After reviewing the excellent Starforge Systems Voyager II PC a few weeks back, we’ve gone hands-on with another of the company’s offerings: the enthusiast-level Navigator PC. As a mid-tier option in Starforge’s lineup, how does it stack up, and is it worth the entry price?
As I said in my previous review, Starforge is a builder I’ve had my eye on for a while, and I was incredibly impressed by its Voyager II PC that sits in its top-tier Creator stack of PCs. So I went into the Navigator, expecting to be impressed as well. The Navigator line seems to sit in that middle ground of PC building where you’re not getting top-shelf components like an RTX 4090 or a top-tier Ryzen or Intel CPU. Instead, the components are a bit more modest, though still plenty powerful, seemingly targeting 1440p gameplay at high framerates.
We should note that you’ll notice that our pictures include an RTX GeForce GPU in them, though the review below will have benchmarks from an AMD Rx 7800 XT. For full disclosure, about twenty-four hours after sending the Navigator unit (more on that later), a change was made to the components in the Navigator build, replacing the old RTX 4070 with the AMD GPU listed above. As such, we swapped the GPUs out here using our own RX 7800 XT sample to give the most accurate review we possibly could in order to reflect what you’ll actually buy if you pull the trigger on the PC.
SPECS:
First Thoughts and Unboxing
Like the Voyager before it, the Navigator also arrived impeccably packed. As someone who spent ten years working in a music store that shipped multi-thousand dollar instruments to customers across the globe, knowing that my expensive purchase will be packed well and with care gives me a ton of confidence that whatever I bought won’t arrive here broken. The PC itself is carefully packed in the same carton the XPG Invader X case ships in, which is, in turn, packed well in an outer carton, complete with a comically large amount of bubble wrap.
The components inside the PC are secured in place using expandable foam, forming itself around each nook and cranny of the PC to ensure none of the expensive parts break if the box takes a hit (which it will, despite the number of fragile stickers on the sides).
The Navigator line of PC comes in three variants: the base model (reviewed), Pro, and Elite. The differences between the various PCs come down to the quality of GPU, CPU, storage capacity, and more. For our review, we checked out the base-level model, which has a Ryzen 5 7600X CPU, a custom Bitspower 240mm CPU liquid cooler, the aforementioned AMD RX 7800 XT GPU, and more (see the specs above). The case, the XPG Invader X, is perfectly suited to this PC, with two tempered glass panels to see into the RGB heaven that Starforge has built, as well as its impeccable cable management, thanks in part to using custom Cablemod extensions.
However, if you want a bit more personality, you can always opt to upgrade your PC case with custom UV printing. This does add to the cost, about $199, but it definitely makes the rig more unique than simply a black case sitting atop your desk. Multiple themes are available, including the SMITE printing we showcased in our Voyager II review, or even the new Old School RuneScape design, taking players back to Gielinor.
Unfortunately, the XPG case doesn’t come with the ability to slot in the Platelights that make Starforge’s Voyager line pop, but you can always upgrade down the road to the O11 Dynamic should you choose to (or even buy the case from Starforge if you choose - there are alot of options here). Or, if you just want to personalize your space, the Platelight and the Acrylics can be purchase separately and sit on your desk, shelf and more to add even more character to your gaming room.
Issues and Support
So remember when I mentioned the shipping of the Navigator PC to us, and then right afterwards the specs changed? Well, when the original Navigator was shipped, the RTX 4070 was the card on offer with the rig, so it was accurate at the time. Unfortunately our original test system suffered a catastrophic component failure just as we were completing all our testing where we could not get the system to discharge any of its electricity, even when left unplugged from the surge protector for a few days.
Upon letting Starforge know what was going on, we tried to troubleshoot some fixes, from your standard holding the power button down on the case to try to discharge any remaining charge from the motherboard to going so far as to remove the Mobo battery to reset CMOS. None of these worked as both the RAM and CPU debug lights were illuminated, and none of the charge had left the rig in the days since the initial failure.
Starforge, to their credit, was incredibly responsive. Within a day of determining that it was a component issue, we had another rig on my doorstep (hence the 24-hours later the specs changed issue), ready to begin testing anew. It gives me a lot of confidence in the type of support a customer will get if they run into similar issues as well.
While part of that responsiveness can be attributed to the fact that we’re writing a review, in my experience working in customer-facing jobs (again, I worked retail for over ten years before I ever landed a writing job), this type of swift service and desire to make things right is institutional. If it’s instilled in one part of the place, it’ll likely be replicated across the board.
Keep in mind, many of the system builders come from the now-defunct Artesian Builds, which suffered it own catastrophic failure thanks to the sheer incompetence and blundering of its owner - especially with how he interacted with customers. There is likely a desire on the part of those who make up Starforge to never attract those kinds of comparisons with how it deals with its consumers.
While your mileage might vary with customer support should you need to avail yourself of their help, this experience has me pretty confident that you should be well taken care of in the end.
Starforge Systems Navigator Benchmarks
As with all PC builders, the system itself is going to go through any burn-in tests, as well as checks internally to ensure it’s in peak working order before it’s shipped. Starforge does this whenever it builds a PC to try to catch any issues that might crop up before it lands in your hands.
