Maximum PC - UK (2019-12)

PART PRICE

Case Cooler Master MasterBox Q500L $57

Motherboard Gigabyte X470 Aorus Ultra Gaming $125

CPU AMD Ryzen 3 3200G $95

CPU Cooler AMD Wraith Stealth $N/A

Memory 16GB (2x 8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-2666 $59

PSU 450W Corsair CX450 80+ Bronze $50

Boot Drive 500GB Crucial MX500 SSD $64

Storage Drive 1TB Western Digital Blue HDD $40

OS Windows 10 Home $100

Total $590

INGREDIENTS

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Can we build the best upgradable system

for under half a grand? BY CHRISTIAN GUYTON

WE’RE BACK with another featured build, and this time

our focus is customizability. We wanted to make a

straightforward, versatile system to act as a launchpad

for future expansions. As such, we had a budget to work

with: $500. And we stuck to it (sort of). We decided early

on that integrated graphics would be the way to go;

we’ve got the space to add a dedicated GPU (or any other

expansion cards that strike our fancy) later, if we want.

Flexibility is king here, but our system needed to

be a capable PC in its own right, too. A mix of old and

new components proved to be the cocktail we needed to

create the perfect system for this task, although we’ll

look back at the end and see whether there’s anything

we could have done better. We’ll also be taking some

time to break down the directions in which this system

could be upgraded, whether it’s to become a high-

powered gaming rig or a music-editing system.

That placed a few caveats upon us. First off, we needed

a motherboard that was ready for upgrading;  that

$ 500 BUILD IT

CHALLENGE

meant plenty of DIMMs and PCIe slots, along with M.2

support, and the ability to take new Ryzen CPUs. We’re

going with AMD rather than Intel for our processor, due

to the availability of newer AMD chips with integrated

graphics. We also needed a PSU capable of handling

those extras, and a case with room for more drives.

We’re using a current-gen Ryzen processor with a

last-gen motherboard, which might have you worrying

about compatibility issues. Have no fear—we can rectify

this with a few simple BIOS updates. This is where it

gets complicated, though. X470-series motherboards can

support either first-gen and second-gen Ryzen chips, or

second-gen and third-gen, but never all three at once.

Assuming your X470 board didn’t come with the latest

BIOS updates installed, you need a 2000-series Ryzen

CPU and a USB flash drive. Consider these add-ons to the

build that we won’t be mentioning in the ingredients

list—they won’t be used in the finished build, but you

need them to get the system up and running.

$500 build

24 MAXIMUMPC DEC 2019 maximumpc.com