The PCs we use for creative work don’t have to be sleek, minimal things. This games PC isn’t the largest we’ve seen, but with its larger case and desktop-class components it can power through the kinds of workloads that would gum up a lesser machine.
For
Pre-built for convenience
Affordable
Capable graphics grunt
Against
Not the latest-gen graphics
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Buying a pre-built gaming PC can be one of the most cost-effective ways of acquiring a computer for graphic design and other creative work - they usually come with top-end CPUs, lots of RAM and a decent GPU board, all things that Lightroom and Blender will relish as much as Black Myth: Wukong and Baldur’s Gate 3. Importantly, they can be cheaper than something tailored for professional use, especially if it comes with a picture of a fruit on it.
If you’re getting a desktop tower like this, you’re going to want to complement it with one of the best monitors for graphic design, as well as a keyboard and mouse that can take daily punishment, but a pre-built PC like this one takes a lot of the guesswork out of putting together a decent build, and can work out cheaper than building your own thanks to the economies of scale the makers can apply to bring component prices down.
While it will always look like a gaming PC (you can turn some but not all of this machine’s lights off with a bundled app) a machine like this can scream through creative workloads for a fairly reasonable price, so it makes a good choice for new creatives or those who like to game after hours.
1x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 4x USB 2.0, 1 x PS/2
Wireless connectivity:
Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 4.2
Dimensions:
200mm x 415mm x 320mm
(Image credit: Future / Ian Evenden)
Design, build and display
• Compact, tidy case • Black and neon aesthetic
The mATX case the Cyclone Aqua comes in is one of ABS’s own design, and it’s certainly well made. There are easily accessible controls and ports on the top, so you can reach them with the tower under a desk, but they lay flush with the top of the casing so they’re not going to be pushed by accident. There is a transparent side panel that can be removed using thumbscrews, so you can access the insides for cleaning and upgrading. And while we’ve seen smaller PCs, it’s not massive either, so isn’t going to be too dominant a presence in the studio.
It’s all very neatly put together too, with the inevitable cables routed out of the way and plenty of airflow inside the case. This is especially important because the Aqua uses air cooling despite its name, pulling air in from the front, over the CPU cooler, and out the back. There are RGB lights on all these fans, as well as the tops of the RAM sticks, and while the CPU cooler and RAM can be controlled using the Gigabyte software (Gigabyte provides the motherboard and GPU for this PC) the fans will stay lit whatever you do.
Design score: 3.5/5
(Image credit: Future / Ian Evenden)
Features
• 32GB of fast RAM • Lack of fast ports
This is a fairly basic gaming PC, so while you get four video outputs from the GeForce RTX 4060 board, there's only one really fast USB port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C. There's a standard USB 3 as well, plus some USB 2.0 thrown in for good measure as well as a PS/2 keyboard port that you’ll probably never use, but as a creative machine some more fast ports would be good to see - one for a camera and one for an SSD at least.
The networking potential of this PC is limited too, with Wi-Fi 5 and gigabit Ethernet on board. You’ll get nothing like the speeds you would from Wi-Fi 7 or a 5G port, but it’s a decent basic setup if you’re not using a NAS and just want to get online. There's also limited potential for internal upgrades, if you want to add a video capture card or some extra PCIe-attached storage, with the GPU sitting much too close to one of the two spare PCIe card slots to make it usable, and the M.2 slot filled with a 1TB SSD already. Both the RAM slots are filled too, with 32GB of fast DDR5 RAM, so you’ll have to replace rather than add to them for an upgrade there.
Feature score: 3/5
(Image credit: Future / Ian Evenden)
Benchmark scores
We test every one of our computers using the same benchmarking software suite to give you a thorough overview of its suitability for creatives of all disciplines and levels. This includes:
• Geekbench: Tests the CPU for single-core and multi-core power, and the GPU for the system's potential for gaming, image processing, or video editing. • Cinebench: Tests the CPU and GPU's ability to run Cinema 4D and Redshift. • UL Procyon: Uses UL Solutions' Procyon software suite to test the system's ability for AI image generation in Stable Diffusion, its Microsoft Office performance and its battery life. • Topaz Video AI: We use Topaz Video AI to test the system's ability to upscale video and convert video to slow-motion. • PugetBench for Creators: We use the PugetBench for Creators benchmarking suite to test the system's ability to run several key tasks in Photoshop and DaVinci Resolve Studio, as well as its performance when encoding/transcoding video. • ON1 Resize AI: Tests the system's ability to resize 5 photos to 200% in a batch process.
