I can’t tell if Starforge Systems’ Voyager II Elite gaming PC is obnoxiously heavy, or if I’m simply nearing middle-age. As the Old El Paso girl once said: Why not both?
Here are some astute observations: The hefty system’s shipping box weighed in at a whopping 60 pounds, and also, I’m turning 40 this summer. Coincidence? I think not. F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that a sign of intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time. So what I’m now saying to you, the reader, is that getting older makes lifting gaming PCs increasingly difficult, and this gaming PC is, well, objectively heavy. My intellect knows no bounds, it seems.
Out With the Old, In With the New
I’ve reviewed gaming PCs from Origin, Maingear and CLX in the past, but I’ve yet to get my hands on a machine from the relatively young (founded in August 2022) Starforge Systems. I do know the company was originally co-owned by a group of notable streamers, including popular YouTuber Asmongold, who has since stepped away from his leadership roles amid recent controversy. In late 2024, the fledgling system integrator sent over the aforementioned Voyager II Elite, which as far as I can tell, doesn’t exist on their website anymore.
That’s partly my fault for taking so long to review the rig, but it’s also the nature of an ever-churning technological progress. Compared to the snail-paced console space, PC hardware is a rapidly moving target, in that components are expiring or going out of vogue all the time. Really, the second you buy a gaming PC, it’s practically outdated, and it’s especially true now, with last week’s launch of Nvidia’s RTX 5080 and 5090 graphics cards, both casting their ‘newer is better’ shadows over dusty 40-series GPUs everywhere.
Starforge’s Voyager II line has since been relaced with a new set of Voyager III options, which include either flavor of Nvidia’s top-of-the-line, factory fresh 2025 graphics processors. But even if it was built a few months before the 50-series GPUs hit the market, the AMD Voyager II Elite I’ve been testing is still wildly powerful. Check out the on-paper specs below:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
- GPU: GeForce RTX 4090 24GB
- RAM: Teamgroup Delta RGB 64GB DDR5 6000 CL38 (2 x 32GB)
- Motherboard: MSI X670E Tomahawk WiFi
- Primary Storage: 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe (7,000 MB/s read)
- Secondary Storage: 2TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe (3,500 MB/s read)
- CPU Liquid Cooler: Starforge Custom Bitspower 360mm
- RGB Fans: 6 x Bitspower 120mm ARGB
- Power Supply: MSI MPG A1000G Gold PCIE5
- Cables: CableMod Pro ModMesh Sleeved Cable Extensions
- Case: Lian Li OIID Evo RGB Mid-Tower
The time from placing the order to receiving the PC was around three days, so the turnaround is excellent, at least in my experience. The Voyager Elite II was priced at $4,799 at the time of shipping, back in November.
Standing Out in a Sea of System Integrators
I’ve said before that system integrators live and die by their attention to detail, because for the most part, these companies are using off-the-shelf components that anyone could potentially buy and utilize themselves. You’re mostly paying for the convenience of having someone else build your PC and ship it to you, as most of the parts aren’t unique.
On that note, Starforge Systems has attempted to stand out from the saturated SI crowd by including a swappable decorative panel inside the Voyager Elite II’s sleek Lian Li chassis. The illuminated accessory that came with my review unit features an appealing space scene, complete with a ringed Saturn, a distant Earth and, of course, the futuristic Starforge logo. There’s a bunch of additional platelights (and cases) you can purchase on the company’s website, and I do think this kind of customization adds some aesthetic value to Starforge’s operation.
As a whole, the Voyager Elite II looks great, if you’re into ostentatious RGB and ‘PC hardware as performance art,’ that is. You’ve got an eye-catching infinity mirror on the custom AIO, plenty of glowing fans and strip lights lining the interior, and RAM that can display all the colors of the RGB rainbow. Then you have the imposing presence of the system’s giant 4090, complete with helpful GPU sag bracket, and you can view the entire spectacle through two individual glass front panels. These give the Lian Li case a cool wraparound effect.
