*UPDATE*: The RTX 4070 that was in there has been sold to be upgraded to a Zotac RTX 4070 Super!
Aftershock PC's one of those PC DIY enthusiasts in Singapore you may have heard before as they have been in the business for at least 10 years. I know them because I did win an Aftershock X11 laptop which is a rebadged Clevo W110ER laptop in their very first giveaway in March 2013.
So fast forward 10 years on, it is time to replace my desktop as it is exhibiting quite a few stability issues. When I just do random things on Google Chrome, it'll randomly hard lock and hard crash and reset itself. Besides the Ryzen 7 1700X is getting a bit long in the tooth so it's a good time to upgrade.
NEW AFTERMARKET BUILDS: Should you go for it? Pros and Cons
These days there are several different ways to buy / build your PC, both old and new. If time is not a factor, you can always gather the parts yourself and spend a day or two for the build. But let's say time is not a luxury you have in this fast environment or your skills as a builder are not up to snuff, there are alternatives. You can still buy the parts from some shops in Singapore, like Fuwell in Sim Lim Square, then have the shop assemble it for you which was what I did for my very first Sandy Bridge build in 2011.
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| My new Aftershock Level 4 AMD mATX System sits on my ITX build. |
The other options are builders who are focused on PC Builds like Aftershock. That is usually the best and cheapest options. The 2nd best are brands Dell, Asus, Acer, Lenovo and Gigabyte that sell prebuilds although plenty of them would always have a price mark up for some reason. Most of them are online accessible so you can do this from your own home.
This one will need a bit of research on your end and abit of patience. Because you never know what kind of parts PC Builders usually supply and you're under their mercy with regards to their service and their parts they use. Therefore you need a bit of luck.
However the two big advantages are:
First, do save you a lot of time and hassle to build your own computer for a better out of the box experience. Then all you have to do is plug in a monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers and away you go.
Additionally, the second advantage is for shop built DIY PCs and prebuilds is that the warranty for everything is tied to the shop or brand instead of individual parts then everything should be bore by the shop(s) during the warranty's duration
With that said, if you'd feel like going for PC builders like Aftershock, Dreamcore, Manta builds, Dynacore, etc... my recommendation is to compare prices with the full build they do as well as the prices of parts should you build it yourself. Moreover be patient because promotional prices will always be available, especially the end of the year for the following:
Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals
12.12 Deals
Christmas Deals / Last ditch deals.
The Christmas Deal is where I got this desktop at its promotional price of SGD 1495 instead of its base price of 1869. In comparison if I was to build and gather stuff using similar comparable parts from Fuwell it'll be around the 2100 mark. Moreover it is cheaper than prebuilds offered by the more known brands. Understandably most of Aftershock PC's parts are some of the cheaper / no-frills options but if you are not so much into overclocking, this is usually fine.
The PC comes with the following components:
Ryzen 5 7500F
Gigabyte B650M Gaming Motherboard
32GB PNY XLR8 DDR5 6000MHz RAM
1TB Lexar m.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD
RTX 4070 12GB PNY Verto Dual Fan
750W FSP Power Supply
Aftershock's own mATX case and Tower Coolers
It's kinda almost like a PNY / Aftershock focused build. But the base RAM that the rig starts with is a different brand and at 16GB instead of 32GB which I upgraded to. 32GB of DDR5 on a 6 core may sound overkill but it does give a bit more breathing space if you are having alot background tasks that hog RAM space.
RYZEN 5 7500F
(6 Cores with SMT for total 12 Threads: 3.7GHz Base Clock, 5.0 Turboboost)
The Ryzen 5 7500F in a nutshell is a very slightly underclocked 7600 without integrated graphics, meant for the China Market. Compared to the previous generations of all Ryzen CPUs, the 7000 series start with a boost clock of 5.0 minimum, the 5000 series could only boost to max 4.9. So right off the bat, it has decent enough single threaded performance.
