Hey guys, this is Austin, and today we're here for the LG UltraWide Festival. Of course, big shoutout to LG for sponsoring this video. And you're mouthing what I'm saying the entire time aren't you? (laughing) - No.

After hundreds of entries, our competition is finally here! We have three talented builders who are going to compete against each other in a battle of gaming PCs. Let's meet our contestants!

First up, we have Taylor from PC Part Picker. He's chosen a small form factor build that should match perfectly with the LG UltraWide monitors.

Next, we have Zack from Digital Storm. His build is a bit larger than the others, but he's opted for a more powerful GPU to handle the demands of modern games.

Last but not least, we have John from CyberPowerPC. His build is a bit of an enigma - let's see if it can live up to its potential!

We'll be putting each of these builds through a series of benchmarks to test their performance and reliability. But before we get started, let's take a look at the specs for each build.

Taylor's build uses an Intel Core i7-8700K processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 GPU. Zack's build, on the other hand, uses an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X processor, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU. John's build is a bit more mysterious - he's opted for an Intel Core i5-11600K processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Super GPU.

Now that we've got our specs out of the way, let's get started with the benchmarks! We'll be running three tests: Cinebench, 3DMark Time Spy, and Ghost Recon. These will give us an idea of how each build handles in terms of performance and frame rates.

Alright, gentlemen, start your engines! Let's see what these builds can do!

First up, we have our results from the Cinebench test. It looks like John's card is a little more overclocked than the others - nice job, John!

Next, we're running the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark. This will give us an idea of how each build handles in terms of graphics performance.

Alright, so we've got our results from 3DMark Time Spy. It looks like Zack's card is a bit more aggressive than the others - but it also has some major issues!

Last but not least, we have the Ghost Recon test. This will give us an idea of how each build handles in terms of performance and frame rates at high resolutions.

Alright, so we've got our results from the Ghost Recon test. It looks like Taylor's build is a bit of a dark horse - he might just surprise us with his performance!

Now that we've run all of our benchmarks, it's time to discuss what we think about each competition. I feel like Zack is kinda not looking so great - he got a very expensive motherboard but it's still not overclocking compatible.

