SkyTech Blaze 3.0 Gaming PC Desktop Review
Designed for Esports and online multiplayer games like Fortnite, CS:GO and Valorant, the Skytech Blaze 3.0 gaming PC desktop is $1200 .00 priced to deliver a low-cost PC that can play games in high FPS. The Blaze 3.0 is a beautifully designed PC featuring a blend of glass and aluminum paneling, with a slick power button on the side, 8 LED lights on the top to indicate which components are powered up or down, and a Blu-ray drive door in front for added flair.
It has an inverted colors design with black/silver colors combination looks really sharp especially under dark lighting. Certainly, a go-to desktop if you’re looking for a budget pre-built gaming desktop.
Pros
- Fast AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core processor
- Plenty of RAM and storage
- Great for multimedia
- Good gaming performance for most titles
- Great price for a powerful pre-built PC
Cons
- Limited storage upgradeability as this PC has only 1TB SSD.
- It would have been nice to see USB Type C port on it besides the usual USB ports.
- The case may seem bulky if you are planning to use this gaming desktop under your desk or inside a small enclosure
Verdict
We easily recommend the Skytech Blaze 3.0 gaming PC desktop if you’re looking for a gaming desktop that’s cheap and does not compromise much in terms of performance. You will especially love the fast boot time, processing power, and gaming performance. You get more than 100 fps on CS:GO and Fortnite.
Design
The Blaze comes in both black and silver color options. Its main body is made from durable metal alloy while its graceful tempered glass paneling offers easy access to internal components along with an amazing view from the outside when it’s powered on. Its clean lines along with simple yet elegant design make this PC seriously handsome.
Just like the more expensive Blaze 2.0, the Blaze 3.0 has a simplified front control panel with a Power button and disk door of its Blu-ray drive on one side while the other side sports two USB ports along with microphone/headphone jacks. Its 8 LED lights are placed on top of this PC that indicates what status each component is currently in just by a quick glance at this gaming desktop. The entire design is simply stunning, especially for an entry-level gaming desktop.
At 17.7 x 7.8 x 18.3 inches and 33.8 pounds, the Blaze 3.0 is a compact and lightweight gaming PC and can be easily carried around. However, its design does not make it look like a gaming desktop and your friends might think you got yourself a multimedia center if they don’t know what’s inside.
N/B Still not sure about Skytech? Check out our latest Is Skytech A Good Company article where we’ve featured a few of Skytech’s best-performing gaming desktops.
Bulky Case
While the Skytech Blaze 3.0 case might look and feel bulky, it leaves plenty of room inside for easy access to components. While most entry-level PC cases only leave room for one graphics card it has enough room to support up to three (1 x 16 PCIe, 2 x 1 PCIe) and two M2 SSDs.
Ease of Upgrading
The Blaze 3.0 is more user-friendly than some other pre-builts as all you need to do is remove four thumbscrews on the top cover and slide off its entire front panel in order to get access to its internals. However, you will find it surprising that there is no free room inside for any additional hard drives or SSDs.
The reason why the Blaze 3.0 does not support more storage drives is its limitation of choice when it comes to power supply units (PSU). Unlike most PC cases where PSU can be easily swapped out with another one, Blaze’s case has already chosen a 600watt PSU which is non-removable. We wish there were options for 80+ rated PSUs at least since they are quieter and run cooler than their standard counterparts. If want to make sure your components stay cool inside this gaming desktop, we recommend getting an aftermarket CPU cooler like Noctua NH-D15S
The reason why the Skytech Blaze 3.0 chassis has limited room for storage drives is because of its power supply unit (PSU) and we think it’s a smart choice to stick with one PSU that’s capable of powering all your components rather than getting multiple PSUs for this gaming desktop and connect them together with Y splitter cables.
While there was no HDD drive bay inside the case, we noticed that the 2.5-inch drive bays were located on top of the graphics cards which made installing/uninstalling storage drives pretty easily without having to worry about their length. However, you should be careful when removing these hard drives as they get very warm after some time and you might risk burning your fingers.
CPU Cooler
The pre-installed CPU cooler is not good enough for overclocking so you will have to upgrade it if you want to be able to overclock its processor’s Turbo boost speeds. If you are planning on overclocking this PC, we recommend Noctua NH-D15S or Deepcool Captain 240 EX based on your budget.
Ports
The Blaze 3.0 also features a front headphone/microphone jack and 2 USB 2.0 ports on the front for quickly connecting your peripherals or other gadgets without having to open up the case. There is also a single USB 3.1 port (10Gbps) and two USB 2.0 ports for connecting your external drives along with an optical drive that can read Blu-ray media that includes 4K videos and games.
As expected from an entry-level gaming desktop, the SkyTech Blaze 3.0 comes equipped with 802.11AC WiFi connectivity which ensures better WiFi reception and overall enhanced connection speeds when it’s connected wirelessly to an available network. This PC has a three-prong power cord approximately 6 feet long.
We noted there is no USB Type-C port which is included on the Blaze 2.0 as it supports today’s high-speed USB 3.1 standard which offers up to 10Gbps data transfer speeds that are twice as fast as USB 3.0 or USB 2.0 ports and can facilitate faster charging of mobile phones, tablets, and ultrabooks.
We would have loved a Type C port for this PC but we do understand that SkyTech needs to cut down costs in order to hit an affordable price point for entry-level gamers looking for a cheap pre-built gaming desktop with no compromise on internal components such as CPU and RAM etc.
