It’s been almost 30 years since gaming has risen to prominence – eSports, a sport where gamers compete for grand prizes skyrockets to new heights; inherently, the desire for absolute performance is integral to users who plays in such level. Console gaming is coming close with Xbox Series X and PS5 showcasing 120hz gaming with 4k resolution output – but that’s not enough. The absolute apex of gaming is building top-level computers with hardware that can push your experience to 250hz and beyond. The problem is, unless you are willing to learn how to build one, getting such computer can be a challenge. That’s where companies like CLX Gaming come in, where their expertise can help you find the computer of your dreams. I’m fortunate enough for CLX Gaming to send me a pre-build for impressions – here you will get my honest opinion on their quality, wiring and overall performance based on their build. Due to GPU shortage, an RTX card was not installed and instead a GTX 1660 Super is socketed in – so I will primarily give my thoughts on 1080p gaming and using this PC as a streaming machine and see how affective it is.
Aesthetics and Quality
In this build, CLXGaming sent us a proprietary pc chassis that is immediately pleasing to look at. It’s a traditional MicroATX tower with their logo embedded to the front. The theme behind the design is very Bladerunner-like in a sense where the hexagonal edges is present through out. You definitely get the feeling of premium when having this sit at the edge of your desk, plus it’ll go well with pretty much any design you’re looking for. My only issue may be the fan placements where the front part is solid, making circulating air through it difficult. There’s small vent slits at the top for the fan to blow through as well, but to me, when thinking about high performance RTX cards this may cause an issue unless you run liquid cooling tubes throughout, which is possible. It’s a sturdy build and one with well maintain shock resistance. Overall, this is a really pleasing design – it’s minimalist but also detailed. I can see their PC chassis to being the fine line for both preferences.
Wiring is Key
As with most pre-builds, one of the first things that comes to mind is wiring – those who builds PC would know how much of a headache it can be if the PC chassis doesn’t provide proper conduits for the wires to be placed in. Thankfully, although it’s not entirely perfect, CLXGaming does a tremendous job in looping and tucking; In the case of this PC, I would have gone with properly measure length for the pin connectors, but it’s always good having extra slack. No real complaint here – it’s very solidly put.
Performance
As I mentioned before, this machine was suppose to house an RTX card, but due to GPU shortages, we were blessed with an GTX1660 Super. For 1080p gaming, this is very solid for 60fps, maybe more if you set your settings right. I primarily used this machine as a streaming PC as most who would get a computer with these specs would use it for that. And, yes it definitely performed. This is where the bulk of the review will subside in.
Before I get into the meat and bones, I have to give tremendous props to CLXGaming for having this pre-build up-to-date with all of their drivers; not having to download a driver updater is a tremendous win for consumers who wouldn’t care to know about these important nuts and bolts until it’s too late. It was squeaky clean off the gate and without any performance hiccups whatsoever.
CLXGaming sent us a computer with last years AMD Ryzen 5 5600x CPU, a 12-threaded beast suited incredibly well for 1080p60 gaming as it would easily outperform those benchmarks; I found myself playing Division 2 on 1080p High Settings hitting 60fps at the heaviest moments, with occasional spikes to the 70s and even 80fps. My main game, Destiny 2, is a GPU intensive – especially with its new engine update, sat really well with 1080p gaming hitting above 80fps on mixed medium/high settings.
But my main use of this machine was it’s performance as a streaming machine. Using Streamlabs OBS’ intense CPU/GPU usage, I never bottlenecked once. Typically, using the new NVENC Hardware encoder would prove difficult for older GTX cards as it is primarily designed for the new streaming chipset within the RTX cards, but Nvidia managed to update more than enough to ensure that wasn’t the case. I still use the previous NVENC encoder regardless, but it was really good to know that wasn’t an issue.
I’m not a Twitch partner so I can’t go above 6000 video bitrate, but the image quality and FPS stability was streamlined as expected with no dips to performance – I have my resolution set on 1080p 60fps which is buttery throughout my long gaming sessions. If you’re curious to see what I’m talking about, checkout my Twitch and click on the latest past broadcasting to see how well it does.
My room temperature usually sits around 65°C which is very good when managing the overall temp of my computers – and with great relief, CLX’s pre-build is really well suited for long gaming sessions. GPU temp sat around 76°C where the 6-core CPUs fluctuated between 65-78°C. PSU stood within baseline of 60°C degrees which is very good when using hardware encoded software. The fans performs well and it’s easily adjustable within bios. In my review, I had the fans set to variable, so if the machine went above 65°C, it would gradually increase the fans speed to help cool it further. I would recommend getting a motherboard where the PCIe slot would face the GPU upwards if possible, as this is a MicroATX tower and having the fan of the GPU face downwards towards the PSU would mitigate cooling returns.
REVIEW 8.5/10
With the build CLXGaming sent to us, I have no doubt on the promise they have with a much higher performance machine. It is well wired, they were up-to-date with its mainline drivers and it’s pleasing to look at. The performance based on the specs where actually above expectations and I would recommend anyone to checkout their website – they have been very thoughtful in their process. With very minor drawbacks, it is very much worth your interest
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