In a detailed review, we tested the finished EVOLVE SpecialPart Gaming PC in gaming scenarios (Quad HD 2K and Ultra HD 4K), work programs, measured power consumption, component heating, and noise level. In addition, the cost of the finished PC and separately purchased components was compared in the traditional manner.
Pluses:
low temperatures of all components and quiet operation; beautiful cable management with the use of extension cords; high performance in work tasks; good performance in games, especially in 2K; use of solid mid-range components; zero extra charge for assembling the computer;
Minuses:
loud whistling of the video card's throttles; the liquid cooling system hose presses down on the video card; small SSD capacity for this price;
Content
Specifications.
| Computer specifications | |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-13500 |
| Motherboard | Asus TUF B760-Plus Wi-Fi |
| Video card | Asus Dual RTX 4070 OC |
| Storage device | Kingston SNV2S 1 TB PCI-E 4.0 |
| RAM | Kingston DDR5 2×16 5600CL36 |
| Case | Asus A21 |
| Cooler | Asus TUF LC II 240 |
| Case fans | Arctic P12 A-RGB x4 |
| Power supply unit | Asus TUF 750W |
| Custom cables | EVOLVE Custom PSU |
The PC’s parameters are very balanced, except for the small storage capacity. 1 TB seems to be a lot, but you can put a bigger SSD in a computer for this money. It turns out that this is the cheapest component in the system unit, for perfect balance the same disk would fit here, but with 2 TB. The rest of the components are quite good, not of low quality, solid middle class: a powerful motherboard with an external Wi-Fi antenna, a good and economical processor, optimal RAM, a beautiful case, quiet fans, a two-section liquid cooling system, a powerful power supply and custom cables.
Cost of components
| The cost of individual components in the Telemart store | ||
| Product | Price, UAH | |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-13500 | 11299 |
| Motherboard with a computer | Asus TUF B760-Plus Wi-Fi | 8499 |
| Video card | Asus Dual RTX 4070 OC | 25899 |
| Storage device | Kingston SNV2S 1 TB PCI-E 4.0 drive | 2459 |
| RAM | Kingston DDR5 2×16 5600CL36 | 4969 |
| Case | Asus A21 | 3500 |
| Cooler | Asus TUF LC II 240 | 4909 |
| Case fans | Arctic P12 A-RGB x4 | 2596 |
| Power supply unit | Asus TUF 750W | 4329 |
| Custom cables | EVOLVE Custom PSU | 599 |
| Total for a self-assembled PC | 69058 | |
| Ready-made EVOLVE SpecialPart Gaming PC | 68599 | |
| Overpayment/savings on PC assembly | 459 | |
It’s not surprising that a complete computer is cheaper than separately purchased components. All the PCs that have been reviewed at ITC over the past few months are either cheaper than their components or their price. You might think that the craftsmen and sellers are real charities, but in fact they buy components much cheaper than an ordinary person can buy at the biggest discounts.
Even so, the EVOLVE SpecialPart Gaming PC has a margin of at least UAH 10,000, although this is not noticeable to the end user, because assembling the system unit yourself will cost UAH 500 more. So, assembling a PC from identical components yourself will cost UAH 500 more than buying this assembly. Of course, you can save money on the case, power supply, motherboard, etc. to get a better power ratio for one hryvnia, but these are compromises. 99% of gamers will not do better cable management on their own. Without extension cables, it’s almost impossible, because it’s the neat wiring that makes this system unit look so nice. Of course, there were some nuances, such as the placement of the liquid cooling system hose, which we will describe in more detail below.
Package contents, packaging, appearance
The computer is packed in a box from the case, and a little foam is placed inside for additional protection of the components. EVOLVE includes a branded bag with additional accessories, as well as an envelope with serial numbers of spare parts and other documentation.
Visually, the PC is beautiful, restrained, and neat. The good cable management, which would have been impossible without custom extension cables, immediately catches the eye. On the back, everything is also more or less well put together, tied with ties, nothing gets tangled or interferes. There is access to install a hard disk near the power supply, but the space for a 2.5-inch SATA SSD is partially occupied by cables.
The only nuance is the placement of the liquid cooling system, because one of the hoses rests against the video card and slightly pushes it down. We will mention this again in the review below. EVOLVE SpecialPart Gaming PC has a backlight that is synchronized and controlled directly from the operating system. To do this, we used the ASUS proprietary program.
