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SkyTech’s ArchAngel prebuilt gaming PC with the Ryzen 1200 and GTX 1050 Ti is a great-looking entry-level gaming rig that also performs nicely.

Name: [Ryzen & GTX 1050 Ti Edition] SkyTech Archangel Gaming Computer (Ryzen 1200, GTX 1050 Ti 4GB, 8GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB HDD, 24X DVD, Wi-Fi USB, Windows 10 Home 64-bit)
Model Number: ST-ARCH-1200-1050Ti-4G
Date First Available: November 2017 (From Amazon)
Category: Gaming/General Purpose

SkyTech ArchAngel Desktop Computer Overview

SkyTech’s ArchAngel model gaming computer can be a little confusing because there are so many different model variations of it. We’re reviewing the Ryzen 1200 and GTX 1050 Ti version of the ArchAngel (model number ST-ARCH-1200-1050Ti-4G) in this review article. We’ll take a closer look at the hardware, target user, and gaming performance of this Ryzen 1200/GTX 1050 Ti version of the ArchAngel.

If you prefer a black colored version of this PC, SkyTech actually also offer an identical PC apart from the case color which is called the SkyTech Shadow. This review applies to the SkyTech Ryzen & GTX 1050 Ti Edition Shadow Gaming PC as well, which is only different from the ArchAngel in color.

SkyTech [Ryzen/GTX 1050Ti] ArchAngel At A Glance

7.5/10

PCBA's Rating

While the ‘amazing value-for-money’ factor is a little lacking, the Ryzen/GTX 1050 Ti edition of SkyTech’s ArchAngel is still one of the more decent entry-level gaming PCs that we’ve seen due to its recent hardware, and will certainly offer great performance on all game titles.
⊕ Recent model CPU and graphics card (2017 releases)
⊕ Appears to have a quality PSU than competitor prebuilt PC models
⊕ Upgradeable
⊕ Great looking case, VR Ready
⊖ Not the best value for money
⊖ Weaker CPU and graphics card compared to similarly priced gaming PCsPrevious versions of the ArchAngel have been disappointing, but the Ryzen/GTX 1050 Ti version finally brings together some recent hardware that makes sense for entry-level gamers. While it isn’t a jaw-dropping deal at the retail price, if you can pick it up on sale it may be worthwhile. Although this gaming PC can deliver around 60FPS or better on all recent game titles at 1080p typically at medium-high settings, there are some better performing models at similar prices that may be more worthwhile.

GFX

GeForce GTX1050Ti 4GB

CPU

Ryzen 3 1200

RAM

8GB DDR4 2400MHz

STORAGE

1TB HDD

• Windows 10 Home
• WiFi adapter included
• Comes with keyboard & mouse
• Optical Drive

• 1 year warranty
• Free lifetime tech support
• Upgradeable
• VR Ready

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Read Less ^^

Introduction

The snow-white case and blue-LED highlights of the SkyTech ArchAngel make it instantly recognizable as a gamer’s PC, and it comes complete with LED-lit gaming mouse and keyboard, wireless adapter, and Windows 10 Home 64-bit operating system. This ArchAngel has current hardware that can handle modern game titles with ease, with the Ryzen 3 1200 processor and GTX 1050 Ti 4GB graphics card.

We’ll take a closer look at each hardware component, who this SkyTech ArchAngel will and won’t suit, and also report on some possible upgrade pathways for this PC in this review.

Pros

• Epic looking case complete with blue LED case fans
• Powerful graphics card – GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB
• Complete package with keyboard/mouse, wireless connectivity, and Windows 10 install included
• 80 Plus certified power supply unit
• 1-year warranty and free lifetime US technical support

Cons

• Wifi adapter may be a lower quality/slower unit
• Some Quality Control issues from the company in the past
• Some component brands may vary depending on availability

Who Is It For?

The ArchAngel is undoubtedly built for gamers, and the recent-model hardware choices deliver a pre-built gaming PC which can handle new-release game titles with ease. It’s unlocked, meaning enthusiasts can even play around with future overclocking to get even more performance out of it.

