ABS Master

The ABS Master gaming PC has a lot going for it: 1440p gaming, rendering prowess, and a big tick for productivity. And while it does deliver when it comes to the core components, it wouldn't have hurt for ABS to give the supporting parts a little more love. 

We had some issue with having to get the RAM clocked correctly, for instance, but otherwise we can let the numbers speak for themselves.

First off, let's go over how the ABS Master arrived. If you're concerned about whether it will get to you in one piece, don't fret; if anything the packaging is a little overkill. We've run our reviews from the UK office and the PC came all the way across the Atlantic double boxed with huge bubble-wrap filling the outer box, polystyrene couchings, as well as a foam pillow. 

There was also a GPU bracing mount inside the case to stop the pre-installed Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti (Gigabyte model) from jiggling around. I think the mount had shifted a little in transit but all that packaging did well to keep everything from getting damaged.

Out of the box, the Intel Core i5 12400F together with the Gigabyte RTX 3060 Ti delivers fair performance for the price, though the RAM speeds were a definite hurdle. With mediocre memory throughput and memory copy scores, I found myself questioning the spec sheet. It said 16GB DDR4-3200, but the system was only clocked at 2,400MHz. We assumed the OLOy Blade RAM was where ABS had skimped, but after a chat with the PR we were informed that "the user would need to turn XMP on in the BIOS."

Generally, we've found system builders will take care of that step for you, since the average user isn't always aware of XMP. I myself didn't think to check before the benchmarking process, and I do this for a living. What you're seeing here, as there are no instructions telling you to do so, are the out-of-the-box benchmarks you'd see from the machine without any extra tinkering tinkering. 

That said, it hasn't posed too big a threat to the ABS Master's gaming ability.

In spite of the slower RAM speed, it still managed to score well in our PC Mark 10 synthetic productivity benchmark—better than some more expensive machines we're comparing it against. That productivity score is mostly down to the core components, but the included Intel 670P SSD isn't a bad choice, either. It may be a little old, but we've seen a lot worse numbers in the FFXIV load times benchmark. Sadly, 512GB is a little small for the size of today's games, though there is space to slot another SSD in at a later date, or even swap out that boot drive for a larger one.

Alongside productivity, the ABS Master managed some more than reasonable Cinebench R23 single core and multicore scores, meaning you can expect some fairly good rendering performance for the price. And although video encoding performance was a little disappointing, the 12th Gen Intel processor still rocked the more CPU intensive gaming benchmarks in our suite.

System performance

Hitman 3 Dartmoor managed a 93fps average even in ultra graphics settings, at 1440p. That's with sim quality set to best. Metro Exodus Enhanced lagged behind a little with 54fps at ultra graphics settings, it was a similar story for the rest of the gaming benchmarks.

At 1440p, ultra, and with DX12 switched on the ABS Master managed a 61fps average in Warhammer 3's battle benchmark. FarCry 6 reached 90fps on average, while we saw a solid 46fps in F1 22. So not a bad gaming score overall. Compare it to the $99 more expensive iBuyPower and the RTX 3060 in there, and you're getting an extra 14fps in Metro, 23fps in Farcry, and a whopping 28fps in Hitman Dubai.

Sure, you might have to turn some settings down to make the most of high refresh rate monitors, but generally I'm pleased with the core components ABS has chosen.

Gaming benchmarks

The Deepcool Matrexx 50 case, however, I'm not so enamoured with. I'm convinced this PC would have scored much better in thermal testing with a better-ventilated case. Still, the glass frontage does look great with the row of spinning RGB fans—there's even a button to change the lighting on the case, which is fun. 

You also get a couple of peripherals with this one, gratis. They're not the best quality but they do help make life easier for new PC gamers while they save up for the best gaming keyboard and best gaming mouse. The Gamdias mouse is super low-profile, with a rubberized coating that's bound to rub off pretty quick, and the keyboard's switches are perhaps a little scratchy. There are audio controls on the keyboard, which is a plus, but just don't expect a stellar experience from free peripherals.

When you consider that this is a machine that's packing an RTX 3060 Ti, comes in at $1,400, and manages great gaming and productivity performance, it puts to shame the more expensive iBuyPower Gaming RDY SLMBG218 we tested. Sure, the RAM and SSD are better within the latter, yet it's a hundred dollars more for an entire step-down GPU-wise.

For the ABS Master I'd have appreciated some faster RAM, especially since it's otherwise a great machine for productivity. A larger SSD wouldn't have gone amiss either. And yet, despite its minor downfalls, the ABS master is still a great mid-range gaming PC for the price. I'm not sure those peripherals have much to do with my opinion, however. I'm honestly trying to push them out of my mind.