ccl | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:01:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png ccl | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 CCL is selling Palworld-themed prebuilt gaming desktops https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/gaming-rig/joao-silva/ccl-is-selling-palworld-themed-prebuilt-gaming-desktops/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/gaming-rig/joao-silva/ccl-is-selling-palworld-themed-prebuilt-gaming-desktops/#respond Fri, 26 Jan 2024 15:00:41 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=645561 Palworld, the Pokemon-esque survival adventure game, has been gaining popularity like nobody's business over the last week. Like many, if you're one of the players enjoying arming your cute little creatures with weapons, you might want to check out the newly released Palworld gaming PCs from UK-based retailer and builder CCL. The CCL gaming PCs …

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Palworld, the Pokemon-esque survival adventure game, has been gaining popularity like nobody's business over the last week. Like many, if you're one of the players enjoying arming your cute little creatures with weapons, you might want to check out the newly released Palworld gaming PCs from UK-based retailer and builder CCL.

The CCL gaming PCs come in bright colours reminiscent of the charming creatures in Palworld. They offer a range of specifications that easily outperform the game's system requirements, making them ideal for 1080p gaming. The CCL Horizon Pal PC lineup includes four variants based on the Fractal Design Define 7 Compact PC case with a tempered glass side panel.

The CCL Horizon Bolt Pal sports the yellow and green colours of Grizzbolt, while the orange CCL Horizon Fox Pal has the face of the Foxparks. The CCL Horizon Wolf Pal comes with a black and grey colour scheme featuring the Direhowl, and finally, the frosty white CCL Horizon Dog Pal is based on Kitsun from Palworld.

All of the CCL Palworld gaming PCs have a base configuration priced at £999.95, but this can be increased or reduced based on your spec choices. The base specification includes an Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU, an Intel Core i5-12400F, 16 GB (2x 8 GB) of Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR4 memory (3200 MHz), and a 1 TB Kingston NV2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. All of these components are connected to a Gigabyte B760 DS3H AX DDR4 motherboard and is powered by a Game Max RPG Rampage 600 W PSU.

If these specs aren't enough for you but you still want a Palworld-themed case, you can upgrade most of them. The memory can be pushed to 32 GB, and the storage capacity can be increased up to 4 TB (still PCIe 4.0 SSD). You can go up to an RTX 4060 Ti for the GPU, while the Core i7-14700F is the best option for the CPU. The PC can feature Windows 11 Home or no OS at all.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: Of the four Horizon Pal PCs, which one is your favourite?

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KitGuru’s GPU Benchmark System: 2022 Update! https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/kitgurus-gpu-benchmark-system-2022-update/ https://www.kitguru.net/components/graphic-cards/dominic-moass/kitgurus-gpu-benchmark-system-2022-update/#respond Thu, 17 Feb 2022 13:10:19 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=550405 It's time to meet our new GPU test rig for 2022

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Every year, KitGuru reviews dozens of graphics cards and conducts numerous in-depth game analyses, so it's critical for us to ensure that the PC responsible for our benchmarking is as fast and up to date as possible. That's why we are upgrading our GPU benchmark system today, in partnership with MSI. We go over all of the key details and component choices in this article.

Specification

  • CPU: Intel Core i9-12900K
  • Motherboard: MSI MEG Z690 Unify
  • Memory: 32GB ADATA XPG Lancer DDR5 6000MHz CL40
  • CPU Cooler: MSI CoreLiquid S360
  • SSD: 2TB MSI Spatium M.2 SSD
  • Power Supply: Corsair HX1200
  • Case: MSI MPG Velox 100P Airflow
  • Monitor: MSI Optix MPG321UR-QD

Our previous GPU test system arrived in June 2020, based on Intel's Comet Lake-S i9-10900K processor, the fastest gaming CPU that money could buy at the time. Almost two years on, a lot has changed in the hardware industry and it became clear it was time to put our old system out to pasture and get ready for 2022 with a new GPU test rig.

This time around we have partnered with MSI, who we worked with to spec out this custom-built system that will power all of our GPU reviews and game benchmarks this year. Here we break down our reasoning and explain why we made the component choices we did, giving you a good look at this new PC.

For a system solely designed for testing graphics cards, the CPU is the most important element, as we want to ensure we are as CPU limited as possible. For that reason, we chose Intel's i9-12900K, simply because, right now this is the fastest gaming processor on the market. That said, the practical difference between using the 12900K instead of a Ryzen CPU is going to be extremely small, so it almost wouldn't matter, but from a philosophical point of view, for a GPU system you do want the fastest gaming CPU, hence our decision here.

