The RX 9070 XT may not be the really mid-range graphics card I am nonetheless dreaming of however it turned my newest sci-fi PC construct right into a body price menace

Oh, please let it finish. Please. I used to be so excited to start out writing these options. The plan was easy sufficient. Each different month, I pitch a brand new and thrilling PC construct with the newest and best {hardware} obtainable, do an in-depth information, cowl the half choice, take some pretty novice pictures, and everybody’s completely satisfied—a minimum of that was the speculation. Then Nvidia “launched” its RTX 50-series, and the entire market went to hell in a handcart. Graphics card? In inventory? What’s that? It is principally unimaginable to seek out something at its retail value at this level, and you realize, obtainable. You need to sit on lottery lists, Discord inventory channels, and pre-order guarantees to even be in with a whiff of an opportunity of choosing up a graphics card at its retail itemizing.

When AMD’s RX 9070 XT launched, I used to be tremendous pumped. An reasonably priced graphics card that delivered on its guarantees with a ton of inventory straight out of the gate and a retail itemizing of $600. Sure, AMD, sure. Let’s go. Actually, it sounded unimaginable, and for a number of weeks it was true. So, as I did, I priced up a construct, requested within the components, after which, three weeks later, no inventory, value bump, and it is nearly twice the associated fee. Good.

As a result of there’s so little inventory of something, everyone seems to be shopping for every part they’ll—fans, business, scalpers, all of em. Together with the RX 9070 XT. It would not matter if it is the newest and best or a two-year-old has-been; should you see a GPU in inventory someplace at an affordable value, you are in all probability dreaming.

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That was form of to be anticipated, in fact; the 9070 XT is an effective GPU, and if you will get one, it performs extremely effectively, butting heads fairly simply with Nvidia’s RTX 5070 Ti, and its ilk, and it significantly dominates at 1440p. But, the most cost effective I might discover it with an “obtainable quickly” tag at time of writing was $860. Solely 260 bucks greater than its launch value.

Anyway, should you’re studying this sooner or later and the tariff turmoil and pathetically poor inventory conditions have by some means managed to miraculously resolve themselves, (otherwise you stay within the UK or elsewhere with affordable costs and precise product availability), let’s speak particulars. That is meant to be a “mid-range” GPU construct (should you can name $600 mid-range within the fashionable period), and there is a lot to debate. As PC goes I’ve taken some liberties on the components, to actually push the Evolv X2 and its subsequent parts to the bounds. Finest gaming PC you should buy immediately? Not fairly, however it may very well be with just some small modifications.

The Specs

Complete: $3,507 / £2,997

It may not seem like it, however I’ve tried to tone down a number of the element choice right here in comparison with my final RTX 5090 PC construct. And, effectively, I kinda bought slightly sidetracked. That is particularly due to Phanteks’ newest chassis, the Evolv X2.

I’ve lengthy been a fan of its Evolv line; it is nearly all the time delivered on the standard entrance, and after I noticed it was “BTF” suitable as effectively, effectively, I simply needed to attempt it out in that configuration. Notably given how attractive the press photographs regarded. The one drawback is that that motherboard is 20% of the full construct finances by itself. Yeah…. That stated, there are loads of components which you can reduce on with out essentially impacting total efficiency, and I am going to enter element on that in only a second. Nonetheless, it is a fairly large price ticket up there, I am going to admit, actually for what the RX 9070 XT is supposed to characterize.

The core componentry that is driving efficiency on this rig (not together with the case, the ability provide, and the cooling) involves round $2,511. There’s some corners you possibly can shave off price right here to deliver the general value down, and naturally $1,000 on the tertiary stuff will be introduced down too, so it isn’t all horrible information right here.

For the processor, I’ve gone with Intel’s Core Extremely 7 265K. Regardless of having a very rocky launch, since its debut, Intel and Microsoft have actually ironed out the bugs in relation to its total efficiency. On the entire, it is now an extremely well-rounded chip and surprisingly environment friendly, with loads sufficient grunt to deal with the RX 9070 XT’s frame-generating shenanigans.

