How We Choose Components For Rebel PCs
When choosing components, the idea of "keeping it simple" is central to everything we create.
How We Start Every Build
The starting point for us is always who we are building this for, is this an all out highest level set up or a more budget system? Once we have chosen that position then we begin looking at the components.
Let us take a look at the Rebel One, our entry gaming system. For this we knew that we wanted this to fit a rough price point out of the gate. This thought is the first part of the process, the second is the future for our customers. This means future upgradeability, can a customer come back in the future and swap out the CPU for instance.
Why We Chose AMD
What this meant was we went with AMD. Why? Well the AMD AM5 CPU socket is being supported until 2029 at the least and with AMD’s history with their previous socket (AM4) we knew that they would support this one for a very long time. Sadly this meant that Intel was ruled out because their current options are expected to be obsolete after this next round of CPUs and for us two or three years of support for upgrades just isn't enough. This also allows us to offer you an option to upgrade to the top end CPU for gaming, the 9800X3D or 9850X3D in the future when you are ready.
This means that while the price point is very important the quality and future proofing is on par with this. We will always look at the options that give our systems longevity and best value for the money.
This focus on bang for the buck runs through all of our systems, but it's not the only thing that drives our decisions.
Performance vs Aesthetics
Let’s be honest, no matter what we pay, we still want it to look nice! No one wants a black box that doesn't show us what we have, well some people are not interested in the looks but most of us like things to look nice.
So this was something that drove us through our case choices. Are they good value, not just for the customer but for us as well. There isn't any point in having a £300 case that isn't easy to build in or on the other end a £30 case that has no airflow and is just a big black box.
Why We Don't Chase Expensive Parts
Looking at the Kolink Observatory Duo Midi Tower, this is an unapologetically budget case. However, it shows that budget doesn't have to mean cheap. The case instantly impressed us with its airflow and will perform brilliantly as part of an entry-level gaming system. It also doesn't do what so many others do in the budget tier, slap glass EVERYwhere and forgo the performance - and yes case performance is important. Yet we don't have to ignore the looks of the system. None of our choices across the board are purely performance; they balance performance with aesthetics.
But ‘Keep it simple’ is the key to all of these choices.
All the way through the process we ask what you want as a consumer. There are so many options out there. Well you don't need to worry about looking at the benchmarks, watching the reviews, trawling through spreadsheets. We have done all of this and more, we have gone through the hard part for you and curated a suite of systems that we believe are great fits for most price points.
A Real Example: Sapphire Motherboards
Every component in a Rebel PC has been researched, compared and challenged. We don't choose parts because they're popular. We choose them because they offer the right balance of performance, reliability, value and longevity. A great example of this is the Sapphire B650 motherboards. We standardised on this board for three out of four systems because they give us the features we need, and at a price that means we don't have to crank up the prices. Some may ask ‘Wait Sapphire make motherboards?’ yes they do! They have been doing it for a while but with the craziness in the Market at the moment they are starting to become a much larger player because they don't have insanely over priced products. Yet their boards offer the same features as others out there! So for us it covers the bang for the buck part of our process and it keeps our side simple, this allows us to give you more for your money and allows us flexibility in components choices around our builds
The Rebel PCs Philosophy
And this always falls back to our idea of making systems WE would want to use. Simple systems. Quality components. Honest advice. No unnecessary complexity. No confusing product pages.
Alongside this we continue to test, compare and evaluate products across our range, and should something be better bang for the buck? then we make the switch so that we can give you the best systems we posibly can.