It was received to raving reviews and many would recommend this if you can find it cheap. Yes it is a 6 core but the cumulative differences over my former Ryzen 7 1700X do add up to be almost 50% faster on all cores. Moreover the 7500F brings a lot more features to the table over the first gen:
- DDR5 RAM Support over DDR4, potentially doubling Memory Bandwidth
- Double the L3 Cache, 32MB over 16MB
- Up to PCIe 5.0 Support Maximum which also depends on your Chipset of the Motherboard
- 65W TDP, 30W less than the 1700X
- First Generation on the new AM5 Platform
Like all F series of CPUs of both Intel and AMD, Ryzen 5 7500F does not come with Integrated graphics, which makes sense if you're building a gaming PC with a dedicated graphics card. This brings the price down to well below 200 USD while it is able to outperform the 13400F and trade blows with the 13500. If my motherboard wasn't locked in the first place, it can definitely clocked itself and perform as well as even the 13600K cause' I know I have the cooling capacity to do it.
The only catch is that the CPU is not normally found in major CPU retailers and as said before, meant for the China market and exports. That means, AliExpress. However you can find it there for as low as 155 USD and it is a good first stepping stone to get onto the AM5 platform on the cheap before considering to upgrade to something better down the line like the Ryzen 7 7700 / 7700X.
And truth be told, if you're in Singapore and already using a 7500F, you'll be very happy and can at least hold onto this CPU for a few years before you need an upgrade.
Techspot / Hardware Unboxed has covered a VS battle between the 7500F and the 13400F in great detail, so you can look it up: https://www.techspot.com/review/2728-ryzen-7500f-vs-core-13400f/
GIGABYTE B650M Gaming Motherboard
AM5
One of the few most basic B650M Motherboards available in the market. Although classified as a mid-ranged board, the PCIe Specifications are locked to 4.0 and there is a lack of USB C on board. There is a PCI-E 1x Slot, that could potentially where I'd might add a type C Port to it. Another bummer is that this B650M board does NOT have Overclocking capability for some dumb reason which is a shame as I do like to push things a little bit. I tried turning the PBO settings, but doesn't do anything, not even Ryzen Master recognises it as overclocking ready.
The 7500F even if at stock is pretty powerful but I really wished that a new Overclocking BIOS is rolled out on this thing. The Chipset is not locked but the motherboard itself is.
32GB DDR5 RAM: PNY XLR8 MAKO
6000 MT/s
This is my first time using DDR5 RAM and the AM5 platform is built solely with this in mind and at 32 Gigs. This is supposed to be fast ram tuned to 6000 MHz or 6000 MT/s. This version is the updated version with RGB lighting over the first release of this RAM in 2022 by PNY. By default the RAM comes stock at timings of CL40 although overclockers would want to tighten the CAS Latency down to the mid to low 30s.
If buyers didn't opt for the RAM upgrade, the installed RAM will be Team Group's T-Force Vulcan 16GB rated at 5600 MT/s which in itself will be sufficient for most needs.
12GB nVidia GeForce RTX 4070: PNY XLR8 VERTO DUAL FAN
The RTX 4070 have been released to big acclaim compared to all the mixed reception of the other GPUs of this generation. Anything in this line will make a lot more sense as they feature some of the best and craziest power efficiency over its 3000 predecessors. 40% more performance thereabouts than the RTX 3070 for 15% less power. 15% less power may not sound a lot but it'll mean savings off your power bill. Some specs as follows:
5888 Cuda Cores
184 Texture Mapping Units
64 Render Output Units
46 Ray Tracing Units
184 Tensor Cores
200W TDP
12GB GDDR6X VRAM at 1313Mhz for 21GB/s effective.
1920Mhz - 2475Mhz Core Clock
RTX 4070s are the most powerful GPUs you can squeeze into a shorter and smaller card. As such, this specific RTX 4070 is one of the smallest high end GPUs in the market, at the time of writing with the PNY at 25cm long, the MSI Ventus 2X at 24.2cm long and the smallest being the Zotac's famous Twin Edge at 22.5cm. 25cm long compared to the longer ones at 28-30cm may not look much, but having this compact reduced length does add compatibility with slightly smaller and shorter computer cases. In respect to having that in a normal size case does allow abit more air flow. Anything more powerful than the RTX 4070 will need a much bigger, chunkier probably even a triple slot cooler, at least on air.
