With all that’s happening in the world, trying to predict the best time to buy a new PC could be deemed a fool’s errand. True, there is an abundance of next-gen hardware on the horizon, but who’s to say what market conditions await? With prices on current-gen gear now resembling something akin to normal levels, gamers overdue an upgrade might be inclined to beat the crowds and jump right in.
We’ve already seen some of the UK’s biggest system integrators present their wares at around the £2,000 and £3,000 price points, but for those unperturbed by the looming cost-of-living crisis, Cyberpower’s Infinity X129 Ti D5 could be right up your street.
Cyberpower Infinity X129 Ti D5
£3,999
Pros
- Looks great
- Custom cooling loop
- 4K gaming credentials
- Zero bloatware
- Five-year warranty
Cons
- Not the quietest
- RAM could be faster
- Pricey at £3,999
- Next-gen looms
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How we test and review products.
Priced at £3,999, this mid-tower rig looks different to the norm and eats up some of our established benchmarks for breakfast.
Part of the appeal is a Hyte Y60 chassis that many an enthusiast has been talking about in recent months. The mid-tower case alone fetches £190 and looks the business courtesy of a three-piece tempered glass design that offers a panoramic view of the components within. And these are, by and large, the sort of components you’d want to show off.
Specification
You expect some hard hitters at this price point and Cyberpower obliges with a 16-core (eight performance, eight efficient), 24-thread Core i9-12900KF processor capable of a 5.2GHz top speed. The 12th Gen Alder Lake CPU sits atop an MSI MAG Z690 Tomahawk WiFi motherboard and is paired with 32GB (2x16GB) of dual-channel Corsair Vengeance DDR5-4800 memory. 64GB is available as a £169 upgrade, but speeds are limited to 5,600MT/s; we’d like to see Cyberpower add a 6,000MT/s kit to its otherwise vast array of configuration options.
Storage is provided by a single, spacious 2TB Kingston Fury Renegade M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD, and there’s no settling for second best in the graphics department, where a 24GB MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti champions the crème de la crème of the current generation.
A common criticism of Hyte’s Y60 case is that airflow in its default configuration can be somewhat limited. Cyberpower aims to alleviate any such concerns with the inclusion of its ‘Hyper Liquid Cooling’ kit, which comprises two EK radiators – a 360 in the roof plus a 240 to the side – the latter of which crucially bolsters the amount of air drawn into the case.
One inevitable caveat to all this cooling is that fan noise is immediately apparent. Factor in the chassis’ three pre-installed fans (one 120mm rear exhaust, two 120mm bottom intakes) plus a further three GPU fans and that’s a dozen blowers including the PSU.
We’re of the opinion such a configuration could be made to run at very low fan speeds, but as is the case with most system integrators, Cyberpower prefers to err on the side of caution for the sake of long-term reliability. There’s no factory overclock to speak of – CPU nor GPU – and by default the fans ramp-up quickly and audibly, which in this latest heatwave is fine by us.
Rigid tubing connects the radiators to a sleek EK Quantum Velocity² D-RGB water block while incorporating an EK-Quantum Kinetic TBE 200 D5 PWM D-RGB pump and reservoir. A stellar-looking setup with barely a cable in sight, but it hasn’t escaped our attention that two radiators serving solely the CPU feels like a missed opportunity.
Expecting the GPU to be part of the loop would perhaps be a push – fully water-cooled setups of this magnitude often fetch over £5,000 – but pricing wasn’t the limiting factor. Cyberpower’s internal testing found that “combining newer i9 with a high-end GPU in a single-pump system works less well than air-cooling the GPU” and given Y60’s internal layout, room for a dual-loop setup is somewhat limited.
On the plus side, the chassis’ integrated PCIe 4.0 riser cable positions the graphics card vertically in full show, and sticking to air cooling ensures swapping the GPU for a next-gen upgrade further down the line is going to be simple and straightforward. Speaking of maintenance, the chassis’ squarer 456mm (L) x 285mm (W) x 462mm (H) dimensions allow for a dual-chamber configuration where the clutter is kept out of sight in a rear void.
Though hidden from view, Cyberpower could route the various cables a little tidier, and nitpicking somewhat, provisions might have been made for SATA cables to run to the two rear-mounted storage bays. Still, an 850W MSI MPG A850GF power supply ought to offer enough juice for this generation and potentially the next; 13th Gen Intel ‘Raptor Lake’ will be pin-compatible, allowing for decent upgrade potential.
