CyberpowerPC Ultra R5XT Review
Conclusion
Conclusion
There are a couple of elements which speak to the truism that behind every sign is a story. On the back there is a massive sticker covering all the connections. Clearly their tech support is tired of people plugging their HDMI into the motherboard. Similarly the power cable is inside the case, behind the foam. Nothing ensures people aren’t running it with the foam in place, overheating the world, than making sure they can’t turn it on without removing it. Anyone who has ever manned a helpline is nodding in approval.
Thankfully once you get past these things the build quality is such that we’re certain the CyberpowerPC phone lines are quieter than a billionaire it’s time to donate to charity. Every cable is neatly tucked away. All the hardware is setup and just works. At this end of the market that’s a vital ingredient. You’ve saved hard. Been patient. Sat waiting at the front door from the moment you got the dispatch notice. You want it to work. With CyberpowerPC it does.
This particular model, the Ultra R5XT has a couple of decisions we’re unsure of. Obviously aesthetics are a matter of taste. Maybe you like the two tone case. We don’t. We’d prefer all white or all black. By having a white bottom, black top and internals and white motherboard it all looks a bit of a mess. Thankfully the panoramic glass side is enough to totally distract. Their case selection is large enough we’d be tempted to pay the extra eight quid for a NZXT H6 or £1 for the Lian Li Lancool 216. Again, that’s up to your preference.
Upgrades
Where we feel the side is really let down is the CPU cooling. The default link for this Ultra R5XT shows it coming with an AIO as we showed you back on page two. Our review sample came with a CyberpowerPC V4-NXP Air Cooler air cooler. The Ryzen 7 9700X is a toasty bunny at the best of times, and a single tower air cooler is not enough to tame it. As our temperature graph made clear. Additionally many of the CPU bound results weren’t a patch on those we obtained when testing the CPU ourselves on a 360 AIO. Given that a mere £18 more will give you their own brand 360 AIO cooling option, and £24 extra will bring you a Cooler Master 360L, we’d 100% spend the cash there. Without question.
Why have such a meaty CPU and then gimp it like that? Especially when your photos are showing off it looking gorgeous with a AIO and ROG Strix. Many people will “see pic, click buy”, especially if they’re not heavily into the technical side of hardware. The image on the landing page bears too little resemblance to the system that arrived. We know why, most people won’t. For all the efforts they have gone to with the labelling and power cable placement to limit the amount of tech help needed, they’ve doubled them by having such a non-indicative product image. A tiny piece of text below that image saying that you might not get this doesn’t cut it. The default options should always match the default image.
Lastly the Radeon RX 9060 XT might not be the most powerful graphics card on the market but it has more than enough to handle most things. Obviously it’s not going to deal with 4K ray-traced AAA titles, but this is a sub £1400 rig. We’re not expecting it to. It can do all that at 1440P though. Any upgrade here would be too expensive to justify. If you’re willing to drop to 1080P then the RX 9060 XT really comes into it’s own and happily chews through anything.
Wrap Up
The CyberpowerPC Ultra R5XT is an affordable platform, but one where you really need to dip into their excellent customisation options to make the most of. You need a better cooler, and we’d be tempted to pick either black or white and make the colour adjustments necessary to harmonise the aesthetics.
In Review Trim the CyberpowerPC Ultra R5XT is £1348.80. Discuss the CyberpowerPC Ultra R5XT in our OC3D Forums.
