maximumpc.com SEP 2020 MAXIMUM PC 61
AND THERE YOU HAVE IT, one crisp, clean
Ryzen 3 3300X build complete. And what
does it look like? A dark box. That’s a very
underwhelming gaming PC. The only thing
that has a speck of RGB is the graphics card,
and even that’s negligible.
But boy doesn’t that look clean. Okay, so
the first thing we’d change is to add an LED
strip inside, preferably one that we could
just hook up to a SATA connector and call it
a day—a 12-inch white LED strip. BitFenix
sell a magnetic one for just under $13 from
Newegg, and it’ll add a tonne of light to the
interior for very little outlay, and hopefully
pierce through that smoked window.
So how was the building experience?
Honestly, a cake-walk. Figuring out exactly
how the Pure Rock 2’s bracket was meant
to be installed to the AMD backplate took a
few minutes, but other than that everything
was easy. The motherboard went in
seamlessly, there was plenty of space for
cable management, the case panels popped
off nice and easy too—it was a pleasant
experience. The only downside was the lack
of included fans. That would be one of the
first things we’d change—even swapping
out that front one for two or three 120mm
Corsair MLs or Noctuas would make a big
difference to system temperatures.
It’s also, as far as cases go, perhaps a
little too subtle for our taste. Even square
boxes need a bit of flair, and the Carbide
110R hasn’t committed one way or the other.
It’s not a sharp, square NZXT box, nor is
it a curved, elegant Phanteks, or a cooky
Fractal. It’s got a very 2010 vibe to it, and it
feels like it’s missing a bit of extravagance.
As for performance, overall it did really
well. The Ryzen 3 3300X might not be the
fastest chip in AMD’s arsenal, but for price
to performance it hits the nail on the head
for mid-range gaming. In Cinebench we
saw a multi-threaded score of 1,123, and its
single core prowes s tapped out at 19 8, w hich
is impressive for such a budget processor.
Gaming did fall a little flatter than we’d
have liked compared to the zero-point, but
then that’s to be expected, as more titles
are taking advantage of more cores, and theGPU in that build is none other than Nvidia’s
improved RTX 2070 Super.
The biggest hit this build took was in
the storage department. Although it’s
a relatively quick drive compared to a
standard SSD, the 665P just doesn’t keep
up with the Corsair Force MP600 found in
our zero-point. But then you are only paying
$115 for 1TB of PCIe storage space. Yes, QLC
isn’t the best flash memory, neither in flat
performance or long-term endurance, but
for the price it’s hard to knock.
Ultimately our stealthy killer PC is
perfect for those on a budget looking to cut
their teeth in the world of 1440p gaming.STEALTH MODE ENGAGED
(^1)
Installing a fan into the rear of the
case is one of the first things we’d
change. That way we’d have an air flow
system running completely through from
the front, through the CPU tower and out
the rear of the chassis.
2
We’ve not installed the GPU power
cable in through the PSU cover
cable passthrough, due to the size of the
graphics card and the port locations,
instead opting to go through the large
cutout at the front. This look s a bit
cleaner, in a more vertical orientation.
3
Surprisingly for such a budget-
oriented case, the Carbide 110R
actually has a tonne of cable management
space at the top of the chassis.
4
We’re not expecting the Ryzen 3
3300X CPU to get that hot, but if it
does we have the option of adding
another fan to this heatsink tower.
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BENCHMARKS
ZERO-
POINT
Cinebench R15 Multi (Index) 1,630 1,123 (-31%)
CrystalDisk QD32 Sequential
Read (MB/s) 4,918 1,975 (-60%)
CrystalDisk QD32 Sequential
Write (MB/s) 2,746 1,763 (-36%)
Middle Earth: Shadow
of War (fps)^8377 (-7%)
Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 71 66 (-7%)
Assassins Creed Odyssey (fps) 51 47 (-8%)
3DMark: Fire Strike (Index) 21,586 18,532 (-14%)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Our zero-point consists of an AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, 32GB of G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 @ 3600, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super,
and a 500GB Corsair Force MP600 M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD. All tests were performed at 1440p at the highest graphical profile.