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The Gamer Master GMA1392A is different. While many DIY-ers extol the adrenaline of building an own gaming desktop, this pre-built PC instead provides almost all you need running straight away. And, it does so at a surprisingly affordable price considering the beastly components packed within. For most of us, a plug and play system is more than ideal as most deliver even better gaming experience at prices palatable to most PC gamers out in the market for a new rig.
With Nvidia’s GeForce GT 1030 graphics card and a fresh AMD Ryzen 7 processor, this tower is sweetly upgradable, offers smooth HD gaming experience for enthusiast gamers and proficiency for general tasks with little fuss. For budget gamers and professional creatives/artists, the Gamer Master GMA1392A an excellent starting point.
Design
This year’s Gamer Master Series uses the same standard tower as its predecessor from last year, except for a few tweaks to accommodate the different power supply units. The RGB-lit casing stands at 18.7 by 8.2 by 18.5 inches (HWD), all black brushed aluminum. The front panel is solid black cover with a CyberPowerPC logo on the lower flank, a move away from the three concentric circles in its predecessor from last year.
The upper panel host a couple of quick-access ports recessed to the right-front side, and the rest of the panel is made of parallel lines, save for grilled vent that lets you view the interior components and lighting from the top. On the left side is a near-full window made of tampered glass, and gives you a perfect view of the interior components. Looking at the case you’ll realize that it isn’t a small-form-factor, but it happens to be on the smaller side for traditional towers.
Connectivity
The system doesn’t have an optical drive, which is fine given that these days you occasionally need to play from DVDs, as most PC games can be downloaded from digital services like Steam and Origin. Plus, having one on the front would be a scratch on the case’s stylish austerity. As it is, there are easy-access ports on the top panel (towards the front): two USB 3.1, microphone and headphone, and a Reset button.
On the back, it’s a completely different story, it’s there you find the rear panel ports: two USB 2.0, four USB 3.1, one RJ-45 Network Ethernet, and Audio 7.1 channel. The new Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card also includes one HDMI port, one DisplayPort 1.4, alongside a DVI Link port, which allow for multi-monitor setups. Also bundled into the package is an RGB 7 Colors gaming keyboard and mouse, alongside 802.11AC Wi-Fi for wireless connectivity.
Performance
Of course, the real test for the Gamer Master GMA1392A is how it performs but we need to first applaud the system for the lack of bloatware shipped alongside the Windows 10 Home-64-bit. It’s very common these days to have to do a clean install of Windows in a pre-built PC, but its something CyberPowerPC are avoiding. By contrast, the Gamer’s 480GB solid-state-drive (SSD) is impressively sparse, with only the necessary documentation you need to get started right out-of-the-box.
With an AMD Ryzen 7 1700 processor and 8GB RAM, the Gamer Master GMA1392A is undoubtedly beefy, and it’s nice to see that it comes unnerved by superfluous trial versions of unusable software. The AMD Ryzen 7 chip used here was released last year to rival Intel’s Core i7-7700K that made appearances in some of the best high-end rigs. The Ryzen 7 has a base clock speed of 3.4GHz and eight processing cores (which amounts to 16 threads) and a TDP of 95 watts, which is enough for multimedia tasks and other productivity projects you might have.
If you’re paying for an eight core Ryzen 7 desktop, you should expect no less than top-end speed, which it delivers across all spheres. For general productivity/media creation, it is among the fastest AMD-powered systems you can find around at this price range. It beats most newcomers on in multimedia tests including Photoshop, making it a big deal for video encoding and picture editing. It leads the pack for daily productivity in such a dominant fashion, and manages to stay right up there among the best in category.
Graphics Performance
Now, we can head over to graphics performance on this budget system. The GeForce GT 1030 (2GB) isn’t Nvidia’s most powerful card, but it’s well cut for casual gaming at full HD (1080p), and you can’t really expect more for this price. If you’ll want to play at a resolution higher than 1080p, you’ll probably want a more powerful card to maintain 60 frames per second (fps).
For that, you can look at something like the iBUYPOWER Trace 9240 or CyberPowerPC’s Gamer SLC10200CPG, both featuring the freshly-baked Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 (8GB) and Intel’s newest Intel i9-9900K (8-core) processor, allowing you play modern games even in 4K at the highest settings. Of course, they don’t come cheap, but they are very much worth it. As it stands, pro-gamers and esports enthusiasts will find the new components appealing for daily cruises and productivity.
On the other hand, budding gamers or anyone on a budget can stick with the GT 1030 on this system and it’s easily upgradable down the road. Again, this card doesn’t meet the basic requirement for Virtual Reality (VR) headsets like Oculus and HTC ViVe, something our Editors Choice for midrange gaming desktops, the CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR GXiVR8060A5 readily offers out of the box with a GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card, for around the same price.
So where does that leave those of us on a budget, but need a powerful desktop for 1080p and media creation? And, are not interest with VR and 4K playability…the Gamer Master GMA1392A delivers exactly that. It lets you play games like GTA 5, Battlefied 4 and Overwatch at around 60fps in high settings. Most of these modern games can be demanding and performs will surely dip below 60 fps at times if you crank the details levels up, but tweak just a few settings and the experience should be smooth sailing.
The Bottom Line
For the price, any big complaints about the CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Master GMA1392A would seem unfair. It has some personality, runs games at 60fps, includes a speedy SSD and ports, and is upgradable down the road. The interior looks neat and allows for some new components including a better PSU to support a newer graphics card, just incase you decide to have some premium innards. AMD’s Ryzen 7 processor only sweetens the deal without ruining the appealing price point, and the dedicated graphics cards makes this configuration more capable for general use outside gaming.
Indeed, it is a winner among its competitive set. However, the newer CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR GXiVR8060A5 is a gaming machine that’s sure to make you happy overall if you have some extra money to spend and need a GTX 1060 and an eighth-generation Intel Core i5-8400 processor. As far as budget gaming goes, the Gamer Xtreme VR GXiVR8060A5 strikes the best balance of price and performance with modern hardware. It remains our Editors’ Choice for budget gaming desktops.
CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR GXiVR8060A5 Gaming PC (Intel i5-8400 2.8GHz, 8GB DDR4, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD, WiFi & Win 10) Black
CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Master GMA1392A
US 1+