If you’ve read a few reviews on this site you’ll know we love to whine about PCs that use integrated graphics, wishing instead that they’d use a dedicated graphics board (even if it’s not the RTX 5090) just to give Creative Cloud apps and all other pixel-pushing programs a little boost. And this PC just goes to show it really is true. Denoising high-ISO images in Lightroom is a tooth-grinding process on the sort of GPU bundled with a CPU, but even a graphics card as modest as the 4060 Ti can bring the time it takes down enough that running it on multiple images is less of a problem - just pop up a browser window and check your email while it’s doing it. The PC doesn’t grind to a halt, as the CPU isn’t being taxed so hard. It means using the machine for graphics-intensive work becomes a much more pleasant experience.
And the same is true of AI work. Where even the latest Snapdragon chips provide poor results as the software hasn’t caught up with their NPUs, running the likes of Topaz Video AI on a 4060Ti GPU means you’ll push through the work so much faster - its OpenCL score in the Geekbench 6 benchmark is twice that of the M3 chip’s GPU in the 16-inch MacBook Pro. It’s a good way to work, safe in the knowledge that your Steam library will be equally at home on the SSD. Even so, it’s not the biggest and best GPU on the market, and its successor generation is already available. You may need to consider - and budget for - a graphics card update in the future.
The 20-core (8P, 12E, 28 thread) CPU proves itself to be a workhorse too. Desktop i7s from recent generations have been potent chips, more than capable of holding their own, and this one speeds through workloads. It’s air-cooled, so you’ll hear a bit of noise from the PC when it’s working hard, but one of the benefits of a larger case like this one is that airflow can be increased, and a water-cooling loop would have raised the price.
Performance score: 4/5
(Image credit: Future / Ian Evenden)
Price
For just shy of $1,700, the Cyclone Aqua is cheaper than the entry-level Mac Studio which, at the time of writing, is stuck with the M2 Pro chip. The Aqua has more processor cores and a better GPU, as well as a larger SSD as standard, and is a whole desktop PC for less than the price of a GeForce RTX 5090 card. If you must have a Mac then nothing else will do, but it’s worth considering a gaming PC like this if you want a large amount of power on a budget.
Value score: 3/5
Who is it for?
• Home workers
This may have been built as a machine for gamers, but it has a lot to offer creative users too. While the GPU may not be the latest, it’s capable of pushing the likes of Adobe Camera Raw and DaVinci Resolve to much greater heights than an integrated graphics chip, and the benefits of a desktop-class processor and a case with enough airflow to keep it cool can’t be overstated. Add to this the 32GB of fast RAM and roomy 1TB SSD - with a single fast USB port for adding an external drive - and you’ve got something that may suit many students and new studios to have around the place. You can play games on it too.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
ABS Cyclone Aqua score card
Attributes
Notes
Rating
Design:
Black and with flashy lights, but tidily built
3/5
Features:
Could do with more fast ports
3/5
Performance:
Well specced for gaming and creative work
4/5
Value:
Often found at a discount
3/5
(Image credit: Future / Ian Evenden)
Buy it if...
You want something better than integrated graphics
One of the best creative workstations you can buy right now, especially if you're after high performance in a small form factor. It makes light work of even the most intense projects.
An incredibly winsome all-in-one machine packing incredible power in one of Apple's most beautiful designs ever.
The Verdict
7.5
out of 10
ABS Cyclone Aqua
The PCs we use for creative work don’t have to be sleek, minimal things. This games PC isn’t the largest we’ve seen, but with its larger case and desktop-class components it can power through the kinds of workloads that would gum up a lesser machine.
Ian Evenden has been a journalist for over 20 years, starting in the days of QuarkXpress 4 and Photoshop 5. He now mainly works in Creative Cloud and Google Docs, but can always find a use for a powerful laptop or two. When not sweating over page layout or photo editing, you can find him peering at the stars or growing vegetables.
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