12 PSU CABLES
FINALLY, all we need to do is connect the power cables up
and we will have a running machine. These aren’t always
the easiest to connect as they are tough to bend. Thankfully,
this case has great routing options. One of the toughest to
get into position is the 24-pin motherboard cable, but with a
slot right next to it and just a little force, we could tuck this
away through the route. We grouped all of the cables in a
bunch and cable-tied them together around the back of the
case—that’s more for our own peace of mind really, as you
wouldn’t be able to see it. We then popped all the panels back
on, hooked up the power cable to the wall socket, booted it
up, and let out a sigh of relief. However, hardware is only half
of the story and we need to turn our attention to software.13 UPDATE THE BIOS
TO MAKE SURE the PC boots, you will more than likely need
to update the BIOS. Regardless of whether it boots, it’s a step
you should do to ensure that your PC runs smoothly as best
as it can. To find the BIOS update, use another PC to head
over to your motherboard’s support page, then download and
extract the latest version onto a clean USB flash drive. Make
sure the USB you are using has been formatted correctly to
FAT32. Then insert this into your new build.
To get to the BIOS, boot up your PC and mash the ‘delete’
key until it pops up. Once open, choose the M-Flash button,
launch it, and select the USB stick. Find your file, click and
select yes to all the pop-ups. The BIOS will start to update, so
give it some peace and quiet—whatever you do, don’t unplug
it during the process. When it reboots, you can restart the
machine, mash the ‘delete’ key again, and check the BIOS
version to make sure it has updated successfully.IT’S ALWAYS A NICE FEELING to make it
to the end of a build. This one went pretty
smoothly—there were no compatibility
issues with our i5-12400 processor and
the Noctua cooler, as we had feared.
Visually, the Corsair 275R Airflow is a
striking chassis and, though we were a
little worried about how the cooler would
look, the RGB from our Corsair RAM
reflects well against the grey fan on the
block. The chrome from this matches well
with the feet on the machine too.
So it ticks the boxes for aesthetics,
but does this machine achieve solid
1080p gaming? In short, yes it does. With
a balanced range of components, this
rig performed smoothly and was at its
strongest in our read and write tests. We
benchmarked it against a similarly priced
gaming laptop, the MSI Katana GF66.
This laptop performed well on its 1080p
gaming tests with the sliders cranked to
the right, so we wanted to see how our
new machine fared against it.
Although it trumped the MSI in the read/
write speeds as well as the Cinebench
R15 test, thanks to our CPU and SSD
combination, the MSI pipped it when it
came to gaming. That’s not to say that we
were disappointed with our results.On the maximum settings, we saw a
performance of around 60fps, ensuring this
rig will offer a reliable 1080p experience—
sacrificing a few graphical options will
bump those figures up. There were other
key differences between our PC and the MSI
laptop. Our system maintained a consistent
low temperature with quiet fan speeds,
which can’t be said for the laptop. The case
and the Noctua U12S redux take the credit.On the whole, we achieved what we set
out to do by building a 12th-generation
1080p gaming rig. Although we can’t
upgrade to DDR5 on this machine, a good
kit of DDR4 will still last the distance and
we could always upgrade in time. The RTX
3050 in this rig is a great match alongside
the i5-12400 CPU. For around $200, this is
ideal if you are making the switch to the 12th
generation without breaking the bank.1080 p GAMING, YAY OR NAY?
BENCHMARKS
ZERO-
POINT
Cinebench R15
Multi-Thread (Index) 1,352 1,778 (32%)
CrystalDisk Q32
Sequential Read (MB/s) 1,982 3,557 (79%)
CrystalDisk Q32
Sequential Write (MB/s) 1,348 2,779 (106%)
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon:
Wildlands (fps)^8957 (-36%)
Total War: Warhammer II (fps) 82 72 (-12%)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (fps) 118 113 (-4%)
3DMark: Fire Strike (Index) 16,696 14,995 (-10%)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Our zero-point is the MSI Katana GF66 laptop, with an Intel Core i7-11800H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GDDR6 6GB, 16GB DDR4 @3200
and a 512GB SSD. All game tests are performed at 1080p at the highest graphical profile.$1300 12th-gen delight
24 MAXIMU MPCAPR 2022
© MSI, MICROSOFT, NINITE