Life support build: Flouting every guideline to construct a powerhouse productivity PC

In my previous Rising Phoenix build, I issued a disclaimer that I was only here to stir the pot. Well, I’m back once more, and guess what I’m here to do? For this latest build, I’ll be shattering several unwritten rules, but I’ll clarify the reasons. Some were violated on purpose, while others were forced upon us.

This time, we’re putting together a productivity-oriented setup, with no AMD or Nvidia, and it’ll be white!

A brief note on builds at 3DTested

A few months ago, we released the Rising Phoenix, a gaming setup with a slight twist, to launch the series. And for this build, we’re sticking with a “Life Support” theme. When I first began gathering components and drafting this, it was October, and I figured this would be a perfect theme for a haunting build—but I got swamped in 3DTested Premium Stout Owl’s project, and now we’re in a whole Another year, but the costs of RAM and storage are still undeniably alarming.

The goal of this build series is to spark creativity, crafting something a bit more unconventional, while also aiming to help you unleash your inner artist and make your PC genuinely your own, but still Something reasonable and attainable. We’re not aiming to provide the best value per dollar for these systems, but to highlight hardware that complements each other, both in appearance and functionality.

For the best value propositions, have a look at our Best Builds page.

Life Support

For this feature build, we’re not prioritizing gaming at all, but instead, a productivity-focused setup. With the theme Life Support, this is a PC designed to resemble something you might encounter in a medical laboratory. Or, you know, something slapped together as a prop PC in a lowbrow Hollywood horror movie lab scene, where the set designer has a passing grasp of custom PC hardware.

Intel Core Ultra 7 265K

If you think of laboratory, AMD doesn’t immediately come to mind. Intel does (or at least it does to me). Intel might currently trail in gaming performance, but when it comes to productivity, Arrow Lake CPUs deliver a tremendous boost.

The Core Ultra 7 265K includes 20 CPU cores, comprising 8 performance cores and 12 efficiency cores. Clock speeds can peak at 5.50 GHz, all while delivering excellent efficiency, particularly under partial and idle loads.

What’s even better is that it’s currently priced at around $300, and if gaming isn’t your main focus, it delivers tons of CPU power for that amount.

ASRock Intel Arc B580 Steel Legend

Staying true to the theme, for this build we’re opting for an Intel B580 GPU. It’s a somewhat unlikely underdog GPU, which seems odd given that it’s produced by Intel, but the chipmaker is relatively new to crafting modern discrete graphics cards (discrete: not integrated into the CPU).

What’s notable about the Intel Arc series GPUs is that they target a part of the GPU market that AMD and Nvidia have mostly overlooked. This is a graphics card priced at roughly $300. And with Intel’s XESS upscaling, it delivers strong gaming performance for the price. What’s more crucial for this build, though, is that Intel Quick Sync delivers an excellent video encoder for anyone into video editing. And 12 GB of GDDR6 memory is particularly generous at this price point.

ASRock Z890 Steel Legend

If you’re seeking a cost-effective motherboard to complement a high-performance Arrow Lake processor, the ASRock Z890 Steel Legend delivers excellent connectivity and ample space for future upgrades.

Kingston Fury Beast RGB 64 GB (2x 32GB) DDR5-6000

This is where the biggest source of frustration lies with this build. When I tested this memory, the DRAM crisis hadn’t occurred yet, and it was a memory kit priced around $250. At this cost, choosing 64 GB for a productivity setup was obvious. Unfortunately, it’s a kit that currently retails for a painfully high $1349, and while I’m glad it aligns with the motherboard’s design language, at this price, it’s a hard sell and significantly alters the overall cost Construction cost of this system.

For those focused on virtualization, data analysis, or video editing, a 64 GB kit might still make sense, but you could save money by seeking a 32 GB kit without RGB from the Best Memory page Cash.

Kingston Renegade G5 2TB

Although the Kingston Renegade Fury G5 is one of the Best SSDs and we gave it a glowing review, it faces a comparable problem to DDR5: it has grown significantly costly. Currently priced at around $500, I can only suggest it to those who are certain they require 2 TB and a drive that fully utilizes the PCIe 5.0 NVMe bus.

If that’s what you’re after, the Renegade Fury G5 is a powerhouse SSD—it boasts an unexpectedly high durability rating. It’s also efficient, but more crucially, it simply writes, and writes, and writes—this isn’t an SSD that fills its cache and grinds to a halt—it’s an SSD that manages continuous large writes effortlessly. This is an SSD that would be wasted as a system or game drive. It’s the type of SSD you’d use to transfer large datasets, raw video footage, work with, and then wipe clean at the end of each day, repeatedly.

Fractal Design Epoch

For This Life Support system, we opted to use Fractal Design’s new Epoch chassis. It’s priced at $110, solidly constructed, and its quietly elegant design fits perfectly with the theme.

The front mesh intake provides excellent cooling and offers ample room for assembly. With I/O ports on top, it also works well as a case designed for floor placement.

Phanteks Glacier One D30 X2

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265K is a powerful productivity chip, but it can get very hot under sustained heavy loads. Therefore, a robust liquid cooler is nearly essential, and Phanteks’ Glacier One D30 X2 is more than capable of handling it. Equipped with a copper cold plate, aluminum radiator, and three D30 spinners, this CPU cooler effortlessly handles the 265K without breaking a sweat.

The D30 fans are an RGB version of the T30’s, standing 5mm thicker than most other 120mm fans, which grants them substantial airflow at low RPMs.

The cooler’s CPU block also includes a fan within it that directs airflow toward the area around the socket to cool the VRM circuitry, memory, and the main SSD.

Be quiet! Pure Power 12M 850W

850 W may exceed what this PC requires, but power supplies operate most efficiently near 50% load. With typical workloads on the CPU and GPU, you’ll hover just below that mark.

Be Quiet’s Pure Power 12M series PSUs come with modular connectivity, and generally run quietly and reliably, year after year. The company also offers a 5-year warranty on their PSUs, and at $110, is there anything more you’d truly want from a power supply?

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