CyberPowerPC MSI Project Zero PBM Essential Prebuilt Gaming Desktop Review

Following on from our previous look at a ‘Powered by MSI’ desktop from Stormforce – which arrived in a sorry state – today it is the turn of Cyberpower PC and their MSI Project Zero PBM Essential prebuilt desktop. Featuring a Core Ultra 7 265KF, RTX 5070 Ti, 64GB of memory and as many MSI components as you can fit in a PC in 2025… can this two-and-a-bit grand desktop deliver a better experience this time around?

Timestamps:

00:00 Start
00:49 Core Config / Price
04:31 The MSI Z890 Tomahawk
05:54 PSU
06:08 AIO
07:10 Case / Fans
08:19 Mats thoughts on the build
09:15 Config and some issues
10:08 Plague Tale: Requiem
11:00 Cyberpunk 2077
12:25 CounterStrike 2
13:06 Hogwarts Legacy
14:08 Kingdom Come Deliverance 2
14:43 Marvel Rivals
16:11 The gaming experience
16:39 Clock Speeds / Thermals / Power Use / Noise
18:13 Thermal Footage
18:35 Noise levels
18:53 Closing Thoughts

Specifications:

• Case: MSI MAG Panoramic 100R Project Zero Gaming Case – Black
• CPU (Processor): Intel® Core™ Ultra 7 265KF: 20 Cores [8P Up to 5.50GHz / 12E Up to 4.60GHz], 125W TDP, 36MB Cache
• CPU Cooling: MSI Coreliquid E360 ARGB AIO Liquid Cooler, Ultimate OC Compatible – Black
• Cooling Upgrades: Thermal Grizzly Premium Thermal Paste
• Motherboard: MSI MAG Z890 TOMAHAWK WIFI: ATX w/ PCIe 5.0, USB 3.2, 4x M.2
• Memory (RAM): 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 5200MT/s Corsair Vengeance Black
• Graphics Card (GPU): MSI GeForce RTX™ 5070 Ti 16GB GAMING TRIO OC GDDR7 – HDMI, DP – NVIDIA DLSS 4, NVIDIA Reflex (Single Card)
• PSU (Power Supply): MSI MAG A1000GL PCIE5 1000W 80+ Gold ATX 3.1 Fully Modular Gaming Power Supply
• Primary Storage (NVMe Drives): 2TB MSI M480 M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD – 7000MB/s Read & 6800MB/s Write (1 Drive)
• Operating System: Windows 11 Home (No Recovery Media)
• Warranty Service: DESKTOP STANDARD WARRANTY: 5 Years' Labour, 2 Years' Parts, 12 Months' Collect and Return plus Life-Time Technical Support

The core specs are confirmed in the following CPU-Z and GPU-Z screenshots:

Over in our full video review on YouTube we put the Project Zero PBM Essential through its paces across 6 different games at both 1440p and 4k. The system shows strong 1440p gaming performance, running respectable framerates in pretty much all of the titles we tested. We also dove in to the benefits and frame gains that can be achieved when utilising DLSS 4 and frame generation, as can be seen by some of the screenshots below. For full details of all titles that we tested, head over to YouTube and watch the review in full.

A Plague Tale: Requiem (1440p – Max Settings)

A Plague Tale: Requiem (1440p – Max Settings – DLSS Performance and Frame Generation On)

Counter Strike 2 (1440P – Max Settings)

Counter Strike 2 (4K – Max Settings)

Cyberpunk 2077 (4K – Max Settings)

Cyberpunk 2077 (4K – Max Settings – DLSS Performance and 4X Multi Frame Generation On)

Closing Thoughts

CyberPowerPC have done a decent job of putting this ‘Powered by MSI' system together. Cable management is good and it's clear to see that the machine has been built with care. The overall aesthetic is great, with the MAG Pano 100R PZ case being a great platform for showing off the components. The GPU in particular is a stunner with its dragon cut-out backplate.

Gaming performance on the most part was great, excelling at 1440p and being helped at 4K with the use of DLSS and Frame Generation – love em' or hate em', they're both features that are here to stay.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows for the MSI Project Zero PBM Essential desktop, though. XMP was not enabled before the machine was delivered to us and the graphics card driver was a few months out of date – both things are an easy fix, but could go unnoticed by less ‘techy' customers picking up a system from CyberPowerPC.

We'd also say the choice of RAM leaves a bit to be desired – 5200MT/s speeds (after we enabled XMP) and CL40 timings are not particularly cutting edge either.

You can buy the MSI Project Zero PBM Essential desktop directly from CyberPowerPC for £2149.20 HERE

Pros:

• Good 1440p gaming performance.
• Latest gen Nvidia GPU offering DLSS and Multi Frame Generation for 4K gaming.
• Good cable management.
• Reasonable pricing.

Cons:

• XMP not enabled by Cyberpower PC.
• System memory is slow (5200MT/s CL40) and does not have RGB to match the rest of the build.
• GPU driver was a few months out of date.

KitGuru says: The MSI Project Zero PBM Essential is a decent gaming desktop that's been built well and will handle 1440p gaming with ease. It was let down by a few missing finishing touches during the build though and could definitely benefit from some faster (and flashier) memory.  

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