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Our last guide you'll ever need covers how to build a computer from parts. But

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what it can't cover [music] is what parts you should choose. Within a few

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months, any recommendation that I make will be hopelessly out of date. And I

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could build an entire content farm to

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upload a new build video every single day for the rest of my life. And I

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wouldn't even scratch the surface of the possible configurations. So, how do you

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go from I want to join the rest of the enlightened gamers on the obviously

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superior platform to I now have a cart full of parts that actually work

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together? Ask the internet perhaps. But where? To find out, we went to not one,

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not two, but three websites in search of

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answers. the PC part picker forum, the r/build athec subreddit where we were

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[music] promptly redirected to r/build apc forme, and of course our very own

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Linus techtips.com forum. No matter who wins, I just want to say a quick thanks

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to the tech community members who helped my Smurf account, Bethesda boy,

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configure his very real computer based on very fake requirements. And give a

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quick thank you to our sponsor, MSI. They've decked their halls with epic

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savings on PC gaming goodies, and this list of deals is refreshed regularly, so

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you'll want to check it more than twice. To save on laptops, desktops, and more,

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check out all the #MSI deals at the link below.

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Each one of our interactions started with a simple post explaining our

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objective. We wanted the best tower we could get for $1,000 with the goal of

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playing Starfield and maybe streaming a bit. We told them we were aiming for

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1080p, that we were in the United States, and that taxes and shipping

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wouldn't be factored into our budget. Starting with response time, the PC part

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picker forum was helpful and quick to respond, as was the LTT forum. But

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Reddit, well, all right. As I mentioned before, we started in r/build a PC, but

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as it turns out, you can't do that there anymore. They have a strict no build

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spoon feeding requests rule and our post was quickly taken down. Okay, [music]

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so instead, we went to r/build a PC for

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me, which unfortunately has less than

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125th the member count. So, we posted

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and waited and ultimately nobody

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replied. To be clear, there's definitely activity over there, but our post was

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flagged as spam and taken down. And when we reached out to the mods, we got no

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response. So, after being ghosted, we defaulted to the $1,000 speed build from

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their summer 2023 best buy guide for team Reddit. Then, I guess credit goes

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to user xxstfan xxx1 since [music] they

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posted the guide. One quick note, by the way, this list uses parametric

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selection, so it can actually change slightly depending on sales or other

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discounts. We noticed this after we completed our build and went back to

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screenshot our parts list and realized that it had actually changed, so your

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mileage [music] may vary. When we clicked it, though, we got a Ryzen 5

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5600X using the stock cooler on an

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ASRock B550M Phantom 4 motherboard. We

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got a 16 gig kit of reasonably fast DDR4

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and an RTX 4070. Now, you might notice

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for our test builds today that we didn't necessarily worry too much about having

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the exact same parts, but we did make an effort to ensure that our results would

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be comparable. So, we're using the ATX version of the same MATX motherboard

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here, a dual fan GPU with similar advertised clock speeds, and the same

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spec of memory, albeit from a different [music] brand. This should be pretty

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representative. The whole thing is powered by a 650 BQ bronze power supply

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from EVGA and housed in a Fantex Eclipse

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G300A, the single fan variant. No

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frrills. Our haul came to a total of $1,020.81

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without rebates or promos. And honestly, this is really solid and it was a great

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case to build [music] in. The included fan cable was more than long enough to

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reach whichever header we wanted. Velcro straps made tying down cables a breeze,

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and the little channel to the side of the board made getting everything tucked away nice and easy without needing to

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sit on the back of it to close the panel. That is a That is a clean looking

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build. Here's what we're going to do. Preset high. Then we're going to turn

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dynamic resolution off and set [snorts] the render resolution scale to 100%. I

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left FSR on and that is a pretty darn

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smooth, not to mention better looking gaming experience. Imagine that running

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at native resolution being a good idea. I mean, 1% lows in the 50 FPS range.

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This is in a crowded environment with lots of character models all over me. I

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can't fault the results. And you got to remember that this is while I'm screen

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recording as well. And besides, if the noise bothers me, I can just put this

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under the desk, throw my headphones, and it [music] goes away, just like

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Starfield. Let's try out CS2. We're just setting up CS2 right now, trying to make

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sure that we're running the same on all the systems. And they've got this really

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cool preview of how the game will look when you adjust all of these settings. I

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love that my 1% lows are above 100

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freaking FPS and my averages are like 250. That's why I'm able to mow down

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these bots, boys. I mean, there's no doubt that having better gear doesn't

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hurt for Halo. We're seeing average FPS in the 150 to 160 range and 1% lows

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above 100. This is a great gaming experience. Next up, PC Part Picker. I

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was surprised to learn just how active that forum is over there. Not only did

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we get responses quickly after posting, but almost everyone was welcoming and

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helpful, even going as far as to provide rationale for their choices and weigh in

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on the pros and cons of pirating Windows. Ultimately, we settled on this

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build from JDH_N64.

