Building a $1,500 Ultimate Gaming PC: Complete Parts Guide and Performance Review

Name: The ULTIMATE $1500 Gaming PC Build 2026! 🥳
Uploaded: 2026-01-15T21:51:01.071982+00:00
Channel: PC Centric
Description: Summary and key takeaways on Building a $1,500 Ultimate Gaming PC: Complete Parts Guide and Performance Review, covering Introduction The video walks you

PC Centric

Jan 15, 2026

•

4 min read

YouTube video ID: GZYzH-6-nWg

Source: YouTube video by PC Centric — Watch original video

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Introduction

The video walks you through assembling a high‑performance gaming PC for roughly $1,500. It covers component selection, step‑by‑step build instructions, and real‑world gaming benchmarks, proving you don’t need to watch the video to replicate the build.

Core Components

GPU – NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti 16 GB (Pallet brand) – Chosen for its 16 GB VRAM, solid 1080p‑1440p performance, and future‑proofing up to 2030.
CPU & Motherboard – AMD Ryzen 5 9600X on MSI B850 Tomahawk Wi‑Fi – AM5 socket ensures upgrade path to newer Ryzen chips (including X3D). The B850 board offers Wi‑Fi 7, USB‑C, and robust VRM cooling at a good price‑to‑performance ratio.
RAM – 32 GB DDR5 6000 MHz CL30 (Corsair Vengeance) – High‑speed memory for modern AAA titles; price is high due to current DDR5 market conditions.
Storage – Crucial P3 Plus 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD – Fast boot and load times; a 2 TB option is recommended for heavy game libraries.
Cooling – Be Quiet! Pure Loop 3 LX 240 mm AIO – Affordable liquid cooler with decent RGB; provides quiet operation and sufficient thermal headroom.
Case – be quiet! Pure Base 501 – Compact, black aesthetic, good airflow, built‑in RGB strip, and easy cable‑management points.
Power Supply – be quiet! Pure Power 12 650 W – Non‑modular but cost‑effective; enough wattage for the RTX 5060 Ti and the rest of the system.

Build Process Highlights

Prepare the Motherboard – Install the CPU using the AM5 socket lever, apply thermal paste, and attach the AIO mounting brackets (default or offset).
Install SSD – Use the top PCIe x4 slot (PCIe 5.0 compatible) and secure the SSD with the provided heat‑sink cover.
Mount RAM – Insert the two 16 GB sticks one at a time, ensuring full seat.
Fit the Motherboard into the Case – Align standoffs, secure with the supplied screws, and route front‑panel cables (USB‑C, USB‑3, audio, power‑switch).
Install the AIO Cooler – Mount the radiator on the top of the case, attach fans with correct airflow direction, connect pump and RGB cables.
Place the Power Supply – Slide in with fan facing down, connect ATX, CPU‑8‑pin, and PCIe power cables.
Mount the GPU – Remove two PCIe slot covers, seat the RTX 5060 Ti, screw it in, and connect the 8‑pin power connector.
Cable Management – Use the case’s tie‑down points and zip‑ties to keep airflow clear.
First Power‑On & BIOS – Enable XMP/EXPO for RAM speed, set fan curves (silent to 88 °C), and verify all components are recognized.

Performance Benchmarks

Battlefield 6 (1440p, DLSS Balanced) – ~120 FPS average, smooth frame‑time graph, 8.5 GB VRAM usage.
Arc Raiders (4K, DLSS Performance) – ~100 FPS, demonstrating the RTX 5060 Ti can handle 4K with AI‑upscaling.
Surviving Mars (4K, DLSS Quality) – ~120 FPS, stable performance even with heavy world‑building.
Indiana Jones (4K, DLSS Balanced) – ~95‑100 FPS; occasional stutter when changing resolution, likely a driver/recording artifact.

Thermals & Noise - GPU power draw ~162 W, CPU ~50 W – well within the 650 W PSU. - System remains near‑silent; only a faint hum from the AIO pump.

Why This Build Works

Future‑Proofing – AM5 platform and 16 GB VRAM give headroom for upcoming titles.
Balanced Budget – Prioritizes GPU and CPU performance while keeping cooling and case costs reasonable.
Compact Form Factor – Pure Base 501 fits on most desks without sacrificing airflow.
Quiet Operation – Be Quiet! components keep noise low, ideal for both gaming and productivity.

Final Thoughts

The $1,500 build delivers a versatile gaming experience across 1080p‑1440p and even 4K with DLSS. It offers upgrade paths for CPU and GPU, stays quiet, and fits comfortably on a typical desk. For most gamers seeking high frame rates without breaking the bank, this configuration hits the sweet spot.

A $1,500 gaming PC built around an AMD AM5 platform, RTX 5060 Ti GPU, and a quiet liquid cooler provides excellent 1080p‑1440p performance, solid 4K capability with DLSS, and a future‑proof upgrade path—all in a compact, low‑noise case.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Why This Build Works

- **Future‑Proofing** – AM5 platform and 16 GB VRAM give headroom for upcoming titles. - **Balanced Budget** – Prioritizes GPU and CPU performance while keeping cooling and case costs reasonable. - **Compact Form Factor** – Pure Base 501 fits on most desks without sacrificing airflow. - **Quiet Operation** – Be Quiet! components keep noise low, ideal for both gaming and productivity.

Helpful resources related to this video

If you want to practice or explore the concepts discussed in the video, these commonly used tools may help.

