Intel 12th Gen Conswole Mini ITX Gaming PC – RTX 3080

i3 – Make a splash with performance that puts gaming first

15 – mid range king – the 12th Gen CPUs are fast enough that even the Intel Core i5 12600K 6+4 Core processor, just under 40% faster in Premiere Pro compared to the AMD Ryzen 5600X and was able to effectively score on par with the significantly more expensive AMD Ryzen 5950X 16 Core. And from there, the Core i7 12700K and Core i9 12900K only give you better and better performance. Over a 7 game average we saw a 20FPS increase over the AMD 5800X and 25FPS over the i9 11900K.

i7 – Prince of performance – the Core i7 12700K also does extremely well, managing to score above every AMD Ryzen CPU we tested. It is a large 26% faster than the comparable, but slightly more expensive, Ryzen 5800X, and even manages to sneak by the Ryzen 5950X by about 6%.

i9 – Intel regaining the gaming and productivity crown
Unbeaten in every test we ran, Intel have truly reclaimed their crown with this CPU, we recommend this for the ultimate powerhouse in both gaming and productivity

WHAT CPU SHOULD I PICK

Gaming/Light Work – The Intel Core i3 and i5 range would be suitable for these tasks, with the i5 being the sweet spot for price and performance

3D/Video Editing or 4k Gaming – The Intel Core i7 and i9 Range are the option here, more cores and faster speeds help with demanding applications like 3D rendering. To maximise performance choose a “K” series CPU if this fits your budget, but make sure you pick a suitable CPU cooler alongside this like a 240mm or higher liquid CPU cooler to keep noise levels and temperatures of your machine lower.

WHAT RAM SHOULD I PICK

Light Office Work – We recommend 8-16GB of RAM this will be enough to run Windows and most basic tasks, while allow you to have a number of tabs and applications running together at once. Remember more RAM does not make your PC faster but lets you do more at one time like have more web browser tabs open while running communication software like Zoom or Teams.

Gaming – We recommend 16-32GB of RAM, nearly all games out now and due to be released in the next few years will not need more than 16GB RAM. 32GB can help if running other tasks while gaming, going for a higher speed RAM can help improve FPS in many games. Make you select the correct motherboard with the correct RAM, DDR4 RAM is compatible with motherboards listed as DDR4 and DDR5 RAM is compatible with motherboards listed DDR5

3D/Video Editing – The more RAM the better depending on the workload, going for 32-64GB will allow you to load bigger files into your rendering software at one time. Combined with a high end graphics card this lets you work on more at one time.

WHAT GRAPHIC CARD SHOULD I PICK

This is the most important part of a gaming machine, and the largest amount of you budget should be allocated here. While gaming your graphics card will be doing most of the work. Check the resolution(1080p/1440p/4K) and refresh rate(60Hz/120Hz/144Hz) of your monitor to help decide.

1080p Gaming- The following cards would be great for entry level gaming GTX 1650-GTX 1660 Super – RTX 3050. Go for an RTX 3060/TI if you want to play at higher FPS at this resolution

1440p Gaming- RTX  3070-RTX 3080 – RTX 4070TI will let you play at the highest settings and give the best experience here with high FPS in most game.

4K Gaming- Go for the best experience possible play the latest games for years to come in glorious 4K by selecting the RTX 3080-RTX 4080-RTX 4090 graphics cards.