Wired2Fire Phoenix Intel Hardware Review

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Fast Facts

Introduction

I’ve not been an avid PC gamer for a number of years now. While the technology has evolved, my PC has gone from a heavyweight titan, to a dusty potato. As the likes of Steam and Epic battle out for online supremacy, I swapped this for console based gaming. But when the opportunity to review the Wired2Fire Phoenix came up I jumped at the chance to rekindle my love for all things PC. So how does the hardware fare? Well come with me as I find out.

Gaming at an Affordable Price

The Wired2Fire Phoenix Intel is billed as being a platform that offers “excellent gaming performance, with a price that all gamers can take advantage of“. It’s certainly a bold statement but it’s one that Wired2Fire can safely bet their money on. Coming in at an RRP of £1099, the Phoenix offers brilliant value for money.

To start off, the Wired2Fire Phoenix Intel boasts the performance of the Intel’s new Alder Lake Processor, the i5 12400k. Not only is this the current top Intel processor, its 4.4GHz Turbo Frequency and six performance cores make gaming and every day tasks on this system an effortless breeze.

The graphics card of choice for the Phoenix Intel is the MSI NVIDA GeForce RTX 3060 VENTUS 3X 12G OCGB GDDR6X. Featuring a triple fan design, that sits within an industrial style case, the VENTUS offers incredible visuals with both its Ray Tracing and Tensor Cores. Latency isn’t an issue either as the VENTUS takes full advantage of NVIDA’s REFLEX technology.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to put the system fully through its paces, but it did perform effortlessly when playing both Destiny 2 and CS:GO. Not only was I able to play both titles at their max visual settings, the Phoenix Intel didn’t even break a sweat.

Looking Good!

Aside from its gaming prowess, the Phoenix Intel also takes full advantage of its MSI MAG VAMPIRIC 100R RGB case to show off its inner workings. The unique design of the casing sees one side replaced with a toughened glass exterior. Secured to the casing via four screws, this glass panel allows for easy access to the machine’s internals – should you need to. It also does well in highlighting the neon display of the cooling fan – and if you’re “that” person, you can show off the internals too!

The front casing also features a unique mesh design which gives adequate air flow through the unit. To keep things looking stylish the MSI MAG VAMPIRIC also has a front panel light which is set alongside the cooling mesh. Moving on to the top of the casing and we have an “Insta-Light Loop” button. This gives control of the frontal light strip, and allows you to choose between various preset configurations. Aside from this there’s also a dust filter, which features the same mesh design as the front panel. The difference here is that it’s magnetically attached to the casing as to offer a very simple way to clean the filter if needed.

Completing the top panel is the power and reset buttons, mic in port, audio out port, two USB 2.0, and one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type A ports.

Stealth Mode Engaged

When it comes to noise, the Wired2Fire Phoenix Intel is a pretty silent machine. Aside from a slight purr you wouldn’t know that the unit was powered on. This is naturally helped by the cooling-centric design of the casing as well as the included Wired2Fire Heatpipe Cooler. Coincidently, if you do want to add more cooling the MSI MAG VAMPIRIC does offer space for up to four fans to be installed.

SSD

As standard, the Phoenix comes equipped with a Lexmark 1TB NM610 M.2 NvMe SSD. It’s a pretty decent storage option which not only offers a faster speed than a standard SATA SSD, but also allows you to get gaming quicker. To look at it further, when playing Destiny 2 it took roughly 10-15 seconds to load into the character menu which saves at least 5 seconds when compared to the same situation on the Xbox Series X.

The NM610 offers up over 2.1/1.7 GBps read/write performance thanks to its PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. Whilst its sustained write speed is vastly lower than other M.2 models, it handles day-to-day tasks with relative ease.

Conclusion

My time with the Wired2Fire Phoenix Intel wasn’t nearly as long as I would have liked. I literally fell straight in love with the machine from the minute I pressed the power button. As a primarily console gamer, this system has swayed me back into PC gaming. The system performed above and beyond my expectations in both gaming and everyday use. Wired2Fire have created a budget friendly system that not only appeals to novices like myself, but also die-hard PC owners too. The modular design allows you to tweak parts as needed, and the VAMPIRIC case – with the Wired2Fire Heatpipe Cooler – offers one stylish light show!

5 out of 5

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