How Much Does it Cost?
Amazingly, this system would cost you 783.17 to build yourself and that’s WITHOUT the OS. It’s another 69 quid from there. Albeit, there are cheaper sources of Windows keys these days, but it’ll still be more expensive. You don’t have the rather lovely build service, no full system warranty or anything for doing it yourself either, yikes.
Of course, I still think they should charge another £10 and include another Corsair fan in the front. Fix it for your customers AlphaSync and I’ll gladly change my award from a Bang for Buck to Editors Choice.
Self-build price – Approx £852.17 Alpha Sync Price – £749.99
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 3300X – £119.99
- Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz – £74.39
- Hard Drive: 240GB Maxtor Z1 2.5″ SSD & 2TB Seagate BarraCuda £29.99 / £58.88
- GPU: MSI Radeon RX 5600XT Mech OC – £278.99
- Power Supply: Corsair 550W CV550 – £74.99
- Motherboard: ASUS PRIME A320M-K – £53.99
- Cooling: AMD Wraith Spire (included with CPU)
- WiFi: 300N – £31.96
- Operating System: Win 10 Home x64 – £69
- Case: Corsair Carbide SPEC-04 TG – £59.99
Overview
I think AlphaSync has knocked it out of the park with this one. I actually thought it was a bit over priced to begin with, but it’s also the first time I’ve had a pairing of 3300X and 5600 XT. They’re both affordable parts when it comes to CPU and GPU, but I’ll admit they can still keep up with the demands of the modern PC gamer.
Gaming Performance
1080p gaming performance is easily achived here, no issues at all. You’ll be hitting big FPS at high settings easily enough and that’s great news. Even at 1440p, I was getting pretty great performance at medium and high settings. For competitive gaming, or flashy AAA titles, it’s got all the power you need. Plus, that 3300X is so tuned into what gamers need from a CPU without costing the Earth.
Day to Day
4-cores and 8-threads may sound a little last week these days, what with many-core CPUs fighting for leadership. However, as we saw in the testing, it’s more than enough. For larking about on reddit all morning, doing a little work in the afternoon and playing Elder Scrolls Online all night, it’s really a solid CPU. The SSD isn’t the fastest, but it doesn’t feel slow. There’s only 16GB of RAM, but this isn’t exactly a rendering rig either, so it didn’t slow me down. Overall, it feels very well rounded.
Should I Buy One?
Let’s not beat around the bush here, you likely want something that costs more money. They have a lovely 5700 XT and Ryzen 5 version for £849.99 that I like the look of. However, if £750 is your budget, you’re getting £850 of hardware and software, a very nicely build and clean looking PC, and 3 year warranty included here. With a deal like that, you would be mad to build it yourself.