It’s an excellent all-rounder, in addition to gaming can easily perform office applications and tasks such as web browsing, media viewing (photos, videos, including online streaming such as YouTube, Netflix, Hulu etc.).

In a nutshell, the Ryzen/GTX 1050 Ti version of the ArchAngel is a great entry-mid level pre-built gaming PC that will suit both casual through to more serious gamers. For those wanting even more graphics processing power and have the budget for it, you might also consider spending a little more to get the Ryzen/GTX 1060 version of the ArchAngel which features a slightly better graphics card.

Who Isn’t It For?

If you’re not really a gamer, or if you are planning on using this PC for other computing-intensive specific tasks (such heavy video editing, image or algorithm processing etc.), then you might be better off opting for a different prebuild PC that is more closely suited to your needs.

If you’re not really playing that many games and are mostly just looking for a computer that can handle everyday computing tasks (think office tasks, media viewing and web browsing), then a cheaper option like the  Acer Aspire TC-885-UR14 Desktop or similar Acer Aspire TC-885-ACCFLi5 Desktop  might be a better fit without spending too much for graphics performance that you won’t really use.

Alternatively if you require a PC that can handle specialist tasks that require a lot of processing power, we’d recommend chosing a PC that has a more powerful processor and maybe more RAM than this version of the ArchAngel.

If you’re a gamer wanting to play at 4K resolutions without dropping down the gameplay settings, the hardware in the ArchAngel may struggle to keep up (lower FPS).  Playing in standard 1080p resolutions though are no issue and the ArchAngel performs well in multiple games at this resolution.

What You Get

Hardware

The hardware line-up for the Ryzen/GTX 1050 Ti version of the ArchAngel is nicely balanced for an entry-level gaming rig – let’s dive in and take a closer look.

Hardware Summary

Processor (CPU)

This version of the ArchAngel uses an AMD Ryzen 3 1200 for the CPU. This is an entry-level yet decently performing 4 core, 4 thread processor which was released in Quarter 3 of 2017.

Performance-wise, it stacks up as a slightly better performer than Intel’s competing i3-7100 CPU and is also a better perfomer than the much older AMD FX-6300 CPU that is quite popular in entry-level prebuilt PCs.

This 4-core, 4-thread 3.1GHz processor is able to boost up to 3.40 GHz in Turbo mode and it’s also unlocked – meaning it could theoretically be overclocked in the future (unfortunately though, in this ArchAngel model, you’d still need a motherboard and cooling upgrade before you could play around with overclocking).

Overall, it’s a good pick for an entry-level processor as it’s based on relatively recent technology (unlike many prebuilt options that use processor models that are 5+ years old!).

Graphics

A good graphics card is the basis for any good gaming computer, and we’re happy to report that the GTX 1050 Ti is an excellent choice for entry-level builds. Expect solid performance that gives good frame rates on popular gaming titles even with gameplay settings on high.

SkyTech themselves provide some benchmarks for popular game titles on this version of the ArchAngel, ranging from 50FPS on games like PUBG and GTA 5 all the way up to over 100 for League of Legends:

To give you an even better idea of the kind of performance you can expect from this CPU and graphics card combination, check out some gameplay videos on youtube:

Video credit: Santiago Santiago. –  Click here to view directly on YouTube

Motherboard (MBU)

SkyTech have opted for a no-frills motherboard for this build – but that’s really the best choice for this budget. The ASRock A320M AM4 mATX motherboard is a pretty standard offering that would be typical for an entry-level build.

The nice thing about having a Ryzen CPU as opposed to Intel is that the AM4 socket on your motherboard should be able to accept even future generations of Ryzen CPUs up to 95W (this isn’t always guaranteed with Intel), so the motherboard could serve you for some time and potentially even through CPU upgrades.

