Are NZXT custom builds worth it? My thoughts.

I'm an old, arthritic man; My ability to do tasks with any reasonable amount of manual dexterity has most certainly been nerfed (which - in case it wasn't obvious - is why this site is called nerfed gamer).

While I'm well-acquainted with building & repairing computers (I've been building them for over half my life now, and even spent a few years as a systems manager for a newspaper, handling the entire IT infrastructure there), I just don't have the willingness to go through that headache now that even trying to do cable-management results in an excess of physical pain.

Since I was lucky enough to come into a bit of money (before Trump was elected for a second fucking time, potentially screwing my fellow nerfed gamers hard on multiple fronts), I decided it was time to upgrade my gaming rig. Rather than go the laptop route again, I opted to do a desktop PC build through NZXT.

Here's the specs of my build:

SSD: Western Digital SN580 2TB - 2 TB

Power Supply: MSI MAG A750GL PCIE5 750W Gold

GPU: Gigabyte GeForce RTX™ 4070 SUPER Windforce OC 12G

RAM: Team T-Force Delta Black DDR5 6000MHz CL38 - 16 GB x 2

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700KF 20-Core 3.4 GHz

Motherboard: N7 Z790 DDR5

Case: H5 Flow

Software: Windows 11 Pro

Service: Standard Service (US)

CPU Cooler: Kraken 120

This setup ended costing me about $2,100 USD. While I could have certainly saved money sourcing the parts and building it myself, it's worth it to have someone else do it for me now that my hands are stubborn bastards that have been hit with a debuff spell.

Anyway, I placed my order, and in 48.5 hours my order had been completed and shipped; Not bad. I received it Monday this week, got it set up, and was up and gaming within a few hours of doing the general configuration and installing all my critical software (and, of course, games).

I'm not going to go into detail on performance analytics; Raw numbers are great, and you can find those all over the place, so let's just talk about the results: Is gaming on this hardware good?

Hard yes.

The first game I tried was Cyberpunk 2077; I put everything on max, enabled RT (minus path tracing), and ran it at 1440p with an average FPS of around 75 with DLAA enabled.

That's pretty damned good, and it looks amazing, too.

Next I loaded up Black Myth Wukong: I had everything set high with DLSS at quality mode, and again got respectable FPS above 60.

The next one I tried I actually wasn't expecting too much, but wanted to see how it played out: Star Citizen.

The game has been in perpetual alpha for a long time now, and it's optimization is rough, but what is key to remember with SC is that performance is also tied to the network performance.

I will say this: I was impressed. While I wasn't getting 60FPS constantly, I was getting solid performance in some of the more FPS-heavy areas (I'm looking at you, Hurston).

Mechwarrior 5 Clans ran predictably fluid; the hiccups I experienced on my RTX 3070 were either resolved in a recent patch, or are just more welcoming of the higher-performance rig.

Finally, I also loaded up Starfield, and.. Well, max everything and I'm getting above 80FPS easy (too bad the game is boring AF after over 15 runs through Unity, and the Shattered Space DLC sucks).

Other general aspects to note about this machine is that it's actually running much quieter than I expected; the larger fan size results in a lower-pitch fan tone, which is much better overall, and the general path (thanks to a good case and cable management) means things aren't ramping up too hard to keep air flowing.

Would I consider NZXT again for a custom PC? Absolutely. If you're like me and have found your ability to work with your hands nerfed - but still want to do a custom build - NZXT is going to be my recommendation here.

No, I got no benefit from singing NZXT's praises; they don't even know Nerfed Gamer exists, because I'm so indie even the hipsters haven't figured me out yet.. That's my story, at least. Buy some merch! I just released a new design over on Pain Propaganda.