Performance
The SkyTech Blaze 3.0 comes with the latest generation AMD Ryzen 5 3600 six-core processor clocked at 3.6GHz which assures excellent multitasking performance even for heavy tasks such as photo editing software. The AMD Ryzen 5 3600 is not only powerful but is also energy efficient. It comes with AMD Radeon RX 56 4GB dedicated graphics that’s powerful enough to play games at 1080P or medium settings at higher resolutions for smoother gameplay. These features are from the best brands in the market which is why Skytech stands out as a good brand at the end of the day. Read more about this on our, “Is Skytech a good brand” article.
You can run most modern titles on this gaming desktop even if you crank up various detail settings including anti-aliasing, high textures, etc.
It also features 16GB DDR4 2666MHz RAM which is upgradable to 32GB if needed in future. 16GB RAM allows you to keep many apps running in the background without compromising much on performance.
You get 1TB SSD storage that provides plenty of space to store all your files, photos and digital media without having to worry about limited storage capacity and slow disk speed as seen on other pre-built desktops. The 1TB SSD acts as the primary hard drive where you main OS and installed apps are stored for faster disk access. I should mention that this is the reason this gaming PC also has a short boot time.
Gaming capacity
As far as graphics go, the Skytech blaze 3.0 is packed with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super 6GB graphics unit. The Nvidia GTX 1660 GPU is based on Nvidia Turing architecture that offers enhanced performance over its predecessor. It comes with 6GB of GDDR6 memory which is clocked at 8GHz (effective clock speed), has a 352-bit memory interface, and a maximum bandwidth of 336GB/s. This PC is capable of delivering smooth 60 frames per second (fps) at 1080p or medium graphic settings in most modern games.
On Fortnite, it delivers 60fps with graphics set to Epic at 1080p resolution. Note that Fortnite is very demanding at the moment due to heavy shader effects and having this PC set on epic settings might not get you smooth FPS all the time depending on how active is the server you are playing in.
The RTX 2060 6GB edition performs better than this desktop’s GTX 1660 suer, see full benchmark results here. ( https://www.techspot.com/review/1664-geforce-rtx-2060/page5.html )
A solid mid-range gaming PC packed with the latest-generation components.
The Skytech Blaze 3.0 also offers built-in visuals for your streaming needs as well as other video recording tasks. For those who want to upgrade the graphics card, the Blaze 3.0 offers an open PCIe x16 slot for installing another high-end GPU to enhance graphic performance even further although you should be mindful of the power supply limitations when considering this upgrade.
The Skytech Blaze 3.0 is VR-ready and can support VR headsets like Oculus, HTC Vive etc.
Price/performance ratio
Ultimate gaming desktops must be good enough to play games at high settings without breaking a sweat and this SkyTech Blaze 3.0 certainly delivers on that with its winning combination of latest generation Ryzen processor and the latest generation Nvidia GTX 1660 Super GPU.
Despite being an entry level gaming desktop, it offers decent capacity for its price tag although you can definitely get more processing power if you are willing to spend a little bit more money for this purpose. You should also keep in mind that upgradeability is limited too unless you are ready to spend more cash on upgrading the graphics unit or other components.
Power Supply Unit
As expected from an entry-level gaming desktop, this PC also features a 600W Gold power supply that’s sufficient enough to handle most upgrades including powerful graphics cards in the future. You can even add a CPU liquid cooling system if needed with ease without having to worry about wattage limitations on its 600W PSU.
Pros:
* Latest generation AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6GHz six-core processor with excellent multitasking performance
* 4k capable Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super dedicated graphics which is VR-ready as well
* Fast 1TB SSD storage improves the overall performance of this device by minimizing disk access time
* Latest generation of RAM technology (DDR4 2666MHz) for faster data transfer and improved efficiency
* Comes with a 3-year warranty from the manufacturer which is a plus
Cons:
* Limited storage upgradeability as this PC has only 1TB SSD.
* It would have been nice to see USB Type C port on it besides the usual USB ports.
* The case may seem bulky if you are planning to use this gaming desktop under your desk or inside a small enclosure
Final verdict
If you are looking for an entry-level gaming PC that can deliver the latest AAA titles at 1080p/medium detail levels, then this is the perfect gaming deal for you right now. For those who want more processing power or upgradability options, you can consider taking a t this variant: Skytech Chronos
Is there another alternative
There are a couple of options within the same budget range. First, you can opt for the CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR Gaming PC (GXiVR8480A10) which comes with better specs, or consider this CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR Gaming PC (GXiVR8060A15) which is also a solid gaming desktop.
The upper midrange gaming desktops such as the MSI Aegis 3 and SkyTech Archangel both offer 1TB of storage capacity but you can get more power from its GTX 1660 Ti GPU without spending that much more money by getting this SkyTech Blaze 3.0 PC instead.
Finally, if you don’t want to change brands as such, the SkyTech Blaze II Gaming Computer PC is also a great choice for almost $100 less.
Should You Buy It?
All things considered, you can’t go wrong with this Blaze 3.0 PC gaming desktop from SkyTech as it offers the latest generation AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor that delivers powerful performance for today’s demanding games. In short, if you are looking for a value-packed entry-level gaming desktop with decent build quality and design at an affordable price tag, you should consider checking out the Blaze 3.0 PC by SkyTech right away.
The Blaze 3.0 gaming desktop pc easily ticks all the right boxes of our Editor’s Choice awards for best budget entry-level gaming PC.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is SkyTech blaze a good brand?
YES, is a good brand. Skytech has made a good name for itself as far as gaming desktops go since they offer high value for their price tags.
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