Market Snapshot
A sampling of PC systems available this month.
TI Computers Winning
Gaming AMD3600
$1,595TINYURL.COM/APC471TICThe R5 3600 CPU is the new mainstream
price/performance king. With that at the
centre of this system it’s a great start and
sets the tone for the rest of the build.
Coupled with a B450 motherboard we save
money over X570 with no performance
losses to speak of. It just means no PCIe 4.0
is available, if that’s of concern to you.
Fast RAM and an NVMe SSD paired with
a now superseded (and thus cheaper)
RTX 2060 equal an astonishing amount
of performance for not much coin.
Thoroughly recommended for those
wanting to game at 1080p at high
frame rates.KEY SPECS: CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 COOLER:
OEM MOTHERBOARD: Asus Prime B450M
GRAPHICS: Asus 6G DDR6 Geforce RTX2060
MEMORY: Kingston Hyper X 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
STORAGE: 500G NVMe M.2 SSD HDD, 2TB Seagate
HDD POWER SUPPLY: Cooler Master Masterwatt
700W CASE: Cooler Master MasterBox Lite 3.PC Case Gear Creation
2080 Ti Gaming System
$5,499TINYURL.COM/APC471PCGMSIhasfocusedon content creators needs
withthismotherboard, and while it’ll game
andoverclockjust as well as most other
boardstheywon’t have such a high level of
IOandexpandability available to them.
WithsevenPCIeexpansion slots, out of the
boxsupportforup to four M.2 drives and a
staggering 13 USB ports out the back, this
thingiscapableof workstation levels of
productivity.If you crave high speed
storageandlotsof IO, this will not
disappoint.Paired with the new 24-thread
R93900X,thissystem will chew through
anyheavyworkload in a snap.
TheRTX 2080 Tiis the cherry on top that
alsomakesthissystem one of the best
gamingmachines around.KEYSPECS:CPU:AMD Ryzen 9 3900X COOLER:
Nz xtKrakenX5 2240mm AIO MOTHERBOARD: MSI
PrestigeX570Creation GRAPHICS: MSI GeForce
RTX 2080 TiGamingX Trio 11GB MEMORY: Te a m
T-ForceNightHawkRGB 3200MHz 16GB DDR4
STORAGE:AdataXPG SX8200 Pro M.2 SSD 1TB,
SeagateBarracuda2TB HDD POWER SUPPLY:
PhanteksRevoltPro850W CASE: Phanteks Enthoo
EvolvX.Mwave AMD Ryzen X570
Custom Gaming PC
$2,504TINYURL.COM/APC471MWV
The new R5 3600X is a great CPU, but here
it’s paired with an equally new X570
chipset – yet with no PCIe 4.0 SSD to
capitalise on the platform’s most
compelling current drawcard – you’re
paying a large premium for a feature that
you can’t use out of the box. If you plan on
upgrading down the track however, this
system begins to make more sense, with
good water cooling, beefy VRMs and a
higher wattage PSU, upgrading later to
more powerful CPUs or GPUs will be no
problem. This system is a good starter’s
build, but if you’re looking to just buy a
system and not mess around with it, you
will find better deals elsewhere. Good
system for an upgrader.
KEY SPECS: CPU: AMD Ryzen R5 3600X COOLER:
Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240R ARGB AIO
MOTHERBOARD: MSI MPG X5 70 Gaming Plus
GRAPHICS: MSI GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming Z 8GB
MEMORY: ADATA XPG Spectrix D60G 16GB
3200MHz DDR4 RGB STORAGE: Intel 660p 5 12GB
M.2 SSD, Seagate 2TB BarraCuda HDD POWER
SUPPLY: SilverStone Strider Gold S ST75F-GS V3
CASE: Phanteks Eclipse P300.
Scorptec Aorus RTX 2080 Gaming PC
$2,999TINYURL.COM/APC471SCO
With Intel’s CPU stack under attack on all fronts, this is one of the few Intel systems that
makes sense at the moment. Intel’s 9700K and 9900K still edge out Ryzen 3000 series in
most games by a small percent, but if you do any form of productivity work Ryzen
becomes the better choice. With that in mind, if you only game and are aiming at a 1440p
144hz+ experience, this is the machine for you. The components are top notch and will
facilitate overclocking well. If you start gaming at resolutions beyond 1440p your
framerates could drop below 100fps and the speed advantage the pricey Intel CPU has
starts to become diminished. Keep this in mind to get your money’s worth.
KEY SPECS: CPU: Intel Core i7 9700K COOLER: Thermaltake Water 3.0 240 ARGB Sync Edition
MOTHERBOARD: Gigaby te Aorus Z390 Pro WIFI GRAPHICS: Gigaby te Windforce GeForce RTX 2080 8GB
MEMORY: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB 3000MHz STORAGE: Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB M.2 SSD,
Seagate BarraCuda 2TB HDD POWER SUPPLY: SilverStone Essential 650W CASE: Thermaltake Level 20 MT
ARGB Black.