But the real winner here is Taylor. He had a huge disadvantage in the fact that he got a broken motherboard out of the box, but he didn't let that stop him. His build might not be the most powerful, but it's definitely one of the most well-rounded - and that's what's going to win him this competition!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Hey guys, this is Austin,and today we're here forthe LG UltraWide Festival.Of course, big shoutout to LGfor sponsoring this video.And you're mouthing what I'm sayingthe entire time aren't you?(laughing)- No.- After hundreds of entries,Linus and I narrowed itdown to three finalists:Taylor, Zach, and John.They each have a budget of $2,000to build a gaming PC setupto go along with the LG34UC89G UltraWide monitor,and the winner gets a $10,000 grand prize.What's the deal with the parts, right?So you went with the Mini ITX system.- I went withthe Mini ITX system.This case is really beautiful.- Actually, I've not builtanything in the Manta.- I have not either,it's gonna be exciting.- It looks nice.So you're also going,obviously, you've got the Z270I.You've got the Core I7,but you're able to fit a1080ti in the $2,000 budget.- Yes.- With that i7 7700K,paired with a GTX 1080ti,16 gigs of RGB-fied RAMand a 250 gig SSD,Taylor's got a pretty wellrounded small form factor build.Next, we're here with Zachary.Now you picked a verydifferent style of computer.So what are you planning on doing with it?- Well I wanted to focusmore on immersive game play.- Immersive gameplay?- Yes.- Okay, well you definitelywent a lot higher endon the accessories.You spent probably what,like 150 bucks or so on accessories?- Yeah, 170.- 170.So you put in a decent--- Well technically alittle bit more than that.- Technically?What do you mean technically?- Well I bought something else.- What's the something else?- It's the secret weapon.- I don't think anyone'sgetting anything close to this,but I'm curious?Okay, so you have a B250 motherboard,but you have an unlocked Core i7.Is there some reasoning behind that?- Well there's a big reason for that.- Okay.- I'm just stupid.- Wrong motherboard aside,while Zach is rockingmuch better accessoriesto go with the ultra wide monitor,he's taking a serioushit with only a GTX 1080,as well as spending abig chunk of his budgeton a 480 gig SSD.Next where here with John,and you actually picked outa little bit of a different system.So what's the main thingyou wanna do with this?- I want to make 3D animation videos.- Okay.- Yes, and maybe a little bit of gaming.- Okay, gotcha,so it's a little bit moreon the content creation side of things?- Yes.- Here, John's also got a i7 7700Kpaired with a GTX 1080ti,but he also stepped it upwith matching RGB accessories,even including a headset.For $2000, you should be able to builda pretty solid gaming system,and at first glanceeveryone has solid parts,but part of the challengeis actually building themand tuning them in a single afternoonto work with that ultra wide monitor.Three.- One, two.- What?!It's three, two, one.We just said three, two, one.- Okay, so three, two, one, go?Or three, two, one?- Three, two, one, and then you go on go.- Okay.- Alright, everybody ready?- Three, two, one, start.- Oh my god!- So is the headband giving you the powerto complete the build faster?(grunts)Is it that manly powerthat you don't even needto use your wordsto just brute force it?- I just thought it was cool.(laughing)- It does look cool.What?- Yeah, seriously.- Wait.Hold on, hold on.- It's really bad.- Whoa.That is crazy.Yeah, so you can see thosepins are definitely bent there.Actually, there's acouple over here as well.What do you think?Cause I don't think there'sany easy way of fixing this,at all.Do you have another?Look at this.That's totally fair.Like this is not your faultthat you got a busted motherboard.Of course not.After about an hour or so of building,the system's are coming along nicely.Hey!Dude, good job.Alright, so you'reactually the first personto get a system up and running.LOL, you suck.- Okay, try again.(laughing)- Alright, pair it up.- Alright, well one fan's not spinning.Graphics card looks like it's...- Whaap whaap.- Because he actually hadto sway out the motherboard,it's probably not POSTing,because there's a Kaby Lake CPUin here and it's reallylooking for Skylake.So, if we have a BIOS updatethat will probably fix it,but it's going to set you back.This is kind of a tough one.Alright, so your system is done.Do you have anything else to do,besides overclocking right now?- No.Put it on the glass.That's about it.- Well it POSTs,so that's a big improvementover Taylor's machine.- Besides the secret weapon,which I'm sure will be 100%figured out by the timethat we're actually ready,you have everything installed?- Yes.- Okay, so now it's goingto basically come down to,since you can't overclock the CPU,you're gonna try to get asmuch as you can outta the 1080.- Yep.- Alright, so everyone's basicallybuttoning up their systems now.It looks like you're just doingthe final bit of cable management?- No I gotta get this RAM reseatedthat wasn't seated properly.- So you're actuallyonly at eight gigs of RAMthat's showing up right now?- Yes.- Okay, got it.So you feel, like it's justgoing to need to be reseated?- Yeah.- Alright, so we are almost done.Everyone has their systems setup,and now it's just the final stuff,like making sure all thebenchmarks are setup,doing the overclocking,tweaking all the last minutelittle lighting stuff,cables, all that kinda thing.The first test is gonna be Cinebench.- Cinebench!Now they all have the same CPU.- Yes.But overclocking is goingto be very different.- Or.- Or is it?- Nonexistant.Gentlemen, start your, yeah okay.- Let's just do three, two, one.- Yeah, three, two,one, two.- When are you going?Go?- Okay, go, go.Just go.- Start.- Go.Everyone go.- So you're at five Gigahertz.- Five gigahertz overclockon that little Cryorig cooler,very nice.- That's really impressive.So the next test is going to be 3DMark,which is going to be testingtheir GPU performance.So, are you guys ready?Alright, three, two,one, start.- Alright so we'vegot our Time Spy benchmarks,basically John's card isa little more overclockedand/or margin of error of the test,but he takes this one by a hair.So for Ghost Recon, we'rerunning at the native resolutionof these monitors;that's 2560x1080 and we'reusing the ultra preset,because we figure for two grandyou should be having a pretty,ultra gaming experience.Now one of the things thatwe're gonna be looking foris not just being able to run the game,but being able to run it at a frame ratewhere you're gonna be taking advantageof these high refresh rate monitors.- 65.7, 65.9, and 53.4.- Okay.- You guys basically tied.With benchmark results inhand, Linus and I stepped awayto discuss what we thoughabout the competition so far.I feel like right now, Zackis kinda not looking so great.I feel like he's gotthe wrong motherboard.There are some fairly major issues.I'm not a huge fan of the ideathat he spent so much onthe SSD, and with someof the other stuff wherehe skimped on thingslike the 1080 as opposed to a 1080ti.- Him having the worstgraphics card out of everyonefor a gaming setup, is...- It's a problem.- Pretty tough.- And the motherboard,that's a huge problem,cause he got a very expensive motherboard,but it's still notoverclocking compatible.I think it looks nice.The complete system's going to look solid,but that's a big, big problem,which I guess brings us to Taylor.So Taylor had a huge disadvantagein the fact that he got a brokenmotherboard out of the box.So we're not gonna dockhim points for that,I mean, I'm not.I think I like his build.I like the idea he'sgoing small form factor.I think it's going to matchpretty well with the monitor.- Well he had a rationalebehind everything.He's like, "Yeah I chose likea case with curved side panelsto match the curved monitor"."And I chose a black and redcase to match the monitor."And it feels a little kiss ass to me.- I mean the rules werethat you had to get a systemto go along with the setup.I don't think we can penalize himfor trying to makesomething inside the rules.What do you think about John so far?- John?Everything's going smoothly over there.I don't disagree with anyof his hardware choices.I think his is, in a vacuum,the best balanced machineon the table.- I tentatively agree with that.- So third place is...Zachary.You fought hard.The scores were super close actually.- It was actually, we basicallyagreed on almost everything.- Yep, but I think..- The performance hurt.- The performance hurt you.The good news is that you come out of thiswith a wicked awesome gaming rig.- Absolutely.- And hopefully you had fun today.- I did.- I think before we announce the winner,we agreed on basically every category.I think we were prettymuch on the same page.You guys all did really well.- It was way close.John you took it home.- Wonderful.- And Taylor, you fought hardand you were a lot of funto hang out with today.You were okay too.- Alright, and of course, the best piece.- Austin you get to do the check.Do the check, Austin.- Oh the check.This is, this is what it feels like.- I mean it's not a check.Doesn't even really look like a check.- You actually can't go cash this.- You can't cash that.- We're gonna try anyways.- They're gonnalaugh you outta the bank.- Is this 21x9?- So of course,huge shout out to LG forsponsoring the video,and inviting us out to sort ofhost the Ultra Wide Festival.And let us know what you guysthink about the whole thing.Actually would like to do more.And you're gonna just keepdoing that, aren't you?You know, I'm glad the video's over.I can finally go home.