Connectivity is well stocked front and back, however the chassis’ front I/O ports – audio, dual USB Type-A plus USB Type-C – are positioned on the lower-left edge, meaning the PC is best placed on top of a desk rather than below. Around back, motherboard I/O carries three USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, and a pair of USB 2.0. Intel 2.5GbE LAN is accompanied by onboard Wi-Fi 6E, while Cyberpower’s 64-bit install of Windows 11 is mercifully free of bloatware.
Fire it up and Infinity X129 Ti D5 exhibits some serious curb appeal, and there’s no doubting that performance will be about as good as it gets for consumer desktops. If there’s a catch it’s that turnkey systems equipped with a custom cooling loop typically attract a premium, and Infinity X129 Ti D5 is no exception. Our back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest a similar rig using more conventional AIO liquid cooling could be put together for roughly £3,300.
By that assumption, you’re looking at a near-20 per cent premium for Cyberpower to incorporate a specialised custom cooling loop solely for the CPU, with the added benefit of a five-year gold warranty as standard, covering parts and collect-and-return for the first two years, plus labour costs for the duration.
Performance
Cyberpower’s custom cooling loop is clearly up to the task, even in the middle of yet another UK heatwave. Core i9-12900KF performance is right where we’d expect it to be; at or very near the top of the charts.
32GB of DDR5-4800 is a fine fit for most systems, yet given the scope of the build we might have expected something a little quicker.
Is faster RAM or faster storage most likely to impact real-world performance? We’d bet on the latter, and so too evidently does Cyberpower. The default 2TB Kingston Fury Renegade M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD is suitably swift in terms of both sequential read and writes.
Add a best-in-class GPU and chart-topping results await. Cyberpower sets new records in both our PCMark and 3DMark charts.
Nothing other than a top-notch gaming experience would suffice at £4K. Final Fantasy is admittedly a less-demanding title, yet we favour the benchmark as it typically mirrors many e-sports games. By that rationale, Infinity X129 Ti D5 would make an excellent pairing for a high-refresh display.
| FPS @ 1080p | FPS @ 1440p | FPS @ 2160p | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Ultra High Quality) | 118 | 100 | 67 |
| Dirt 5 (Ultra High Quality, Raytraced Shadows On) | 184 | 151 | 105 |
| Far Cry 6 (Ultra Quality, HD Textures and DXR On) | 122 | 111 | 77 |
| Gears Tactics (Ultra Quality) | 225 | 164 | 86 |
Running a quartet of more strenuous triple-A games reaffirms RTX 3090 Ti’s position as the best of the current crop. Whereas RTX 3080 Ti systems often struggle to deliver 60 frames per second at a 4K resolution – Far Cry 6 famously deteriorates into a stuttering mess – the RTX 3090 Ti, with 24GB of available RAM, has no such problems. 4K60 is maintained across the board.
Many factors are at play here. On the one hand, 70°C could be deemed a little warm for a CPU cooled by dual radiators. On the other hand, ambient room temperature reached almost 30°C during the extreme weather, and neither CPU nor GPU strayed from top-end frequencies.
Here’s where we’d want to spend a little time in BIOS fine tuning. There’s certainly scope to quieten the fans with minimal loss in cooling performance.
No surprises here. RTX 3090 Ti may be king of the hill, but a 450W TDP is reflected in high system-wide power draw. Traditionally nothing to worry about it, such figures are now worth bearing in mind amid soaring energy costs.
Conclusion
Dressed to impress and undoubtedly quick, Cyberpower’s Infinity X129 Ti D5 cherry picks many of today’s best components and wraps them in an eye-catching Hyte Y60 case brimming with liquid-cooling paraphernalia.
The end result is a lavish rig that most enthusiasts would be happy to see on their desk. Taking the pre-built route has the added benefit of longer-term warranty and rapid delivery – current stock levels indicate a shipping date of 10 days from moment or order – though such convenience comes at a premium.
A liquid-cooled Core i9 and GTX 3090 Ti build is never going to be deemed economical, and as potent as the combination is, there’s pause for thought this late in the game. Those in need of a quick fix will find the Cyberpower ticks most of the right boxes, but with next-gen launches looming large, it may pay to wait a couple of months to see what’s in store.
Verdict: a true 4K gaming rig showcasing the best of the current generation.