Intel’s achieved away with multi-threading and as a substitute is choosing a single-thread answer all through, using eight Efficiency cores and 12 Environment friendly cores for the Extremely 7. It faucets out at about 5.5 GHz beneath load and comes with a wholesome 36 MB of L2 cache, all constructed off the again of TSMC’s N3B manufacturing course of. At $339, it is a relative cut price in comparison with the Extremely 9 285K’s $590 price ticket. For $250 further, all you get are 4 extra cores and a slight bump to clock velocity, and that is form of it. Nonetheless, whether or not it is rendering or gaming, Intel’s well-rounded Extremely platform ought to produce the numbers. I hope.

My first, ridiculously overpriced PC half choose is Asus’s Z890 Hero BTF motherboard. $700. Yeah, ouch. The usual Hero is available in at $100 lower than that, and to be trustworthy, you will get some actually clear boards with stable connectivity at across the $300-400 mark anyway for the Z890 chipset. Sadly, although, if you’d like BTF with Intel’s Extremely line and also you wish to ditch these front-facing connectors, then it is the one one round proper now. It is also extraordinarily over-engineered for this rig, with a 22+1+2+2 energy stage design, help for six M.2 slots (3x 5.0 and 3x 4.0), and a fully wild quantity of rear I/O.

The truth is, it is bought the works: 2.5G and 5G Ethernet, WiFi 7, three Kind-C ports (with varied Thunderbolt 4 and USB 10 Gbps configs), plus eight USB Kind-As and the standard assortment of odds and ends. It is massively overkill for what we have happening right here, however y’know, wants should. Oh, and it is also bought AI every part, as a result of it is 2025 and AI, clearly.

For the CPU cooling, I’ve equally gone for one thing slightly excessive within the type of NZXT’s Kraken Elite 360 RGB (the 2024 version). That is an extremely attention-grabbing product. Someway, NZXT has managed to circumnavigate Asetek’s quite aggressive pump patent utilizing a “custom-designed NZXT Turbine pump,” answer that supposedly delivers 10% improved move price. Not going to lie, fairly impressed by that. Not the pump delivering extra coolant, however the dodging of Asetek’s authorized crew. On prime of that, the 2024 version additionally comes with a far fatter 2.72-inch IPS LCD show (640×640 @ 60 Hz), and the entire cabling, energy, and USB connectivity is dealt with by a breakout cable operating from a controller straight connected to the radiator itself. Beautiful stuff.

Draw back? Very costly. $320 costly. That is even pricier than Tryx’s Panorama 360 with its curved OLED show. Nonetheless, it does look unimaginable.

On to RAM, and I’ve determined to go together with one thing slightly totally different, and once more extra to lean into the aesthetics of the general system quite than cost-efficiency. That is going to be Corsair’s Dominator Titanium reminiscence equipment, with 32 GB of the good things, at 7200 MT/s C34. That is an actual tight real-world latency on that, and just about pretty much as good as you will get nowadays. Plus, they give the impression of being stellar, and I am an enormous fan of the general design. Nonetheless, that is a type of areas it can save you a bit of money. Drop all the way down to a snug lower-spec 6,400 MT/s equipment on the $100-120 mark and you will be laughing (it would not must be Corsair, do not @ me).

For storage, I’ve forsaken my twin SSD mantra and opted for a single giant drive as a substitute. I’ve cut up this into two partitions to attempt to make my life slightly simpler, choosing 1TB for the OS and 3TB for the sport and backup storage. That is all inside a 4 TB Samsung 9100 Professional. It is a critically fast PCIe 5.0 drive, a minimum of on the sequential entrance, and, though not precisely tremendous fast on the random 4Ks, it does ship some stable efficiency in video games nonetheless. It’s expensive, although, and once more, should you dropped it to one thing slightly cheaper, perhaps a 2 TB Essential T500 in your secondary storage and a 1 TB T700 in your OS, you would be saving round $200 on the equation, with little discount in total efficiency (albeit a 1 TB loss to whole cupboard space).