Be Quiet Pure Loop 3 Lx 240mm Aio Liquid Cooler Recommended

Provides efficient, quiet cooling for the CPU at a low price, essential for maintaining performance in a compact build

Amazon →

Msi B850 Tomahawk Wi-Fi Motherboard

Offers robust VRM cooling, Wi‑Fi 7, and AM5 socket for easy future CPU upgrades, balancing cost and features

Amazon →

Corsair Vengeance Ddr5 32gb 6000mhz Cl30 Ram Kit

High‑speed DDR5 memory ensures smooth gameplay in modern AAA titles and maximizes GPU utilization

Amazon →

Crucial P3 Plus 1tb Pcie 4.0 Nvme Ssd

Fast NVMe storage reduces load times and provides ample space for games, complementing the system’s performance

Amazon →

Nvidia Rtx 5060 Ti 16gb Graphics Card

16 GB VRAM and strong rasterization performance make it a future‑proof GPU for 1080p‑1440p and DLSS‑enabled 4K gaming

Amazon →

Links may be affiliate links. We only include resources that are genuinely relevant to the topic.

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Full Transcript YouTube

Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for
us to build the ultimate $1,500 gaming
PC? It's a lot of money, but for that,
you're going to get a lot of
performance. And what we're going to do
today is go through the latest and
greatest components to get you the best
and highest quality gaming PC that you
can. We're going to go through all of
the components and the build process so
you can see how easy or difficult this
is to put together. And then, of course,
at the end, we're going to walk you
through the exact gameplay benchmark
numbers so you can see for yourself
exactly how this thing performs. And I
think the best place to kickstart what
is going to be an epic gaming PC build,
sponsored actually by Be Quiet, is
actually the GPU because obviously
you've got so many different options.
This is one from Pallet, but
fundamentally it's an Nvidia card. It's
the RTX 5060 Ti 16 gig. Cuz as we've
discussed, if you're looking for a more
budget friendly gaming PC, so anything
up to say $1,200 or so is actually going
to be quite difficult to get a real
future proof system because most GPUs
you're looking at 8 GB of VRAM. And
essentially what that means is for
multiplayer titles or if you're happy to
turn the settings down, you're going to
be absolutely fine. But as soon as you
start to talk about a little bit more
performance, maybe a bit of ray tracing,
just high-end settings and latest AAA
titles really, you might start to find
that you get some weird stutters. You
might find that you've got missing
textures. And if you're looking to build
a gaming PC today through hopefully to
something like 2030, you want it to
last. So this is kind of like, well,
this and the 9060 XT 16 gig. Both of
these graphics cards are kind of the
ideal way to just get something that's
going to last essentially and still have
loads of performance today. But because
I don't want us to have too much fun at
this stage in the video, let's plop this
one side and we'll do the unboxing when
it actually comes to putting that in our
system. But for now, let's talk about
the base station, if you like, of the
rig. And I think this is the bit where
most people need to necessarily do the
most thinking because obviously this is
something that's going to have to last.
So we're talking about your CPU and this
which is the motherboard. So this is
from AMD or at least this uses an AMD
socket. This particular one is actually
from MSI. It's the B850 Tomahawk Wi-Fi.
But crucially, the platform is B850. And
I think for most people, unless you can
bag yourself a particular bargain, this
is going to be the way really that I
would suggest going for cuz it's AMD and
crucially AM5. And that means that if
you want to get an even better CPU in a
few months time, you can. But also, if
you want to wait a couple years and get
like a future release that obviously we
don't know about at the moment, has more
performance potentially like X3D or
something like that, then it's just
going to be a BIOS update and a drop in
upgrade. was if you go for Intel, while
I say there are plenty of great deals,
especially on Ultra Fives and Ultra 7s
to be had, fundamentally, the socket
looks like that's just going to die. So,
if you wait 4 years time, you can't
necessarily get like a latest cutting
edge chip and drop it inside. You'd have
to swap out a motherboard for something
else, which is really annoying, which is
why I think most people are going to
recommend going down this route. Now,
this is also very confusing. This is
probably one of the most confusing
motherboards I've seen in a long, long
time, right? Because fundamentally, this
thing looks awesome. It is a Tomahawk.
It's a B850 Tomahawk. MSI have been
making these for years. They're really
good. They've got loads of features.
Build quality is excellent. Loads of VRM
cooling. And the price fundamentally is
actually always pretty good. It's not
the absolute cheapest entry- level
board, but in terms of like price to
performance, I think this or potentially
something like a Asus tough. They're
kind of like trade blows. It depends on
the exact board. But I always really
like these. But the name of this is
called the B850 Tomahawk. And they also
have one that sounds very similar called
the B850 Tomahawk Max. I think it might
actually just be a straight replacement.
But if you're choosing between the two
and they're the at the exact same price,
then the Max has slightly better
overclocking capability as far as I can
tell and not really that much else. So
pick whichever one is cheaper basically
is what I'm going to recommend. But a
size very strange and confusing brand
aside though, here of course is the
motherboard. I will also say in terms of
IO as well, fundamentally this does have
Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 7 support. So, if you don't
want or can't use an Ethernet
connection, that's going to be very
useful. You've got USBC, loads of USBA,
and it does also support USB bar
flashback. So, if you're watching this
in the future and there's maybe a chip
that doesn't exist at the time of
filming, then as long as it's supported,
you can do this without having a prior
CPU, which is always good. But, let's
prepare our motherboard to receive its
CPU just by opening up this socket.
Requires a little bit of force on this
lever, but please don't touch the pins
or you will quite literally break it.
Then, you can reach for your CPU. And
there's a lot of numbers here, but
crucially, I'd say that there are maybe
three different chips I'd probably
recommend for this build. So, the one
we're using here is the cheapest. It's a
Ryzen 5 9600X is pretty much the best
bang for buck gaming CPU really. You
could look at getting a Ryzen 7500F, but
that is OEM only. So, you're kind of
buying it as a chip rather than retail
packaging. You might not get a warranty.
So, it's worth considering, but not
going to be for everyone. Whereas this
six core chip pretty much has all the
performance really that most people