Other interesting feature that you don't see in other 4070s is using of a standard 8-pin connector and are the most powerful GPUs that still use it. Most of the other RTX 4070s and 3090, 3090 Ti then the 4080, 4090, especially the Founders Editions use the newer 16 pin. This doesn't, interestingly enough. That is actually a huge advantage when you yourself put together a PC so you don't need Power Supplies that use the unique connector or upgrading from a GPU that still uses standard PCI-E connectors. Moreover the 8-pin connector is still more reliable after stories of the 12VHPWR connector melting on 4090s.
Again being a no-frills GPU, it's power limit is understandably locked so overclocking is quite limited, and purely on thermals at this point. However if you're someone not into overclocking and just wants to plug in your PC and go, usually that is a minor shortcoming. That is not to say the performance is bad, it is actually impressive with a 40% improvement in frame rates for 15% less power over the 3070 it replaces.
Chassis: Aftershock Rapid
Been a while since I've gone back to a more traditional mini tower build. It's a good thing I went for an mATX build instead of an ATX build. The entire computer feels lighter that I thought, making transporting back in my car easy because of its light weight.
The case measures 365mm long, 216mm wide, and 405mm tall which is surprisingly abit narrower and shorter than my ITX Coolermaster Elite 120 build. (401mm long, 240mm wide, and 207mm tall). That makes it take abit less area on my desk despite the case being taller.
BENCHMARKS:
Nothing too crazy with this rig. Little overclocking on the GPU if any. However, if you're looking at the basis of plugging in everything and go, this is what you get.
Cinebench R23 and CPU-Z
Some of the synthetics and benchmarks that I will show now that uses the 7500F will explain why the 7500F is probably the best budget processor for the money in 2024. Just to put it outright.
Now I want to draw to your attention, because the scores quite surprised me, for stock. For reference please look up Iceberg Tech's video on the 7500F for his scores. His CPU-Z scores were right in line with mine. But there's a bit of a huge discrepancy from Cinebench R23, not that I'm complaining as my score was 14323 points, Stocked locked compared to his 13000 points. And I did ran multiple times. Also noteworthy that mine was on an air cooler instead of his on water!
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| CPU-Z Benchmark of 5705 puts it in line with Iceberg Tech's scores. |
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| But receives a surprisingly higher score of 14323, about a 1300+ higher. Still a massive 60% uplift from the Ryzen 7 1700X. |
Having said that though, scores on synthetics and favoring CPU doesn't matter much if you game. However having a good 6-core does go a long way.
The newest Cinebench allows you to add the GPU to the stress testing. You can refer to the scores in the images and other comparable CPUs and GPUs. There's more to come with this 7500F, because the performance quite surprised me.
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| The RTX 4070 Supers blitzes alot of the default scores for the GPU. While the general 7500F gives it a respectable multi-core score on par with the 8 Core R9 5800X along with better single threaded performance. |
3DMark FireStrike
Fire Strike was impressive to say the least. 34291 after a very minor tweak to the RTX 4070 Clock Speeds. 44724 on the Graphics score is very high with 26527 points on Physics is no joke for a 6 core. This is an improvement from my best 1700X and 3070 run of 23210 score: Broken down to 32404 on the GPU, 18472 on the CPU, a much lower score considering it is a 8-core. Yes Fire Strike is an old benchmark now. But hey, who doesn't love big scores?
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| Comparison of the uplift from a 1700X and 3070 to a 7500F and 4070. Note that both GPUs were overclocked, although the former has abit more headroom. |
The scores improved by:
47% on the final score.
36% on the GPU score
45% on physics even though has 2 less cores.
77.5% on the combined score.
3DMark Time Spy
The newer benchmark also net big gains from the better hardware. Time Spy is a DirectX 12 based benchmark for more demanding games in today's modern landscape.