However we’re right here for the GPU, proper? AMD’s RX 9070 XT delivers some critically robust ray tracing efficiency and kicks the RTX 5070 Ti to the curb for a, type of, lower cost (if yow will discover it). It is constructed off the again of AMD’s Navi 48 XL GPU die, on TSMC’s N4C manufacturing course of (confusingly a 5 nm answer), and comes full with 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus, delivering round 640 GB/s of whole bandwidth. TGP is not horrible, at 304 W, however the Asus Prime OC unit I am utilizing right here does require a minimum of three 8-pin PCIe energy connectors, which truthfully makes me lengthy for 12VHPWR once more (extra on why that’s in a second).

In any other case, it is a killer card, making a critical case for itself being among the best graphics playing cards of 2025, delivering simply at 4K, with near 40-60 fps in even a number of the most aggressive titles on the market, with out FSR help. I’ve additionally gone forward and included one in every of Phanteks’ premium vertical PCIe 4.0 GPU brackets with this too. To be clear, you do not want this in your construct, and it does add an extra $100 onto the associated fee above. However! You possibly can angle your graphics card with it (should you’ve bought the cable house), plus it comes with a strip of RGB that completely matches the Evolv X2’s stylization.

Talking of the Evolv X2. This factor is gorgeous to have a look at. There’s one thing about its monolithic, obelisk-esque form that simply attracts the attention. A combination of curved plastic stylized to seem like brushed aluminum, tempered glass, fan recesses, and a intelligent plinth styling that basically units it aside from the group. It helps as much as seven 120 mm followers (no love for 140 mm right here) working in a chimney-style cooling answer, drawing cool air up by the PSU shroud and the underside of the chassis up into the primary chamber after which exhausting straight out of the roof and the rear. One factor to remember, nonetheless, the X2 completely is not a liquid-cooling chassis. Definitely not in the identical approach its predecessors have been. Maybe it is a signal of the occasions and the way far {custom} loops have fallen out of mainstream PC constructing tradition, however it does solely help a single 360 mm radiator within the roof, and that is it.

As for the ultimate puzzle items right here, for cooling I am operating seven of Lian Li’s Wi-fi TL 120 mm followers, in all black (complicated to decide on and set up, however surprisingly efficient and straightforward to arrange), and for the ability provide I’ve nabbed one in every of Phanteks’ AMP GH 850 W items. Based on PC Half Picker, at most the construct ought to draw round 712 W from the wall, giving us round 16-17% headroom on that unit, plus the braided cables, 80+ Gold ranking, and affordable value level make it a sure-fire choose for a construct like this.

The Construct

Picture 1 of 18

1 – Case Laid Naked

There’s loads of glass on the Evolv X2. Take away the highest panel, then the 2 aspect panels are secured in place with Philips screws. The entrance glass panel is secured from the underside, with a screw hidden behind a plastic compartment, and the rear mobo tray cowl you possibly can elevate off the hinges.

2 – Coming into a recession

The underside-most fan tray is secured from the rear of the chassis with a single thumb screw, and the bracket sits on these 4 Phillips thumb screws.

3 – Again to the Future

Motherboard cutouts a loads. There is a ton of cable channeling right here, plus Velcro straps to maintain you content. I’ve gone forward and likewise eliminated the three.5-inch HDD caddy down right here as effectively.

4 – Slidey SSD Thingy

Asus actually has turn into the grasp of SSD mounting options. This little tab slides throughout and locks our Samsung 9100 Professional into place.

5 – Motherboard Prep Full

I’ve preemptively eliminated all of the PCIe covers for the vertical riser and slotted the motherboard into place, in fact after putting in the CPU and the cooler backplate exterior of the case first.

6 – Do not Faucet It Whack It!

Be warned, the Lian Li TL Wi-fi followers are barely bigger than regular 120 mms, significantly with the wi-fi dongle. This rear fan needed to be pressured into place, and she or he ain’t leaving now that she’s there both.

