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AWD-IT Alpha Doom Gaming PC Review

Final Thoughts


Pricing 

Currently, the AWD-IT Alpha Doom is available from the company’s website for £899 including delivery. To determine a system’s value proposition, we endeavour to compile an identical self-build and compare the price. This allows us to analyse the fee (if any) that a system integrator is choosing to charge customers for its services.

  • Case: Corsair Spec-Alpha = £69.99
  • Motherboard: Gigabyte Z170-Gaming K3 = £94.99
  • Processor: Intel Core-i5 6600K = £191.99
  • Processor Cooler: Corsair H45 Hydro Series Liquid Cooler = £49.99*
  • System Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX 3000MHz CL15 = £75.85
  • Main Boot Drive: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO = £73.98
  • Additional Storage Drive(s): Seagate 1TB 7200RPM = £42.94
  • Graphics Card: Gigabyte WINDFORCE 3X GTX 970 4GB =  £279.98
  • Power Supply: Corsair VS650 80+ White = £44.99
  • Operating System: Windows 10 = £73.98
  • Fans: Corsair LED Red Brushless Fan = £9.99

Prices donated with * refer to a predicted retail value because the product is out of stock.

Once added together, an equivalent self-build comes to a total of £1008.67 which is £109.67 more expensive than the AWD-IT Alpha Doom. This is a staggering saving when you take into account the professional build quality and exceptional warranty.

Overview

The system’s Corsair Spec-Alpha chassis adopts an intriguing design philosophy with distinctive lines which creates a dramatic effect. Additionally, the stylish mesh section, subtle Corsair branding and protruding feet is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Clearly, the chassis is going to be fairly polarising and greatly depends on your own subjective preferences. Personally, I love the bizarre shape and think the silver accents really enhances the system’s aesthetic appeal. AWD-IT decided to add another LED fan in the front to aid the machine’s cooling abilities. A byproduct of this is the stunning red lighting pierces through the front mesh panel and looks absolutely sublime. On a more practical level, I’m not awfully keen on the case’s plastic construction which struggles to enthuse a sense of luxury.

Around the £70 price point, you could acquire something with slightly improved build quality like the Phanteks Enthoo Pro M. However, it would look fairly ordinary compared to other systems which might explain why AWD-IT opted for the Corsair model instead. Even though the motherboard incorporates red illumination on the PCB, it’s quite challenging to see the internal components through the side panel window. This is because of the tinted finish and various parts sporting a dark hue. In the future, I’d recommend adding an LED strip to help accentuate the system’s superb colour combinations.

AWD-IT have adopted an attentive approach towards cable management and employed tight cable runs to form a clean, professional finish. The front portion exhibits a very high level of expertise and everything is routed in a logical manner. I was particularly impressed with the radiator fan’s cabling which remained hidden even under close inspection. Sadly, there is some room for improvement in the rear chamber because the cables are not completely flush with the chassis’ frame and features a sporadic arrangement. On the other hand, the chassis doesn’t have a lot of room for cable management and the non-modular power supply is difficult to work with. Therefore, the rear cabling deserves praise and I think the company coped pretty well given the restrictions.

The system’s i5-6600K CPU has been expertly overclocked to 4.6GHz using a respectable Vcore to perfectly balance performance with low temperatures. This increased frequency is able to leverage extra processing power in both single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. It’s surprising how well the CPU fares once overclocked against i7 variants utilising an additional four threads. Whenever a manual overclock is applied, it’s important to select the appropriate cooling hardware to maintain temperatures within the chip’s thermal limits. Thankfully, the Corsair H45 is a suitable choice and has enough cooling prowess to maintain exceptional temperatures during 100 percent CPU utilisation. In terms of noise output, the system’s idle sound levels are higher than I’d expect but it’s not enough to detract from an enjoyable desktop experience. Rather surprisingly, there’s hardly any change in the noise output during load scenarios which makes the machine unbelievably quiet once stressed.

Next up is the system’s boot SSD which provides extraordinary read/write speeds and surpasses many cheaper options. The Samsung 850 EVO is renowned for its unbelievable write rates and maximises the potential of the SATA interface. The 250GB capacity is large enough to store the operating system and a number of your favourite games. It’s the perfect balance between storage size and cost. The 1TB Seagate drive reported fantastic figures and greatly exceeded my fairly modest expectations.

The AWD-IT’s graphics card offers astonishing performance for the money and consistently upholds a fluid frame-rate. Once you increase the resolution, there are more noticeable frame drops which can create a jarring user experience. Thankfully, this is easily resolved by scaling back a few settings and finding the right balance between visual quality and performance. The GTX 970 is a wonderful enthusiast graphics card which continues to impress and even managed to maintain an average of 60 frames-per-second at 2560×1440. In an ideal world, I’d prefer to see the G1 Gaming model due to the illuminated WINDFORCE logo and gorgeous backplate. Saying that, there’s not a huge difference in the numbers between these models apart from a slight clock boost and GPU binning.

Pros

  • Astonishing value
  • Clever parts selection
  • Comprehensive 3-year warranty
  • Excellent colour scheme
  • Good cable management
  • Great gaming performance
  • Relatively quiet under extreme load
  • Striking design
  • Superb storage results
  • Wonderful temperatures considering 4.6GHz overclock

Cons

  • No padding to protect internal components

“The AWD-IT Alpha Doom is an elegant powerhouse capable of playing modern titles at formidable presets. Furthermore, this custom creation is over £100 cheaper than an identical self-build which makes it one of the best value packages on the market today.”

AWD-IT Alpha Doom Gaming PC Review

Thank you AWD-IT for providing us with this sample.

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John Williamson

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