The 13th Gen Gladiator - updated January 2023 for 4070 Ti
Are you not entertained?! Step into the arena and be ready to battle with The Gladiator model from Alexander PCs!
This model kicks off with your choice of Intel's "Raptor Lake" CPUs - the Core i9-13900K or Core i7-13700K. At the time of writing, these are the best available CPUs on the market for all-around gaming. We could talk about fine-grained core tuning, higher clock speeds, improved power efficiency and the larger die size enabling more cores and optimized architecture for larger L3 and L2 caches over the previous generation - but that would be "getting too granular" according to the marketing consultant we found on Reddit. So we'll just say it's the current best available gaming CPU and leave it there.
For the GPU, we give your Gladiator a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti. Powered by NVIDIA's new "Ada Lovelace" architecture and featuring base clock speeds of over 1000 MHz faster than the previous generation RTX 3080, these GPUs are legitimately 4K ready if you're so inclined. Why do we like NVIDIA based GPUs so much here? For starters, the performance is much more capable across the complete spectrum of gaming functionalities than any other products. When you factor in ray tracing, AI acceleration capabilities, and the surrounding ecosystem of supporting software, the NVIDIA GeForce lineup is still easily the best performing and most complete product stack in PC Gaming. As for the outgoing RTX 3080, we hate to say it, but for gaming applications, there's no justification in choosing it over the 4070 Ti. In every game engine we tested, and every benchmark we compared the two cards, the 4070 Ti is the clear winner.
Since we have the best available CPU and an absolute warhorse of a GPU in this one. We figured we should look for a motherboard capable of allowing these Rockstar performers to actually perform at their best. The quickest way to ensure your system deteriorates quickly is to cut corners on the motherboard. The quality of the power solution, cooling system, capacitors, and VRM truly matter more and more the longer you play on a system. Motherboards are sort of like people - they all age differently. And like people, some of them age more like bad cheese than fine wine. Since we provide a lifetime warranty on our builds, we felt like we should use the fine wine kind. Enter the ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi. 18+1 power (90A rated) along with top quality chokes, capacitors, VRM and heat sinks - this one screams quality. And it carries all the connectivity that matters - onboard WiFi 6E, Bluetooth v5.3, tons of USB input/output including multiple Type-C, and PCIe Gen 5 ready, this is a platform that will carry you into the future with confidence.
If we may circle back to our CPU for a moment, we should address the issue of CPU cooling. These Raptor Lake CPUs are hot dates when they're working hard, so you can't show up with some weak cooling solution and expect it to be able to throw down its best dance moves at the gaming party. Things like the size of the cold plate, the machine quality of the microfins inside the unit, and the flow rate and quality of the pump matter when it comes to thermals. Like the other parts, there are levels to this stuff. We offer some different options - all of which are good. Think of it as best, bester, bestest. They're all amazing performers, and two of the three options also provide a customizable screen as well as great cooling. What can we say, we're suckers for personalization!
For storage we looked to the Kingston Fury Renegade for this one. It's a top performer at its price tier with sequential read/write speeds of 7300/6000 Mb/s and superior numbers in terms of longevity and durability as well. We could talk about triple-layer-cell (3D) NAND flash, Phison E18 controllers, graphene aluminum heat spreaders, die density and so on. But instead we'll just say this drive is super fast and will let you game, stream, record, and run Windows all at the same time.
Since we were already on the phone with Kingston, we decided to go ahead and buy the memory for this one from them, too. Just kidding. We did buy Kingston memory though - the Fury Renegade DDR5-6000 variety. We chose it because not only does it look great, but we've had a significantly lower failure rate for memory kits during testing with Kingston than any other brand of memory we've tested. And we've tested quite a few.
Gladiators not only came to the arena to fight, they came to ENTERTAIN! So this one not only has to pack a punch, it has to look great doing it. So we house it in the iconic Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic and add a serving of 9 of the Lian Li UniFan SL120 RGB fans to provide the airflow.
We power it all with a 1000-watt, fully modular, 80-Plus gold rated unit to ensure that there will always be a steady supply of smooth, efficient power with plenty of headroom to turn on the performance when needed. By our math, the estimated peak power usage on this one comes in somewhere just south of 750 watts, so we've left plenty of overhead for overclocking and future expansion. We also use only retail version units from ASUS, Seasonic, EVGA, and Corsair to power these beauties. If a cheap motherboard is the fastest way to make your system deteriorate, then a cheap power supply is probably right behind it as the next most efficient way to ruin otherwise great builds.
Stock cables are a crime for high end builds like this one, so we keep you legal with our sleeved cable extensions in your choice of colorway from our available library.
The Gladiator comes with Windows 11 Professional installed and updated.
All Alexander PCs systems arrive:
* Fully assembled, with Windows installed, activated and updated
* Memory overclocked
* BIOS and drivers updated and optimized
* Ready to unbox, plug in, install your games and play!
The Gladiator - Specs
CPU - Intel Core i9-13900K
CPU Cooler - Lian Li Galahad AIO 360 RGB UniFan SL Edition - or - NZXT Kraken Z73 -or- ASUS ROG Ryujin II 360
Motherboard - ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi
GPU - GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (choose brand and model from dropdown)
RAM - 32GB Kingston Fury Renegade RGB DDR5-6000
SSD - 1TB Kingston Fury Renegade M.2 NVMe SSD
Operating System - Windows 11 Professional
Power Supply Unit - 1000 watt, 80+ gold rated, full modular
Chassis - Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic
Case Fans: 9x Lian Li UniFan SL120
Extras - Sleeved Cable Extensions in client's choice of color from available library
Warranty: Lifetime Parts and Service
Core Parts List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/BPQ7jZ