iBuyPower Trace X Review: The Fishbowl Gaming PC You Need to Swim In

A river of RGB gentle runs by way of the iBuyPower Trace X case, piercing up from the underside of the gamer PC tower’s facet panel by way of the highest exhaust vents. Through the trying glass, shrouded in glow, this jumble of glass, aluminum, and silicon is sort of a fish tank swimming with gentle.

This number of elegant “fishbowl” PC circumstances has turn into in style these previous few years. The Trace X, particularly, is the sort that may make the preteen model of me swoon. Then, you open up the facet panel, expose the RGB gentle strips beneath, and discover it almost unimaginable to entry the ability provide cables beneath. That’s to not knock iBuyPower’s newest tower too laborious. It’s seemingly probably the most interesting of its 2026 Gen 10 prebuilt gaming desktops and a strong PC in its personal proper. It’s only a reminder that the Trace X is made to be ogled first and fiddled with second.

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With the equipped elements, together with a top-end AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D gaming CPU, 32GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU, the iBuyPower Trace X (RGB R01) would price $3,450 as of early May 2026. Who is aware of if the price of RAM will push the worth of this PC even additional. Just half a 12 months in the past, you would have constructed the same PC for much less. When I put the identical elements into BuildCores, I come out with a PC that prices about the identical.

The finish result’s that preconfigured PCs are actually not solely simpler on the tip person; they might additionally prevent cash in addition to time. That’s the sort of assertion that appears anathema to the complete notion of PC gaming, however that’s the place we’re at. At the very least, the Trace X will look much better in your desk than most different metallic or plastic towers.

Practice putting in your individual GPU

There are many prebuilt PC manufacturers that target making a seamless bundle. You spend a heap of cash, and also you don’t should do something however excavate it from the field, plug it in, and begin enjoying. iBuyPower is extra conventional, necessitated by the form of the case. There is not any GPU bracket to maintain the GPU secure throughout transport. Instead, the RTX 5080 GPU got here in its authentic MSI-branded packaging. This means you’ll want to fit it into the highest PCIe Express slot on the motherboard your self, then plug it into the awaiting 12VHPWR cable.

That doesn’t really take a lot effort. If that is your first PC, you need to be taught the sort of expertise you’ll must improve your tower. The case is fairly sufficient that you would probably keep on with this design over a number of generations, as long as AMD retains supporting the AM5 CPU socket (the chipmaker just lately promised assist for AM5 within the “long term”).

You don’t should do something greater than organising your PC as regular—which would require spending an excessive amount of time shepherding Windows 11 by way of its myriad settings and updates.

When all is claimed and finished, this PC is a looker. The tender glow from iBuyPower’s branded facet followers and the corporate’s AW5 360mm AIO liquid cooler supplied a chilled gamer ambiance to my work desk. If you don’t thoughts the looks of that screen-filled CPU cooler’s energy and connection cables snaking up and behind the motherboard, the Trace X presents as a clear fishbowl of a PC (as long as you clear off your fingerprints from the glass).

And the case is equally easy to entry. There are two thumbscrews holding the entrance panel in place. The rear panel is even simpler to entry with simply an oz. of effort. Even the rear cable administration is comparatively environment friendly. Most of the ability cables are all working in the identical stream down towards the ability provide alongside the left facet of the motherboard. You’d have to chop the zip ties and piecemeal each twine out to determine any future situation.

The main complication with this case design is how tight all of the cables are squeezed into the ability provide unit (PSU). It’s not simple to entry any of these sockets with it screwed into the aluminum PSU defend. Just maintain that in thoughts for those who ever intend to vary up your GPU sooner or later.

Loud, however a minimum of there’s motherboard HDMI

The Trace X doesn’t look like some utilitarian laptop constructed to guard delicate electronics and transfer chilly air in and sizzling air out. It’s additionally—in some circumstances—much less sensible than a conventional PC case. So if I evaluate the Trace X tower to Hyte (iBuyPower’s sister model) and its X50 case, the cutesy, bubble-like design will promise much more airflow. But which one would you moderately have accompanying you in your desk, truthfully?

Once these followers rise up to hurry, this is usually a comparatively loud PC. In my benchmark assessments pushing the CPU so far as it might go, the PC picked up fairly a racket, excess of different current PCs I’ve examined, such because the HP Omen Max 45L. The case design necessitates a novel airflow. The three side-panel followers suck in air, whereas the rear and top-mounted CPU cooler expel that warmth up and out.

The imbalance of 4 exhaust followers to a few consumption followers creates a adverse stress setting. That means there may be extra air going out than coming in. Ostensibly, that is higher for holding elements cool, although it implies that you will have air looking for ingress (which is probably going why there’s a entrance vent subsequent to the entrance glass panel). That may account for among the noise, nevertheless it’s one thing to think about for those who’re planning to have this case featured prominently in your desk.