going to need. Unless you're
specifically looking at pro to product
looking at productivity as well or you
want something that's going to just be
better for kind of like preloading
shaders if you play a lot of AAA titles
then it might be worth stepping up to
the 8 core or you just want something
that has a little bit more longevity.
But they also now sell in the UK a 7500
X3D and in the states I believe you have
the 7600
X3D which could be faster in certain
games but is going to cost a little bit
more than the six core chip but a bit
less than the 8 core. So kind of depends
on your priorities really. I think in
terms of all rounder and for longevity I
personally would go for the eight but it
is entirely up to you but this is the
one that hits in our $1,500 budget. Now
that that is in place, we can move on to
our next component and this is going to
be the SSD. This is a fairly new one
actually. This is from Crucial. It's the
P310. This is PCI generation 4 and it
should be a fair bit faster than the old
P3+. This is a 1 TBTE drive, but
obviously it's worth sticking up to two
TB if you have slow internet or you just
want to have loads of games at the same
time. And if you haven't built a PC
before, you might be slightly confused
as to where this actually goes. But
there's actually these things called SSD
heat sinks that take some of the heat
away from the SSD just to give it extra
performance longer essentially. And on
this MSI board, this top one is I say
it's the fastest. It depends on the
drive that you have. This actually
supports PCI generation 5. This is gen
four, but for gaming, I don't think it
makes that much difference. But usually,
you're going to get the best performance
with this top slot. So, you can just
remove it. Do make sure that you take
this little plastic cover off or your
heat sink's basically not going to do
anything. Then you can reach for your
SSD and then completely tostle you just
push it in so the finger goes in that
socket, push it down and then you have
this little plastic catch that you kind
of just move out the way and slide into
position so that the whole thing doesn't
move about. Then you pick up that top
piece that you just removed. Line that
up and push it home. So so far then I
think you agree pretty straightforward.
Just one more piece of the puzzle really
for the motherboard until we can get
this inside our very special case. And
that is not the best bit of the build
anymore. I'm afraid this is RAM, random
access memory. And this used to be dirt
cheap, especially in the days of DDR4.
Used to be able to get all the RAM that
you needed for about £37 of dollars.
Remember those days?
>> Well, they're gone.
>> And you've got AI to thank for it
because at the time of filming, if you
want this exact kit, you're probably
looking at like £300, which is
absolutely crazy. The price of memory
has gone through the roof. This is a 32
GB kit. It runs at 6,000 MHz, CL30. But
I will say please do not be in any way
tied to a particular brand. Just go on
like PC part picker or again like check
out the links down below and just kind
of try to find a kit that's similar to
this and is on special. And
unfortunately special is not going to be
the best price you've ever seen. But I
think the cheapest I found was a crucial
kit for around about was under $300. It
was like 200 and something I think which
is a crazy amount of money but it was a
lot less than most of the kits. So, as
long as it works and is the right speed,
memory is essentially just memory. But
lining it up is very easy. Then just
give them a push. Try and do one stick
at a time, actually. Just make sure it
is fully inserted. This does not have
RGB. This Corsair Vengeance, we're going
for like a blackout build really here
today. And then you can see that your
motherboard is complete and ready to go
in your chassis. Well, actually, I say
that because we're using an all-in-one
liquid cooler that does need this AMD
mount removed. We're going to do that
now. So, just take out all four screws
along with this plastic piece. And then
we're going to replace this. Nope, it's
already on the desk. Not with a power
supply, but with our cooler. So, as I
say, sponsored by Be Quiet. We've got
some awesome Be Quiet goodies here
today. This is very good value.
Actually, this is a 240 mm liquid
cooler. And to be honest, you probably
know my opinion about radiators by now,
which is they look awesome. They have
fantastic performance, but quite often
they're just a little bit too expensive.
So, you can spend loads of money on your
gaming PC and it looks awesome. But if
you just spent some of that towards like
a better GPU or CPU, you would have had
a better gaming PC as a direct result.
But actually with this, this is around
about I think like $80, $90 or so.
Again, current pricing is located down
below. So, you're getting something that
looks awesome, has great cooling, but
you're not spending an arm and a leg to
get there. And it even has a little bit
of RGB as well. This is the Pure Loop 3
LX. LX meaning that it comes with LX
fans. So, if you wanted to kit this out,
you can actually get this case, which is
the Pure Base 501. This is the default
one. But if you want to go for the LX
version, then you can get matching RGB
fans and have it all synced up and it
will look awesome. But obviously, you
have to spend just a little bit more to
get there. But at the moment, we're not
even after the cooler itself, just the
mounting hardware. Because inside this
box of goodies should be the thermal
paste that we need, and then this bag
that says AMD on it. And this has all of
the mounting that we need to hit. Now,
get these little spacers. and place them
on top of those holes. If you can't see
them, it probably means you haven't
removed the default AM5 mounting
hardware. Then it's just a case of
picking up these little brackets and it
does quite cleverly tell you where your
CPU needs to go, so you can't get
confused. You do actually have a choice
of having it in the normal position or
the offset, which might actually give
you slightly better performance with
certain CPUs, but I think for most
people just use the default. Then just
use the screws to get that fitted down.
And then, ladies and gentlemen, you are
ready to get serious and actually start,
I would say, now building your gaming PC
by getting your chassis. And this is one
that I love because if you're after
something that's substantial and can fit
loads of hardware, but just isn't huge.
And I think one of the big mistakes
people make quite literally is to go for
a case that's way too big and it looks
great, it's so easy to build in, but
then for the next 5 years, you have
something that's massive on your desk,
takes up loads of space, you've paid a
load of money to get it, and I think,
especially if you don't put much stuff
inside there, you might start to regret.
So instead, do consider saving a little
bit of money and getting something that
