PCSpecialist Momentum Elite System Review

Introduction and Build Specifications

Introduction

PCSpecialist latest system, the Momentum Elite, is one of those setups that needs a big asterisk. One that says *use without prejudice. Just take a glance below and you would come away wondering if you’ve slipped into a time machine. ASUS Prime A520M? Wasn’t the AM4 socket discontinued a few years ago? And a Ryzen 5 from the 5000 series? We’ve had 7000 and are currently on 9000. What are PCSpecialist playing at? He asked rhetorically.

What they’re playing at, unless you’ve been under a rock, is overcoming the horrific price rises of recent times. DDR5 is achingly expensive, and whilst the market is stabilising somewhat, sticking 16GB in any built makes it out of the reach of most. By going DDR4, PCS have sidestepped the problem. This necessitates utilising an older chipset and socket. And that’s why we have an AM4 and Ryzen 5 5500. Remember that not long ago these were great products, and there is no world in which a 6 core 4.2 GHz CPU doesn’t get the job done. Certainly not for under a grand.

The RTX 5060 is lowkey fantastic. It hasn’t got tons of memory so it’s avoided the more egregious price hikes. Additionally, because it’s not a flagship with CUDA cores out of the wazoo the despicable AI and Mining people overlook it. All of which means it’s quietly doing its thing for us actual gamers, and at a price that’s still attainable. We’ve seen in many builds and reviews that it’s got more performance than you might expect, and certainly enough for the games that are popular.

Thus we have a system that continues PCSpecialist’s desire to have a product to suit every budget. Yes it might have some trimmings to get there, but how does it fair in the real world?

Build Specifications – System Link