Fast, powerful and a very good CPU for today's games. I wish the base clock and the out-of-the-box temperature targets weren't as absurdly high are they are, but I suppose that's what the non-X variants are for. If you do buy the 7700X, or any other 7000X CPU, I strongly recommend looking into undervolting and using eco mode. With the right settings, you can greatly lower the heat and power consumption without losing, or potentially even gaining, performance.

Don't be fooled by the idle CPU temperature on my build, it's only as high as it is because Ryzen 7000 CPUs, particularly the 7700X, 7900X and 7950X are intended to target that temperature. It does a great job retaining that idle temperature, and in regards to the load temperature... I put 72C, as it is the load temperature with my current power settings (-30 PBO2 Curve Optimiser offset, AMD Eco Mode), and it holds around 5.2GHz at these settings. At stock settings, with the 95C load temperature target, this cooler is able to keep it around 90-92C for a while, eventually hitting 95C. At these temperatures, clocks are around 5.1GHz, sometimes climbing up to 5.2.

Also, the design with the pump on the tubes and having a fill port is great. I wish more AIOs were like this.

I can confirm, ASUS AM5 motherboards will no longer burn a whole in your CPU while using EXPO. Don't worry. If you're buying new, the motherboard ships with the BIOS version that fixed this issue (or later). This board is great for the Ryzen 7000's high temperatures, as despite being an mATX board, the VRMs are HUGE. Plenty of clearance between the AIO's CPU block and the RAM slots, so if you want 4 sticks of RAM and you use an AIO, you have plenty of room no matter where you put the tubes. The PCIe x16 locking tab is wider than most motherboards I've used, so it's easy to push it down when removing your GPU. My only real issue with this board is that the fan connectors are pretty limited and positioned weirdly. Otherwise, a fine mATX AM5 motherboard for the price.

EXPO didn't burn a whole in my CPU. Some people still treat this issue like the boogeyman, but I promise you, it doesn't happen anymore, even on ASUS boards. These modules are nice and fast for the price, the EXPO profile is perfectly stable, and the lighting looks nice. All you need from RGB RAM.

This drive is weird. When you're reading or writing anything big, the speeds start off perfectly normal for a PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD... but they quickly decline to what you'd expect from a PCIE 3.0 M.2. It also has no cache, this is something to be aware of but what that means for you may vary. Despite these issues, it is at least more than fast enough for a boot drive.

Average speeds for a PCIe 3.0 M.2 SSD. It's nothing to write home about, but I mostly use it for storing games and my loading times there are more than sufficient.

Pretty fast for a HDD. 200MB/s is obviously nothing to write home about in the age of SSDs, but this is still the fastest HDD I've ever used. I mostly use it to run my Plex server, and it's more than fast enough to do that well. It's a Surveillance drive, so it's... kinda optimised for anything to do with video.

However, this drive has one massive issue. I don't know if it's just my unit or not, I don't know if it's intentional for Surveillance drives or not, but this has happened since I got: Sometimes, when the drive spins up, it makes a loud... scratchy sound? This sometimes happens randomly, but sometimes trying to do anything in File Explorer triggers it, and File Explorer will freeze until the sound stops. Otherwise... works fine.

A slim, sleek model of the RX 6700 XT. The fans are good and quiet, this card runs quite cool at load without making much of a sound (other than the usual RDNA2 coil whine). The tuning settings are a bit limited, and this card does not undervolt well... not that it really needs to, but still, noteworthy.

One of the best value mATX cases on the market. Small, well-designed, fits full-sized ATX power supplies, a good range of triple-fan GPUs and even a 360mm radiator... a revolutionary case for the mATX market, which many thought was dying just a few years ago. A very fun case to build in.

A quality, A-tier power supply with support for PCIe 5.0, meaning owners of the newest NVIDIA GPUs can use an included 12VHPWR cable directly from the power supply. This included 12VHPWR cable is yellow-tipped, a very friendly feature for those who may be concerned about the security of the cable's connection. Other than that, the cables are sturdy and good quality, and the fan is whisper-quiet.

Virtually silent until around 75% speed, and even then it's very quiet. I guess it really is in the name.

Lighting quality is very good, the daisy-chain cables are... no UNIFAN tech or iCUE Link, but I do appreciate their existence. I've found that the ridged blades greatly reduce dust build-up, and these fans move a very acceptable amount of air.