Best Gaming PCs of CES 2017

Razer has always shown crazy concepts at CES, and the company’s Project Valerie exemplifies that this year. It’s a prototype gaming laptop that’s outfitted with three 17-inch 4K panels that automatically extend with the press of a button. It’s designed for those who want to game on the go with an ultra-wide monitor setup, but the company asserts that it was also built for multi-screen productivity.

Project Valerie is currently outfitted with a Kaby Lake i7 processor and a GTX 1080 GPU, but Razer says that if it ever releases the laptop, it won’t come out this year and will be outfitted with more power-efficient components. This is appreciated because the prototype that we used got hot. Really hot. As a matter of fact, it was scalding just to touch.

Performance was surprisingly good, however. We got to play Battlefield 1 at 11520x2160 resolution with most of the settings maxed out.

We couldn’t use a frame rate measuring program, but we estimated it to perform at around 30-40 average FPS, which is impressive given the resolution.

MSI’s Trident 3 gaming PC is roughly the size of a console and is equipped with an Intel Core i7 CPU, GTX 1060 GPU, and can slot up to 32GB of RAM. The PC was designed for VR and places all of the ports in the front, where they are more easily accessible for head-mounted displays.

MSI also showed off another small gaming PC that’s tailormade for VR. Named the Night Blade NI3, the PC comes with a Kaby Lake i7 CPU, GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of GDDR5 memory, and up to 32GB of DDR4 RAM. It also features RGB lighting that supports up to 16.8 million colors.

MSI’s GT83VR Titan SLI is the definition of a desktop replacement. Not only can the behemoth-sized notebook be outfitted with a GTX 1080 GPU and Kaby Lake i7 CPU, but it comes with a mechanical keyboard, and it’s an RGB one at that. The keyboard itself uses Cherry MX Silver switches. The laptop is also fitted with a 1080p IPS panel.

Dell’s Inspiron 15 7000 is a gaming laptop geared towards the budget gamer. It starts out at $799 and comes with a Kaby Lake i5 CPU, a 1TB hybrid drive, and Nvidia's newly announced GTX 1050 GPU geared towards notebooks. Dell says that gamers should expect to get medium-to-high settings out of most games at 1080p. For $899, the laptop comes upgraded with a GTX 1050 Ti graphics card and a 256GB SSD, which the company asserts is enough power to let you play most games on high settings at 1080p.

As the name implies, CyberPowerPC’s Pro Streamer HyperLiquid rig is for professional streamers. Because streaming is so computationally-intensive, there’s actually two computers inside this full-tower Thermaltake chassis. The extended ATX motherboard is equipped with Intel’s 10-core 6950X Broadwell-E CPU, which costs over $1,600 in and of itself, and two GeForce GTX 1080 GPUs in SLI.

The smaller Mini-ITX motherboard, mounted at the bottom, houses a Kaby Lake i5 processor and a dedicated capture card. To power both computers, CyberPower’s Streamer PC uses two power supplies.

For the most part, CyberPowerPC uses off-the-shelf computer cases for its rigs, but the company designed its own full-tower chassis for its Syber XL system. The case allows you to invert the motherboard, so you can install it on either side panel. The Syber XL is also includes high-end parts, such as Intel’s i7-7700K CPU, EVGA’s GTX 1080 GPU, Samsung’s 512GB 960 Pro SSD, and 16GB of ADATA RAM clocked at 3000MHz.

CyberPowerPC’s Luxe PC looks like something out of a futuristic laboratory. Other than its large, mostly tempered glass Thermaltake Tower 900 case, what makes it unique is that it offers separate custom water cooling loops for its GPU and CPU, which both use different colored liquids. It also offers a ton of RGB lights.

The Aorus X7 can be equipped with an Intel Core i7 Kaby Lake CPU and a GeForce GTX 1080 GPU, but what makes it unique is that it offers a 4K 120Hz G-Sync panel, which we’ve never seen in a gaming laptop. It also features a keyboard with individually backlit RGB keys, which we’ve also never seen.

The Gigabyte Aero 14 is one of the thinnest gaming laptops, measuring 0.78 inches thick. While the Aero 14 line isn't new, the design has been refreshed both externally and internally. The updated Aero 14 will have a GTX 1060 GPU, an Intel Core i7 Kaby Lake CPU, an M.2 SSD, and a 14-inch 1440p screen. It comes in orange, lime green, or black.

One of CyberPower’s pre-built PCs in the Luxe line features the In Win D-Frame case. The case has an open-air design and the top of the frame itself opens up via a handle. The model on display featured a Kaby Lake Intel Core i7-7700k CPU, two MSI GTX 1080 GPUs in SLI, 32GB of RAM, a 512GB Samsung 960 Pro M.2 NVMe SSD, and an entire custom water cooled setup. It’s fitted with several RGB components, from every fan to the RAM sticks.

The Gigabyte Brix UHD Mini is one of the most compact desktop PCs, measuring 8.5 inches high, 4.5 inches wide, and 4.5 inches deep. This model is a significant upgrade over its previous iteration in the graphics department, going from a GTX 950 to a GTX 1060 GPU. It also now features an Intel Core i7 Kaby Lake CPU.