7 – Daisy Chains

The set up information and web site is perhaps as complicated as all hell, however when you get the grasp of it, Lian Li’s wi-fi followers are a doddle to put in. I am utilizing reverse blades right here within the backside to attract cool air straight up into the GPU.

8 – Angular Momentum

And in goes Phantek’s premium 4.0 riser. Join the riser cable, then slide it into place and safe with the thumb screws. There is a plastic cowl that slides out, defending and hiding the thumbscrews too.

9 – Shifty GPU

In case you’ve bought the cable administration house for it, you possibly can tilt your entire graphics card 45 levels should you so want, and it is tremendous easy to do, though cable connectivity might undergo.

10 – Geller Area Down

The Evolv X2’s radiator bracket was barely warped after removing from the case. This solely matches a technique within the chassis, so I’ve opted to put in it with the tubing dealing with the again of the chassis to cover NZXT’s breakout cable.

11 – So A lot Rubber

It’s kind of finicky putting in the TLs on a radiator, as it’s a must to join all three collectively, then take away all 24 rubber grommets protecting the screw holes, safe it onto the radiator, then re-install 12 of them.

12 – Flush Match

There isn’t any denying even with that further wi-fi dongle right here, Phantek’s flush fan mounting answer is working a deal with.

13 – Tubing Troubles

It’s kind of of a squeeze and a problem to get the AIO’s tubing to take a seat in that cutout good, however it provides us a a lot cleaner-looking rig because of this.

14 – Block On

With the radiator secured, a dollop of thermal paste, and a fast safe on the CPU block, we’re all set. The one drawback with such a big show is how tight it may be getting these thumbscrews into place.

15 – Orderly Cable Chaos

With the connectors on the rear of the motherboard tray, it is remarkably simple to arrange the cable administration, though the CPU energy was a little bit of a wrestle to safe down. Additionally, sure, I’m utilizing a Phanteks CPU cooler backplate (it is the perfect design I’ve ever seen).

16 – Clearances Clearances Clearances

I needed to take away the RAM to get the 9070 XT in right here after which set up the cables earlier than reinstalling the RAM after, it is a cosy match and sadly stops us from angling that GPU bracket.

17 – PSU Full

Now we will join the entire cables on to the PSU exterior of the chassis, simply to make life slightly simpler. One other BTF perk, due to extra cable.

18 – LF Straps

Surprisingly simple to cable-tidy, and that left aspect appears aces; solely the fitting aspect suffers a bit, the Evolv X2 might actually use a contact extra channeling right here.

The Efficiency

There’s loads happening right here from a pure efficiency perspective. In some ways this machine is unreasonable. It isn’t one thing I would actively advocate folks purchase, which in all probability sounds fairly counterintuitive given it is my job to jot down a compelling argument for this construct I’ve priced collectively, however from a cost-efficiency perspective, it would not fairly make sense. Everyone knows that you do not pair an Intel Core i3 with an RTX 4090, as an example; it is simply flawed, and in loads of methods there are picks right here that do echo that sentiment, albeit in maybe a extra mild method. A $700 motherboard, as an example, paired with a $324 processor and an $860 GPU with a 4 TB PCIe 5.0 SSD is, on the floor, pointless, and I am going to maintain my palms up and admit to that.

This was extra about making an attempt out a complete host of ideas in a single construct quite than actually making certain the perfect bang for the buck PC attainable. Does the Evolv X2 maintain up with BTF? Is the Core Extremely 7 a worthy processor immediately in comparison with launch? Can the RX 9070 XT sustain with the newest and best Nvidia choices? And simply how good are you able to make this entire cornucopia of components look collectively? These are the questions I used to be eager to reply.