Coupling the Ryzen 5 7600X CPU with the AMD RX 7800 XT, users can take advantage of all of the features that come with Team Red’s components, namely ReSize Bar. Thankfully, this was already toggled on with our rig (since AMD extended ReSize Bar to Nvidia GPUs as well recently).
The RX 7800 XT sits comfortably at 1440p, providing high framerates at the resolution, though if you’re still rocking a 1080p display, you’ll get plenty of performance here as well. Games such as the recently released Stormgate didn’t break a sweat, never dropping below 100fps when I played it earlier this week, while Marvel Rivals, the Unreal Engine 5-powered Hero Shooter from NetEase held up at 3440x1440 using its ultra settings (though Lumen was at High and we used FSR 2’s Quality setting).
Cyberpunk 2077, the most graphically intense game we could throw at the Navigator on the market right now, held up quite well too. While with the Ultra Ray Tracing preset we saw an average of 50fps at 1440p, this can be improved by using either the Performance preset for AMD’s FSR 2 or taking a setting or two down. AMD’s FreeSync, should your monitor be equipped with the tech, can also smooth this out for you in moment to moment gameplay. Without Ray Tracing enabled, the framerates on offer are well over 100fps.
We saw similar results when testing the battle benchmark of Total War: Pharoah, which tests both the GPU and CPU,with both 1080p and 1440p seeing upwards of 160+ fps on average. Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail is similar, with both resolutions at Maximum settings seeing over 100fps.
We also tested the Navigator using 3DMark’s Synthetic Gaming benchmarks, which are designed to push the system as much as possible. Performance is well within what I would expect for a PC with these components, though I do wonder if the CPU holds back the TimeSpy and Port Royal scores here a bit. While more and more gaming applications are GPU-dependent, things like Ray Tracing features still rely on the CPU to help do some heavy lifting, so a more powerful CPU here could eke out even more performance in those applications.
In our testing, we also tested the CPU separately using Cinebench 24 to push both single and multicore rendering. The scores here reflect that if there is a component holding the PC back, it’s the CPU, as the Ryzen 5 7600X was never a productivity workhorse. However, unlike it’s Voyager brethren, the Navigator-line of PCs is billed as a gaming-focused machine, not gaming and content creation, so the trade off here makes some sense.
When testing the NVMe SSD, the CrystalDiskMark test shows it falls above the minimum 3500MB read the specs lists, which is nice to see. It’s a fast SSD, though I do wish it was at least 2TB as 1TB just isn’t enough for most gamers nowadays. Thankfully, there is plenty of room on the motherboard should you decide to snag an SSD on sale down the road.
Final Thoughts and Verdict
So where does this leave us? Since Starforge Systems is using off the shelf parts to build their rigs, we can price out a similar system to see what the mark up looks like if you decide to build one yourself. At 1799.99, the Starforge Navigator PC feels reasonably priced when using PC Part Picker to price out an exact model system.
According to PC Part Picker, you can build a similar rig for just over $1500 USD, though this is without the custom Cablemod kit, which can add another $50-$99, depending. The $200-$300 build fee is perfectly reasonable here, especially when you consider that the Starforge rig will also come with its own 2-year warranty should anything happen to your PC after your purchase.
Starforge’s incredible build quality is also worth the markup—these PCs are built so well and cable managed to such a degree that I would feel bad ever having to take them apart to swap a cable or install another component.
I do think the performance is on par with what you’re getting, and I do generally agree with the decision to slot in the 7800 XT over the RTX 4070. If the base model came with a more powerful RTX 4070 Super or even the 4070 Ti Super, I wouldn’t. But the RX 7800 XT is a fantastic GPU for 1440p, and while you do lose out on access to Nvidia’s DLSS 3 features, FSR 3 frame generation is gaining even more widespread adoption.
I also like the case - it’s not so huge that it takes up a ton of real estate, but it still provides plenty of room for upgrading, and houses plenty of RGB. One critique I do have is that Starforge may have too many fans in the case - 7 total case fans is excessive, and that’s coming from someone who lives in a desert that hit 120 degrees F this summer. Under load it sounds like a jet engine spinning up when all the fans are rumbling, but this is a good problem to have if you’re concerned about your components overheating. Better to have too many fans than too few, I guess.
At the end of the day, the Starforge Systems Navigator is a quality PC. While I do think the CPU holds it back some from being truly great, it’s still a fantastic PC for gaming and light productivity. The price feels spot on, and the level of customer support we received when our original rig ran into an issue makes me feel incredible comfortable recommending Starforge to any of my friends and family looking for a new rig, but not wanting to deal with building it themselves.
With stellar 1440p performance, the Navigator is a good mid-range PC for those who don’t want the cheapest option, but can’t step up into the higher-end market just yet. It’s also perfectly suited for upgrades to the SSD, GPU and more down the road, making it a rig that can last well beyond that 2-year warranty period should you take care of it.
Full disclosure: A loaner PC was provided by Starforge for the purposes of this review.
