PC for Hellblade II: Senua's Saga

Despite the obvious lack of truly beautiful nexgen games that we were promised at the time of the announcement of the PS5, the system requirements of AAA projects are growing by leaps and bounds. In 2023, it finally became clear that 4-core processors were becoming obsolete and could no longer cope with the assigned tasks. This was especially noticeable in the beloved Starfield, which placed an incredible load on the processors after the player landed in a densely populated metropolis. Therefore, even in the case of inexpensive gaming systems, it makes sense to add a little and take a modern 6-core Ryzen 5 or Core i5 level. From a price-performance point of view, one of the optimal candidates is the Core i5-12400.

Unlike older models of Core i5 and Core i7 processors from the Alder Lake series, this model uses only Performance cores with high IPC, which can automatically overclock to 4.4 GHz. By abandoning the energy-efficient E-cores, Intel tried to maximize the performance of each core so that the processor would not be dwarfed by game engines like Unreal Engine 5. Plus, the chip was taught to work with DDR5 memory (note: DDR4 is also supported) and the PCI-E 5.0 data bus. . However, for an inexpensive gaming system it is preferable to take the more affordable DDR4, since most modern games gain little from the transition to frequencies of 5000 - 6000 MHz.

In gaming tests, the i5-12400 shows solid results, close to the more expensive Core i7 models of previous generations. Paired with the popular GeForce RTX 4060 video card (note: or the slightly more expensive and powerful Radeon RX 7700 XT), the test Core i5 can easily handle modern blockbusters in resolutions from 1080p to 1440p. An alternative to the i5-12400 could be the popular 6-core Ryzen 5 5600, which is slightly inferior to the hero of the review in gaming performance, does not support DDR5 and is tied to the outdated AMD AM4 platform, but at the same time will cost almost one and a half thousand hryvnia less.

Recently, recommendations for assembling gaming PCs often include quite expensive motherboards with flagship chipsets, powerful cooling and addressable backlighting. Often this does not make sense, since most people do not overclock and will gain little from using powerful power supply and cooling systems, and only a few gamers are ready to tinker with backlight synchronization. As practice shows, for mid-level gaming systems, mid-class motherboards with chips of the B760 and B650 level are sufficient.

An excellent example is the inexpensive Gigabyte B760M GAMING X model, which in terms of equipment belongs to the middle class, but at the same time costs a little more than office-grade motherboards. Thanks to Intel extending the lifespan of the LGA 1700 socket, the platform offers an extremely large selection of interesting options, and prices are market-regulated, so it's hard to go wrong. However, even against the background of the above, the board from Gigabyte looks extremely attractive: it supports fast RAM of DDR4-5333 standards, is friendly with the PCI-E 4.0 interface, and its 10-phase power converter can easily withstand the considerable appetites of a Core i7-level chip.

Despite the miniature dimensions imposed by the micro-ATX form factor, the slot layout and additional capabilities are almost in no way inferior to motherboards costing one and a half to two times more. We are talking about four full-fledged RAM slots, two M.2 PCI-E 4.0 ports, a modern LAN controller with a bandwidth of 2.5 Gbps and additional cooling for the VRM and M.2 zone. And all this for a price just above 5,000 hryvnia.

The announcement of flagship Radeon video cards based on the Navi 3X core angered many gamers: the new products did not bring anything radically new in technical terms, and the performance improvement compared to Radeon 6000 series video cards was sometimes a ridiculous 2 - 3%. But over time, the hand of the market adjusted everything, and the pre-top video card Radeon RX 7700 XT is gradually turning into one of the most interesting video cards for gaming in Full HD and 2K.

The PowerColor Radeon RX 7700 XT Fighter is equipped with a 12 GB memory buffer, which expands the gaming capabilities of the video card, since many hits of 2023 - 2024 ideally require not 8, but 12 GB of video memory. In turbo mode, the video card can accelerate to 2584 MHz, which allows you to more efficiently cope with intensive graphics tasks. Of course, it supports all the latest Radeon technologies, including the FSR upscaler and the recently announced artificial frame rendering system using neural networks.

The Radeon RX 7700 XT provides good performance at QHD resolution and the highest graphics quality settings, only slightly inferior to the slightly more expensive GeForce RTX 4070. The advantages of Radeon are lower cost and the absence of bulky power adapters, like the RTX 4000 series video cards. However, it has slightly higher power consumption (almost 250 W versus 200 W), it copes much worse with ray tracing and cannot yet boast the same efficiency frame generation, like NVIDIA's DLSS 3, so there is no clear winner here.

Kingston Fury Renegade is a dual-channel set of high-speed DDR4-3600 RAM modules, consisting of two peer-to-peer modules of 8 GB each. In fact, this is the gold standard of today's RAM, which provides an optimal cost-speed balance compared to classic DDR4-2400 memory and the new, but still expensive DDR5.

The test set starts with timings CL16-20-20 and a voltage of 1.35V. For successful overclocking, the strips are equipped with large metal radiators that effectively cool both the chips themselves and the memory controller. The beauty of the set lies in the cost - for 2000 hryvnia you get a dual-channel 16 GB set, which picks up the required XMP profile out of the box and potentially overclocks well. But there is a nuance.

At the time of the Fury brand, Renegade memory was overclockable and overclocked perfectly. However, the situation has changed and in our case, instead of Samsung memory, more affordable mass-market solutions from Hynix are used, so the success of overclocking may depend on pure luck or lunar cycles. In our case, we managed to reach the 4000 MHz mark by raising the voltage to 1.45 V and changing the delay time.

