The Best $2000 Zero-Cables PC Build

Main Components

Case: MSI MEG MAESTRO 700L PZ

The shining star of this PC build is the MSI MEG MAESTRO 700L PZ case, designed to house MSI PROJECT ZERO motherboards. This modern case takes on the ‘fish-tank’ aesthetic, utilising a seamless glass panel that spans the front and side of the chassis. This design approach makes the components inside MAESTRO 700L PZ much easier to see while providing a sleek and sophisticated aesthetic that showcases your part choices in all their glory.

The MSI MEG MAESTRO 700L PZ features a heavily perforated aluminium unibody chassis, creating an elegant and clean appearance around the entire case. The MAESTRO 700L PZ strongly emphasises ventilation, ensuring heat can escape efficiently. This case also offers a vast amount of support for varying cooling configurations, with space for up to three 360mm AIO liquid coolers or ten 120mm fans, keeping thermals low.

Alongside its strong support for various cooling configs, the MAESTRO 700L PZ can house graphics cards up to 430mm long and CPU air coolers up to 170mm high. The back connector design, combined with the ample space for cable routing, makes building in this chassis hassle-free and straightforward.

It is worth noting that this excellent case is not a cheap chassis, with an MSRP of $419, to be exact. While not all PROJECT ZERO cases are this pricey, the MEG MAESTRO 700L PZ offers a sleek aesthetic and a great range of features that go above and beyond what most traditional cases will provide. However, we understand this case’s $419 price point will not appeal to everyone.

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Suggested Article: MSI MAG PANO M100R PZ Case Review

CPU: Intel Core i7-14700K

The Intel Core i7-14700K is a highly capable CPU from the 14th-generation range. Released in October 2023, the Core i7-14700K is a strong Intel processor offering more cores and threads than its 13th-generation counterpart. This CPU has 20 cores and 28 threads geared towards intense workloads and 4K PC gaming.

With a boost clock speed of 5.6GHz, the Core i7-14700K can handle AAA gaming and is a force to be reckoned with during multi-core applications. The Core i7-14700K is a solid modern CPU that will provide longevity within modern games for many years.

To top it all off, the Core i7-14700K is fully overclockable, providing a way to enhance performance by increasing the boost clock speed. Doing this improves performance within various games and applications, as the Core i7-14700K can process data much quicker when overclocked.

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CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360 Atmos

To keep thermals at bay, we’ve opted for the Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360 Atmos. This 360mm liquid cooler is a high-performance AIO with a dual-chamber pump design that optimises water flow directly to CPU hot spots, ensuring the Core i7-14700K in this system stays cool. The 360 Atmos comes with three 120mm SickleFlow Edge RGB fans that aim to maximise air pressure while keeping noise levels to a minimum.

The RGB lighting on the fans and the CPU pump cover is fully configurable using the Cooler Master MasterCTRL software. Furthermore, the CPU block cover can be swapped out with other 3D-printed designs, providing a heightened level of customisation that isn’t accessible with other liquid CPU coolers.

The Cooler Master MasterLiquid Atmos 360 is an excellent cooler designed to handle the throes of intense CPU workloads. Throughout our testing, we’ve found the Atmos 360 to be a solid cooler for top-end PC builds; hence, it is the right AIO for this system.

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Motherboard: MSI Z790 PROJECT ZERO

Typically, motherboards aren’t usually the focus of our PC builds. However, the MSI Z790 PROJECT ZERO is a pivotal component of this system, providing the reverse connector standard to keep our cables clean and tidy.

The vast majority of traditional motherboards have their connectors placed around the sides of the PCB, but the Z790 PROJECT ZERO relocates them to the back of the board. This allows all of the power cables and headers to be wired up through the rear of the PC, keeping them out of sight. The MSI MEG MAESTRO 700L PZ is a dual-chamber case, allowing the cables to be easily stored in the rear behind the motherboard tray, alleviating potential airflow issues.

On the expansion front, the MSI Z790 PROJECT ZERO has a singular Gen5 graphics card slot and four Gen4 M.2 SSD slots. This PROJECT ZERO board also comes with solid overclocking support, offering a 14+1+1 VRM power system, allowing you to push the boost clock speed of the Core i7-14700K. The MSI Z790 PROJECT ZERO also features a complete audio suite for those with dedicated speaker setups.