We should also highlight the Evolve logo, which is located on the bottom of the case. Almost all components are illuminated: the liquid cooling system, four case fans, the case, and the RAM.
The case seems to be quite good, well ventilated, has dust filters, but there is one disappointment: the front panel does not have a single USB Type C connector. The AUDIO cable for the front panel is multi-colored, which to some extent spoils the ideal idea of a perfectionist, although it is not a problem.
Working performance
| Computer performance | |
| Geekbench 6 | 2450 / 14718 |
| Speedometer 2.1 | 423 |
| Google Octane 2.0 | 92741 |
| WebXPRT 4 | 325 |
| Corona 1.3 | 77 s |
| CPU-Z | 757 / 8424 |
| Cinebench R24 | 109 / 1077 / 16883 |
| Blender RTX | 5375 |
| Blender Core i5 | 259 |
| Vulkan RTX | 119634 |
| OpenCL RTX | 162680 |
| PC Mark 10 | 8088 |
The Intel Core i5-13500 processor is great for heavy workloads, despite being a mid-range processor. The main advantage of this CPU is its good power-to-temperature ratio. Even the most severe stress tests cannot heat it up to 60 degrees.”
It is equally fast in office tasks, showing decent performance in Speedometer 2.1, Google Octane 2.0, WebXPRT 4, and did not disappoint in the comprehensive PC Mark 10 test. The overall response of the system is on top, thanks to the fairly powerful P-Cores. Although they are weaker than similar cores in the Ryzen 7000, this is compensated for by a large number of additional E-Cores. In Geekbench 6 we get a result that surpasses AMD Ryzen 7 7700, and even more so Ryzen 5 7600. It is worth comparing the i5-13500 with the older Ryzen, because their price is about the same.
Gaming performance
We tested video games in Quad HD 1440p 2K and Ultra HD 2160p 4K resolutions. The power of RTX 4070 is literally too much for classic Full HD monitors. There are not many games tested, but many different conditions were checked, including Ray Tracing, Path Tracing, DLSS, Frame Generation.
Symbols:
- Ultra – maximum graphics settings;
- High – high graphics settings;
- Comp – eSports graphics settings;
- FG – NVIDIA Frame Generation;
- RT: Ray Tracing is used for ray tracing;
- PT – Path Tracing is a ray tracing system;
- DQ – DLSS in Quality mode;
Alan Wake 2 has high hardware requirements, especially for the video card. The owner of this PC has a lot of options and possibilities to play modern video games. The card allows you to play at high graphics settings without DLSS, although with DLSS Quality activated, the picture is still good and does not lose quality.
In 4K, this technology is a must. Using the combination of FG + RT + DQ, you can get a beautiful picture with full ray tracing and a more or less adequate FPS in the range of 60-70. Input delays are noticeable, but not critical, and the game is comfortable. For Ultra HD, it is necessary to turn on frame generation, or block the FPS at 30-40.”
Apex Legends is comfortable to play with any graphics settings. You can confidently set ultras, but successful players don’t do that. It’s easier to use a combination of minimum and maximum settings to get better visibility of enemies.”
Battlefield 2042 loves a large number of cores and easily loads the processor by 90-95%. We get an average of 150-180 FPS with a Quad HD monitor, and the transition to Ultra HD requires the use of DLSS Quality. In this mode, we did not fall below 110 FPS.
Cyberpunk 2077 was tested with different settings, but the most optimal was the 2K Ultra FG DG RT combination, where we got high FPS with maximum graphics and ray tracing sliders turned to the maximum. Path Tracing is much more difficult, and in 4K the video card’s power is not enough for 60 frames, you need to set the High profile or use DLSS Balanced.”
Forza Horizon 5 with its perfect optimization can be played with the Extreme profile (higher than Ultra), including ray tracing. It’s comfortable to play on a 4K monitor, getting more than 100 FPS on average, and even more so with Quad HD, where FPS reaches 160+. The 12 GB of video memory is also enough to spare.”
Starfield is worth praising, or rather the game’s developers. Since its release, the game has become much more stable, received support for NVIDIA DLSS + Frame Generation, and improved visuals. It is comfortable to play in Quad HD with 140+ frames per second. The transition to 4K is not easy, but the final FPS is high enough to call the gameplay smooth and comfortable.
