KitGuru KitGuru.net – Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards
PCSpecialist (PCS) is well known in the United Kingdom for producing some of the finest custom PC builds targeting the enthusiast audience. We have reviewed many of their builds over the years and have been generally impressed with their attention to detail and competitive pricing, as well as their consistency in selecting a balanced component configuration which work well together. This time PCS told us they wanted to focus on a sub-£2k build that worked well for gaming at 1440p. This system comprises an Intel Core i7-12700K, RTX 3070 Ti, 32GB of DDR4 memory, along with a 1TB SSD and 2TB hard drive.
Specification
- Case: Cooler Master MasterBox TD500 Mesh ARGB (Black Colour)
- CPU (Processor): Intel® Core i7-12700K
- Graphics Card (GPU): Gigabyte GeForce® RTX 3060 Eagle OC 8GB
- CPU Cooling: PCS Frost Flow 150 Series CPU Cooler
- Motherboard: Gigabyte Z690 UD DDR4 (LGA1700, USB 3.2, PCIe 5.0) – ARGB Ready
- Memory (RAM): 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4/3200MHz Dual Channel Memory
- PSU (Power Supply): Corsair CX-M Semi Modular 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Gaming Power Supply
- M.2 SSD Drive: 1x 1TB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
- SATA HDD Drive: 1x 2TB Seagate Barracuda SATA-III HDD 7200RPM
- Operating System: Windows 11 Home 64 Bit
- Warranty Service: Standard Warranty 3 Years' Labour, 1 Years' Parts, 1 Month Collect and Return plus Life-Time Technical Support
- Price: £1849 from PCSpecialist HERE
The PCSpecialist Odin i7 Ti Air arrives in a rather plain box with very little information on the outside to indicate what has just landed on our doorstep. Opening up the packaging, we find our system is well packaged, surrounded by foam, and complimented with an accessories box. PCSpecialist also included foam packing to the inside of the case for transport, helping to protect the components further, especially the graphics card to prevent it from swaying about in its PCIe slot.
The accessories box includes all the additional cables, brackets, and screws from our components and it’s great to have these included so that any potential future upgrades can be accommodated without having to try and source any extra screws or mounting hardware. It’s here that we also find our PSU dust filter, component manuals, and power cord.
Moving on, the Cooler Master TD500 Mesh ARGB feels like a well-built chassis, and in terms of aesthetics, with that ‘sliced' tempered glass side panel it is a rather attractive case. Given this is a mesh case, airflow isn’t badly restricted to the front intake so we are expecting to see good thermal performance later on.
The case has scope for future upgrades too, supporting two 360mm radiators, and it can hold up to four 2.5-inch drives or two 3.5-inch drives and two 2.5-inch drives. It also includes three ARGB fans, a magnetic dust filter to the top, an easily removable front panel to provide access for cleaning, and a slot in the PSU dust filter. The TD500 also comes with two USB 3.0 ports, headphones, and mic jacks for the front I/O.
The Intel Core i7-12700K is a 12-core, 20-thread CPU comprising eight Performance cores and four Efficiency cores. The 12700K offers solid performance and better value than the 12900K, though if you were looking to save a bit of cash, the i5-12600K could also be one to consider. That said, I can’t fault PCSpecialist for going with the 12700K as it is a great CPU and should perform very well in both gaming and productivity tasks.
PCSpecialist has opted to pair that CPU with the Gigabyte Z690 UD60, an ATX, DDR4-based motherboard. This has been chosen instead of a DDR5 option and I think this is a good area to save some of the cost, as the benefit to DDR5 is still minimal, especially for gaming. The motherboard includes three M.2 slots, all capable of PCIe Gen 4 at x4 speeds, one via the CPU and two via the chipset. One is populated but there’s plenty of room for further storage expansion down the line as we also have six SATA connectors too. Sadly there is no onboard WiFi, so PCSpecialist has used a dedicated WiFi card in the lower PCIe slot.
As for memory, we have 32GB of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 at 3200 MHz, with memory timings of 16-18-18-36. Corsair Vengeance memory kits are tried and trusted and perform very well, but if you were looking for RGB lighting then you are out of luck here. PCSpecialist has kept it nice and simple, no fuss, just a memory kit that just does exactly what it says on the box.
For our Windows drive, we have a Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe SSD with 1TB capacity, meaning that there is plenty of space left for files, documents, and games… but if that’s not enough we also have a 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM spinning drive.
For graphics goodness, PCS has opted for a Gigabyte Eagle OC RTX 3070 Ti, an 8GB card with Gigabyte's WindForce 3 alternate-spinning cooling solution. It offers 6144 CUDA cores, GDDR6X memory, and 19000MHz memory clock speed with a core clock of 1800MHz, including a 30MHz boost from the reference design. PCSpecialist also includes an anti-sag bracket which is a nice touch from them.
The Corsair 650W CX-M semi-modular power supply has been used in the Odin i7 Ti Air, again another trusted component from Corsair- but it is only an 80+ Bronze rated unit meaning that it sits at the lower end of the efficiency scale. Being semi-modular allows for most unneeded cables to be kept out of the equation and while we would have preferred to see a Gold-rated unit here, it’s not a deal-breaker.
The TD500 does come with three pre-installed 120mm ARGB fans, PCSpecialist has added in a rear exhaust 120mm non-ARGB fan, while our CPU is cooled by the PCS Frost Flow 150 featuring a push-pull configuration. On closer inspection the Frost Flow 150 is actually a rebranded ID-Cooling SE-225-XT, which seems well regarded online, so it will be interesting to see how it performs later on. The CPU cooler lines up nicely to the rear fan too, meaning that any warm air is going to be exhausted straight out the back of the case.
If you saw Dominic's recent video on the PCSpecialist Magnus Spark, he commended them for their cable management with that system, and it’s no different here, PCS has done an exceptional job keeping everything really nice and tidy.
Price: £1849 from PCSpecialist
Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here
