Cyberpower iCUE Infinity Gaming PC Review & Comments

Seems the score is higher than it deserves, 5/10 well made maybe but hardly a PC of note spec wise. Costs of course high but thats the current times somewhat - Didn't Cyberpower create an account here recently sure I saw them post up something. Is this why they sent a review PC in ? Got AVforums members in there sights currently ? I find it interesting when companies engage with forums, got to walk the walk fellas as you will get fact checked on your products, maybe I am missing the point and brand recognition is more the thing here.
 
It isn't the scalping. It is the mining. You can earn £150 a month mining with a 3080. After 5 months an 3080 FE has paid for itself and you can still sell it on over RRP.
Mining is a reason but not even close to being "the" major reason for the high prices. Capacity is planned year or more in advance. Very high demand because of the Pandemic which outstripped the expected capacity is the main reason. TSMC and Samsung are the only fabs that can manufacture sub 10nm chips. Intel is still struggling to fab 10nm. That's why TSMC has indicated a 10 billion dollar increase this year and a reported 100 billion dollars (which seems a little high to me) over the next 3 years.
 
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Mining is a reason but not even close to being "the" major reason for the high prices. Capacity is planned year or more in advance. Extra high demand because of the Pandemic which outstripped the expected capacity is the main reason. TSMC and Samsung are the only fabs that can manufacture sub 10nm chips. Intel is still struggling to fab 10nm. That's why TSMC has indicated a 10 billion dollar increase this year and a reported 100 billion dollars (which seems a little high to me) over the next 3 years.
100% correct. Miners are the fall guys taking all the blame for contributing to a tiny fraction of the problem. The problem is the global semiconductor shortage, coupled with higher than ever demand. MOSTLY from gamers. Not defending miners, mind. But that is the reality.

The 'miners are to blame' narrative is a complete misconception of the situation, perpetuated by angry gamers (angry gamer here, so I know how satisfying it is to be able to point the finger at an opposing group and say it's their fault). But even Linus Tech Tips made a vid recently to ask gamers to stop perpetuating this myth, and to explain the real issues (as @Coulson describes, basically).
 
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It isn't the scalping. It is the mining. You can earn £150 a month mining with a 3080. After 5 months an 3080 FE has paid for itself and you can still sell it on over RRP.
I suppose you are right, mining has created the shortage, the shortage has created the conditions for scalping. It raises questions around the supply chains and how so many consumer cards were wholesale snapped up by miners. Nvidia doesn't care as long as their new product lines have shifted large numbers of units.

Although the idea of mining cards with no video output and therefore less power consumption would appeal to the miners and make GPUs less attractive to them the whole concept of mining is an Eco nightmare.
This spec, at this price, is atrocious. I built a PC that would benchmark about the same as this one give or take a few fps for my nephew a couple of months back and spent £1050 on all the parts (based around a 2080).

This is scalper pricing.
I've bought a few PCs over the years from Mesh, Scan, OC and you would typically see a cost of £70-£100 factored into the price above the parts which is reasonable. If they are charging £500 to build then it's a rip-off.
 
mining has created the shortage,
It did not as I've explained above.

Mining is a reason but not even close to being "the" major reason for the high prices. Capacity is planned year or more in advance. Extra high demand because of the Pandemic which outstripped the expected capacity is the main reason. TSMC and Samsung are the only fabs that can manufacture sub 10nm chips. Intel is still struggling to fab 10nm. That's why TSMC has indicated a 10 billion dollar increase this year and a reported 100 billion dollars (which seems a little high to me) over the next 3 years.

I've bought a few PCs over the years from Mesh, Scan, OC and you would typically see a cost of £70-£100 factored into the price above the parts which is reasonable. If they are charging £500 to build then it's a rip-off.
It's not a good look ;)
 
Mining is a reason but not even close to being "the" major reason for the high prices. Capacity is planned year or more in advance. Very high demand because of the Pandemic which outstripped the expected capacity is the main reason. TSMC and Samsung are the only fabs that can manufacture sub 10nm chips. Intel is still struggling to fab 10nm. That's why TSMC has indicated a 10 billion dollar increase this year and a reported 100 billion dollars (which seems a little high to me) over the next 3 years.
In that case scalpers are not the major reason either
 
This spec, at this price, is atrocious. I built a PC that would benchmark about the same as this one give or take a few fps for my nephew a couple of months back and spent £1050 on all the parts (based around a 2080).

This is scalper pricing.
A 2080 super will set you back £700 new (and the chances are you won't find stock, as they are superseedes by the 3 series).
A second hand one will probably cost you £600.
This isn't scalper pricing, it is the current situation with a lack of supply (don't forget, the manufacturers have increases prices as well. Asus sold the 3080 TUF for £650, they are now selling it through there own EU sites for €1000 (about £850), so it isn't just retailers)
 
A 2080 super will set you back £700 new (and the chances are you won't find stock, as they are superseedes by the 3 series).
A second hand one will probably cost you £600.
This isn't scalper pricing, it is the current situation with a lack of supply (don't forget, the manufacturers have increases prices as well. Asus sold the 3080 TUF for £650, they are now selling it through there own EU sites for €1000 (about £850), so it isn't just retailers)
Watch Gumtree, be patient. I snagged that 2080 for £450. It's still possible if you're prepared to keep your eye on the ball and are always ready to pounce.
 
