DIY vs Prebuilt - White Gaming Rig

Introduction

A new gaming system is something that interests us all. Either you're struggling along with an old one, and thus dream of being able to turn all your settings up to maximum, or you've got a good system that's fairly current but love to live at the cutting edge of technology.

The balancing or limiting factor is, as always, a financial one. Cost doesn't just come as simply as the amount of money in your bank, but also one to do with the amount of time in your life and the stress you're willing to undergo. We've spoken at length, here at OC3D, about how easy it is to build your own system, and that nobody should be put off from doing so. However, when you're talking about a system built to the punishing specifications we have here today, and indeed the amount in readies it is to have such a system, we completely understand why many people prefer to buy one 'off the shelf'.

Naturally off the shelf doesn't fully explore the intricacies of the OCUK Gaming Radiance Drift system that has been the catalyst for today's article. But it's a prebuilt system with all the flagship components one could hope to piece together, especially if you plan on having an all-white system. The fact you don't have to spend any time worrying about components not arriving in working condition, or putting a weekend aside to build everything, and another weekend to tidy it all up until it looks the part, but instead can just plug in and get gaming makes any slight cost increase over a Do-It-Yourself approach worthwhile.

Which returns us back to our description of cost. If you work really hard, a couple of weekends might be a key element of your mental wellbeing. But maybe you've got a lot of money available and rejoice in a hands on approach? Then that's what our own take on the same idea is for and you'll see that on the next page. For this page, let's look at what OCUK offer up.

OCUK Gaming Radiance Drift - £4699

Like all of the big system builders, OverclockersUK allow you to customise the components to a certain degree. For simplicities sake we're concentrating upon the Radiance Drift as it is in its default state, with a price tag of £4699.99. That might seem like a chunk of change until you look through the specifications. ASUS ROG Strix RTX 4090. ASUS ROG Strix Z790-A motherboard. The blazing speed of the Intel Core i9-13900KF CPU. 32GB of RAM. The incredible ASUS ROG Ryou III 360mm AIO. All wrapped up in one of our favourite current cases, the TUF GT502. It reads like a what's what of ASUS ROG hardware and is the perfect companion piece to our look at the whole ASUS white range in a recent article. It's the best of the best, no expense spared. Pay. Play. Smile.

Can we do better for less? Find out on the next page.

Naturally a list of specifications is interesting to the nerds amongst us - which will be all of us we suspect - but like many things in life we buy with our eyes as much as our heart, so here is how the Radiance Drift looks in the flesh.