Naturally, going for Intel 12th Gen means we are on the Z690 platform, where we've opted to use MSI's MEG Z690 Unify motherboard. This is the same board Leo used for his Alder Lake launch day reviews and he had no issues with it, so I was more than happy to use what worked for him. It's proven rock solid for me so far in my initial testing, and of course offers support for DDR5 memory as well as PCIe 5.0 so we know we're not going to be limited on that front.

Speaking of DDR5 memory, here we have gone for a 32GB kit of ADATA XPG Lancer RAM, clocked in at 6000MHz, CAS latency 40. Right now, there's still not much in it between DDR5 and DDR4 memory, but by going with a kit this fast, and with 32GB capacity, it's just another step to take ensuring we are removing as many limitations from the system as possible, allowing us to isolate the GPU as best we can. Plus, this kit does look particularly eye catching.

Just next to the Lancer memory, you have probably already noticed that small LCD display that is part of the CPU block. This is from MSI's CoreLiquid S360 AIO liquid cooler, so not only are we getting more than enough cooling power to handle the 12900K, but we can also use the built-in display to monitor things like temperature and clock speeds. Or to add our own logo just for a bit of razzle-dazzle!

One key component that we can't see however, is the 2TB MSI Spatium M480, which is installed under an integrated heatsink on the motherboard. This is a single drive for our OS and our games library, giving us plenty of space to install all the games we need to test, but also offering read and write speeds up there with any PCIe 4.0 SSD on the market right now, so we'll be loading into our games as quickly as possible.

All of that is housed in MSI's MPG Velox 100P Airflow chassis. As the name suggests, it is very much designed around airflow, which is exactly what we want for a GPU test system – as we don't use an open test bench, we need to make sure we are getting a good amount of fresh air into the graphics card, so with three MSI 120mm fans acting as intakes, sat behind a perforated front panel, that is exactly what we get.

The three 120mm fans from the AIO cooler are in the roof, set to exhaust, and we also have a single 120mm ARGB fan in the rear, also acting as exhaust. On the topic of RGB too, the beauty of an all-MSI system means we can control everything with Mystic Light for a unified approach, with lighting coming from the case, memory, rear fan and the graphics card.

That leaves us with the final part choice to cover, but arguably the most important – the power supply. For this we have opted for Corsair's HX1200 unit, supplying us with not only a large amount of power thanks to the 1200W rating, but it's also highly efficient as an 80+ Platinum unit. You might argue that it is overkill for most systems, but with rumours suggesting the RTX 3090 Ti will draw 450W of power, alongside the fact the 12900K isn't exactly a low-power chip, it is much better to be safe than sorry here.

There we have it then – the new KitGuru GPU test system for 2022 in all it's glory. We would like to say thank you to MSI for partnering with us on this system, and also to CCL who expertly put it together with terrific cable management throughout – we wouldn't change a thing.

Stay tuned for lots more reviews and game benchmark videos coming your way soon, all with this system at their heart.

Check out the MSI system on CCL's webstore HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

KitGuru says: What do you make of this system – would you have specced out anything differently? Let us know your thoughts!

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CCL Athena Aura (i5/1070) System Review https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/dominic-moass/ccl-athena-aura-i51070-system-review/ https://www.kitguru.net/desktop-pc/dominic-moass/ccl-athena-aura-i51070-system-review/#respond Tue, 20 Jun 2017 14:28:34 +0000 https://www.kitguru.net/?p=338030 CCL has put together a £1600 system with an i5 and GTX 1070, plus tonnes of RGB lighting. Yum.

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Priced at £1614.99, CCL's Athena Aura boasts a Kaby Lake i5-7600K and a GTX 1070 graphics card. Incidentally, that graphics card is an ASUS ROG model which is clearly a bit of a theme with this system – the motherboard is also a ROG product, while the NZXT Noctis 450 is the special ‘ROG edition.' The benefit of that is, performance aside, all the components can synchronise their RGB lighting via ASUS' Aura software – hence the name, ‘Athena Aura'.

However, at this price, we are far more interested in how well-built and how fast the CCL Athena Aura really is. Considering its core components, the on-paper spec does look like that of a very solid mid-range system, so let's dive right in and see how the Athena Aura performs.

