A custom pre-built gaming PC like the Skytech Gaming Blaze 5 is going to save you a lot of work if you’re not technically savvy or simply don’t have the patience to put together a modern-day puzzle. With its Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card and AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, you’re getting solid mid-tier performance. And it’s all packed away in an easy-to-open glass case with shiny RGB components.
That said, it’s not without issue. Upgrading or replacing components is likely going to take moving a few things out of the way, as it’s a bit crowded on the motherboard. Even if you don’t plan on upgrading, you’ll either be annoyed by the finicky RGB lighting or the fact that the power button and front ports are at the very bottom of the tower, making floor placement very awkward. These may not be dealbreakers for some, but you should know what you’re getting into.
Skytech Gaming Blaze 5 – Case Design and Build Layout
The Skytech Gaming Blaze 5 isn’t terribly bigger than your average mid-tower, coming in at 18.3 x 20.6 x 9.4 inches. A good chunk of the sides are wrapped in tempered glass and RGB LEDs, with light bars found around the case, on the seven case fans, the two RAM sticks, and the PSU shroud – the GPU is the only component left out of the fun. The rest of the case is painted black, which isn’t my favorite gamer aesthetic, but it does allow the rest of the RGB to shine.
Breaking into this rig is pleasantly easy. The glass panel pops off with a little pressure, held in by several pegs and a larger clip. The RTX 5070 isn’t terribly large, but it doesn’t leave a lot of headroom for one of the two PCIe 4.0 x16 slots that are available just beneath it. If you did want to plug something in there, it’d need to be relatively thin, and I’d worry about how tight it would be squeezed up against the GPU. All the cables are neatly tucked away, but you’ll need to work around a few things to replace some components. For example, the CPU fan cables are blocking the RAM and the SSD sits very snugly between the CPU and the motherboard’s heatsink.
Popping open the panel on the opposite side was just as easy, held in place by the same mechanism. All the cables are zip tied and lined up cleanly on the front, but of course, there’s a mess of wires down by the 850W Gold PSU. The PSU is non-modular, too, so if you need to replace a cable, you’re going to have to buy a new PSU and play connect the dots.
The front glass panel pops off easily from the top and slots back in just as smoothly. You’ll find the front connectors just below the glass panel, near the power button. There’s a headphone jack as well as two USB 2 Type-A and one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C slot. The placement for the power button as well as the ports is mighty annoying if the PC is placed on the floor as opposed to your desk.
On the back, you’ll find two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, five USB 2 Type-A, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, an RJ-45 Ethernet, and three audio ports. There are also connectors for Wi-Fi 6 extenders as well as an HDMI and DisplayPort on the motherboard, which are helpful for troubleshooting. There was a sticker on the back blocking the ports and pulling it off left a sticky residue in places, which is very silly, but you’ll need to clean it up.
Skytech Gaming Blaze 5 – Software
Fortunately, there’s no real bloatware clogging up the metaphorical pores of the Skytech Gaming Blaze 5. However, it does come packaged with the SignalRGB app, which is a slightly annoying app that gives you access to the system’s RGB lighting settings as well as control over your fans and the ability to monitor hardware performance. You do have to customize the monitoring interface yourself. And it asks you to create an account to get access to more lighting features. And then it asks you to sign up for a Pro account ($6 per month) to remove the ads. Yes, there are ads in your RGB lighting configuration app. Like I said, it is an annoying app to deal with.
I also noticed some issues with the RGB lighting overall. There’s no direct setting to turn off the RGB – only to pause or dim the effect, both of which do disable the lighting. However, the lighting will occasionally flicker back on and then off again. And when starting the PC, the app doesn’t remember that you disabled the lighting so it’ll kick back on. Another issue I noticed is that the RGB lighting occasionally stutters when active, like it’s skipping a beat.
Skytech Gaming Blaze 5 – Performance
The Skytech Gaming Blaze 5 features an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 12GB GPU, AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and 32GB of RAM, which will get you mid-tier gaming performance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t feel like mid-tier pricing (at $2,299), but perhaps that’s to be expected given the current computing climate. Overall, you can get roughly 50 to 60 fps in select AAA games at 4K on high settings. And of course, Nvidia’s DLSS frame generation will get you further to capitalize on high refresh rate displays.
Taking a tour through Night City in Cyberpunk 2077, the Skytech Gaming Blaze 5 averaged 60 fps at 4K on the Ray Tracing Ultra and DLSS Performance settings. It achieves greater heights with frame generation (x2), scoring 97 fps, and then 167 fps with frame generation (x4). Unfortunately, the RTX 5070 can’t reach the full potential of super high refresh rate panels, like 240Hz.
With simple DLSS Performance, the Blaze 5 managed 56 fps in Assassin’s Creed Shadows and 78 fps with frame generation enabled. Naturally, the Blaze 5 fell low on the Metro Exodus benchmark, at 40 fps, since it’s a heavier workload with no upscaling. In a more competitive game, like Black Ops 7, it operated smoothly at 121 fps, which is more than enough to get you up on those leaderboards.
Pragmata is a little intense to run on an RTX 5070 at 4K, max settings without any additional help. I started scouring space-dystopian New York City in the space-daddy simulator, and I averaged 40 fps on the highest settings with DLSS Performance enabled. Then I turned on frame generation (x4) and fought the freaky baby-looking robots that haunt my nightmares, which got me around 124 fps. Meanwhile, at 1440p with no frame generation, the Blaze 5 scored 71 fps.
You can definitely get by when gaming at 4K, but the Blaze 5 will really shine with a 1440p monitor, capturing those higher frames you want to see. It does cost a hefty sum, so you might as well optimize accordingly.
Rami Tabari is a contributing writer at IGN with over 9 years of experience in the tech and gaming industry. You can find his bylines at Laptop Mag and Tom's Guide (and on a random Predator review at Space.com). When Rami isn't wading through a sea of the latest gaming tech, he's agonizing over the worldbuilding in his upcoming novella.
via Skytech Gaming Blaze 5 Review
by Bo Moore
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