can still fit everything that you want,
still has fantastic air flow, but just
is going to physically fit on your desk
or under your desk without taking up
loads of room. So this is the Purebase
501. As I say, this is not the LX
version that you can get. We've already
done a full build with this actually.
You can find that in the top right
corner of your screen. But it comes down
really more to how much you like RGB.
Because be quiet fans, especially the
stock ones that you get with their
cases, are pretty much the best stock
fans, unless you're looking at, you
know, like crazy expensive cases cuz
their priority really is performance,
but fundamentally silence and having a
very, very quiet build. So even if you
don't go into the BIOS and tune them,
they're still going to be pretty quiet
even at max speed. But if you are
willing to do that, which everyone
should, you can get something that is
going to be super, super quiet. So, we
actually did a full live stream in this
and I discovered that it's got an RGB
strip even in this version down the side
here. So, if you don't want it to look
crazy, you just want a little bit of
illumination to kind of see your
components, then this is a fantastic
choice, but it is nice and easy to build
inside. You do also get a little bit of
foam here as well to reduce some of the
vibrations. It probably isn't necessary,
but I don't want to say it's not because
then be quiet will stop doing it and
then basically no cases will have it,
which would be really sad. But, you can
see that in terms of structure and
layout, there's not really that much to
it. But cable management actually isn't
too bad because you've got quite a lot
of tie down points here. Only thing I'd
like to see really is just maybe some
extra channels and maybe like a clip
here or something. But it's pretty much
all cable managed for you really. You've
just got to plug in your IO if you do
want to get the front panel off. That
also comes with RGB. Look, it is just a
case of pulling it. Little bit of force.
And it's quite neat actually that the
RGB is handled with these little pins.
So you don't have to kind of like
disconnect anything before removing it
and then realizing that you've got fans
connected and breaking stuff. is well
thought out. And you do also have this
little dust filter here as well. How do
you get it off? Very easily just use the
door. And then that obviously reveals
the Pure Wings three fans that you get
on the inside. So you've got two on the
front, then one at the back, completely
jet black. But as I can testify from the
last time that we built inside this, it
is pretty easy and straightforward. If
you got a really large motherboard, then
you might have to just gently tuck this
out of the way. So do be mindful of
that. I should actually say, by the way,
they do have these standoffs located
around the motherboard. This is what
you're going to want to sit on top of.
If you're going for a smaller M8X
motherboard, obviously do make sure that
you move some of these around so that
your motherboard is like fully secure,
but otherwise, just gently move and
lower this into position. You see what I
mean? Be mindful of the bar, but
actually that was pretty easy. Just a
little bit of wiggling until this
central hole catches the motherboard.
work. The screws that you need are found
in the accessories box that is usually
located in your hard drive caddy or in
some cases now they actually come at the
top of the box. Just take out the little
bag, find the motherboard screws that
have this kind of little outer ring on
them. Then it's literally just a case of
screwing this down and then ladies and
gentlemen, once that's complete, your
jet blackout rig should be starting to
take shape. But the next step is
actually going to be those pesky cables
that scare a lot of people. But the good
news is I don't think it's that
difficult as long as you kind of know
what everything is. So don't rush it.
Don't like jam things in the wrong
place. If in doubt, just look in the
manual essentially really. So this is
going to be our master cable for our fan
hub. Well, I say fan hub. I think they
just daisy chained actually on this
particular case. If you step up to
something like the light base 500, then
that actually has an RGB and fan hub on
it. And then you'd plug everything into
that. Then you'd have one cable for RGB,
one cable for fan speed that would go
into your motherboard. But here you're
daisy chaining cuz essentially you have
less fans and it is obviously a more
affordable chassis. Then we have
everyone's least favorite, which is HD
audio. You don't need to plug this in,
but it's good practice. This is going to
be used for analog audio, so that your
case actually works if you plug like
some headphones into it, for instance.
We've got our RGB. We've got our USB 3
for the two USBA ports that you have on
the front of this. And then we do also
have a USBC. Oh, and likewise, there
should actually be a cable here for
USBC. Looks like this. Annoyingly, it's
not reversible, and it kind of can go in
the wrong way, so do be cautious when
connecting this. We do also have a SATA
power connection. This is what's going
to get all of the RGB and fans powered.
And then last, but certainly not least,
we have this one that's very clearly
labeled. This one says front panel on
it. Let's get our cables and start to
route them through to the main chamber.
Once we've done that, we can lay our
case down flat once again. And it is
going to get a little bit fiddly, but
this is kind of the area to start. And
we pick up our USB 3.1 Gen 2, which
basically is for the USBC. And we plug
this into this little silver connection
like that. Make sure it's nice and firm.
Then we can find our USB 3. And quite
often it's actually next to this, but it
doesn't look like it here. It's actually
located down the bottom. So instead,
let's grab our front panel connection.
And it plugs into what's called JFP1,
which is MSI's name for it. It's
annoying, but it just means front panel.
Now that I've rerouted our USB 3, that
can plug in over here. We plug our daisy
chain fans into system fan 3. And then
last, but certainly not least, we've got
addressable RGB, which is this white
connection here. always really fiddly
and annoying, but just connects down
there. And then also note that next to
this where it says J or one or HD audio
on other brands of boards, this is where
HD audio plugs in. But I'm not going to
do that just yet in this case because
when we plug our power supply in,
annoyingly what happens with loads of
cases is that will kind of like get in
the way and you have to unplug it
anyway. So we'll do that a little bit
later. But otherwise, look, pretty much
all of the cabling bar obviously the
power supply is done. Was that really
that difficult? I don't think so. Oh,
but ladies and gentlemen, unfortunately,
in a lot of my rigs, the same cannot be
said for what comes next, which is the
radiator.
>> Because I hate radiators.
>> Not because they're bad and you
