The Prowler by BubbleTeaBuilds
In this segment I’ll be covering my thoughts on the highlighted build, my favorite features, how I would recommend upgrading it after purchasing, and even evaluating it’s price-to-performance value. Hope you enjoy!
For our first week we’re taking a look at BubbleTeaBuilds’ Prowler PC which is currently listed at $850 (just posted Thursday) and it’s sporting an Intel i5 10400 and a GTX 980Ti.
From the very first picture you can see that there was some serious attention to detail on this PC and although this GTX 980Ti GPU is several generations old at this point, this is still a really solid price-to-performance budget build!
Favorite Features
- Aesthetics – If you know who I am, there should be zero surprise that the aesthetics lured me in on this one. The color scheme of white, purple, and black is completely dialed in on this build and every part looks like it was chosen on purpose for this aesthetic. The cable extensions and combos are lined up perfectly, they match very well with the colors of the theme, and the NZXT H210 case by itself is a beauty.
- Upgradeability – Although this PC is listed at a solid price, especially for beginner PC gamers, there’s some good upgrade potential with this PC as well. The Intel i5 10400 CPU can definitely handle a much more capable graphics card and with 650 watts coming from the power supply, this build is perfectly slated for an upgrade to something like an RTX 3060, 3060Ti, or even a 3070Ti depending on much you want to spend. The 10400 can also be upgraded with the capable Z490 motherboard that’s included.
- 32GB of RAM – The traditional amount of RAM that’s included in most builds these days priced between $300-$1200 is usually 16GB, so it’s nice to see 32GB at this price point for sure. This won’t increase gaming performance per se, but if you’re doing any sort of heavy multi tasking or using software/applications that can utilize more RAM, you’ll be happy with this amount.
Price to Performance Value
As I mentioned in my Favorite Features segment, the price-to-performance of this build is one of its best features. At this $850 range ($800 for new customers that use Promo Code “Welcome10”) I don’t see any other builds on the platform that compete with this one… and certainly not with the aesthetics. The older 980Ti may hold some people back purely because of its age, but it’s still a very capable GPU for 1080p gaming and can crank out some good FPS numbers. If you search for a prebuilt PC at this price range on Amazon, you’ll see options like the iBUYPOWER build that includes a Ryzen 3 3100, 8GB of RAM, and a GTX 1650. BubbleTea’s Prowler would destroy that build in terms of FPS numbers and look much better doing it as well.
First Upgrades
This PC is perfectly primed for a solid graphics card upgrade later on down the line. If you’re gaming on a 1080p and 60Hz monitor, that 980Ti will be perfectly fine for you. Whenever you’re looking to upgrade to 1440p or push some higher refresh rate monitors, this GPU can easily be upgraded to a current gen GPU for some much more performance. I would aim for anywhere around the RTX 3060 – RTX 3070 mark, or RX 6600XT to RX 6700XT range.
Conclusion
Overall this is a very solid build for the price and it’ll be hard to find this combo of performance and aesthetics anywhere on the platform right now. This build is on a completely new level compared to other prebuilt options from companies like iBUYPOWER, and with the upgradability included this will be a solid choice for anyone looking in the $800-$900 mark. Bonus points if you were already looking for a smaller build with the NZXT H210!
