Velocity Micro Raptor Z95A Buy at Velocity Micro Pros Excellent gaming performance
Tidy interior
Ample upgrade options Cons Considerably more expensive than DIY
So-so front connections
If you want an extreme gaming PC without bloatware or the tedious work of configuring and building it yourself, the Velocity Micro SX3 Raptor Z95A stands out as a compelling option. It's pricey, but the folks at custom builder Velocity Micro put together a tidy system using almost exclusively standardized parts, leaving the door open for future upgrades. While it's frequently cheaper to build on your own -- at the very least, you save on the cost of labor -- the Raptor Z95A manages to be fairly competitive with other systems in its class, like the $3,899 Corsair Vengeance a7400 or $4,699 Vengeance i8200, though it leaves room to be undercut by systems like this $2,750 Asus ROG G700 with an RTX 5080 of its own.
The Z95A is built around a few core elements that don't change, no matter the configuration. It's centered around a Gigabyte Aorus Pro X870E motherboard and Velocity Micro's SX3 case -- a 55-liter tower that fits ATX and EATX motherboards. Closed-loop liquid cooling is also a central feature, with a 360mm radiator and the option for RGB-lit fans.
Velocity Micro Raptor Z95A Price as reviewed $3,999 Size 55 liter ATX (19.3 x 18.9 x 9.25in/490 x 480 x 235 mm) Motherboard Gigabyte Aorus Pro X870E CPU 2.5GHz AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Memory 64GB DDR5-5600 Graphics 16GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 FE Storage 2TB NVMe M.2 PCIe Gen 4 SSD Connections USB 2.0 (x2 rear), USB 3.0 (x2 front), USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 (x1 front), USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (x4 rear), USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A (x3 rear), USB4 (x2 rear), 3.5mm audio connector (x1 front, x2 rear), Optical S/PDIF (x1 rear), 2.5GbE (x1 rear), Antenna x2, HDMI (x1 on motherboard Networking 2.5GbE, Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 Wi-Fi 7 802.11be, Bluetooth 5.4 Operating system Windows 11 Home 24H2
The configurations start at $2,549. At that price, you get a Ryzen 5 9600X processor with 32GB of DDR5-5200, a 750-watt 80 Plus Bronze power supply, a 1TB Kingston NV3 SSD, and an RTX 5060 8GB. (The "A" in Z95A refers to AMD. There's a Z95i based on Intel CPUs.) Our test configuration bumps up a Ryzen 7 9800X3D with 64GB of DDR5-6000, an 850-watt 80 Plus Gold power supply (an MSI MAG A850GL in this case), a 2TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD and an RTX 5080. When the unit was prepped, it was listed at $3,999, though currently it's sitting at $4,644, partly because of volatile component prices.
That's far from the peak of the pricing. Higher CPU, GPU, memory, and storage options can ramp the price up dramatically. Bumping up our test configuration up to the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and RTX 5090 alone would raise the price to just under $7,000.
Josh Goldman/CNET
... continue reading