shouldn't buy them, but just because
they're fiddly. And I often find that I
install them and realize I've done
something wrong and have to undo it
despite, you know, me building a gaming
PC a week. Still happens. I didn't have
it last time I used one of these,
though. It was actually the 360 version
of this. The 240 is obviously a little
bit cheaper, but doesn't have quite the
same cooling performance, but it's still
very cute. But I'm going to say because
I did this for the first time ever last
week. Do make sure that you remove this
little bit of film here because if you
don't, the whole system will overheat as
I found out and I was getting very
annoying and I was like, "What have I
done wrong?"
>> And it's because I hadn't removed this
label. So take that off. But let's be
honest, my incompetence is probably not
your problem. So let's take our two fans
out of the box. Would have been nice if
Be Quiet had pre-installed them, but
when it's only two, it's not really the
end of the world anyway. So let's just
get this into position. grab one of our
fans as a bit of a tester. Then we can
pick the whole thing up and then just
kind of work out where it's going to go
and how it's going to fit. So here it's
just going to quite neatly go at the top
like that. Look, which means that we
want all of our cables to be facing the
other way. And we obviously want to
maintain that the fans blow through into
the radiator rather than the inverse.
But it depends where you're putting it.
If it's at the front, you probably want
to do it the opposite essentially. So,
all things considered, this should be as
easy as lining those up, grabbing the
screws that we saved earlier, screwing
them into position. Then, grab these two
cables and just connect them together.
And then somewhere in the box of the
cooler, obviously, you'll find this
little splitter cable. And this is like
your breakout for RGB and fan speed.
Essentially, that then connects to the
master fan just like that. And then this
should now be ready to go. And I imagine
a lot of you at this stage would do what
I would often do, which is to find where
it mounts, take off this little dust
filter. We'll show them the overhead.
>> I know it's out of focus, but get over
it.
>> You have these little screw holes here.
Look. So, just find a place until they
all fit and then mount this down. But as
I place this down, I'm going to say the
reason for not installing this straight
away, and I seem to always forget this,
especially in a smaller case like this
isn't quite as tall, it starts to block
off some of these connections at the
top. And it's not so bad for these ones.
But for your CPU, for the power
connections, it's a bit of a disaster.
So, because we're using a modular power
supply, we're going to grab this now.
So, it's a Pure Power 12 650 W. Again,
pretty good value actually on this. And
as this is a Nvidia GPU, it is pretty
power efficient. So, we don't need
anything crazy. We'll take this out a
little bit later, but we're actually
looking for our CPU power cable. Oh,
it's not modular.
Don't I look silly, everyone?
>> Well, not a problem. We can just install
this now and do the cooler afterwards.
Still going to be a little bit easier, I
think. But if you did buy a modular
version of this, then you wouldn't have
to fit the whole thing in here. You
could literally just do the CPU cable
and connect it up later. But if you go
for a non-modular power supply like
this, the downside is that you have more
cables. So, if they don't actually go
somewhere to your PC, you have to stuff
them in the back. But the good bit is
that it's just a little bit cheaper as a
result. Eggon face. True story. My
granddad, late granddad, unfortunately,
he actually once, apparently before my
time, put a microwave in the egg. No, he
put an egg in the microwave, didn't know
what was going to happen. Gave it to my
dad. He tapped it with a spoon and then
it exploded in his face. So, he had hot
egg on his face. Thought he had glasses,
otherwise it could have been really bad.
Fun story for you, but not related to
our PZ build. Installing this power
supply should be pretty straightforward.
Just undo our little bundle of cables.
Get them out nice and flat. Fan facing
downwards in this case because there's
actually air flow. So, it doesn't need
to share air with the rest of the
system. And then it just gently pushes
into position like that. And then you
kind of catch it through the other side.
And this is why I say don't plug your HD
audio cable in yet cuz this actually
interferes. Your mounting holes should
then reveal themselves. Just screw this
down. Then I'd say being careful to kind
of do it in the order so you don't
tangle up the cables. Just pull the one
that's kind of naturally up the most and
then feed that through to where it
lives. So our ATX look can go in at the
top of the board. Then the next one
below that is going to be our CPU. So
this can go at the top right of our
motherboard like that. Then we have our
PCIe which I'm going to try and get to
come up from the underside. Oh, and then
somewhere lost in the darkness of these
cables is that SATA connection that we
need to plug in. So, we're going to
connect that up. Look, just clicks in.
And then again, just kind of neaten as
you go. And just part these in the
underside of the chamber. Making sure
that of course when you put the side
panel on, it's going to be flush so it
will actually fit. Then it's a case of
dropping the case on its side once
again, grabbing our CPU cable, and we're
going to plug it in at the top left.
Just like that. Look, really easy.
Certainly much easier than if you have a
massive cooler here. Then I'm going to
plug in this huge ATX at the top right.
And then you can write it up. Then I'm
going to see if I can park this out of
the way because it's so thick. And then
boom. Out of sight, out of mind. Oh, and
look, whilst I was doing that, I missed
one of the cables that I pre-managed
before. This must be for that top fan.
So, let's plug that in at the top. Oh,
I'm being silly. Look, there you go.
There's no daisy chaining. And that
setter must just be for the RGB. So,
three fans and obviously two more on the
radiator. And now is the time to get
that fitted. And the first thing that
I'm going to do is actually plug in our
fans to where it says CPU fan and then
the pump. So, the gray one that says
pump and then finally RGB at the top
right. Then, despite the fact that this
is messy, I find it actually easier cuz
you can kind of get this bulk of cable,
tuck it through the back out of the way.
And if you do that whilst getting your
radiator in place, it just kind of makes
everything a lot easier to manage and
organize. So there's our radiator.
There's our screws. Then it should just
be a case of joining one to the other.
Try not to let go until two screws are
actually holding into place. Then you
can secure the rest of them down. Once
you've done that, you can then pretend
