In the current market, with supply issues all around the globe, bringing a capable gaming machine to the market, while staying under the £1000 price tag, is no small task, but we're overall very happy with CyberPower's efforts here.
The machine is well-balanced in terms of its component layout, with an Intel Core i3-12100F that sports 4 cores, 8 threads and clocks up to 4.3GHz, that can rip through everyday tasks without problem, and can even taken on more difficult applications from time to time, but obviously this isn't going to be a video editing monster or something you'll be using for your CAD uni work. One tactic often employed by system integrators is to use the stock CPU cooler, but with this usually comes a sacrifice of high temperatures or high system noise; thankfully, due to Intel's new RM-1 cooler, neither of these problems reared their ugly head. Temperatures and noise levels were kept in check, while also saving the £20-£30 that an aftermarket cooler would cost.
16GB of RAM has been the go-to capacity for some time now, and it remains to be plenty for games and office use, allowing multi-tasking without issue. CyberPower decided to go for the CORSAIR Vengeance LPX memory, clocked in at 3200MT/s, an incredibly popular DDR4 kit, which is handy because the motherboard has two spare RAM slots, should you ever find that the 16GB capacity is limiting your workflow or gaming in any way. A very good choice here, with scope for upgrades in the future, a big thumbs up from us for this.
Graphics cards, largely due to the ongoing global pandemic and people trying to cash in on the mining craze, have become very difficult to get your hands on, and if/when you do, you're often paying way over the odds. This makes gaming PCs particularly difficult to price keenly. CyberPower have opted to use NVIDIA's latest release, the GeForce RTX 3050, and not just any run-of-the-mill model, a twin-fan option from MSI that keeps temperatures and noise down, very important considering the great job that Intel's cooler does. The RTX 3050 uses 2560 CUDA cores at 1777MHz paired to 8GB of GDDR6 memory to offer a very decent 1080p gaming system, though it's best not to get too carried away with the RTX part of the card, ray-tracing performance was fairly poor, even in the early games offering ray tracing. Having said that, DLSS works well, and those Tensor Cores can also be put to work on things like NVIDIA Broadcast, which uses AI algorithms to remove background noise from your microphone and can clean up your webcam's image, or even add fancy effects, without using any CPU cycles.
A 1TB NVMe is a little over-spec for a machine like this, but it certainly isn't something we're going to complain about, having ample storage is always nice, but when it offers speeds around 3500MB/s and 3000MB/s in read and write, respectively, you can have several large games installed and enjoy fast loading times; you can literally eat your cake and have it too.
The case isn't anything to write home about, it looks nice but not amazing, and it's quiet but not silent, though at £1000 you can't expect the world. We'd be perfectly happy to have it on the desk, or underneath if desk space doesn't allow.
Overall, we feel like CyberPower PC have done a cracking job here, the PC performs well in all areas, there are no obvious issues or shortcomings. The prices for individual components comes in higher than the system price, you get a three-year warranty and Windows 11 pre-installed (with no bloatware!).
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The machine is well-balanced in terms of its component layout, with an Intel Core i3-12100F that sports 4 cores, 8 threads and clocks up to 4.3GHz, that can rip through everyday tasks without problem, and can even taken on more difficult applications from time to time, but obviously this isn't going to be a video editing monster or something you'll be using for your CAD uni work. One tactic often employed by system integrators is to use the stock CPU cooler, but with this usually comes a sacrifice of high temperatures or high system noise; thankfully, due to Intel's new RM-1 cooler, neither of these problems reared their ugly head. Temperatures and noise levels were kept in check, while also saving the £20-£30 that an aftermarket cooler would cost.
16GB of RAM has been the go-to capacity for some time now, and it remains to be plenty for games and office use, allowing multi-tasking without issue. CyberPower decided to go for the CORSAIR Vengeance LPX memory, clocked in at 3200MT/s, an incredibly popular DDR4 kit, which is handy because the motherboard has two spare RAM slots, should you ever find that the 16GB capacity is limiting your workflow or gaming in any way. A very good choice here, with scope for upgrades in the future, a big thumbs up from us for this.
Graphics cards, largely due to the ongoing global pandemic and people trying to cash in on the mining craze, have become very difficult to get your hands on, and if/when you do, you're often paying way over the odds. This makes gaming PCs particularly difficult to price keenly. CyberPower have opted to use NVIDIA's latest release, the GeForce RTX 3050, and not just any run-of-the-mill model, a twin-fan option from MSI that keeps temperatures and noise down, very important considering the great job that Intel's cooler does. The RTX 3050 uses 2560 CUDA cores at 1777MHz paired to 8GB of GDDR6 memory to offer a very decent 1080p gaming system, though it's best not to get too carried away with the RTX part of the card, ray-tracing performance was fairly poor, even in the early games offering ray tracing. Having said that, DLSS works well, and those Tensor Cores can also be put to work on things like NVIDIA Broadcast, which uses AI algorithms to remove background noise from your microphone and can clean up your webcam's image, or even add fancy effects, without using any CPU cycles.
A 1TB NVMe is a little over-spec for a machine like this, but it certainly isn't something we're going to complain about, having ample storage is always nice, but when it offers speeds around 3500MB/s and 3000MB/s in read and write, respectively, you can have several large games installed and enjoy fast loading times; you can literally eat your cake and have it too.
The case isn't anything to write home about, it looks nice but not amazing, and it's quiet but not silent, though at £1000 you can't expect the world. We'd be perfectly happy to have it on the desk, or underneath if desk space doesn't allow.
Overall, we feel like CyberPower PC have done a cracking job here, the PC performs well in all areas, there are no obvious issues or shortcomings. The prices for individual components comes in higher than the system price, you get a three-year warranty and Windows 11 pre-installed (with no bloatware!).
Pros
+ Component selection is well balances
+ Great 1080p gaming performance
+ Brilliantly suited for everyday tasks
+ Snappy and responsive thanks to the NVMe SSD
+ Decently quiet machine
+ RAM can be easily upgraded to 32GB
Cons
- Will struggle with anything over 1080p
- No real ability to overclock
+ Component selection is well balances
+ Great 1080p gaming performance
+ Brilliantly suited for everyday tasks
+ Snappy and responsive thanks to the NVMe SSD
+ Decently quiet machine
+ RAM can be easily upgraded to 32GB
Cons
- Will struggle with anything over 1080p
- No real ability to overclock
Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.
Stay connected with the Vortez Social Media pages:
Join in with the discussions on Discord