Legend 900 is a pre-top model of a solid-state drive with a PCIe interface in the Adata brand product line. Unlike the older Legend 960 model, the culprit of the review, the Legend 900, has lower stated read and write speeds. At the same time, LEGEND 900 with a capacity of 1 TB can be purchased at retail for 3,500 hryvnia, which automatically turns it into one of the most interesting solid-state drives with support for the high-speed PCI-E 4.0 interface.

Memory management is handled by a four-channel bufferless controller from Maxio MAP1602 with support for the NVMe protocol and Host Memory Buffer technology. Nameplate speeds are 4700 MB/s when writing and 7000 MB/s when reading, that is, it meets the requirements of the PlayStation 5. The controller is far from the hottest, so a neat removable heatsink easily copes with cooling, not exceeding 70 °C. Considering the five-year warranty and a decent rewriting resource of around 1000 TB, you can count on the Legend 900 to survive more than one upgrade and by that time will be more likely to become obsolete than to become unusable

If we return to the comparison with the top model SSD Legend 960, then the Legend 900 will not have a DRAM buffer, which in theory leads to serious speed drops when the SLC cache is full. However, this chronic disease of inexpensive SSD drives is gradually disappearing. In this case, the difference is made by modern 232-layer memory from YMTC, which helps maintain high read and write speeds. The speed drops only when the buffer is filled at one time by more than 300 GB, so in everyday boot mode (for example, system-games-multimedia) this does not manifest itself in any way.

System Power 10 is the most current update to the budget line of power supplies from the famous be quiet brand. This model combines the reliability and quiet operation characteristic of the products of the German brand, but costs significantly less than Straight Power and Dark Power power supplies. Thanks to a solid maximum power of up to 850 W, this line is quite suitable for powering the power-hungry NVIDIA RTX 4000 series video cards. In this case, we will talk about a slightly more affordable model with a power of 750 W.

System Power 10 uses a hardware platform from CWT (note: the base from FPS was previously used) with traditional voltage stabilization circuitry and high-temperature Teapo capacitors. The power supply efficiency is 85%, which corresponds to the 80 PLUS Bronze certificate. The main power line is designed with modern components in mind, so it is ready to transmit all 750 W of power through the main channel. The cable system is stationary, but the cables have a flat profile, which simplifies their installation in the housing.

At a load of less than 50%, the proprietary fan of its own production rustles almost silently; at a load above 80%, the noise becomes more distinct, but it still operates much quieter than most competitors. The manufacturer has provided all the necessary types of protection and provided the power supply with a 5-year warranty, increasing its attractiveness in the eyes of potential buyers.. In general, be quiet! The result is a rather interesting version of an inexpensive power supply, which 2 years after its release can be found even cheaper than its “bronze” counterparts from Deepcool and Aerocool.

ID-COOLING SE-903-XT is an inexpensive and compact tower cooler with one PWM fan, a small radiator with three heat pipes and a maximum thermal package of up to 130 W. It is aimed at cooling 4 or 6-core mid-range processors and is ideal for OEM versions of processors in which the manufacturer has saved on the box and stock cooling system.

The tower is equipped with an active fan with a diameter of 92 mm on a durable hydrodynamic bearing with an operating life of about 80 thousand hours. Non-synchronized RGB lighting shines through the translucent blades. The blade speed varies from 500 to 2200 rpm, allowing the user to find the optimal balance between cooling efficiency and noise level. The tubes contact the processor directly using HCTT technology, that is, without the use of an intermediate copper plate.

The tower does not conflict with tall RAM modules in any way since the base is slightly offset towards the VRM, and the height of the structure is a moderate 123 mm. For comparison, the height of most towers with a thermal package above 150 W is in the range from 145 to 160 mm. Since the model is relatively new (January 2022), the manufacturer has provided all the current processor sockets for 2024, including AMD AM5 and Intel LGA 1700.

Taiwanese manufacturer MSI has recently been trying to open new doors to the video game market by adding gaming monitors and specialized peripherals to the usual video cards and motherboards. At the end of 2019, the company announced the creation of a division that would design gaming cases. One of their first creations was the MSI MAG Forge 100M case, which, according to the manufacturer’s idea, symbolizes the forge in which the weapons of champions are forged.

The MAG Forge 100M is a smartly designed Midi Tower chassis with MSI lighting, side viewing windows and the ability to install a full liquid cooling system. Its design combines restraint and aggression at the same time. This was achieved through a combination of straight lines and traditional black color with chopped decorative inserts and RGB lighting. The chassis has a 2-section design, where the lower tier is dedicated to the power supply and storage pockets, and on top you can install the remaining elements of the system: an ATX motherboard (note: or smaller), a powerful processor with a tower up to 160 mm high and a video card up to 330 mm. And between the tiers there is a dust filter. There are also 7 additional expansion slots available inside.

However, high-quality materials, lighting and a smart layout can hardly surprise anyone these days, so MSI focused on the cooling system. There are already 3 turntables installed inside the case to cool the hottest components of the system. One cooler is hidden on top of the rear wall, the other two are located directly behind the front door. For most of the perimeter it is covered with a mesh with an anti-dust coating, through which hot air is emitted. Plus, the fan blades are covered with LED strips, which can create a variety of color special effects when the blades spin.