you're in the medical trade. Start
flicking your thermal compound. Finding
your CPU and just do a P-sized amount in
the middle like so. Then just pick up
the pump head and assuming that you've
fitted everything correctly, these holes
should actually line up with the mounts.
And then it should just be a case of
grabbing that screwdriver, putting a
little bit of force on the bottom, a
little bit more on the top, and then
just alternating until it is down and
safe and secure. I'm grabbing the RGB,
feeding it through and out the top,
writing it up, and then now that you can
access that, put it through to the back
and then daisy chain it with the fans
that you actually have on the cooler
itself. Oh, and ladies and gentlemen, I
think that was the fiddly bit complete.
But I promised you earlier the fun bit.
So, let the fun bit commence. This is
the graphics card unboxing. This is the
bit that's going to dictate your in-game
frame rate the best, the most. Oh, and
this is a little bit stiff, but here it
is. Look. And this one is from Pallet,
but it doesn't have to be this one that
you go for really. I would typically go
for a triple fan entry level card
because there's no point paying like
crazy money for well like a stricks or I
don't know a gaming X trio or something
if you can just get the base model for a
whole lot less money cuz they're pretty
power efficient. They don't make that
much noise anyway. And granted this one
looks a little bit boring but it's jet
black still going to have great cooling
and it's going to perfectly match our
theme look. Now because I've already
built on this you can see I've actually
already removed the PCIe slot covers
that are here. If you haven't already,
remove slots two and three cuz this is
where the GPU is going to go. We want to
line it up with this kind of silver slot
here. This is called our PIE slot. And
you can see you have this finger on the
underside of the card. That's what is
going to sit in. And then you're going
to screw this into place to make sure
that it doesn't move about if you move
your PC. So, let's just find a nice
level point, guide it into position, and
then give it a push till it clicks. And
then, ladies and gentlemen, that's most
of our gaming PC done. So, literally all
we need to do is just screw the card
into place. Plop the dust filter back on
the top and then grab this little cable
down here, our PCIe. Turn it into an
eight pin and then just guide it into
the slot like that. Try and get this as
neat as possible. We can use a little
cable tie or something just a second
once we're satisfied that it works. But
otherwise, ladies and gentlemen, I think
that is our gaming PC complete. But
let's get this turned on and see if it
works. Let's grab ourselves an OLED
monitor, shall we? Link for this is
located down below. And then I thought
I'd lost it for a second there, but we
have keyboard, mouse, and two of the
cameras have died, so I have to show you
on this one. Of course, the PCcentric
mouse mat. Last few I think are still
available. Clearance sale, cheapest
they've ever been. Link to this is
located down below. So, let's push the
button and see for ourselves. Well, we
have spinning, which is great. And we
actually have quite a lot of RGB. I did
want this to be blackout, and you
absolutely can. Just don't have the RGB
active. But I think actually this is
still really nice because there's plenty
of emphasis of the middle of the system
here. This cooler is in its default
state, but you do get a load of stickers
so you can completely transform the
style essentially on this. So you don't
have to leave it like this. You've got
loads of different designs, so you can
just pick whichever one you want. And
then it goes underneath this little cap.
But otherwise, I think it's looking
really nice. And again, I love the fact
that it's not actually that big. This is
a really nice compact size. Is going to
complement most people's desks, even in
smaller spaces. And the fact that you've
got that RGB vein on the front and still
plenty of air flow through the mesh
means that in terms of cooling, this
should give us great numbers. But until
the PC actually works, we don't know
exactly what that's going to be. And
just like that though, ladies and
gentlemen, granted, I have already
pre-installed Windows on this SSD from a
previous build. But just like that,
look, our rig works. Should we see how
it performs? I mean, actually, no. I'm
telling Porky's here, you do need to
optimize the system really before doing
anything else. So, we're going to go
over to memory. We'll select Expo one to
make sure that the system is actually
running at its full rated speed when it
comes to memory. We also find where it
says about fans, which is actually all
the way here where it says fan profile.
And you can cheat and just select
everything at silent if you want, which
should be fine, but I'm definitely a bit
more of a manual boy. So, I'm going to
select 100% at about 88° and then just
have it gradually ramp up in the
meantime. Then we can save and exit. And
if you haven't already, obviously you
will need it install. I really can't
speak today. You will need to install a
copy of Windows. It's very
straightforward. I've made a video that
goes through everything and shows you
how to do it step by step. You can find
this in the top right corner of your
screen. But as if by magic, ladies and
gentlemen, the sun has gone down and
come back up again as it is a whole new
day. And the time to get gaming has
begun. And I think the best place to
start is arguably going to be with the
most demanding multiplayer game first.
So this is Battlefield 6. Obviously,
this is a huge title, and I think it's
met expectations actually for a lot of
people, but it fundamentally is not the
easiest game to drive, especially at
higher frame rates. What you're seeing
at the moment is actually high preset,
so you could go above this. You could
turn this down. And we're outputting at
1440p and using DLSS set to balance in
order to get there. And I think you
agree actually that the image looks
really, really good. Obviously on
YouTube, you're always going to get a
fair amount of compression. So, it's not
like complete one:1 apples to apples,
but still, it's a fantastic looking
game. And on this system, it is running
really well. actually are pretty much
bang on an average of about 120 frames a
second. You're always going to get it
kind of creeping up and going back down.
But this is one of those games as well
that doesn't actually use a crazy amount
of VRAM, but if you want to turn all the
settings up, then it definitely can go
above 8 gig. So you can see at the
moment we're using 8 and a half. That
doesn't mean that if you had an 8 gig
card, you'd be totally out of luck.
Actually, from a lot of the testing
we've done, it runs pretty well to be
fair. But if you have the extra VRAM
like we have here, then it is actually
able to utilize that and you just reduce
the risk of any horrible stutters and
