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Pre-built gaming PCs have recently become much more relevant to the enthusiast market. During the great graphics card shortage of late 2020/2021, pre-built systems provided an outlet to get your hands on a high-end GPU and more recently with hardware prices fluctuating there are some really great value pre-built bargains to be had. Today we look at the pinnacle in pre-built gaming PCs with the Zircon Goliath from PCSpecialist, packing an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU and an Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card, so let’s find out just how good this ultra high-end gaming PC really is.
Timestamps:
00:00 Who needs a prebuilt?
01:20 Zircon Goliath Specs and pricing
02:11 The hardware / software
06:12 PCS Build quality / cable routing
09:38 Gaming performance
12:37 Synthetic benchmarks
14:11 Power Usage
14:41 Thermal Performance / noise
22:32 Closing Thoughts
Currently, you can't get any better than the AMD Ryzen X3D CPUs and Nvidia RTX 4090 for gaming. This is the pinnacle when it comes to PC gaming, it blows consoles out of the water and can handle 4K gaming like nothing else. PCSpecialist chose this CPU and GPU configuration for its new Zircon Goliath pre-built system that we got for review. The system comes housed in a HYTE Y60 chassis with 32GB DDR5-6000, 2TB PCIe Gen4 storage and a 360mm AIO CPU cooler. So you would think this is going to set you back an arm and a leg right?
Well actually when you compare how much the individual components would cost to buy and build the system yourself, the pre-built Zircon Goliath is actually amazing value for money. PCSpecialist has put a price tag of £3499 on the Zircon Goliath, we checked PCPartpicker UK to see what the cost of buying the hardware individually would be and surprisingly the pre-built system comes in at around £300-£400 cheaper than self-building and that doesn’t include the cost to purchase Windows which is pretty amazing.
Specifications:
| Case | HYTE Y60 Mid-Tower Panoramic Case |
| Processor (CPU) | AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16 Core CPU (4.2GHz-5.7GHz/144MB w/3D V-Cache/AM5) |
| Motherboard | Asus TUF Gaming X670-E Plus Wifi |
| Memory (RAM) | 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 16GB) |
| Graphics Card | 24GB Palit RTX 4090 Game Rock |
| 1st M.2 SSD Drive | 2TB Samsung 990 Pro M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W) |
| Power Supply | Corsair 1000W RMx – Fully Modular, 80+ Gold |
| Processor Cooling | Corsair iCUE H150i Elite LCD XT RGB 360mm AIO CPU Cooler |
| Thermal Paste | Standard Thermal Paste For Sufficient Cooling |
| Sound Card | Onboard 6 Channel (5.1) High-Def Audio |
| Network Card | 10/100/1000 Gigiabit LAN Port |
| USB/Thunderbolt Options | Min. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 Ports @ Back Panel + Min. 2 Front Ports |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Home 64 Bit – inc. Single Licence |
With a specification list as high as it is there’s no doubt that the Zircon Goliath is aimed at users who want the absolute best when it comes to gaming performance and FPS. The Palit RTX 4090 Game Rock will allow for high frame rates at 4K resolution with visual settings cranked right up and should produce the best possible gaming experience with Ray Tracing enabled for those that strive for the most eye candy possible.
AMD recently Launched the Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU and at the time of launch, it became the fastest gaming CPU on the market. AMD has since launched the 7800X3D which trades blows in gaming with the 7950X3D but the 7950X3D edges it in gaming and productivity combined so it's an all-round amazing CPU which will give years of good service in this system.
The Asus TUF X670-E Plus Wifi motherboard inside the Zircon Goliath has everything you will ever need for gaming, plenty of USB ports on the rear to connect peripherals and it supports DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen5 so if you do decide to buy additional storage in the future you will have support on the board for Gen5 SSD drives, which means the system will be good for some time to come.
2TB of fast storage comes with the Zircon Goliath in the form of a Samsung 990 Pro PCIe Gen4 M.2 NVME SSD Drive. 2TB should be enough to keep you going for a while but with game installs increasing in size all the time this might be something you will want to look at upgrading in the future. But the drive is very fast so game loading times and Windows boot-up should be rapid. The system memory is 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR5-6000 which should pair well with the CPU and motherboard.
The choice of chassis for the Zircon Goliath is the HYTE Y60, a case that got a lot of attention when it was launched for its striking and different looks. However, I am not convinced that this is the correct case for such a high-end system with a 3+ slot thick graphics card. The Palit RTX 4090 Game Rock sits very close to the glass side panel in the HYTE Y60 which could cause issues with airflow to the fans. The two bottom case fans might help assist airflow to the GPU heatsink but it’s not going to be directed towards the fans, we will see what happens with this later in our thermal performance test.
CPU Cooling comes in the shape of a Corsair iCUE H150i Elite LCD XT 360mm (3 x 120mm fans) all-in-one closed-loop liquid cooler. It is equipped with a 360mm radiator, RGB fans and an LCD screen mounted on the CPU block that can show system information, images and GIFs. All the RGB lighting/LCD screen and fan/pump speed are controlled by the Corsair iCUE software which is pre-installed on the system.
PCSpecialist has also made sure that the system is getting the juice it needs with a Corsair 1000W RMx Series fully modular 80+ Gold rated power supply. The RTX 4090 graphics card is very power-hungry but the AMD 7950X3D CPU is efficient so the power supply will cope with demand with no problem.