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It was right on the money for our budget at $1,5.93.

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Verzero's built was also interesting. They were adamant that we would be

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better off with a 13100F and posted their own list. But because that one

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came in significantly under budget after we removed the peripherals we said we

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didn't need and the copy of Windows, sorry, Microsoft, we stuck with JDH's

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submission. So, we ended up with a Ryzen 5 5600 with an entry-level aftermarket

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air cooler on a Gigabyte B550 board. As for our memory and GPU, we're rocking 16

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gigs of DDR4, this time at higher clocks, but looser timings, and a Radeon

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RX6800 with a whopping 16 gigs of VRAM.

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They included only half as much NVMe storage, a little questionable given the

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size of games these days, but that money was spent wisely on a 750 W gold-rated

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power supply and a handsome Lean Lee Lancool 215 ATX midtower. Ain't she a

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beauty? Not to mention super easy to build in. Not only was cable management

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simple thanks to the space and tie-down support, but it comes with a fan hub and

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a couple of gigantic front fans that could give this build a leg up in

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performance if we end up being cooling constrained. This time around, we're on

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team red, so our OBS encoding settings aren't quite the same. They look a touch

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blurriier, but our gaming experience should be identical. Let's go ahead and

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get Starfield. Not going to lie, before Frame View even loaded, I could feel the

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difference in the 1% lows, which is funny because it doesn't seem like it

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should be that different. Our averages down from 90, 100 down to

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like 65, 70, but a difference in averages is not the

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kind of thing that you'll feel in the same way that you feel a difference in

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1% lows. You could stream still. I could. You could.

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It also seems to be recovering a little bit. Our CPU is at 40. Yeah, 40°. Credit

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to AMD and Bethesda for their collaboration here, I guess, because

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this GPU has absolutely no right to be this competitive with the 4070.

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So, let's go to Counterstrike and see how it works. Civilians, this seems every bit as

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smooth and responsive and experience as what we saw before. You know what? When

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we looked up the 6800 performance characteristics, we were looking at

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launch reviews because I couldn't remember off the top of my head and you

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got that whole AMD fine wineness, right?

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Is the 6800 a 4070 equivalent? These are damn near the same numbers.

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They're almost the same. We're averaging more like 200 to 220 or 230 and then our

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1%s are anywhere from like 85 to like 110

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120. I mean, the 1% lows is what matters more. Yeah, I know. I think they were more

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consistent with the previous system, but not not by much.

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Something I noticed though is that while our 1% lows are the same, even when

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these drops occur, our averages drop a

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little bit lower during particularly intense periods. Here, it's pretty clear

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that as is tradition, we're more CPU limited than GPU limited. Yeah, CS2 is a

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darn good experience on this system. Pretty good. Halo, this is it. Moment of

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truth. Can we beat lows of 120, averages of

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160, 170? It's pretty comparable. It's not the

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same, though. FPS is really kind of staying around that 110 range.

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Yep. Slowly creeping up to like 115, 120 sometimes, but that's about it.

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I think it's time for us to talk trade-offs here because this is not as

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obvious a choice as it might seem. On the one hand, the 407D system is

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probably the better allrounder. It's got better support for ray tracing. It's got

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DLSS, but what it lacks compared to our AMDbased system is all the other stuff

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we were able to get with the money we saved on our GPU. Better case, better

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power supply, better motherboard, and a better cooler that not only

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is dead flipping quiet, our CPU is at 40°. Last but not least, I hope, let's

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take a look at the rig that I've got a bit of a personal stake in the entry

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from our very own LTT forum. It slices,

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it dices, it hopefully plays games a little bit better than these other two

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systems. Um, user Y_ME,

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well, because you volunteered. Uh, starts us off strong with a Ryzen 7

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5700X cooled by a Thermal Rate Assassin X120

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on an ASUS ROG Stricks B550E.

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They managed to squeeze a whopping 32 gigs of 3600 CL18 memory in at the same

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speeds as the Reddit build with the same 1 TB of NVMe storage, but using a much

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higher quality drive from Samsung. And they've got a similar class 750 W 80

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plus gold power supply, which it's probably a bit overkill for our graphics

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card cuz it's a lowly RX7600.