you're not going to restrict yourself in
terms of settings either. Especially
bear in mind, as you can see, we are
getting a very nice frame rate. And
crucially, when you have a look at the
frame time graph at the top left hand
corner of your screen, you can see that
this is nice and flat without any of
those horrible stutters or anything that
you can often get. It's also worth
noting that if you were to step up to an
8 core CPU or potentially even an X3D,
you might get a game that's slightly
smoother. But as you can see, because
it's well optimized, it doesn't seem to
be an issue here. And actually, whilst
we're moving on to our next title, which
is going to be some Arc Raiders, let's
do ourselves a little peel cuz I don't
want you thinking that we've got a murky
system. Look, there it is. Nice and
transparent now. And I love the fact
that you do have the ARGB controller
actually on the case because it means
you don't have to rely on software. And
at the touch of the button, if you're
bored, obviously you can just change the
way that that looks. And again, kind of
deliberate really. It is quite
understated. I wouldn't say it looks
necessarily as premium as something that
obviously is a lot more expensive, but
still, I think this is very well
proportioned. I like the fact, as we've
said multiple times, that it's more
compact, and obviously the fact that
you've got all of that RGB on the case
as standard, despite the fact that it
doesn't come with RGB fans. I think you
just get a really nice balance really
between something that's got a bit of
interest, but not kind of over the top
rainbow RGB that a lot of people think
looks like sick.
I brought the tone down a little bit,
haven't I? corrupt update files. Ah, but
don't worry, ladies and gentlemen. I'm
pleased to say we got there in the end.
And indeed, this is some Arc Raiders.
And this is the second proper time that
I've been playing this. I don't want to
lose my loot. We take this very
seriously. And I've got to say, I'm
very, very impressed with this game
actually. Not only in terms of its
popularity, but how well it runs and how
well it looks. Because this isn't even
like the max preset. This is actually
high. You can go all the way to
cinematic. And we're currently getting
around about 100 frames a second. This
isn't 100 fps at 1080p. This is 100 fps
at 4K with DLSS set to performance,
which I think is very, very impressive
because pretty much all of the mid-range
graphics cards now, okay, you're not
going to be playing like 4K path tracing
in every single title. I mean, basically
no titles. But realistically, I think
for what most people actually want,
which is a graphics card that can just
play pretty much every single game, and
a lot of them do a very, very good job
across a variety of frame rates,
resolutions, and settings, then the 5060
Ti with its 16 gig VRAM buffer is just a
really great all round option. I mean,
yes, you are going to be paying more for
this over the AMD equivalent. So, I
think a lot of people are going to want
to check out the 9060 XT. But if you
just want kind of I'd say the most
jack-of- alltrades graphics card on the
market today, then personally, I think
this is going to be the 5060 Ti. And
it's a little bit weird because if you
do want to go for an Nvidia GPU, then
you can step up to the $2,000 gaming PC
that we did a couple of weeks ago. You
can find that top right corner of your
screen, but that was with a 5070 that
obviously is more powerful, but only has
12 GB of VRAM. So, work that one out. If
you want the best kind of all round
Nvidia graphics card, this probably is
it. Unless you're willing to step up to
a 5070 Ti that has the same amount of
VRAM but just way more horsepower that
is definitely more geared towards 4K
gaming. But yes, you can see here couple
of stutters here and there, but
generally speaking, this is working
really quite nicely actually. But of
course, most of us are not going to be
playing at 4K. So let's tune this down
to 2560x440
or just above at 67%. We then change our
DLSS to balanced. And obviously this
being a multiplayer game, you kind of
want the highest possible frame rate
really. The extra visuals, especially
things like RA tracing are nice to have,
but pretty unnecessary. But now that we
have changed this to 1440p, as you can
see, our frame rate has gone even
higher. And bearing in mind, I'd say
most people that are using a high
refresh rate monitor are probably
sitting at about 144 or 165 Hz. I'd say
especially with adaptive sync, G-Sync,
freeync, anything like that. Frame rate
of around about 120 to 140 fps is pretty
much going to be ideal. Especially
bearing in mind this is absolutely a
game where you are going to benefit from
extra frame rate, but not to the same
extent as something like CS or Valerant
anything where obviously every single
reaction matters to like a fraction of a
second. Whereas here, as long as you can
set yourself up properly and you are
actually good at the game, then you
should see great results. So yeah, I'm
I'm pretty happy with this actually. is
running really very well. So, okay then
everyone, maybe I'm no expert on Ark,
but something that, okay, I'm still not
an expert on that, but but I have played
a lot of is this. This is called
Surviving Mars, but this is actually the
new relaunched and remastered version.
So, the graphics have been upped
considerably. There's like new AI and
you've got all the features that you
have from the expansions and things. And
it's looking very good actually. It's
got a more muted tone than I think it
had before. Kind of more Marsy, I
suppose. This is right at the start of
the game, so obviously your frame rate
will kind of vary quite a lot as you
build more stuff. So do be aware of
that. But you can see at the moment
we're getting around about 120 frames a
second. And crucially, this is running
once again at 4K, but we've got DLSS in
the game. So we've got this enabled and
set to quality actually. So you could
lower this down if you wanted to.
There's absolutely no issues with that.
But let's see if we can build ourselves
some pipes. Look, here we go. Need
somewhere to store our water. Have an
oxygen tank. Get a moxy in there. More
pipes. Yes, there it is. And then we
want a water tower. Magical. Oh, need
some cables as well.
>> Don't give me the tutorial. I've put
enough hours into this.
>> Genuinely though, this is a game that I
wanted to feature just because I really
enjoy it and I'm kind of looking forward
actually to sitting down with the
remastered version properly. And you
will see that throughout the coming
weeks or months when we show this again.
And hopefully we have a very big
thriving colony of people rather than
the first time I played this or the
first few times when everybody died. But
I think now is the time to move swiftly
on because I know there are going to be
loads of people going, "Oh, PC Zendric,
why are you playing a game that's so
easy to drive? I don't care about space.
I care about the jungle."
