Computer Shopper - UK (2020-01)

ISSUE383|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2020 51

COMPONENTS

AMD Ryzen93900X

★★★★★

£550•www.ebuyer.com

AMD Ryzen73700X

★★★★★

£313•www.amzn.to/2nFtHMC

Forget the Intel Core

i9-9900K –this 12-core

monster of aCPU performs farbetter

forsimilar money. There is adrawback, in that it’s not very

overclocking-friendly,but that’s partly because it’s so fast to begin

with. Pair it with some good RAM, and you’re already most of the

waytoacapable home workstation.

This octa-core chip has all

the single-core strength of the

Ryzen 93900X, with mutlitasking

power that still puts it well beyond its Intel rivals. Lowpricing and

power efficiency areadditional highlights: the Ryzen 73700X only

draws up to 65W,atiny amount forthis many cores.

SOCKETAM4•CORES (^12) • FREQUENCY3.8GHz•INTEGRATEDGRAPHICSNone•WARRANTYTwo
yearsRTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•PARTCODE100-100000023BOX•FULLREVIEWNov2019
SOCKETAM4•CORES (^8) • FREQUENCY3.6GHz•INTEGRATEDGRAPHICSNone•
WARRANTYTwoyears RTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•PARTCODE100-100000071BOX•
FULLREVIEWDec2019
THERMALTAKEView37
★★★★★
£109•www.scan.co.uk
Aspacious, feature-rich chassis
forbothATX-and EATX-based
builds, the View 37 comes with a
gull-wing side window that’s perfect forshowing
off your handiwork.
CASETYPEMid-tower•MOTHERBOARDTYPEATX, EATX,microATX, Mini-ITX•SUPPLIED
FANS2x 140mm•MAXDRIVEBAYS7x 3.5in, 11x2.5in•DIMENSIONS525x261x538mm•
WEIGHT11.8kg•WARRANTYThreeyears RTB•DETAILSwww.thermaltake.com•
PARTCODECA-1J7-00M1WN-00•FULLREVIEWDec2018
ASUS ROGStrixFlare
★★★★★
£120•www.game.co.uk
Besides being a
comfortable and
responsive gaming keyboard,
thanks to its reliable Cherry MX Redswitches, the ROG Strix Flare
is loaded with useful features and extras: there’s aset of dedicated
media controls and aUSB2 pass-through port, among others.
KEYBOARDSHAPEFull size•NUMBERPADYes•CONNECTION1x USB2•MEDIAKEYSPause/
play,mute, skip,volume•USBPORTS2x USB2•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.
asus.com/uk•PARTCODE90MP000MO-BOEA00•FULLREVIEWOct2019

01

Youdon’t have to spend much to buy

adecent graphics card that can drive

multiple monitors. The AMD Radeon RX 550

costs about £100, forexample,and whileit

isn’t suited to playing the latest games in Full

HD,itisperfect forwatching videos,

browsing the web and playing basic games.

02

You’ll need to spend more moneyif

you want to playthe latest games.

Agood mid-range gaming graphics card is

the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, which is

powerful enough to playall modern games

at Full HD resolution.

High-powered cards tend to be more

expensive,soexpect to payover £400 if

you want to playgames in Ultra HD at the

highest quality settings.

Choosinga... Graphicscard

03

Checkthat your chosen card has

the graphics outputs you need.

Only low-end cards now have VGA

outputs, but many come with aDVI-to-VGA

adaptor.Depending on your monitor,you

mayalso want an HDMI output or even

DisplayPort connection.

Bear in mind that AMD’s Eyefinity

triple-monitor gaming mode requires at

least one DisplayPort monitor,which

meansyour AMD graphics card must have

at least one DisplayPort output. Nvidia’s

Surround three-monitor mode needs only

DVIand HDMI ports.

04

The amount of memory acard has

is important if you want games to look

their best at high resolutions. Unless you’re

on atight budget, get acard with 4GB of

RAM, as this should allow you to select the

highest-quality textures in games.

05

Acard’ssize,noise output and

power requirements are the final

considerations. Make sure your PC’s case

has enough room to accommodateyour

chosen card. Double-slot cards with large

fans tend to be quieter than single-slot

cards with small fans but will block other

expansion slots on your motherboard.

Also check that your power supply

can provide the power the card needs

and that it has the right connectors.

Many cards require asix-pin PCI Express

power connector,and some also need an

additional eight-pin connector.

AMD RadeonRX5700

★★★★★

£290•shop.amd.com

MSIMPGZ390GamingEdgeAC

★★★★★

£140•www.scan.co.uk

AMD’s 7nm GPU is

cheaper than the GeForce

RTX2060 and the RTX20 6

Super,yet is just as comfortable with gaming at 1 080 pand 1440 p.

This price only seems to apply forthe reference design rather than

partner versions, but the blower-style cooler is the only real downside.

From built-in 802.11ac Wi-Fi

and Bluetooth to high-end aud

connectivity,the MPG Z370 GamingEdge

AC is stuffed with features. Addinagood price,easy overclocking and

awell-designed BIOS, and it’s perfect forpremium Intel-based builds.

GPUAMDRadeon RX 5700•MEMORY8GBGDDR6•GRAPHICSCARDLENGTH268mm•

WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•PARTCODERadeon RX 5700•

FULLREVIEWOct2019

PROCESSORSOCKETLGA1151•DIMENSIONS305x244mm•CHIPSETIntelZ390•MEMORY

SLOTS (^4) • PCI-Ex16SLOTS (^3) • PCI-Ex1SLOTS (^3) • PCISLOTS (^0) • USBPORTS2x USB2, 2x USB3,
1x USB3.1,1xUSB Type-C•VIDEOOUTPUTS1x HDMI,1xDisplayPort•WARRANTYOneyearRTB

• DETAILSwww.msi.com•PARTCODEMPGZ390GamingEdgeAC•FULLREVIEWApr2019

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dio

GamingEdge

0

66666

000080 and 1440 ppppp

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