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I have to say I was intrigued by the spec of the Topaz Spark when PCSpecialist got in touch about a review, and after testing it for the last week, I have to say it is one of the best prebuilt systems we have reviewed over the last few years. Not because it is ridiculously fast or an all-singing all-dancing machine, but because it offers a very sensible spec at an achievable price point, while also leaving plenty of room for upgrades down the line.
The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F, for instance, is a great budget CPU at this point in 2023, offering six-cores and twelve-threads of Zen4 goodness, and it runs at about 5GHz while gaming. Thanks to the AM5 platform though and the B650 motherboard used here, we already know AMD has promised to support said platform through to 2026, so it’d be a drop in upgrade for a Zen6 CPU, or whatever they’ll be called, into the Topaz Spark.
That’s only bolstered by the fact the system already offers 32GB of DDR5 RAM – admittedly not with the tightest of timings, but this is an exceedingly generous amount considering the price and will serve you well into the future and with any CPU upgrade.
The RX 6700 GPU is in a similar position. Right now, it’s a very smart choice for gamers on a tighter budget, offering great 1080p and even 1440p frame rates as we've seen today. But with the inclusion of a 750W Gold-rated PSU, you could stick something in that draws twice as much power as the RX 6700 and there'd still be plenty of headroom left over.
I wouldn't say there are many obvious drawbacks, either. The storage situation is definitely the main one, as a single 1TB drive doesn’t go very far these days, and the Solidigm P41 Plus used here isn't the fastest considering that the motherboard does support Gen5 SSDs. That said, a spare M.2 slot is easily accessible if you do need to add another drive down the line, it's just worth pointing out you may not get quite as many games installed on the machine as you might have liked.
You could also make a point about the air cooler, which will be the DeepCool AK400 ARGB for any buyers – it is fairly basic and may be a limitation if you wanted to stick in a 16-core Ryzen CPU down the line, but realistically it's proved more than adequate for the 90W power draw of the 7500F so I don't see it as much of a problem.
All told, the Topaz Spark is a mightily impressive system from PCSpecialist. Not only does it make a lot of sense at this point in 2023, with a well-balanced spec that can easily handle 1080p or 1440p gaming now, but it leaves a huge amount of scope for future upgrades – all while coming in at £999.
The cherry on the cake is the fact that I also priced up the components individually, and while I couldn’t get an exact match as the CPU and GPU are hard to find standalone, the total price was actually a touch higher than what PCSpecialist is asking for – with that price including the fact that they’ll build it, ship it and cover it with warranty – leaving me feeling pretty darn good indeed!
You can buy the PCSpecialist Topaz Spark, as reviewed, for £999 HERE.
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Pros
- Six-core Zen 4 CPU on the AM5 platform.
- RX 6700 handles 1080p and 1440p gaming.
- 32GB DDR5 memory.
- Large 750W PSU provides tons of headroom for upgrades.
- Very well built with excellent cable management.
- Spare M.2 slot is easily accessible for a drop-in storage upgrade.
Cons
- Only a 1TB drive, and it's not overly fast.
- DDR5 memory timings aren't the tightest.
KitGuru says: It's affordable, plays games at 1080p or 1440p, and has plenty of scope for future upgrades. What's not to like?
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