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Spain, Madrid
1 Level
709 Review
54 Karma

Review on 🎮 CUK Continuum Micro Gamer PC - Intel Core i9-11900KF Liquid Cooled, 32GB RAM, 512GB NVMe SSD + 2TB HDD, GeForce RTX 3060 12GB, 700W PSU, Windows 10 Home, AC WiFi" Enhanced Gaming Desktop Computer by Daniel Tonini

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Quality Control Issues

Let me start by saying that even in the state of miscalculation, PC is still a force to be reckoned with. However, let me mention the "calculation" part. I bought the Mini with 64GB RAM, 1TB NVME SSD, 2TB HDD and i9-10900K. I'm the kind of person who checks every item in the box and makes sure everything is there. To my surprise, there was more in the box than I expected. The inclusions were great! CUK sends you a duplicate of almost every cable in the PC, which I wasn't expecting, warranty and installation guides for everything in the tower (hardware and software), and even adds a starter mouse and keyboard if you don't. I have a. All of this was a pleasant surprise. One of the attached documents is a quality assurance checklist. On this checklist, even before I took the PC out of the foam, I saw the paper that said 1TB NVME SSD, 3TB HDD and thought maybe they put the total TB in the second number box, but no. After hooking everything up and looking at the system specs, I actually had a 1TB SSD and a 3TB HDD, which was nothing to complain about considering I ordered a 2TB HDD. But it made me think about the discrepancy between the order and the product. With that in mind, I inspected the equipment. The first thing that caught my eye was the CPU AIO water cooler with no RGB or even the crown sticker as advertised in the photos of this and a few other CUK towers. It was a little daunting, but purely cosmetic, so I let it slide. I looked at the RAM, everything is populated, everything works, everything is fine. The GPU was surprisingly quiet, but I didn't leave anything running, so I was really impressed with how quiet the fan hum was (I'll find out why later). I noticed that the AIO was built with a pump under the water block, which actually makes the job difficult and causes the CPU to cool unevenly. If the chiller is mounted vertically (which it is in most cases), the pump should be placed above the water block for constant water flow with less stress on the pump. This simple change in orientation can often double the life of a product (2 years - 4/5 years) and I was baffled because other buyers have posted photos of their towers showing the AIO mounted vertically with a pump over a water block. This lack of consistency seems random, but if your site emphasizes how detailed and masterful your builds are, I have to question that when I see things like this. Same build, different alignment, but it doesn't technically disrupt the system, so I tried skipping that and figured I'd realign it myself after I got my toolbox. I'm on the computer. I thought it was air bubbles going through the AIO system and converging into a large air pocket in the water block. In theory, this should have taken a slight hit if the bubbles hit the water block and pooled in a pocket fast enough; из-за ориентации водяного насоса я решил, что он либо борется, либо, возможно, в насосной системе было больше воздуха, чем должно быть, но после того, как я слишком долго был пронизан любопытством, я не мог больше терпеть и должен был сделать That. more thorough inspection. and I'm glad I did. When I opened the side panel, I didn't follow the sound of the water block, but the GPU. I ordered a 3080 for my tower, although I seriously considered buying a 3090, I just couldn't justify the extra cost. The 3080 has three fans, the two outer fans spin clockwise and the center fan spins counter-clockwise. I followed the beat to the middle fan. As it turned out, the middle fan didn't start. It will act like it's about to start spinning and then die and return to its original position. This created the intermittent but regular knocking. I turned off the computer, turned it on its side and checked the fan for obstructions or damage, there were none. I checked the cables connecting the card and the motherboard, they were good and tight, solid connections. So I put it back on and turned it on and didn't notice a pop so I checked again and thought the fan was back on. No, it turns out it doesn't spin at all. I've restarted my computer several times, sometimes it hums, sometimes it just won't try to start at all. So the whole system still works, but cannot withstand the permanently high load for which I bought it. I'm a 3D artist and web developer specializing in asset creation and animated graphics. My GPU needs to run reliably and at high speeds for long periods of time. While the system is running fine now, it won't be in two years because the AIO pump will fail and without all fans running, the graphics card will likely burn out under long-term heavy workloads (eg, high-performance rendering). . I bought this computer because of the rave reviews and the reasonable price of the components that came with it, but they should work. I can't help but notice a non-working fan on the graphics card, predicting system death. I want to give it 5 stars because even in subpar condition it works very well (with non-workloads) and is very quiet, but I don't get to lose $3.5k on a computer often, so it lasts me at least 5 years , and in this state I don't think it will last. Small problems now mean big problems later. I will contact the seller to see what can be done, hopefully we can fix this.

Pros
  • Pretty Packaging
Cons
  • Don't Remind Me