Specification

  • Intel Core i5-7600K
  • Corsair Hydro H100i v2 CPU Cooler
  • ASUS ROG STRIX Z270F Motherboard
  • G.Skill Trident Z RGB 16GB Dual Channel 3200MHz
  • ASUS GeForce GTX 1070 STRIX
  • Samsung 960 EVO 250GB M.2 SSD
  • Seagate BarraCuda 2TB 3.5” HDD
  • Corsair TX550M PSU
  • NZXT Noctis 450 ROG Chassis
  • 3 Year On-Site Warranty

Price: £1614.99 inc. VAT

Be sure to check out our sponsors store EKWB here

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KitGuru visits Multiplay i47 https://www.kitguru.net/channel/event/henry-butt/kitguru-visits-multiplay-i47/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/event/henry-butt/kitguru-visits-multiplay-i47/#respond Sun, 02 Dec 2012 10:18:24 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=117329 Gamers from across Europe have battled the adverse weather conditions and descended upon the International Centre in Telford for the last i-Series LAN of the year, i47.  This is a smaller event than the summer i-Series (i46 this year).  KitGuru's reporters were on hand to take a look around. We arrived at i47 in time …

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Gamers from across Europe have battled the adverse weather conditions and descended upon the International Centre in Telford for the last i-Series LAN of the year, i47.  This is a smaller event than the summer i-Series (i46 this year).  KitGuru's reporters were on hand to take a look around.

We arrived at i47 in time to catch the end of the legendary opening ceremony.  This is a chance for the gamers attending to get some free goodies from various sponsors.  The freebies included an Intel SSD, various memory sticks and a lot of promotional clothing.

Cooler Master decided to make the gamers work a little harder to win a selection of their CM Storm gaming peripherals.  They held a dressing up competition where the fastest person to put on two CM Storm T-shirts and a hat would win the top prize.

Cooler Master also had a booth at the event were they were showing off a number of products including the brand new Scout 2 case.

They also had a wide range of CM Storm gaming peripherals including an array of mechanical gaming keyboards, various gaming mice and also their gaming headset range.

PC Specialist were occupying a corner of the Asus stand where they were showing off a few of their systems, including the rather special gaming PC which they are giving away in conjunction with us.  For a chance to win this PC, head over here.

They also had the gargantuan Vortex III and tiny Inferno notebooks on display for gamers to try out.

There was another competition running on the PC Specialist stand, requiring gamers to achieve the fastest lap time on Simraceway.

Asus had a rather sparse selection of products on display from their massive range of gaming kit.  Our attention was drawn to the Nexus 7 tablet, however, which was kindly modelled for us by a member of Asus' staff.

There were a couple of motherboards on display on the stand too which were all powered by quality Seasonic PSUs.

On the other side of the Asus stand, Chillblast had a few systems on display.  These included an i5 powered mini-ITX system built in the Fractal Design Node 304 case.

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CCL proves you CAN build a PC in 3 minutes https://www.kitguru.net/channel/event/jules/ccl-proves-you-can-build-a-pc-in-3-minutes/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/event/jules/ccl-proves-you-can-build-a-pc-in-3-minutes/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:25:15 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=59077 Can a person - even a highly gifted hardware enthusiast - really build a PC in 3 minutes?

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At the UK's biggest LAN gaming event ever, Multiplay i43 at Telford over the August Bank Holiday, there were TONS of exhibitors vying for the attention of the owners of the 5,000 pairs of feet that went through the halls over a 4 day period. Online store CCL had a smart idea on how to grab enthusiasts and create a crowd. The PCTV crew was on hand to shoot the winner build a PC in  almost exactly 3 minutes flat. Read on disbeliever!

Starting with a chassis that has the mainboard screwed down, CPU in and PSU ready to go, how long would it take you to assemble the rest of the system ?

Maryann with the lucky winner - who managed an offensive 3 minute build time. Sod.

Remember, you are competing against the clock – being watched/annoyed/cheered by a sizeable crowd and – when you have finished – the system must boot.

Yep, we'll say that again.

It's not enough to do all the cabling etc, it must also boot Windows, access the internet and load the CCL home page.

Roving reporter (and Thai Boxing enthusiast) Maryann, was on hand to speak with the two fastest challengers.Watch the video below and feel free to scrub through the actual building part (we asked the PCTV edit guys to leave it in – so KitGuru readers would have proof-positive that everything was 100% honest and above board).

KitGuru says: We'd die if the cabling inside one of our rigs looked like that, but MAXIMUM KUDOS to the speedy fingered contestants in this interesting CCL challenge!

Comment below or in the KitGuru forums.

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