PC Specialist Myrmidon I Review

Conclusion

I’ve reviewed a number of PCSpecialist systems across the years here at OC3D, and regardless of whether it’s a model at the uppermost of their price range, or a more affordable option, there are some elements so consistent throughout that they bear repeating. After all, not everyone can afford a system as high-end as the Myrmidon I but perhaps it inspires you to look at their whole product range and find one within your budget.

If you do, you can be sure that, firstly, all their systems come with the accessories and manuals etc that you would receive had you purchased the parts separately and built it yourself. We know that many people will happily do so, but for time, simplicity or simple fear of self-building reasons a pre-built setup is attractive for many, so at least you know with PCS you’re not missing out on the trinkets within a box. Secondly, all of their system builds regardless of price point have the same attention to detail with the cable management and placement of drives. We’ve grown weary of the number of systems that look thrown together rather than carefully attended to, but that’s never an issue with the Wakefield company. Lastly the component choice, so often a thorn in the side of any setup, is spot on. There are always concessions to budget with any system, no matter how expensive, but rarely does a PCS system come in that makes us scratch our heads at what they were thinking using component x or y. About the only area that we’d often find ourselves changing is the case, and cases are very much a matter of personal taste rather than one being inherently better or worse than another. The Corsair 500D that is supplied with the Myrmidon I is a perfect example, as we know of many people who blanch at the idea of a tempered glass case, yet many others who adore the sleek modern look they bring. We like it.

Away from the general comments about PCSpecialist, the Myrmidon I itself is a very high end system with a host of top range components. The Strix Z490-F motherboard isn’t quite the one we’d choose, with somewhat limited USB options for our own taste and a lack of WiFi 6 which has been worked around by the inclusion of the 802.11n WiFi add-in card, but on a system costing this much we’d rather not have any workarounds and if it was our money we’d spec the Strix-E or even splash the boat on something more upmarket. But, again, personal preference. I happen to have a LOT of USB devices and prefer not to use add-in cards when motherboards can do that job. For most people it will be more than enough. It certainly has no problems with high VRM temperatures or stability, being rock solid throughout our testing. The Core i9-10900K has been a superstar throughout our time with our review sample, and the one in the Myrmidon is no exception. Rock solid, blazing speed, high number crunching. It’s excellent. There is little that needs to be said about the ASUS Strix RTX 2080 Ti, unless you’ve been living under a rock for a couple of years. It is still the best graphics card around, able to smash through any game you care to point in its direction, at any resolution. The Strix one in particular is also very quiet, even when under the harshest loadings. Lastly the lighting is on point. If you wanted a setup that gave you an absolute wow factor the moment you pressed the power button, the kind of light show you call your momma in the room to see (SSX Tricky reference), then the Myrmidon I is it.

We only have a couple of slight quibbles, or rather things to be aware of that you could talk over with the PCS people before they build it. We always review exactly as it arrives, placing ourselves in the role of a new, technophobic user. Or at least someone who doesn’t tinker with anything. Our review sample came with an older BIOS, and the Z490 motherboards in particular need the very latest BIOS to make the most of the boost function on the 10th Gen CPUs. Hence the minor performance deficit in some graphs. Secondly we use a Corsair mouse on our testing and the moment we plugged it in all the lights went out, because the lighting runs via iCUE. Nothing we could do would get them all back on, although we did manage to get the front fans back lit up again, the CPU fans remained resolutely dark. This might be a Corsair thing, an iCUE thing, or an ASUS AURA thing. The AURA lighting setup is always dodgy, but worth keeping in mind if you plan to run Corsair peripherals too. Lastly we’d want the fan profile taming. Instead of a low speed until things really got hot, it was a default profile, so you had the fans spinning up the moment the CPU thought about doing anything at all. It grew tiresome. Again, I’m really sensitive to fan noise, but would rather have a louder fan by default and then ramping up when things got hot and heavy, than one constantly speeding up and slowing down. ALL of these things are easy fixes, and if this was my own system I’d have sorted them straight away. If those are things you might find annoying a quick mention to the guys at PCSpecialist, who did an amazing job even getting it to us in these isolation times, would have it all solved before you received it.

That seemed like a big paragraph of nit-picking, but with nearly 3 grand of PC we have to nit-pick. Also those are the only tiny, minor issues in an otherwise amazing system. Naturally when you put the flagship Intel CPU alongside the flagship Nvidia GPU and bedeck it all in a fully RGB, glass tempered case you get a system anyone would be proud to use.

The PCSpecialist Myrmidon I is built with a tremendous eye for detail, has the wow factor when you hit the power, and backs that up with outstanding performance. In the review build specification it retails for £2899, although as with all PCSpecialist systems you can customise it to your own needs and budget.

  

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