The GPU score of 17592 puts it within margin of Error with Guru3D's 4070 Founders Edition review sample. A 35-45% boost in scores in each component is significant.
DOOM Eternal
Maximum Settings (Ultra Nightmare)
Doom Eternal may be getting a bit older in 2024 and considered easy to run nowadays. Heck, even RTX 3050 Ti 40W on my Acer Swift X14 can chug along nicely at 1080P High with Ray Tracing. However, it is still a very popular and actually cool looking game today. The RTX 4070 has absolutely no problem with 4K completely maxed out (Ultra Nightmare Preset) with Ray Tracing without needing DLSS or any resolution scaling to achieve playable frame rates. Even with it maxed out it only used about 8.5 Gigs of the 12 GB memory.
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| 4K Ultra Nightmare, Ray Tracing? Easy work for the RTX 4070. |
PATH OF EXILE
4K Maximum Settings
The rival to Diablo II, III and IV and this free to play game is still doing a job. Path of Exile may be a Super Old Game at this point. I was even testing the game 12 years ago during the Closed BETA testing. However Grinding Gear Games has been updating it heavily and has support for 4K. That's why it can still be relatively taxing for GPUs at High Resolutions. 110+ FPS may not sound a lot as a result, considering it's 13 years old now.
Diablo II Resurrected
Maximum Settings: At 4K, 100% native resolution and 200% resolution scaling to 8K
No nVidia DLSS
This is the only game in my current lineup that allows you to really play around the resolution scaling to your hearts content. 100% Resolution Scaling on Maximum settings without DLSS is easy work for the RTX 4070, at least until you really push the resolution past it. Rendering at 200% scale essentially upscales the detail from 3840 x 2160 all the way to 7680 x 4320. Interestingly 8K doesn't even fully saturate all 12 Gigs of VRAM, but performance obviously really tanked. That said, if you've been used to the 24 fps framerate from the classic for years, I guess it is still playable-ish at 8K? The frame rate is more acceptable when indoors and other small maps. You can use DLSS to help things around in 8K which brings up the framerate to around the mid 40s in the open fields. That would be probably how I would play D2R on 4K on this card.
Unigine Superposition
Another synthetic benchmark that tests the limits of your GPU even at 1080p. The card hits a score of 9553 and an average framerate of 71.46. Guru3D's average FPS was 78fps. It may suggest a processor bottleneck but it's not a huge deal.
CONCLUSION: The Aftershock PC Level 4X 7500F PC is a good high end system that doesn't cost a lot. 7500F is a surprise.
This Computer does strike a good balance of performance, size and even efficiency compared to my older system. The RTX 4070 has hit the sweet spot in terms of amount of VRAM, cost and efficiency curves as well, giving excellent 1440p performance but can also cope 4K with Ray Tracing at close to max settings in lighter titles with its good amount of VRAM. The Ryzen 5 7500F CPU is no slouch either which surprised me quite a bit for a 6 core. It IS the ideal CPU to form a solid foundation on the newer AM5 platform. And for the amount of power it has in it, the desktop is actually nicely compact for a mini tower and the entire thing was actually fairly light to transport from the collection center and fit in my boot of my Mercedes A180 for the journey home.
But back to the subject of builders. Cause' at the end of the day, it is still important you do your Math right and your research. I went for Aftershock as it is a proven Singapore PC builder (and from my experience with my Laptop) that also found itself expanded its shores to Australia down under as well. Also with the GeForce 40 Super series of GPUs coming out just around the corner, chances are that prices may further drop a little. The RTX 4070 however will still do the job at this price point.
If there are complaints I need to make, it will be mainly towards the Motherboard for obvious reasons. The lack of a USB-C Port necessitates an Add-on PCIe card, while there is seriously no overclocking on this.
For now, the Level 4X AMD Desktop will be a my main daily rig. It is also an ideal platform for testing some mid range hardware. It still has a good upgrade path, even though frankly it doesn't need it. For example, it can go for a more powerful CPU like the Ryzen 7 7700, and the RTX 4070 Super without changing the Power Supply.