Cable management is excellent and the MSI motherboard offers plenty of ports and opportunities for expansion, including support for a futureproofed Gen 5 PCIe (debatable usefulness at the moment, though). However, I would have preferred a motherboard with WiFi 7 capabilities, as I’ve recently upgraded to a WiFi 7 router, but I tend to hardwire my PC into my router via ethernet anyway, so I’m really just nitpicking here. You do need a lot of desk or floor space to display this impressive rig, though, and like I mentioned previously, it’s noticeably weighty.
Lastly, I do appreciate the inclusion of not one but two SSDs for plenty of game storage, even if one drive is a bit slower in terms of read speed.
A Galaxy of Horsepower
Unsurprisingly, a machine loaded with such robust components had zero problems running all the latest AAA games. January and February have already been jam-packed with notable releases, and I’ve been playing just about everything under the sun on this system.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II ran beautifully in 4K and on the Ultra graphics preset with DLSS enabled, maintaining an average framerate of around 140 fps, but often rising into the 160s and 170s when there was less happening on-screen. The recent PC port of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth saw similarly stunning performance, as did Civilization VII and a few top secret games I can’t talk about at the moment.
I ran in-game benchmark tests on the following titles, so you can get a sense for what the hardware is capable of, at least in terms of framerates. The Crash 4 numbers are hilarious on an overpowered system like this, by the way. I even tried out the Monster Hunter Wilds benchmark tool, which released the day I was finishing this coverage, so I snuck it in at the last possible minute.
- Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (4K, N.Sane): AVG 512 FPS
- Cyberpunk 2077 (4K, RT Ultra, DLSS): AVG 71.88 FPS
- Black Myth: Wukong (4K, Cinematic, RT, DLSS): AVG 98 FPS
- Monster Hunter Wilds (4K, Ultra, DLSS, RT, FG): AVG 118.51 FPS
- Far Cry 6 (4K, Ultra): AVG 123 FPS
Even when under intense load, the Voyager Elite II was never distractingly loud, although you can definitely hear the fans ramp up when demands are high. It’s shockingly quiet for such a large, capable system.
Less is More
If I could sum up the Voyager Elite II’s quality and performance, I’d call it predictably solid. Beyond the intriguing platelight gimmick, this is simply a dependable gaming PC that runs games flawlessly, and that’s mostly due to its high-quality and ubiquitous components. The imposing size and weight makes it a hard sell for gamers looking to save space, especially since there’s more compact and similarly powerful (and priced, too) options on the market, like Corsair’s stylish i500 wood-paneled desktop. The Voyager Elite II is less desktop and more… concrete slab-top?
That said, the building skills on display here are top-notch, as is the cable management. Plus, the PC arrived quickly and undamaged. What is damaged, however, is my lower back, but that’s the price you pay for playing the latest games on Ultra graphics settings and in 4K. Interestingly, I think huge PCs like this make a great argument for services such as Nvidia’s GeForce Now, which stream games in top-tier graphics quality to any compatible display, all without the need to separately purchase cumbersome hardware.
Sure, there’s an argument to be made for playing demanding software on a local machine and with minimal input lag, mind you. There’s additionally the workstation possibilities to consider. But as internet speeds get faster, and streaming services can accommodate more and more simultaneous users, I think we’ll see a gradual move away from these expensive desk behemoths. Still, they are fun, and you can turn your RAM neon green.
We’ll see where Starforge Systems goes from here, but as is, the company provides perfectly acceptable rigs for competitive market prices. Be warned, though, that the Voyager Elite III, Starforge’s 5090 version of the PC I just reviewed, is currently out of stock, and who knows when Starforge will obtain more cards, especially given current 5090 availability. In the meantime, the lesser and cheaper 5080-intalled Voyager III Pro is still available, and that would more than suffice for the average gamer.
Disclosure: Starforge Systems provided review product for coverage purposes.
