rotation speed of 300 to 1850 rpm is responsible for cooling the filling. This is a fairly wide dynamic range, allowing you to more accurately adjust the relationship between processor heating and noise levels. It’s a bonus that the fan is based on a durable and far from noisy Fluid Dynamic Bearing with PWM speed control. Despite the high power and solid appearance, the height of the Deepcool AG500 BK ARGB is 155 mm, that is, this is a completely normal figure for such “towers”, which guarantees compatibility with most computer cases, including many Mini Tower and Cube Case class options.

Considering the rather young age of this model (note: the release took place at the end of 2022), it is logical that the cooler was equipped with all the current processor mounts, including the recent Intel LGA 1700 and AMD AM5. As for the design, the Deepcool AG500 BK ARGB looks quite solid, the black color will appeal to connoisseurs of the classics; for fans of snow-white assemblies, there is an alternative option, Snow White, which, unfortunately, is less common on sale. As a bonus, full-fledged addressable backlighting is announced with support for all popular synchronization systems from Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, Razer, ASRock and other brands.

Recently, beautiful backlit coolers, water coolers, and powerful Gold/Platinum power supplies have begun to be stuffed into literally every gaming build. From the point of view of the universe, balance is important in everything, and for an average gaming PC such things are by no means a necessity. If the goal is to optimize costs, then an excellent candidate for the role of a power source is the Chieftec Smart A8.

Chieftec Smart A8 is a well-proven model that was released back in 2013 and has not fallen out of the top sales since then, enjoying respect among both gamers and miners. This power supply has a power of 700 W with an efficiency of around 80%, but at the same time it does not have even the most basic quality certification. In this way, the manufacturer tried to save a little money and reduce the financial burden on the user, because even for the conditional “Bronze+” sticker, you and I will have to pay.

Despite its venerable age and the presence of more modern competitors, the Smart A8 is perfect for building an entry-level, mid-range, and even mid-level gaming PC. It is equipped with a single 12 V power supply line (note: 648 of 700 W are available), and the list of connectors contains all the necessary power connectors that allow you to connect most modern video cards to it. With the exception of professional GPUs at the GeForce RTX 4090 level, which require a 1000-1200 W power supply. Despite the lack of quality certificates, the manufacturer did not skimp on the cooling system, equipping the power supply with a fairly quiet and efficient cooler.