One thing to note though, is that being one of the lower level models, the A320M series don’t include extra features (such as CPU overclocking ability) that higher models do, and can only support a maximum of two DDR4 RAM sticks.

While the A320M board isn’t supposed to support CPU overclocking, it does support memory overclocking, and surprisingly due to what seems like a bug, you just might be able to play around with CPU overclocking  – but don’t count on it.

All-in-all, the ASRock A320M is a choice that gets the job done for the price this PC is offered at with a nice bonus of being VR-ready too, with a bunch of available USB ports.

Memory (RAM)

This ArchAngel comes with a total of 8GB of 2400MHz DDR4 RAM, however, it’s not specified if this comes as a 1 x 8GB stick or as 2 x 4GB.

8GB RAM is a fairly standard amount of memory to have for a gaming PC and typically shouldn’t hold you back in any games.

Storage

This model of ArchAngel gaming PC comes with a standard 1TB hard disk drive (HDD), which is pretty standard for an entry-level gaming PC.

The drive is 7,200RPM which is a good speed for a HDD, however the particular brand of HDD is not specified.

Power Supply (PSU)

We have to give props to SkyTech here for making sure they’ve included an 80 Plus certified power supply unit.

It’s surprisingly common for manufacturers of prebuilt machines to skimp when it comes to components like the power supply, which can be a potential problem because low-quality power supplies can occasionally fail and damage other computer hardware.

While the brand of the PSU supplied is not specified, the fact that it has the 80 Plus certification (which means it functions at 80% efficiency or better), is a good sign that this is a decent PSU.

t’s a good size too – 500W is a pretty standard size for an entry-level gaming PC.

Other Inclusions

WIFI and Connectivity
Included is a USB WiFi Adapter.

A gigabit ethernet (LAN) port will be available on the motherboard as well for those who prefer a hard-wired connection.

Optical Drive
A 24x DVD optical drive is included, which is nice to see, as this is often left out in other gaming PC builds.

Operating System 
The ArchAngel comes preinstalled with a fully licensed version of Windows 10 Home edition 64-bit. It’s advertised to have no bloatware as well, which is a bonus.

Other
The motherboard is VR ready, meaning it should have enough available USB ports to support virtual reality headsets and controllers.

Case

The case used in this build is ThermalTake’s Versa N21 Snow Edition case with a triangular transparent side viewing window.

This is an excellent case in both looks and design – it boasts tool-free features and can support graphics cards up to 250mm in length, so there’s plenty of room if you want to upgrade parts in the future. It comes complete with 2 front and 1 rear blue LED case fans.

The case dimensions are 8.5″ x 18.2″ x 20.2″ (W x D x H).

Peripherals/Accessories
A wired USB gaming mouse and keyboard are included with this PC and at the time of writing include colored LED backlights.

Support/Warranties

SkyTech include a 1-year warranty on parts and labor as well as free lifetime US technical support with the ArchAngel.

Performance

In this section, we’ll have a closer look at the Ryzen 1200/GTX 1050 Ti version of the ArchAngel’s performance.

Usage

As we’ve already mentioned, this version of the ArchAngel is an entry-level option for gamers but it does perform pretty well. The Ryzen 3 1200 is not too old and provides good processing power, and the GTX 1050 Ti offers great gaming performance, giving decent framerates for popular game titles, even with settings on ‘high’.

Given its ability to run most demanding computer games, everyday computing tasks should also be handled fine by the ArchAngel.

Where it excels:

• Gaming – all recent or older gaming titles even at high resolutions on high settings
• Surfing the web
• Netflix streaming
• Home & Office applications (Microsoft Office, PDF readers, Accounting tools etc)
• Watching videos, organizing/editing photos

It’s also capable of:

• Basic video and photo editing
• General multitasking
• Virtual Reality applications and gaming

May struggle with:

• Heavy graphics or processor-intensive applications (specialist rendering, 3D modeling, video conversions etc)
• Very high quality/texture gaming at higher resolutions like 4K
• Heavy multitasking

<Click here to view the ArchAngel Reviews on Amazon>

What Games Can It Play?

