There’s far more to extreme gaming performance than a monster graphics card. Your choice of PSU, RAM and SSD are all critical when planning your next DIY build or upgrade.
It’s easy to fixate on raw power when building a gaming rig from scratch, or planning your next round of component upgrades. With the latest and greatest processors and graphics cards constantly making headlines, it’s understandably tempting to sink all of your build budget into blistering fast silicon and then skimp elsewhere.
Of course, you know from experience that the perfect gaming rig is a finely tuned machine: an absolute shedload of gaming grunt means little if your GPU is writing cheques that your rig can’t cash.
Just as you wouldn’t drop a Ferrari engine into a Ford Fiesta, you can’t pair high-performance silicon with second-rate components. Every component of a gaming rig needs to be chosen with care to avoid bottlenecks.
The right PSU delivers power in spades
An under-powered PSU cripples an otherwise great gaming rig. Remember, you’re future-proofing to power your next GPU upgrade, not just your current build.
The XPG Kyber II 850W is an affordable, next-gen-ready PSU for Australian gamers looking to upgrade to newer, power-hungry GPUs – with the headroom to support an RTX 4090 or 5080, or even a 5090 if your other components aren’t super-demanding.
Of course, there’s more to a power supply than raw wattage. Many builders don't realise that they need a native 12V-2x6 connector to be ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 ready.
A semi-modular design allows the XPG Kyber II 850W to feature native ATX 24-pin, EPS 8-pin(x2) and 12V-2x6 cables, along with modular SATA/Molex/PCIe 6+2 connectors.
The 12V-2x6 connector replaces the older 12VHPWR connector to ensure a more secure connection and address overheating, all while handling the massive, sudden power spikes often demanded by modern high-end graphics cards.
The Kyber II 850W handles up to 235% power excursions, hitting up to around 1700W for 100 microseconds, to deal with those transient GPU power spikes that threaten to cause havoc in the middle of your gaming session.
Japanese capacitors contribute to its reliability, while eight different industrial-grade safety features protect both the PSU and the system from damage.
Cybenetics Gold and 80 Plus Gold certification ensure the XPG Kyber II 850W is highly energy-efficient and dependable, while a Cybenetics A- noise rating means it won’t roar like a jet engine.
The best RAM doesn’t compromise on looks or performance
A great gaming rig demands not just power but also stamina. That’s where RAM comes in, ensuring your PC can keep up with the pace of demanding triple-A titles.
DDR5 6000 RAM, like the XPG Lancer Blade RGB DDR5-6000 CL30, hits the sweet spot for cost-effective performance which doesn’t throttle your graphics.
Anything slower than 6000MHz and you’re likely paying a high price in terms of lost frames per second. Many games will see a 10 FPS or more boost from DDR5 6000, when stepping up from older DDR5 4600-4800.
The XPG Lancer Blade RGB DDR5-6000 CL30 16GB x2 (32GB kit, Black) takes advantage of PMIC and on-die ECC for a compact design, to ensure premium performance even with a low-profile heat sink.
While refusing to compromise on performance, the XPG Lancer Blade RGB DDR5-6000 CL30 also ensures you don’t need to compromise on aesthetics.
While RGB DDR5 kits are impressive bling, many are too tall to clear large air coolers or fit small cases. That’s where Lancer Blade RGB comes to the rescue as the go-to low-profile DDR5 RGB memory kit for Small Form Factor and air-cooler-constrained builds.
With ~33.8–40mm Z-height, you don’t need to trade off RGB aesthetics to ensure compatibility with your motherboard, cooler or case.
The right SSD runs fast and cool
Slow storage is another potential bottleneck for your gaming rig, with the new breed of Gen5 SSDs nearly doubling the speeds of their Gen4 predecessors.
The XPG Mars 980 Blade 1TB is Adata XPG's flagship Gen5 SSD in Australia, supporting performance PC gamers and builders in making the transition from Gen4 to Gen5 storage with a compatible motherboard
Blessed with a PCI Express 5.0 interface, the Mars 980 Blade features a slim graphene cooler that is designed to keep it well-cooled for sustained high-speed performance.
This makes it well-suited not just to gaming rigs but also upgrading laptops, along with increasing storage capacity on the PlayStation 5 which requires installing a compatible M.2 NVMe SSD in a narrow expansion slot with very little space for airflow.
The Mars 980 Blade supports NVMe 2.0 for connecting directly to your motherboard. It also takes advantage of an SM2508 controller – built on TSMC's energy-saving 6nm process – that delivers speed and power management improvements over previous generations.
The result is an SSD which keeps up with next-gen gaming, offering up to 14,000 MB/s read and 13,000 MB/s write speeds for seamless level transitions, long draw distances and high-definition textures.
Crank up your rig now
A great gaming rig needs to get the fundamentals right, you can’t leave anything to chance. Adata XPG hits the sweet spot for reliability, quality and performance when you need to ensure that every component brings its A-game.
