AlphaSync RTX 3060 desktop PC - £1000 from Ebuyer (down from £1150) AlphaSync RTX 3080 desktop PC - £2000 from Ebuyer (down from £2150)
I imagine the RTX 3060 PC will be of most interest to potential upgraders, as it’s not only a vaguely affordable price, but the rest of its spec is pretty appealing, too. Admittedly, it hasn’t got the freshest components on the planet, but its AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, 16GB of RAM, 240GB SSD and 1TB HDD provide a well-rounded gaming PC that should be more than up to the task of smooth 1080p gaming on max settings. The RTX 3080 desktop, meanwhile, is quite a bit more expensive at £2000, but still offers a commendable set of specs if, once again, you don’t mind opting for a slightly older model of processor. This one comes with an Intel Core i7-10700K, for example, rather than one of Intel’s new er 11th Gen Rocket Lake CPUs, but as long as you don’t mind not having PCIe 4.0 support, it’s still a great gaming CPU in its own right. You also get 16GB of RAM, a 500GB SSD and 2TB HDD, giving you a lot more space to install more games. Its motherboard also has built-in Wi-Fi, making it easier to get online without having to buy an add-in network card, or faff about with long Ethernet cables. It also has a CoolerMaster MasterLiquid ML120L V2 RGB cooler, too, which is a definite step up from the small (but still very good) bundled cooler you get on the RTX 3060 PC. Alternatively, there’s also an RTX 3070 PC for £1400 that isn’t on sale right now, but I’d advise against going for this one due to the age of its Core i5-9600K processor. Again, it’s not a bad processor per se, but it’s a bit dated now and will likely to limit the power of the RTX 3070 when playing games at 1920x1080, too. It’s not like you can easily swap out the CPU for a better one, either, as the motherboard’s socket type is also out of date now, too, meaning you’d have to buy a whole new motherboard (and effectively take the whole thing apart) if you wanted to upgrade the CPU at a later date. It’s a shame, as the rest of its spec - 16GB of RAM, 500GB SSD and 1TB HDD - would be pretty good going for the money. As things currently stand, though, I’d recommend going for the RTX 3060 PC if you’re interested in buying a whole new desktop. As we saw in my RTX 3060 review, this Nvidia GPU still has buckets of power for 1080p gaming, and is pretty darn powerful for playing games at 1440p as well. It’s the most obvious upgrade for existing GTX 1060 owners right now, and it’s also the cheapest way to get all that shiny ray tracing and DLSS goodness, too. And if you need a gaming monitor to go with it, why not consider LG’s Ultragear 27GN800 monitor, which is also on sale at Ebuyer for just £280 (down from £395). This 2560x1440, 144Hz IPS monitor will definitely make the most of the RTX 3060’s graphics power, and it’s also one of Nvidia’s officially certified G-Sync Compatible monitors, too, meaning you’ll be able to take advantage of its variable refresh rate technology without issue.
