PC Build of the week – 5950X & RTX 3080 Ti CREATE Bespoke SFF

Purchased June 2021. High end workstation PC in a discrete black box with silent operation. Intended use: Photoshop, 3d modelling and rendering, as well as web-browsing and other everyday tasks. It was over ten years since I bought my previous PC, and although that’s an impressive amount of time for one machine to be subdued to a heavy workload every day, the time had come to replace it. My old workstation was purchased at Pcspecialist and initially that’s where I turned to look for my new PC as well. I found that I had become a bit pickier (knowledgeable?) about the components I wanted to use, and although the people at Pcspecialist were helpful enough, they could not source many of the components I wanted. I looked around for an alternative (Overclockers, Chillblast etc.) and eventually found CreatePCs. I’m very happy I did. Not only could they provide all the components I was after at a fair price, but they also took their time to answer all my questions with great patience and offered suggestions when asked and helped me put together a workstation that I hope will last for many years. Although I was quite confident of what parts I wanted to be in the PC, I had not decided on a case when I reached out to them. I’m not a big fan of RGB style gaming computers, but I do think that gaming pc components offer the best value for money. I also preferred a small form factor, quiet machine, with great thermal performance. That’s a long wish list and I expected some compromises would have to be made. Shiv at CreatePCs suggested that I go for a Jonsplus i100 case. It could fit all the components I wanted, and would have enough airflow for the fans to operate at a low speed (something that they helped me set up with a fan speed curve that keeps the operation quiet unless the CPU gets very hot) It’s not the smallest case on the market that can fit these components, but It’s a great compromise for airflow and quiet operation. A very good choice for what I needed. I have had the computer for a few months now and so far I am very happy with it. It ticks all the boxes for me and the only issues have been a few driver-related things (sound/bluetooth), that I either managed to work out or find workarounds for. It was Windows 10 related as opposed to hardware. At the time of writing there is a global shortage of GPUs, so I have been put on a waiting list for the graphics card I want, and in the meantime I plugged in my old card into this new computer. This had been agreed with CreatePCs beforehand and they set everything up so all I had to do was to plug in the card and turn on the computer. As several other reviewers have pointed out, having pictures sent over of the build process is a great bonus and it’s very satisfying to see everything come together after a long time of research and discussion. I’d be very happy to recommend CreatePCs. Five Stars! -Simon