Although it’s an entry-level offering, this ArchAngel can pretty much handle nearly all current game titles at 1080p resolutions and still give good framerates. It should be able to achieve at least 50fps in any game title on high or even ultra settings, although you may have to tweak gameplay settings down to medium on some of the more demanding titles.

The ArchAngel with Ryzen 3 1200 CPU and GTX 1050 Ti graphics card should be able to play game titles such as:

Assasin’s Creed Syndicate/Unity, Arma 3, Batman Arkham Knight, Black Desert Online, Battlefield series, Beam.ng drive, Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3, Counter-Strike: GO, CIV V, Crysis, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 3, Darwin Project, Deadpool,  Destiny 2, Dota 2,  Dead or Alive 5, Dying Light, Far Cry 4, Dead Rising 3, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided,  Diablo, Doom, Dragon Ball Fighter Z, Dying Light, Escape From Tarkov Closed, Fallout 4, Far Cry Primal, Final Fantasy XIV, For Honor, Fortnite,  Fortnite Battle Royale, Forza Horizon 3, FIFA 18 Ultimate Team, Forza Motorsport 6, Gears of War 4, GTA V, H1Z1, Homefront: The Revolution, Killing Floor 2, Just Cause 3, League of Legends,  Mirror’s Edge Catalyst,  Mad Max, Mass Effect: Andromeda,  Metal Gear Solid V, Minecraft, Mortal Kombat X, Naruto Shippuden, NBA 2K17, Need For Speed, Need for Speed Payback, Outlast, Outlast 2, Overwatch, Paladins Titanfall 2, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), Rainbow Six Seige, Resident Evil Revelations 2,  Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Rust, Rocket league, Shadow of Mordor, Skyrim, Starcraft, Star Wars Battlefront II,  Spintires,  Street Fighter V, Skyrim: Elder Scrolls V,  The Crew: Wild Run, The Evil Within 2, The Sims 4, The Witcher 3, Trials of the Blood Dragon, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Unravel, Unreal Tournament, World Of Warcraft, and more.

Upgradeability

The ArchAngel is a fully-assembled and ready-to-go gaming computer which will work well off the shelf, but like any desktop computer it can also be upgraded further down the line if you so choose. It’s good to be aware of possible future upgrades if you are considering purchasing this machine, so here are a few ideas.

Recommended Upgrades (Short Term/Immediate)

The ArchAngel is assembled from quite recent hardware (from 2017) and also seems to have a certified power supply in it, so there isn’t really much you need to do to it in the immediate or short-term with regards to upgrades, but the PSU and installation of an SSD are easy suggestions if you want to have a play around inside the case:

• Power Supply Replacement/Upgrade
  The ArchAngel comes with a 80 plus certified PSU which makes us think it’s a somewhat reputable supply – but ultimately the brand is not specified, so do your due dilligence and quickly do some research into the brand and model once you receive your PC. If it looks like it could be dodgy (for example, there are other user reports of the PSU failing/faulting), then it may be worth swapping it out for a more reputable and higher-quality PSU.
• Solid State Drive (SSD) Upgrade
  We’re huge fans of the super speedy SSDs, although they might not be totally worth it for gaming if you’re on a tight budget (a SSD won’t really affect gameplay, but it will speed up loading times a lot). If you have some spare cash, it might be worth looking into puttig in a SSD and moving your Windows installation (and most frequently used programs) across from the 1TB HDD to the SSD to see the benefit of much faster boot and loading times.
  

