The Aftershock Rapid is marketed as a desktop computer for esports games. But since it's highly customisable, you can outfit it with practically any component you like, from integrated graphics to flagship graphics from AMD or Nvidia. What caught my attention: Aftershock offers several premade hardware builds for the Rapid. These ready-to-ship builds offer fewer options — you can only add more memory or storage. But Aftershock can have the PC delivered to you on the same day for an extra S$25 (if you place the order before 2pm). I can imagine several scenarios for when this would be useful, though having to quarantine in a hotel was not the first thing that came to mind.
Quick specs
- AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD
- High-flow black mesh with tempered glass chassis
- PNY RTX 3060 graphics 12GB
- 4x Addressable RGB fans
The Rapid's compact chassis offers excellent ventilation, thanks to a meshed front and top. It comes with four fans that run so quietly that you probably won't hear them till close. But you'll definitely notice their LEDs, which can be adjusted to your preferred colour and brightness using the Gigabyte RGB Fusion app. You can also tap the LED button at the top of the chassis to cycle through several preset lighting schemes. The tempered glass side door gives easy access to the PC internals. However, you'll likely have to unscrew the other side panel to change a component. The cable management is excellent, with the power cables routed neatly under the micro-ATX motherboard.
Specs-wise, my review unit — dubbed “Level 4 AMD” by Aftershock — falls in the mid-range category. The choice of processor, memory and graphics card are spot-on. Perhaps its main weakness is its 512GB Lexar SSD, which produced average speeds of around 3,500MB/s (read) and 3,000MB/s (write) in the CrystalDiskMark benchmark. Of course, you can remedy this by picking a PCIe Gen 4 SSD like the 1TB Gigabyte Aorus (up to 5,000MB/s read and 4,400MB/s write) at the Aftershock website by topping up an extra S$170.
The Rapid hits the 60fps sweet spot when running at Ultra setting and 1080p in games like Metro Exodus and Watch Dogs: Legion. While it supports ray-tracing, you'll have to lower the settings to maintain the performance if ray-tracing is turned on. Besides games, the Rapid's six-core AMD processor is more than decent in system benchmarks like PCMark 10. Its overall score of 6,719 is competitive with expensive gaming notebooks I have tried.
My ready-to-ship Aftershock Rapid review unit costs S$1,750, and comes with a three-year warranty for the components. If required, Aftershock will collect, repair and return your PC for free in the first year. The mid-range specs of the Rapid is good enough to handle most games, but it is obviously not as fast as a high-end desktop or premium gaming notebooks like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 15. But the Rapid is much more affordable, and you can have it delivered on the same day, too. Buy it now from Aftershock PC.
Note: Review unit provided by Aftershock.
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