And regardless of my quibbles about noise, I could desire this case to many who I’ve tried currently. It’s not simply seems. The Trace X comes inventory with an Asus X870 Max Gaming ATX motherboard. It includes a wealth of rear I/O ports, together with two 40Gbps USB-C, three USB-A 2.0 (plus one other one for flashing BIOS), three 5G USB-A, a 10G USB-A, ethernet, and a freaking HDMI, so that you don’t should depend upon a graphics card for monitor output in case one thing goes improper. It even features a few old-school line-in audio ports for wired headsets. The backside of the entrance panel is the place you’ll additionally discover a single USB-C, two USB-A, and a headphone jack.

As far as different accoutrements, the iBuyPower PC additionally comes with a fundamental keyboard and mouse. These usually are not what you would take into account cream of the crop elements. They’re ok to maintain you occupied till you inevitably spend extra on higher peripherals.

A toasty, probably highly effective fishbowl

You ought to have already got a good concept what to anticipate with efficiency from an Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU and AMD’s Ryzen 7 9850 X3D CPU. The GPU is the extra good selection for 4K-ready gaming in comparison with the RTX 5090. The higher-end card can now price hundreds of {dollars} greater than it did at launch in 2025. AMD’s greatest gaming CPU is merely a barely overclocked model of the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. You can eke out a number of extra frames in some video games with the additional “50” hooked up to the identify. But that’s about it.

That performs out in my Geekbench 6 assessments. Compared to a Maingear Rush desktop PC from 2025 that’s working the 9800X3D CPU, an RTX 5080 GPU, and related specs, this configured Trace X managed simply 1% higher on common. In rendering duties, the newer CPU was basically equal in our Cinebench 2024 benchmarks. It’s the CPU alternative for players who like to squint at numbers in benchmarking scores. Any gamer ought to really feel protected choosing a PC with the 9800X3D or 9850X3D, whichever is cheaper.

When Gizmodo examined the HP Omen Max 45L final month, I acquired used to the unlocked CPU efficiency of a 12-core AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D alongside the unrivaled energy of an RTX 5090. In phrases of CPU efficiency, meaning you’ll see upgraded rendering capabilities. That equaled 24% higher multithreaded efficiency in Cinebench 2026. Taken as a complete, that won’t matter almost as a lot as you suppose. In our Blender assessments, the place we time how lengthy it takes the PC to render a scene of a BMW on the CPU, the Maingear Rush was simply six seconds quicker than this model of the iBuyPower Trace X.

So it’s actually no slouch for extra high-end duties, like rendering. You’re going to be utilizing the GPU for any type of graphics assessments or different high-end workloads. Besides, you actually need to understand how this factor is for gaming. In 3DMark, the iBuyPower Trace X managed related and even higher scores than even the HP Omen Max 45L in lower-power benchmark assessments, like 3DMark’s “Fire Strike” and “Wild Life.”

In any sort of higher-end GPU assessments, like 3DMark’s “Steel Nomad” or “Steel Way,” I didn’t see any actual efficiency uplifts above an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D on the Maingear Rush. At peak load, I noticed it attain near 80 levels Celsius (176 levels Fahrenheit). That’s nonetheless nicely throughout the vary of security for CPU well being. It is increased than I anticipated it to be with the cumbersome 360mm followers linked to the liquid cooler equipment.

Thankfully, temperatures by no means turned an issue in any gaming situations. For 4K gaming, this PC can deal with its personal throughout titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Black Myth: Wukong, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, and extra benchmark-ready titles. I even noticed the iBuyPower Trace X beat the HP Omen Max 45L in Black Myth at 4K, with or with out Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling working.

What I discover extra fascinating is that whereas an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X3D will beat the Ryzen 7 9850X3D in the identical video games at 4K, it affords diminishing returns for video games at decrease resolutions. The iBuyPower PC carried out 20% higher in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p in comparison with the $6,000+ HP Omen Max 45L with the RTX 5090 GPU. The story is flipped for 4K gaming, the place HP’s PC with max specs can carry out 20% to 22% higher than the Trace X with lower-end elements.

In a CPU-demanding sport, like Total War: Warhammer III, the Trace X struggles extra for 4K, particularly within the taxing “Mirrors of Madness” benchmark, solely hitting round 69 common fps at greatest. Then, for those who hope to push each sport to its max, simply know you’ll must make a compromise someplace. If you need to push path tracing in a sport like Cyberpunk 2077, you’ll must depend on DLSS to even hope to get near 60 fps.

Looks aren’t all that issues

Installing your individual GPU actually isn’t a giant deal. It retains the PC from needing to come back packaged with annoying increasing foam on the within. As for every part else, the iBuyPower Trace X performs simply advantageous. Is it the head of airflow design? Probably not.

At almost $3,500 when choosing all of the choices I had examined, you received’t be dissatisfied by seems or efficiency. There’s one other higher-end “RDY” preconfigured model with an older Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU put in that’s going for $2,900. Anything with 32GB of RAM and an RTX 5080 will probably be dear, whether or not you’re shopping for from a prebuilt PC maker like iBuyPower or not.

For what you get, the Trace X is a strong all-around PC. It actually drew some second seems and a minimum of one “ooh” from a colleague on Gizmodo’s client tech workforce. Is your folks’ envy price upwards of $3,000? That’s so that you can determine.