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Other Upgrade Considerations

One main consideration when buying a prebuilt computer is how long you can expect it to last. With the ArchAngel, due to its relatively recent 2017-release hardware, you should get at least 3 years or more out of it before it might start to struggle with newer game releases. If that does happen, it could be a signal to start investigating either graphics card or CPU upgrades. Here are a few ideas:

• Memory (RAM) Upgrade
  Adding more RAM is an easy PC upgrade, but usually is only worth the money if your current RAM is not enough. To check if your existing RAM is maxing out, try using a benchmarking application or even the inbuilt Windows task manager. This ArchAngel comes with 8GB RAM but could easily be upgraded to 16GB or more total, by adding an extra 8GB stick assuming that the stock RAM supplied is in a single 8GB stick formation (be sure to get RAM that matches the size/speed/type of the existing stick).
• Overclocking
  As previously mentioned, while the Ryzen 3 1200 processor that is included in this PC is unlocked and does allow overclocking, unfortunately, the motherboard that SkyTech have included in this build is from the more basic A320M series and doesn’t allow overclocking of the CPU. It does allow for overclocking of the RAM though, if you want to dabble. If you do want to explore CPU overclocking, then you’d have to upgrade the motherboard in this build.
• CPU Upgrade
  The CPU and graphics card are fairly well balanced on this PC and probably would need upgrading around the same time, as if you decided to upgrade one, the other would quickly become the limiting factor. With the AM4 socket on the motherboard in this ArchAngel, you could consider processors like the Ryzen 5 1500X, 1600 or 600X to give a performance boost.
• Graphics Card Upgrade
  The GTX 1050 Ti is a fine graphics card, but if in the future you feel it starts to lack power, you might want to look into an upgrade to a higher model such as the GTX 1070 or higher. At that point, depending on the requirements of the particular graphics card you’re looking at swapping in, you may also need to upgrade the power supply to a larger unit.

Pricing/Value

At the time of this review, the Ryzen/GTX 1050 Ti version of the ArchAngel is selling for around $740 but bear in mind that prices change all the time. The latest pricing can be viewed on Amazon here. If you can get the ArchAngel cheap, then it might be a good buy.

So how cheap would it have to be considered a good deal? We priced up the same build by adding the cost of the individual hardware parts and it totaled to around $630 – $700; the lower price representing parts being on sale, but the upper price is our estimated cost of the hardware at ‘normal’ prices (including the price of Windows software, but not for a keyboard and mouse as these are advertised as ‘free’).

Unfortunately, to us this means the ArchAngel at its normal retail price doesn’t really stack up to the best value – the non-discounted retail price (which was $740 on Amazon at the time of this review) is actually still a bit more than the cost of buying individual parts and assembling it yourself.

However, DIY computer assembly isn’t for everyone, and if you do like the hardware line-up and don’t mind spending an extra $40 – $110 to save the hassle of having to assemble a PC yourself (and have a warranty and free tech support from SkyTech), then the ArchAngel could be a decent buy. Just be aware that there are better-value options out there though that offer better performance for a similar price.

Alternative Products

Speaking of better value-for-money options: we recommend CyberpowerPC’s Gamer Xtreme GXIVR8020A5 as a more powerful performer than this ArchAngel, for a similar price (not on sale).  If you can stretch your budget even further (to around the $800 mark) then the GXiVR8060A5 is an even better option that also delivers great performance per dollar spent.

But, if you’ve got your heart set on the ArchAngel, then don’t forget to check out the equivalent model in black – the SkyTech Shadow – if you prefer a different case color.

If you are feeling adventurous, you might also want to take a look at our gaming builds if you’re keen to try assembling your own computer from parts. These part lists represent our best possible hardware picks for your budget and in many cases will out-perform equivalently priced prebuilt gaming PCs.

Summary/Overall Impressions

The SkyTech Ryzen & GTX 1050 Ti Edition ArchAngel is a decent gaming desktop PC that can deliver framerates over 50FPS at high and ultra settings for most game titles even at Full HD resolutions. The recent graphics card and processor will stay relevant for years to come and upgrades are easy in this quality case. Although other prebuilt gaming desktops may offer slightly better performance value for a similar price, the visual appeal of the ArchAngel and the assurance of branded and quality hardware components still help to sell the ArchAngel as a good option to gamers.

<Click here to view the SkyTech ArchAngel on Amazon>

Reference: Other Specifications