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RAM: XPG Lancer RGB DDR5 32GB 6000MT/s CL30

To match the blacked-out colour scheme of the PC build, we’ve picked out the XPG Lancer RGB DDR5 32GB kit. The XPG Lancer RGB DDR5 kit supports speeds up to 6000MT/s and a blazing-fast latency of CL30. 32GB of RAM is more than enough memory to handle the demands of AAA titles for the foreseeable future.

While we could have picked up a speedier kit thanks to the strong RAM support on the MSI Z790 PROJECT ZERO, these are often expensive. For this reason, we chose the XPG Lancer RGB DDR5 kit, as it is affordable and provides the speeds and latency needed for top-end gaming and other intensive workloads.

The XPG Lancer RGB kit is some of the best-looking RAM on the market. It provides a clean brushed metal design and an RGB triangle to brighten your PC build. The lighting effects and colours can also be customised using various software, such as MSI Mystic Light or ASUS Aura Sync.

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SSD: Corsair MP600 GS 2TB

As the primary storage device for this PC build, we’ve picked out the Corsair MP600 GS. This M.2 SSD is an affordable Gen4 2TB drive designed to hold a handful of games while being reasonably priced. Due to an oversupply of flash chips in the market, Gen4 SSDs have seen several price drops, making it much easier for PC builders to leverage high-performance storage.

While the MP600 GS is available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB options, this 2TB version is the sweet spot for capacity, providing plenty of storage space for many games and additional room for other applications. The MP600 GS 2TB offers 4.8GB/s read speeds and 4.5GB/s write speeds, minimising loading and boot times. Furthermore, the 1200TBW endurance rating ensures the MP600 GS will last many years, backed by the 5-year warranty, which Corsair includes as standard.

The MP600 GS doesn’t contribute to the aesthetic or design of this PC build due to the lack of a heatsink or any RGB. However, the absence of these means the MP600 GS retains a small footprint, making it incredibly easy to install. The MP600 GS slides into any of the M.2 slots on the MSI Z790 PROJECT ZERO and is fastened down by the included M.2 screw, which can be found in the SSD box.

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GPU: MSI RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Gaming X Slim

This PC build’s graphical firepower comes from the MSI RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Gaming X Slim. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Gaming X Slim is part of the RTX 4000 SUPER range, a refreshed card line-up that serves as a mid-generation upgrade to the original RTX 4000 series. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the second card within the RTX 4000 SUPER offerings, coming in with 16GB of VRAM and a 256-bit memory bus, compared to the 12GB of VRAM and 192-bit memory bus on the original RTX 4070 Ti.

The result of the hardware upgrades is a card that can comfortably handle 1440p and 4K resolutions in the latest AAA titles, offering framerates well above 60FPS in modern games. NVIDIA’s pillar technologies, such as DLSS 3 and Frame Generation, synergise with these hardware improvements, bolstering frames and providing more stability across supported games.

As the name suggests, the MSI Gaming X Slim variant of the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is a slimline card that requires only two PCI-E slots. The benefit of this GPU is that it offers strong thermals thanks to the triple-fan design. At the same time, smaller cases can accommodate the MSI Gaming X Slim without encountering clearance problems.

Moreover, the Gaming X Slim is a sleek black card that will blend well with the other dark components we’ve picked for this PC build. The slight overclock to the boost speed also improves gaming performance and more demanding graphical workloads.

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PSU: MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5

Powering all of the components in this PC build is the MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5. This 850W power supply provides ample wattage for all of the components that we’ve chosen, leaving further room for future upgrades.

Additionally, the A850GL PCIE5 is ATX 3.0 compatible, meaning the graphics card power cable features a 12VHPWR connector needed to power NVIDIA RTX 4000 cards. Although the MSI RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Gaming X Slim has an adapter for PCI-E 8-pin connectors, the singular power cable allows the build to remain clean and tidy, making the cable management process much smoother.

On the efficiency front, the MSI MAG A850GL PCIE5 comes with an 80 Plus Gold rating, ensuring minimal power is lost as heat or noise. The fluid dynamic bearing 120mm fan is also designed to keep this PSU quiet while pushing heat away as quickly as possible.

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Performance

Our testing results show that this RTX 4070 Ti PC build is capable of handling 4K gaming with ease. Whether you’re playing a AAA title like Hogwarts Legacy or a competitive Esports title such as Apex Legends, the components we’ve chosen for this build are more than ample for enjoying lag-free gameplay across many titles.

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