CASENZXT H1 Black
$
That’s a lot of money for a case! Don’t
worry, though, it’s justified. The NZXT H
is the entire basis for this build: A super-
compact ITX tower with an incredibly
small footprint. How does it achieve such
slenderness? Integrated components,
that’s how. Part of that $350 price tag
is allocated to the 80+ Gold-rated NZXT
S650 power supply, a small but mighty
PSU mounted at the top of the case to
save space. An AIO cooling solution is
also included, routing heat away from
the motherboard to a 140mm radiator
and single fan. Heat buildup shouldn’t
be a problem here, though; the H1 has
three sides with a perforated design
that ensures good airflow at all times.
There’s even a PCIe riser strip for you to
vertically mount your PSU, guaranteeing
optimized use of the available space.
Oh, and the H1 looks awesome and feels
robust, with a frame of solid steel and a
tall tempered-glass window.MOTHERBOARDMSI MPG B550i Gaming Edge WiFi
$
The new B550 chipset is changing the
game when it comes to AMD machines.
Previously, if you wanted to take
advantage of the blazing fast PCIe 4.
SSDs, you needed an X570 motherboard,
which was undeniably expensive—
especially if you were looking to build a
more affordable system with a cheaper
Ryzen 3000 processor. The B550 line is
a solid upgrade to the similarly budget-
conscious B450 chipset, and this MSI
board packs all the features we’ll need
into a compact ITX form factor. Shifting
down to an ITX motherboard doesn’t
have to come with a noticeable drop in
performance; we’ve picked the best
components to work with this mobo.compact computing
18 MAXIMUM PC SEP 2020 maximumpc.com