All AMD & Asus Build and Performance Testing
ASUS Hardware Today
ASUS Hardware Today
The guts of our system, so to speak, come from the affordable end of the ASUS spectrum. Such is the ubiquity of the ROG range and the Strix brand in particular that people forget ASUS are a massive company. So huge they have products that fit every price point from bargain budgets to lottery wins. For those of us without rich uncles and trust funds, these are more than enough for 90% of users and a great foundation for a gaming rig.
Pro Art PA401
Just because the ProArt name might make you imagine extremely expensive design tools doesn’t mean that’s always the case. Yes the high end ProArt monitors can be eye-watering, but the other products are well within budget. The PA 401 case is one such thing. Plenty of room for our build, and most builds. We especially love the button that lets us overrule the motherboard fan speeds and just boost it all up to max. Great when you need that bit of extra cooling to tip you over the edge in a hurry. /Nigel Tufnell Voice.
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
We don’t need to tell you how good the Ryzen 7 9800X3D is. You probably already know yourself if the sales figures are anything to go by. AMD just cannot produce them fast enough. Anything popular enough to get the Chinese cloners involved has to be selling in massive quantities. We’ve reviewed this in a few guises from the original 5800X3D to this latest edition. It’s a monster. Fast. Exceptional productivity performance. But, best of all for today’s purposes, a gaming beast. Anything that can boost frame rates without fuss is gonna score big.
ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070
We’ve already reviewed this ASUS Prime Radeon RX 9070. You can read that here if you wish. The short version is that it takes the excellent RDNA 4 formula AMD have brought with their newest graphics cards, and wrapped it up in a package which gives you everything you need. So often you’re paying through the nose for RGB you can’t see because the fans point downwards, or esoteric extras you’ll never use. Why not just buy a card which is as great as a particular GPU will be, and leaves you money to buy more games? Exactly.
ASUS Prime LC 240 ARGB AIO
Just like the AMD Radeon RX 9070 above, the ASUS Prime LC 240 is fabulous value. The Ryzen 7 9800X3D runs cool enough – as we’ll soon demonstrate – that you don’t need more than this as a cooler. It looks great with RGB and changeable heads for the looks you want. All wrapped up in an affordable, compact design. What’s not to like?
TUF B850 Plus WiFi
If you’re a regular visitor to these hallowed halls you’ll have seen our coverage of the ASUS TUF range. It’s much better than you might imagine if you’re a brand snob. Just because ASUS have a ROG range doesn’t mean their regular products aren’t great too. The TUF line in particular is all the motherboard you actually need. You owe it to yourself to leave any prejudice at the door and try one.
