PCSpecialist Velocity R1 System Review

PCSpecialist Velocity R1 System Review

Introduction

We don’t think it’s giving away any secrets to say that the vast majority of us brought a system a long time ago, and since then have been gradually improving it as funds allow. It’s one of the great lies of the console generation that PCs are hugely expensive and need totally replacing on a yearly basis. Such is the modular nature of hardware you can usually get away with buying bits here and there without needing a whole rejig.

However, some times hardware makes massive leaps forwards to such a degree that your whole rig feels underpowered and in need of a refresh. That has happened in recent times with the Ryzen launch from AMD and the 9th Generation of Intel CPUs. Add to that the launch of the Nvidia RTX graphics cards and the total market domination of NVMe storage and those of us with quad-cores and SSDs are suddenly left miles behind the rest.

Perhaps then it’s time to start afresh. Instead of attempting to patch up your current system, scrap it all and get bang up to date with a single purchase. Enter PC Specialist, a company which has a system to suit every pocket and a whole host of customisation options so that you’re not stuck paying for hardware you don’t want, nor left with a build that would be great except for part x or y.

Their latest system is one which ticks all of my personal wish list items, coming in the gorgeous Cosmos C700P case, with hardline full EK water-cooling, the extraordinary i9-9900K and the flagship RTX 2080Ti graphics card. After a good lie down in a darkened room to recover we had to put it through its paces and see what you can get if you choose to refresh your whole gaming experience in one fell swoop.

Technical Specifications

Custom Liquid Cooling Kit

Liquid Series RGB High Kit – EK

Case

COOLERMASTER COSMOS C700P TOWER GAMING CASE

Tubing

Clear Hardline Acrylic Tubing – 12/16mm (Bent/Black Fittings)

Graphics Card Cooling

EK FC Nickel & Backplate – For One Graphics Card!

Coolant Colour

Mayhems Pastel Ice White

LED Lighting

2x 50cm RGB LED Strip

Overclocked CPU

Overclocked Intel® Core™ i9-9900K Eight Core (3.60GHz @ up to 5.0GHz)

Motherboard

ASUS® ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs – RGB Ready

Memory (RAM)

32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 8GB)

Graphics Card

11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti – HDMI, 3x DP GeForce – RTX VR Ready!

1st Storage Drive

4TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA PRO 3.5″, 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE

1st M.2 SSD Drive

1TB INTEL® 760p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 3230MB/sR | 1625MB/sW)

Intel Optane Memory

64GB INTEL® M10 OPTANE MEMORY – USE WITH MECHANICAL HDD

Power Supply

CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

Power Cable

1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)

Braided Power Supply Cables

CORSAIR Premium Individually Sleeved PSU Cable Kit Pro – White

Thermal Paste

COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND

Wireless/Wired Networking

WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD

USB/Thunderbolt Options

MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS

Operating System

Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit – inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]

Operating System Language

United Kingdom – English Language

Warranty

3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)