Power consumption, heat, noise
Despite the large number of fans (6 pcs.) and backlight, the PC consumes 60-65 watts when idle. Watching high quality videos (4K Ultra HD) on YouTube requires up to 90 watts of power from the outlet. Full CPU utilization in Cinebench 2024 raises the figure to 220+ watts, and FurMark (video card test) to 270+ watts. Most of all, it was recorded in demanding video games like Cyberpunk 2077, where the entire system unit consumed 300-325 W.
The Asus TUF LC II 240 liquid cooling system is quiet, almost silent, and the case fans also performed well. Under 100% processor load, in long-term stress tests, only 34-36 dB of noise was recorded, which is not much. When idle, the PC is even quieter, and you can forget about its presence if you put it at a distance of one and a half meters. The video card turned out to be noisier, which will be discussed in a separate section below.
The motherboard and all its components easily withstand such an economical processor. It was hard to find a place where the pyrometer would show more than 35-40 degrees after 60 minutes of heavy testing. The motherboard of the Asus TUF B760-Plus Wi-Fi feels too confident and can handle much more powerful CPUs. This leaves a good maneuver to upgrade to the notional Intel Core i5-14600K or even Intel Core i7-14700K, or their versions without the K-index.
The 14-core Intel processor is cold, even very cold. Of course, with a two-section “water” and three Arctic P12 A-RGB case fans for blowing. Cooling the 13th generation Intel is much easier than the AMD Ryzen 7000 series, which is why we got such low temperatures. It’s nice to have a processor that barely heats up to 50-55 degrees under 100% load with a quiet cooling system.
The video card is no less impressive in this regard. All RTX 4070s are known for their low temperatures and adequate power consumption. The ASUS dual version is no exception – temperatures are low, cooler speeds are also low, and power consumption is less than 200 watts. Everything seems to be fine, but there are a few nuances with this particular video card that you should know about.
What’s wrong with the video card?
We already reviewed the ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4070 last year and were pleasantly surprised by the capabilities of the best (without exaggeration) video card of 2023. The ASUS version turned out to be quiet, cool, compact, and almost perfect, but there is something wrong with the copy in this PC.
ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4070 video card review: compact size, frame generation, excellent performance, and low power consumptionTo begin with, the liquid cooling hose rests against the back of the graphics adapter, thereby pushing it down. This makes it look like the graphics card is sagging under its own weight. Under adequate conditions, this is impossible, because it is too light and does not need additional support. The pressure is created by the strange placement of the water hose. Note to those who have assembled this particular system unit.
Another problem is the noise of the coolers. Although the review was done more than half a year ago, it is impossible to forget the incredibly quiet operation of ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4070. It barely made any noise at 1400+ rpm, and this instance makes itself felt at 1000-1100 rpm. The noise level is not critical, just a little more than expected. Perhaps this is some kind of defect in the coolers or something like that.
But this is nothing compared to the frantic whistling of the throttles. Usually, all flagship NVIDIA and AMD graphics adapters suffer from this problem, but it does not apply to mid-range and budget models. ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 4070 shouldn’t emit any extraneous noise, but not this time. Under full load in synthetic tests or games, the whistling of the throttles is interrupted by a not-so-subtle humming of the fans.
An unpleasant, harsh sound that pierces a meter and a half from the system unit – it’s simply uncomfortable to be near. It’s very strange to see such problems in a video card that has been given the highest possible score.
We can’t rule out that this defective RTX 4070 sample was supplied to save money on the entire PC, or rather on the unsuspecting potential owner. Perhaps this is the essence of the phrase “SpecialPart” (with a “special” video card) in the name of the EVOLVE SpecialPart Gaming PC? If so, it’s strange that the store doesn’t mention any discounts, defects, etc.
Price and competitors
The cost of the hero of the review is 68,599 UAH, which is quite good for such characteristics. You won’t be able to buy identical components separately, unless you have to compromise. Even so, EVOLVE SpecialPart Gaming PC has several serious competitors.
Vinga Odin D69 stands out with a more powerful Intel Core i5-14600KF processor. The rest of the parameters are quite similar to the hero of the review, although there may be compromises in the form of cheaper fans, case, etc. Price from 66,000 UAH.
Artline Gaming D31 is a nice and compact computer that features a case with a built-in screen. Despite the cheaper Intel Core i5-13400F processor, the user has some other advantages, such as licensed Windows 11. Price from 66,000 UAH.
2E Complex Gaming is a compromise, but still a good option for the money. It differs from the hero of the review by an Intel Core i7-12700F processor and a larger 2000 GB drive. The price starts from 70,000 UAH.