A
lphaBetais a newnameinthePCbuilders
market,anditsi5RTXgetsofftoa solid
startbyofferinga GeForceRTX 2070
SuperGPUina machinethatcostsjust£999inc
VAT.A largechunkofAlphaBeta’sbudgethasclearly
goneontheGPU,butit’sstillpairedwitha Core
i5-9600KFCPU.Thischiphasnointegratedgraphics,
soit’scheaperthantheCorei5-9600K,but it’sotherwise
identical,withsixcores,noHyper-Threading,andrespective
baseandboostfrequenciesof3.7GHzand4.6GHz.
Therestofthespecificationis middling.There’s16GBof
memory,butit onlyrunsat2400MHz–
a littleslowerthanmostrivals.There’s
a 500GBCrucialMX500SSD,butno
secondaryharddisk.ThePSUis modest
too– the600WAeroCoolIntegratoronly
hasanentry-level 80 Pluscertification
andit’snotmodular.
Likewise,theGigabyteZ390UDhas
noextraornamentationorRGBLEDs,and
it hasa basicspecification– thesoleM.2
connectoris alreadyoccupied,andit has
modestRealtekALC887audiohardware.
It hastwosparememoryslots,three
spare1xslotsanda trioof16xPCI-Eslots,
butonlyonehas 16 lanes,andtheboard
doesn’tsupportNvidiaSLI.It’sbasicat
thereartoo,withsixUSB3.1ports,butno
Type-Cconnection,noopticalS/PDIFand
onlythreeaudiojacks.
Youcan’texpecteverythingfor£999,
though,especiallyif youwanttoprioritise
gamingperformance.TheAlphaBetaPC’s
priceseriouslyundercutsothermachines
withtheRTX 2070 Super,suchasthe
£1,399OverclockersUKTitanKatana
(seeIssue195,p38).However,thatpricier
PChadan8-coreAMDRyzen7 3700X
CPU,fastermemoryandquicker,more
capaciousstorage,alongsidea betterPSU.REVIEWS / PC SYSTEMS
SPEC
CPU
3.7GHzIntelCorei5-9600KF
Motherboard
GigabyteZ390-UD
Memory
16GBG.SkillTridentZ
2400MHzDDR4
Graphics
GigabyteGeForceRTX
2070 Super8GB
Storage
500GBCrucialMX500M.2SSD
Case
AlphaBetaATX
Cooling
CPU:bequiet!PureRock
with1 x 120mmfan;GPU:3 x
90mmfans;front:1 x 200mm
fan;rear:1 x 200mmfan
PSU
AerocoolIntegrator600W
Ports
Front:2 x USB3,1 x USB2,2 x
audio;rear:6 x USB3.11 x Gigabit
Ethernet,2 x PS/2,3 x audio
Operatingsystem
MicrosoftWindows 10 Home64-bit
Warranty
Oneyearpartsandlabour,followed
bytwoyearslabouronly.Onemonth
collectandreturn,thenreturntobaseGAMING PC
AlphaBeta i5 RTX
/£999incVAT
SUPPLIER alphabetapc.comAlphaBeta has used its own case for this PC, and the
enclosure makes a stunning first impression. All its panels
are made of tempered glass (sadly, the top panel got
smashed in transit to our photography studio, which is
why it isn’t in the photos), and the front and roof panels
are dominated by 200mm fans with RGB LEDs. A remote
control changes the lighting, the roof has a handle, and the
case is 290mm wide and 380mm tall, making it far smaller
than conventional ATX enclosures.
The ATX motherboard is installed upside down, which
means the CPU is installed at the bottom. The CPU is
topped with a be quiet! Pure Rock cooler in our sample, but
this cooler will be replaced with a similar SilentiumPC Fera
3 HE1224 in the final retail model.
AlphaBeta has done a great job with cabling, which
means the interior looks clean – and the components are
easy to access. The memory and PCI-E slots are all easy
to reach, and there’s space to install pairs of 2.5in and 3.5in
SSDs and hard disks.
Finally, the AlphaBeta system is covered by a three-year
return to base labour warranty with a year of parts coverage.
It’s a good deal, although more parts coverage could be better.Performance
The RTX 2070 Super raced through out 1080p game tests,
with a superb average of 131fps in Shadow of the Tomb
Raider, and it handled our 2,560 x 1,440 tests well too.
Even our demanding Battlefield V ray-tracing test with
High DXR remained above 50fps during testing. It can even
cope with a little bit of 4K gaming, with minimums of 34fpscc
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PROVED