Wading by the efficiency metrics, and we will see that loads of these questions do ring out true. The Extremely 7 is a dominant chip, with robust single-core efficiency in Cinebench and respectable 7-Zip and Blender scores too. Far better than when it first launched. That is an actual disgrace, given proper now it does really feel prefer it might probably have the chops to be among the best CPUs you possibly can purchase. Definitely for the worth. The RX 9070 XT likewise manages these 1440p titles very effectively, scoring on common 100 fps throughout all of our 5 video games on take a look at. Even Cyberpunk, with ray tracing ramped up and FSR disabled, landed 67 fps on the common body price. Chuck in FSR and body technology as effectively, and scores simply shoot above 100 fps right here too at 1440p.

The factor that impressed me essentially the most, nonetheless, have been the temperatures. I used to be apprehensive about it going into this. Notably given the chassis design. Evolv’s have not precisely been recognized for top-tier airflow, and there is loads of glass right here. Mix that with the truth that these three intakes are drawing air in from a crowded PSU compartment, jam-packed with cables, with an total restricted quantity (by immediately’s requirements) of 120 mm followers, and effectively, on paper a minimum of, it does seem to be a possible catastrophe ready to occur. But, no single element hit above 80°C. The Core Extremely 7 topped out at 79 levels, and even beneath load in-game the RX 9070 XT nonetheless slid just below the 60°C mark. Equally, VRM and SSD temps remained extremely cool all through. A real testomony to the design of contemporary cooling options.

The Conclusion

So then, what can we take away from this construct? This effervescent obelisk? Constructing in it with BTF is surprisingly effectively thought out. Even with inventory components and standard-length energy provide cables, Phanteks has actually gone to city on the cable administration options right here, and it actually reveals. The completed product, significantly with Lian Li wi-fi followers, appears an absolute deal with. The one main draw back was working round that restricted energy provide.

To be fully clear, we create an analogous model of this construct for the print magazine (ideally equivalent, however print deadlines are a nightmare at occasions). On the time of the photoshoot, our Asus Z890 Hero BTF board had but to reach, so I used the inventory customary Z890 Hero variant we had in-house as a substitute. That was nice, besides that board requires an extra 8-pin PCIe connector just under the 24-pin to even energy on. The issue with that’s that the RX 9070 XT additionally wants three, and the AMP GH 850 solely comes with three singular 8-pin cables. There isn’t any twin connectors or something included within the field or any extra PCIe energy ports on the PSU itself.

So, regardless of the system’s energy necessities being 16% decrease than the PSU’s ranking, out of the field, you do not have sufficient connectors. Ultimately I bypassed this by utilizing a bigger 1000W mannequin within the print model as a substitute, however that’s an extra price that should not actually be needed. Arguably, I am not even positive the GPU actually wants all that further juice both. In my very own testing, energy draw by no means went above 589 W, for your entire system.

That is much more of a difficulty when you think about all of the tertiary merchandise now that require PCIe energy as effectively. Not solely do we’ve got foolish motherboards needing it to even boot (as a result of apparently everybody wants to attach 36 followers off a single header nowadays), however you have additionally bought issues like Corsair’s iCUE Hyperlink hubs and different third-party merchandise drawing from the issues too, regardless of USB-C energy supply clearly being a factor. It is irritating, particularly given how excessive prices for PC components are nowadays. It is like we’re being funneled into shopping for bigger PSUs, not as a result of we have to, however as a result of your entire ecosystem requires it. Hyperbole? Perhaps a bit, but when it is a signal of issues to return, I ain’t a fan.

The saving grace for this construct? Effectively, quite weirdly, regardless of being $100 extra, the BTF variant of the Z890 Hero would not have that PCIe energy mobo connector that the usual Hero does, so on this case, it can save you the money and seize a decrease wattage PSU as a substitute.

All stated and achieved, I like it; this tron-looking magnificence is excellent to have a look at, the Core Extremely 7 is extremely dominant, and the RX 9070 XT (if yow will discover one in inventory) is an superior mid-range graphics card if you will get it at near its retail value. If the worth does drop to affordable ranges once more, 4K gaming on a mid-range finances is slowly however absolutely changing into a actuality. Till then, effectively, we’ll simply have to attend and see.