It's that time of the year again, time to publish a new Custom PC Buyers Guide outlining our latest recommendations in the Gaming PC market, new component releases and much more!
Last year saw a few huge game releases that really shook up recommended system requirements, this led us to change the specs around on a few of our systems to reflect these new higher requirements. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 was a big one, recommending an Intel i7 and 32GB of RAM, as well as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle recommending the same, plus an Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti 12GB Graphics Card.
WHAT CHANGES HAVE WE MADE?
Every time a new piece of PC Hardware comes out, we get our hands on it to put it through its paces, only then will we decide if it's worthy of our lineup or not. Recently we've made additions to our motherboard lineup, and are about to add a couple more Asus AM5 options to the range. Intel had a big CPU release last year which we tested, and decided it wasn't worth adding to any of our systems just yet, due to the performance loss when compared to 14th gen. You can read our full thoughts here.
1 - PROCESSORS
So yes, as mentioned above, the new Intel CPUs are a bit of a flop so we're not going to sell them just yet. We plan to do a refresh of our Extreme PCs range in the coming months, so will reevaluate and decide if we want to change a couple of the higher end systems over to Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs. If you do want a PC with an Arrow Lake CPU, then please contact us and we'll do our best to help out!
AMD had a considerably better CPU release with the AM5 9000 Series of CPUs, there's a new gaming king in the form of the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, stock is all over the place at the minute but it does look to be stabilising so expect to see it as an option on all of our AM5 based Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 systems in the near future.
CPU choice is one of the more difficult ones, with AMD and Intel being so closely matched. If its maximum gaming performance you're after, go with the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D or 9800X3D when we launch that, or the Intel Core i7 14700K. For more budget friendly options, our current bestsellers and recommendations go to the AMD Ryzen 5 4500, Intel Core i5 12400F and AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D.
2 - MOTHERBOARDS
New CPUs usually mean new Motherboards, however, AMD do things a bit differently from Intel which means all AM5 CPUs work on all AM5 chipset motherboards. Our current range of B650, X670 and X670E motherboards will stay until the newer B850, X870 and X870E either completely replace the older boards, or pricing becomes similar.
No new motherboards on the Intel side, aside from adding the Asus PRIME B760-Plus option to the lineup, to save some money on systems that had the Asus PRIME Z790-P as standard, whilst keeping all compatibility.
The Motherboards we include in our builds are generally overspecced slightly, so keeping those standard is the way to go, unless the higher end Motherboard has a feature you're interested in, like a super-fast network card, or premium sound card.
3 - RAM
No major changes here, a few higher capacity DDR5 kits have been added, and speeds slightly increased on some of the 32GB and 64GB DDR5 kits. We plan to move more systems over from the AM4 to AM5 platform in the coming months so more systems will be utilising the newer DDR5 memory.
All of our systems come with a minimum of 16GB of RAM, which is what 95% of modern games recommend. If you want to future proof your new PC, our Corsair 32GB DDR4 kits are much cheaper than they used to be, and would give decent improvements. If the PC you're looking at is DDR5, you'll have 32GB as a minimum standard, so there's less need to upgrade (unless you want RGB, which there's an upgrade option for).
4 - GPUS
The big one! Nvidia's new range of 50 series GPUs begin releasing at the end of January and they look very impressive! Keep an eye out for our in depth buyers guide related to these new GPUs as we'll cover everything in depth there. In short, DLSS 4 is expected to double framerates over the previous generation cards with DLSS 3.5, with raw performance being increased a good amount too. Expect to see the 5080 and 5090 on the website the week following the release on the 30th of January, and the 5070 and 5070Ti a week or two after they release in February.
AMD are also releasing there 9000 series of Radeon GPUs, when we get our hands on these we'll do our usual in-depth testing and decide if they're worth adding to our current lineup or not.
Choosing the right GPU is pretty easy, you can either find one of our systems that roughly fits your budget and stick with that core spec (CPU, GPU, RAM), or check out the recommended system requirements of the games you want to play and base your choice off of that. You can also skip all of that and give us a call or an email and we can help you get the perfect PC!
5 - SSDS & HDDS
Kingston and Samsung are still the big players here, the recent release of the Kingston NV3 drives have led us to replace the lineup of Kingston NV2 NVME SSDs giving you much greater speeds at the same cost. No changes from Samsung, or other Kingston SSDs. HDDs will likely be fully discontinued in the coming months, unless we decide to offer a couple of high capacity bulk storage options.
For main drives, we recommend going for either a Kingston NV3 or Samsung 990 PRO in whatever capacity you think you need. Secondary drives are less important, with current prices most people do just go for a second M.2 NVME SSD (NV3 or 990 PRO), or simply increase the size of the main drive.
6 - CASES
Lots of changes here, and more to come soon! The Corsair 3500X ARGB and Phanteks XT View continue to dominate as our best sellers, and we don't expect that to change any time soon. Soon we'll be launching the new Corsair 4000 and 5000 lineup, and bringing back some old favourites! The Phanteks Evolv X2 is also promised to launch soon, a case we're very excited to get our hands on. .
Cases are what we put the most time into testing, so you can be sure that anything we list will work perfectly, so pick something you like the look of and you can't go wrong!
7 - POWER SUPPLIES
The new(ish) ATX 3.0 and ATX 3.1 PSUs are slowly taking over our entire range of high-end PSUs. Corsair has just launched their RMe v3 series of PSU which has native ATX 3.1, this will replace the current generation of RMe v2 PSUs that we sell which are ATX 3.0. Mid-range Corsair PSUs have had some stock issues, so we've replaced the Corsair CX650 with the be quiet! System Power 10 650, and disabled the Corasir CX750 (but have made the RM750e cheaper so there's still a sensibly priced 750W option).
Choosing the right PSU is very important, as if you choose the wrong one, the PC might not even turn on! We've made it nice and easy to make sure you don't make a mistake, with the standard options having some headroom for upgrades, and clear PSU wattage minimum requirements listed on the GPU drop downs. We've got a more in depth buyers guide for power supplies, which you can find here.
8 - OPERATING SYSTEMS
The end of Windows 10 is near, with support officially ending in October of this year. Soon we will be discontinuing the Windows 10 variants leaving the only OS options as Windows 11 Home and Windows 11 Professional. We plan to still offer the free upgrade from the Home version, to the Professional version giving you access to premium features such as BitLocker drive encryption.
9 - OTHER SYSTEM ADDITIONS
Custom Internal & Underglow Lighting is something we're constantly developing in order to make sure we're offering the best lighting systems available. In the last year we're launched a few different options, including different LED types, Motherboard Underglow and ARGB PSU cables. Read more about what the best RGB light for your PC is here.
CPU Coolers have undergone quite a few changes recently, as we've added two more 360mm AIO options to all systems that have compatible cases (which is fortunately most of them!). The Arctic Liquid Freezer III 360 offers excellent value for money, so comes with a solid recommendation from us. Both Arctic Freezer 36 options also exhibit the same excellent value for money, and are the perfect choice for any mid-range processor.
System Displays are something we're currently in the testing phase of, with the plan to launch them in Q1 2025, current plans are to offer two different sizes which are both conveniently controlled by software, with all the cabling is internal too meaning you won't need to plug anything in.