CYBERPOWERPC Gamer SLC8300A Review

CYBERPOWER recently unveiled the CyberPowerPC Gamer SLC8300A, a gaming rig that will definitely garner some double takes from your friends. It has the beefy hardware you want to handle even the latest titles at ultra settings, and it performs well compared with previously released midrange gaming PCs. Crammed inside is a sixth-gen Intel i7 CPU, the latest Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 graphics, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, 240GB and a further 3TB hard drive. These specs will let players confidently handle serious gaming at high-quality settings.

In fact, the main highlight here must be the recently-released GTX 1070 GPU (released in late spring 2016), with better performance than old high-end models such as GTX 970 and 980. It stands out as the best in the category thanks to its superior GPU, great aesthetics, and stronger overall performance.

Design

The CYBERPOWER Gamer SLC8300A isn’t audaciously designed, but for gaming standards it’s nice looking. It uses a plain metal black case with a brushed aluminum front panel, so compared with the bold looking Acer Predator AG6-710-70002 that sports a militaristic tank-tread pattern. At first glance, the front panel looks to only have nothing, safe for a CYBERPOWER logo near the base. The two USB 3.0 ports, audio and mic jack, and Power button are all placed on the top of the case.

The side panels are mesh, with a grid on the edges that provides additional ventilation for the case’s interior. On the rim of the panels is a red LED strip, and on the top panel another red LED is located just around the power button.

The Gamer SLC8300A flips on the minimalist side, for a gaming machine, measuring 17 by 7.9 by 17.5 inches (HWD), a good bit smaller than the Acer Predator AG6-710-70002 (21.8 by 8.3 by 18.2 inches), but slightly bigger than the CyberPower Zeus Mini (13 by 4.4. by 17.4 inches). It weighs in at 32 pounds; which is fair considering the power packed inside.

Performance

The Gamer SLC8300A is meant for medium-high end gaming enthusiasts, meaning it can play Witcher 3 and GTA 5 at High-quality settings—anti-aliasing, textures, the works. Here you’re looking at a gaming rig that can achieve 60 frames per second (fps) on heavyweight Witcher 3, while on other demanding titles such as GTA 5 and Fallout 4, you expect the same or better fps. Plus, you don’t have to hiver when switching to another resolution, such as Quad HD (2560×1440) here, the system will still pull through.

These scores are right in between two of our pricier Editors Top Pick gaming systems: Acer Predator AG6-710-7002 and ASUS G11CD-DB72, but the latter offers even subtle gaming thanks to the latest GTX NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Graphics Card, but features the same quad-core Intel Core i7 processor.

The 4.0GHz Intel Core i7-6700K processor combined with 32GB of DDR4 RAM makes quick work of multimedia creation programs. But gaming desktops aren’t all about CPU performance since graphics prowess presents the other side of the story. Armed with the latest GeForce NVIDIA GTX 1070 graphics with 8GB memory, the desktop’s performance was quite impressive in our tests. We tested the game with the latest Grand Theft Auto 5, at high-very high settings and we still managed a steady, playable 60 frames per second (FPS); and an equally amazing 65FPS on Dark Souls 3 in ultra-settings.

Our tests were run at 1,920-by-1,080 resolution, but with numbers that high, you should be able to get playable performance even if you crank things up to 4K resolution, though you may need to dial back some of the more demanding detail settings.

Features

For storage, the desktop SLC8300A includes a 240GB solid state drive (SSD) to boot from for faster loading, plus, larger 3TB (7,200RPM) hard drive for storage. This is still much more storage than the ASUS G11CD-US008T, which only includes a relatively small 1TB HDD (8GB SSD Hybrid for storage. The Acer Predator AG6-710-70002 features a 256GB SSD and a 2TB HDD, while the Acer Predator AG6-710-70001 goes for a different setup in smaller capacities (128GB SSD and 1TB HDD).

The Cyberpower Gamer SLC8300A also leaves thins wide open for upgrades. The motherboard supports up to four graphic cards, which is quite appealing for users who are after buying a system that can grow into something bigger, as opposed to boutique-built gaming PCs.

Externally, the desktop has a plethora of connectors: 4 x USB 3.0 ports, 4 x USB 2.0 ports, a 7-in-1 Audio port, one PS/2 port and an Ethernet port in the back. If you need to hook up your desktop to multiple displays, you have one DVI port, a display port, one HDMI port and one VGA port that will come handy. Sadly, you don’t have wireless connectivity and a DVD burner for your old movies is also missing. The system comes with a bundled keyboard and mouse, as well as Windows 10 Home (64-bit) pre-installed.

Conclusion

The CYBERPOWERPC Gamer SLC8300A is a solid gaming PC that will be able to play virtually any high-end game on the best quality settings, and the latest GTX 1070 GPU certainly sweetens the deal. Plus, its Skylake-based Quad-Core Intel i7-6700K processor, 32GB system memory, 240GB SSD+3TB HDD storage solution, make it an all-round purchase system.

This is more comprehensible for the mainstream users who may not understand the complexities of picking and choosing parts and managing a cached storage solution. If you’re more the tinkerer or hardcore user, and don’t mind combing through several pages of picking and choosing the specs for your desktop PC, then the Gamer SLC8300A is definitely a safe purchase, that will work both as a gaming rig and a general-use desktop PC for media creation, video editing, software development among other projects thrown its way.