If you want to compare the parts and prices then go to pcpartpicker.com. It will also tell you whether the parts you need are compatible/will fit and will also show price comparison for the individual parts.

I built my first PC last year around a Ryzen 7 3700x, recycled my old GPU but still have to wait for that upgrade once all the scalping dies down.
Who said the they were?
As above
 
@Coulson Thanks for that very reasoned explanation. I fear that the "Blamefest" being placed on miners is ridiculous and not helped by Many Tech Youtubers also frothing at the mouth about mining being to blame.

Considering we've seen chip shortages that have stopped car production lines I can't honestly believe anything other than the chip shortages due to fire / unexpected demand / plants closed due to Covid are to blame.

Not defending miners but the picture is much bigger than a number of PC Gamers planet wide.

Cheers for your post though.
 
Articles showing mining rigs with 78 rgb cards don't help. Reading the comments section you'd think miners had committed some sort of war crime atrocity. I'm no fan of mining but people get seriously triggered, perhaps it's just teenage angst.
 
I think you might have misunderstood the context of the comment. I think @Will I Aint was talking about the scalper pricing being too high to consider purchasing a GPU right now. Scalping is in fact a very large symptom, not a primary cause. I don't think he was apportioning blame.
 
I think you might have misunderstood the context of the comment. I think @Will I Aint was talking about the scalper pricing being too high to consider purchasing a GPU right now. Scalping is in fact a very large symptom, not a primary cause. I don't think he was apportioning blame.
Maybe, but if the manufacturers are scalping, what are retailers going to do?
And if you could sell a product for £1000 and make £100 profit, or sell it for £1600 and make £700 profit, what would you do?
 
Articles showing mining rigs with 78 rgb cards don't help. Reading the comments section you'd think miners had committed some sort of war crime atrocity. I'm no fan of mining but people get seriously triggered, perhaps it's just teenage angst.
I'm more annoyed that an un-needed Crypto currency needing number crunching wastes more energy per year than some small/medium country.
 
Maybe, but if the manufacturers are scalping, what are retailers going to do?
And if you could sell a product for £1000 and make £100 profit, or sell it for £1600 and make £700 profit, what would you do?
The manufacturers weren't scalping before and neither were the retailers. But supplies are even lower, demand hasn't diminished so prices will go up. This PC in this review is different because I'e not seen many RTX-3060 based machines anywhere near this price. Especially as for £150 quid more you can get a far better system. Even my system which costs "a lot" less than this has a better CPU, GPU and more NVME.
 
I'm more annoyed that an un-needed Crypto currency needing number crunching wastes more energy per year than some small/medium country.
Yes but that's not home GPU miners in western countries. That's ASIC miners in countries where electricity is dirt cheap so it makes economic sense to buy silly amounts of hardware and run it 24/7.
 
Yes but that's not home GPU miners in western countries. That's ASIC miners in countries where electricity is dirt cheap so it makes economic sense to buy silly amounts of hardware and run it 24/7.
Yes. Correct. Also rarely gets mentioned, but many green energy companies are using spare output to mine crypto rather than let it go to waste, and using the revenue generated to build more renewable energy infrastructure. The situation is nowhere near as bad on balance as some news outlets like to pretend for the sake of reader enragement.
 
Yes. Correct. Also rarely gets mentioned, but many green energy companies are using spare output to mine crypto rather than let it go to waste, and using the revenue generated to build more renewable energy infrastructure. The situation is nowhere near as bad on balance as some news outlets like to pretend for the sake of reader enragement.
That's very interesting, I haven't heard that before. What I think I did hear is that the Chinese government is doing it as well? If they are, it does makes sense.

Edit:
Actually China has banned Crypto mining, but that obviously doesn't stop the government from doing it.

I've just watched a video where the presenter says that lots of cards are going to the huge mining farms which I'm sure is the case. But the bottom line is that although mining is making it worse, the capacity is not there and videos like the one I just watched feel like clickbait.
 
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But they are now🙄

You seemed to have stopped reading after:
The manufacturers weren't scalping before and neither were the retailers.

What I actually said was:
The manufacturers weren't scalping before and neither were the retailers. But supplies are even lower, demand hasn't diminished so prices will go up.

As for my earlier comments in this thread about it being scalper "like" behaviour, that was specific to this PC.
This PC in this review is different because I've not seen many RTX-3060 based machines anywhere near this price. Especially as for £150 quid more you can get a far better system. Even my system which costs "a lot" less than this has a better CPU, GPU and more NVME.
 
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Funny, I just configured a new rig with AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 for £2360. Going to price the components separately to see how it compares.
 
Funny, I just configured a new rig with AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 for £2360. Going to price the components separately to see how it compares.

Building it myself is about £150 cheaper, but I imagine they prioritise prebuilt systems over individual orders. (GPU and CPU)
 

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