>> This, of course, is Indiana Jones, and
this is one of those games that's
actually pretty difficult to drive, and
you need a lot of VRAM in order to
actually get it to run without stutter
and to just get a decent frame rate in
the first place. Now, in the cut scenes,
it does drop down to 60 fps, so we can
kind of ignore that for a second and
skip it. But this is right at the start
of the game and you can see that in
terms of frame rate, we're currently
getting around about 100 to 105 FPS.
Now, everything was actually super
smooth and stutter-free. We are getting
a little bit of a frame rate pacing
issue at this precise second. Not
entirely sure why. Maybe it's just
because we are recording, but you can
see that in terms of raw frame rate,
we're getting around about 95 to 100
frames a second, which is pretty
incredible. Now, in terms of CPUs, we
obviously haven't really mentioned it
just yet. And this is the first game
where we are starting to get a little
bit of uneven timing. So, potentially if
you had an 8 core chip, this might help
in this game or obviously like an X 3D
chip or something like that. But I'm not
convinced that that is the issue that we
have here. And anyway, it's still
running pretty smooth. It's just we're
getting, as I say, a little bit of weird
stutter every now and then. Now, this is
running high settings. We have DLSS set
to balanced, but we don't have frame gen
enabled. So, let's go into our settings
and show you what we have. Well, it's
pretty straightforward. Everything you
can see is set to high, but because we
have loads of VRAM, if we want to change
this up to ultra, the textures will need
to be reloaded. But even just that
alone, you can see that the frame rate
will now change, but our VRAM usage does
go up. So, shouldn't be particularly
difficult to get over 12 gig of VRAM,
even at 1440p. If we wanted to change
this though to 4K,
oh, it's done it again. What is going
on? Is it just Indiana Jones? I had this
the other day. It wasn't It was This is
a completely different system. What is
going on? Is this just a problem with
like Nvidia drivers or something at the
moment? What is happening? Have to
restart the PC. Unless you just want
some rainbow. But calming down for a
second and restarting our PC, we can now
see that at 4K. Obviously, as you'd
expect, the frame rate does go down
considerably. It seems that that weird
stutter issue seems to have subsided.
So, I don't know what that was all
about. Maybe that was a prelude to the
problem that we had. Honestly though, I
think I've only ever seen this when
changing resolutions, maybe whilst like
recording with Shadow Play at the
moment. Didn't used to happen. Don't
know what that's all about, but I
imagine that should hopefully be fixed
in a coming patch if the issue is
actually that. But yes, around about 63
frames a second, but I imagine that is
with DLSS set to balanced. So, if we
change this to performance, this is
probably how I would choose to play if I
had a 4K screen. And this definitely
does improve things, but it doesn't
fundamentally change it. It's gone from
about 60 to 70 frames a second. So, what
some people might want to do. I
personally with a mouse and keyboard
with this kind of setup I've got here
probably would do this, but as we've
said before with a controller that has a
little bit of input lag as it is, I tend
to leave it off. But if we do actually
want to increase this, we can scroll all
the way down and then find the setting
here called DLSS frame generation. And
I've now set this to 2x and then in
terms of frame rate, you can see that
obviously this now does increase. So,
you're getting about 100 and 105 frames
a second. Great. Why wouldn't you enable
that? Well, purely because it comes down
to the fact that this is actually people
call it fake frames realistically is
just going rendered frame AI generated
frame rendered frame. So, it's prone to
a few anomalies. The actual way the game
feels will be slightly worse. If you're
using a mouse and keyboard, it's not
really that noticeable. Whereas, if
you're using a controller, I find that
it's more noticeable because you've
already got a little bit of lag in the
pipeline. But essentially, you're
getting the smoothness now of 100 frames
a second, but you're kind of getting the
frame rate or the feel if you like of
maybe that 55 60 fps. So, in something
slow paced, this is going to be a great
way to play. And because this is a 50
series card, like it or you can scroll
all the way down and you can even go all
the way up to DLSS 4x. And now look, you
can see that you're getting around about
150 frames a second of visual
smoothness. You can definitely now feel
that something's just a little bit weird
cuz your brain's like, "Oh, I'm I'm
getting loads of smoothness." And then
you move the mouse around and as I say,
there's just a little bit of lag here.
So, it's up to you. Depends on your
monitor frame rate. But generally
speaking, if I was going to use it, I'd
probably stick with two, maybe three.
Four there, I think, is in my personal
opinion there to kind of bump Nvidia's
numbers up in frame rate graphs because
you can say, "Look, you're getting 150
frames a second without actually feeling
it." You wouldn't know what that felt
like. But yes, only other thing I think
we need to talk about are thermals. You
can see that this is barely using any
power whatsoever on the GPU around about
162 W, which is very, very impressive.
CPU is consuming about 50 51. And then
in terms of our noise,
basically silent. You can tune this down
a little bit more if you wanted to, but
honestly, there's no point cuz in a
completely silent room, it's like a tiny
little hum, maybe like a fridge, freezer
or something. So, really, really
impressive all around. And I think
really when it comes down to it, this is
just a great all round system. There's
not really anything that I would change
about it. I mean, obviously there are
always upgrades that can be made. If you
did want a better CPU, that 8 core I
think would be a great use of money,
especially if it was X3D. But do you
really need that extra level of
performance? You know, you've got 240
RAD rather than a 360, but does that
matter? The case isn't huge. You're not
going to be putting like those behemoth
RTX 5090s inside this, but again, does
that matter? This is all about getting
something that is really high quality,
being able to use all the horsepower
today, and still being able to make
almost all the upgrades in the future
without really anything holding you
back. So, I think all round this is
absolutely fantastic. But I would love
to hear your thoughts on this. What do
you make? Do you think there are some
things that should have been changed? Do
you like the fact that it's more
compact? Do you think that's a terrible
idea? Let us know down in the comments
section below. Smash the like button if
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watching. We'll catch you in the next
one.