PC Specialist Magma LX System – Ryzen 7 1700, GTX 1070Ti

1. Introduction2. 3DMark Testing3. Cooling Performance4. Gaming Performance5. Power Consumption6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

The Magma LX from PC Specialist is a high end gaming PC with plenty of power and some impressive RGB lights. The water cooled Ryzen CPU, M.2 SSD, 16GB of Ram and GTX 1070Ti sound like a match made in heaven for triple digit FPS.

But is this PC as good as it sounds? In this review we put it through it's paces to find out if this £1479 prebuild is the perfect investment for someone serious about PC gaming. 

Gallery:

If you cannot see the gallery images above then please whitelist us in your ad blocker – they can interfere with our display code.

PC Specialist Magma LX Specifications: 

• Case: CORSAIR CRYSTAL SERIES 460X RGB GAMING CASE
• Processor (CPU): AMD Ryzen 7 1700 Eight Core CPU (3.0GHz-3.7GHz/20MB CACHE/AM4)
• Motherboard: ASUS PRIME X370-PRO (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX/SLI) – RGB Ready!
• Memory (RAM): 16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 8GB)
• Graphics Card: 8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 Ti – DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP – GeForce GTX VR Ready!
• Storage: 2TB SATA-III 3.5″ HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 64MB CACHE, M.2 SSD Drive 256GB SAMSUNG PM961 M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 2800MB/R, 1100MB/W)
• Power Supply: CORSAIR 650W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
• Processor Cooling: Corsair H100i V2 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
• LED Lighting: 2x 50cm RGB LED Strip
• Operating System: Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit – inc DVD & Single Licence

3DMark testing:

For this test, we ran the PC Specialist Magma LX through Time Spy Extreme, Time spy, Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme and Fire strike Ultra. Below shows the results for the overall score.

The results are very respectable and show that this PC is certainly powerful enough for a serious PC gamer. The below graph shows the individual results for the GPU and CPU.

The AMD Ryzen 7 1700 delivers strong performance when it comes to Physics during the Firestrike tests. But slightly falls behind the GPU in overall performance during the Time spy test.

The 1070ti is a powerful graphics card that performs well in most of the tests but begins to struggle when the resolution is ramped up to 4K. Overall the results are expected and the Ryzen 7 1700 & GTX 1070ti seem to be a good pair with one not seriously outperforming the other.

To test the cooling performance in the Magma LX we ran AIDA64 for 10 minutes in order to obtain the temperature when the PC components are under extreme stress. To double check the temperature of the GPU we also played our 3 tester games on ultra and kept an eye on the maximum temperature.

The cooling tests were very impressive. The Corsair H100i V2 didn't break much of a sweat keeping the Ryzen CPU below 45 degrees. Meaning there's plenty of room for a potential overclock to make the most out of the Ryzen 7 1700. The Mini Zotac 1070ti is air cooled and with the help of the 3 front case fans on the corsair 460x it stayed below 60 degrees. The Magma LX has good airflow to keep all the components cool while gaming for extended periods of time.

We used the PC Specialist Magma LX to play a variety of popular and graphically demanding games to see if it can achieve good FPS. All the games were tested at 1920 x 1080 resolution with different graphics quality settings.

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is a hugely popular game at the moment so it's important that this gaming PC can run it well.

PlayerUnknown's battlegrounds is not the most optimised game but the Magma LX maintained an extremely good average of  76 FPS on Ultra settings. If your someone that doesn't like to dip below 60 FPS while your gaming then you'll have to drop the Graphics settings down to medium on PUBG but on average you'll be seeing nearly 100 FPS if you have a monitor with a high refresh rate.

Call of Duty: WWII is a classic first person shooter. As the newest instalment in the Call of Duty series it is easily the best looking with the environment being incredibly realistic. This of course puts a strain on the PC playing it and makes it excellent to test a PCs gaming prowess.

Call Of Duty: WWII locked the refresh rate to 60hz and on normal settings the magma LX achieved 60FPS the majority of the time. The FPS rarely dropped below this threshold and didn't interrupt game play. On Ultra the Magma LX struggled to keep the game running at 60FPS but the average FPS was still playable and rarely dipped below 30FPS. I am also suspicious that the random FPS drops may be more to do with the game itself than the PC's performance.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands is a game with a superb open world environment. The beautiful scenery of mountains, forests and deserts requires a lot of GPU power to render making it very demanding game that is perfect for testing a PCs gaming performance. We have also included screenshots of this games very handy inbuilt benchmark.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands ran like a dream on the Magma LX. We tested out 3 different graphics quality settings to see which would be most suitable for smooth 60FPS gaming. Very high settings seemed to be the sweet spot with the minimum FPS only dipping to 65. The game is still very playable on ultra settings with the average FPS nearing 60 and only dipping occasionally to near 40FPS.

It seems the the Magma LX is a very capable gaming PC. We have tested 3 very demanding games and got excellent results. This PC will be perfect for playing the latest games on High/Ultra settings at 1080P. And those of you with monitors with higher refresh rates (144hz) and resolutions (1440p) should see great performance from this PC in slightly older, less demanding games (CS:GO,WOW). The Magma LX is well above the threshold required for VR Gaming also.

We tested out the Power consumption on the Magma LX to ensure that the Power supply chosen to power the build provides sufficient power while not being too overkill. The Magma XL is kitted out with a good quality power supply from Corsair. The 650W TXm semi-modular Power supply is 80 Plus Gold rated and scored highly in our review which can be found HERE.

Our tests showed that the PC when idle was drawing about 85 watts. This is expected. The maximum wattage used by the PC was 296W. This was recorded when the PC was gaming or under load to complete our tests. Although it may sound like a 650W power supply is a bit overkill it is actually a good choice for this Gaming PC as power supply's are most efficient between 40%-60% load.

If a Power supply with less Wattage had been used it would have to work harder when the PC is under load and would therefore get hotter and the fans would be noisier. The extra wattage also means there is room for any potential upgrades in the future.

It seems the Magma LX from PC Specialist breaks all the prebuilt stereotypes. All the components are carefully selected and are from well known companies with not one part letting the side down. With a price tag that's somehow cheaper than buying the parts and building it yourself this PC is amazing value for money.

The very attractive Corsair 460x case features tempered glass and plenty of RGB lighting but also performs well. Good airflow keeps everything running cool and quiet even under heavy load. PC Specialist have done a great job with the cable management and overall the Magma LX is very aesthetically appealing.

There's no lack of performance either, with impressive specs at this price point the Magma LX easily handled all the latest games at 1080p on high/ultra settings. In older games this PC would take advantage of an above average monitor with a higher refresh rate and resolution. (144hz,1440p). We would maybe like to see a larger M.2 SSD for more high speed storage but 256GB is more than enough to get by.

We think is going to be a perfect PC for those of you who might not be that confident building your own gaming PC or those who want a new stress free, high spec system that is guaranteed to run your favourite games. 

The Magma LX we’ve reviewed is available from PC Specialist for £1,479 HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page, over HERE.

Pros:

• Well packaged and easy to set up.
• Stays Cool and quiet.
• Attractive case with RGB lighting.
• Powerful Gaming performance.
• Very good price.

Cons:

• The cable management on the GPU doesn't look great.
• 256GB M.2 SSD could be bigger to provide more fast storage for frequently used games and programs.

Overall the Magma LX from PC Specialist is an excellent PC. It stays cool and quiet under load and all the components work well together. In a climate where PC components are skyrocketing it provides good value for money and is perfect for serious PC gamers and streamers. 

Become a Patron!