PCSpecialist Velocity R1 System Review

Conclusion

If there is one thing Christmas time is famous for it’s artists releasing a greatest hits compilation. Now whilst it’s true to say that PCS are by no means some long-forgotten name attempting to flog the old classics, the concept of the greatest hits is something we felt reflected the part choice of the Velocity R1 very strongly.

Indeed, if you could poll most people for their current wishlist then an awful lot of the hardware that forms the backbone of the Velocity R1 would probably appear the most. A system is only as good as it’s foundations and the choices PC Specialist have made are bang on the money. The first thing that catches your attention – other than the hefty weight of it – is the gorgeous Cosmos C700P. It’s a beast, being comfortably bigger than any other case that has come through the OC3D bunker. However, the well placed and much needed handles, careful lighting placement and enormous tempered glass side panel lend an air of quality to the whole proceedings. It’s a gorgeous looker. Once you’ve got it out of the box and removed the generous packaging material that ensures it arrives in the same flawless quality that it left the PC Specialist build team then you get a similarly jaw dropping feast for the eyes. We might prefer the looks of the Maximus Formula to the Hero that is used here, but there is no denying that the Hero is just as good in the all-important performance part of the equation. Combine that with plenty of RAM and a beefy PSU courtesy of Corsair and the primary parts are in place.

Let’s be honest though, nobody starts their dream build with a good choice of RAM and storage, so the headline features are undoubtedly; the brilliant Intel Core i9-9900K, a 5 GHz overclock pushing all eight cores to biblical performance levels. The latest and greatest Nvidia GPU, the RTX 2080Ti. Sure you might think the Titan is their flagship, but the performance vs cost difference isn’t worth it for anything other than forum signature kudos. You’d have to go a long way to find a scenario where the RTX 2080Ti struggles and without a super wide display or triple-headed monitors on hand there was nothing we could do it didn’t handle with aplomb. The nicest aspect has to be the full EK hardline watercooling though. If you’ve ever endured your system becoming loud when the gaming got intense then you’ll appreciate the uniform volume level you can get from the immense cooling capacity of the Velocity R1 setup. Even the i9-9900K never topped 80°C and this had a knock-on effect of keeping the Turing GPU under 50° even when we were thrashing the nuts off it.

Blend this cooling and performance capability with the gorgeous coolant and outstanding RGB lighting and the end result is that the PC Specialist Velocity R1 system is one which looks lovely when it’s off, spectacular when it’s on, and the eye-candy it can deliver on your display is second to none. Yes all this high end hardware comes at a certain price point, but few of us have the skills or equipment necessary to build our own hardline setup and even doing so wont come with the excellent warranty PC Specialist provide. A quick tot up of purchasing the bits separately quickly makes you realise that it’s difficult to do this much more affordably, and the little price differential is one we’d gladly pay to be able to receive it and be gaming in five minutes, rather than a weekend of testing and building and bending later. 

Sometimes reviewing stuff is the best job as we get to play with things that we could never afford. When it comes to the Velocity R1 our time with it was like a summer holiday, and now they’ve taken it back and it’s more like a wet Monday morning back at work after the aforementioned holiday. What a glorious thing. We miss it already.

  

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