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Yeah, was a good ride while it lasted, but it turns out that what goes up must

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come down. And I think the sacrifices we

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made to our GPU in order to have all those other creature comforts are going

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to cost us big time in our gaming tests. One really nice inclusion though was the

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Fractal Pop Air, which is very pleasant to build in, has great airflow, and

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comes in a variety of colors. That being said, this was the only combination of

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parts where we needed to run and grab an extra piece, a fan extension, in order

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to complete our build since the cable for one of the front fans was a tad

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short to reach the headers on the motherboard. Before we get into the

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performance of this build, by the way, one thing I found very interesting about

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all of these was the obvious importance of case selection to our community

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members. As someone who is willing to fight through a bad case design in order

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to achieve a given look or form factor that suits my purposes, I usually don't

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give much thought to case. But these choices from Fractal, Fantex, and Lean

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Lee were all pleasant to work in with enough air flow for modern power hungry

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components and ample room for cable management. A good case, if well cared

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for, can last many years and be a very

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worthwhile investment for your delicate little fingies. But if you're a

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massochist who likes building in tight cases, hey, at least you can make your

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life a little bit easier with the stubby screwdriver from ltstore.com. This

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computer, look, it runs the game, but we

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paid the exact same amount for it that we did for the others, and we're getting

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some benefits. You know, we've got the fancier motherboard. We have more RAM.

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We have the more premium SSD that I would actually trust more, but our 1%

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lows are lower.

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Yeah, your average is still around the same 5560 that we were seeing.

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Yeah, but that's lower than both the other systems. Yeah, I know.

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It's very noticeable. When I'm panning around, I can feel it cuz it's only 10

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FPS difference in the 1% lows. But another way of saying that is about a

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30% difference in the most stuttery,

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laggiest feeling parts. It's very playable.

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Yeah, very playable. But we paid exactly the same for this

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system as we did for the other ones. And I'm just not sure if some of the

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advantages like having more RAM and

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admittedly a higher quality SSD are worth it.

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Time for CS:GO. 250 on the average. That's higher than

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the 6800. I think what we're learning then is that

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CS2, just like its predecessor, is very

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CPU bottleneck. Yeah, especially at 1080p. Yep. I was not expecting any wins with

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how underpowered the 7600 is compared to our other GPUs.

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Yeah. And how underpowered poor Bot Wesley is here.

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Boom. Got him. You know what? It's worse, but it's still pretty good.

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This is not bad at all. We're hitting like high 80s, mid90s for the 1%

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100ish averages, 110 even. It's absolutely very playable. It's very

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clear at this point that none of these systems are bad. After our results were

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so close, we felt it necessary to verify our unscientific findings before

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throwing anyone under the bus. So, we sent all three of our competitors out to

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the Labs team to duke it out. Now, since we can't meaningfully benchmark

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Starfield yet, we threw a small mix of other games at our systems and tested

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pure raster performance as well as streaming on either the CPU or GPU since

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Envank wasn't always an option. And the

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results are in. Wow, what an upset. The

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5700X from LT Forum comes in clutch.

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Really? Oh, when running Dota 2, it was

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the only system to crack the 200 FPS

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barrier and remains on top whether you're using GPU or CPU encoding.

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However, it is clear that this is a heavily CPU bottlenecked game since our

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x264 encoding dragged everyone down anywhere from 23 to 32%. [music]

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Yikes. And in our second result, oh no,

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this is what I was afraid of. For Red Dead Redemption 2, Reddit won by a nose

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against PC Part Picker and by a country mile against LTT Forum. And we get more

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of the same story once we start streaming with LT Forum falling further

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behind, though notably staying above that 60fps 1% lows threshold. Last but

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not least, Cyberpunk 2077, the great equalizer, but not really because LTT

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Forum is firmly in last place again. The only real notable thing here is that PC

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Parer pulls ahead in the 1% lows across all three tests and even squeezes past

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our Reddit build when using x264. It's obvious now then that Dota aside, LTT

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Forum didn't quite make the grade here. Unless esports is your focus, it's

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almost always better to overspend on your GPU rather than your CPU. There is

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some merit to building with a higherend CPU first and swapping a better GPU in

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later, especially if we're on the cusp of a new generation being released or

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something like that. But that wasn't the challenge today. We wanted performance

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now, not at some time in the future. So,

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we've got to give the win. I'd say it's a split decision between Reddit and

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[music] PC Part Picker. If you guys enjoyed this video, be sure to check out

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our latest secret shopper series. Not everyone wants to build their own

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computer. Some people like a pre-built. Part one is already out and the rest of

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them are on their