Maximum PC - USA (2020-09)

maximumpc.com SEP 2020 MAXIMUM PC 57

12

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE, and what a challenge it is to get
system parts in, that’s for sure. Our regular press contacts are
struggling to get inventory across the sea for us to build with,
and as such it has been near-impossible for us to get exactly
the right GPU that we wanted. We’re actually running a Gigabyte
GeForce RTX 2070 Gaming 8G in this build, but sadly there aren’t
any available across the US right now. However, you can pick up a
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 8GB Windforce 2X, with an identical
clock speed, cooling, and power-delivery solution for just $400,
albeit it has slightly tweaked visuals compared to the card we
are using here.
Aside from our frustratingly annoying GPU situation, we’ve
gone with one Asus’s latest B550-F Gaming motherboards,
which is surprisingly expensive for a B550 board, at $210,
although more on that later. We’ve paired that with 16GB (2x8GB)
of Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 memory at 3600 MHz, one of be
quiet!’s latest Pure Rock 2 Black CPU coolers, a 1TB Intel 665P
M.2 PCIe 3.0 SSD, a Corsair 110R chassis, and a fully modular
Fractal Design Ion+ 760W PSU as well, to round out our build
price at $1,183.
So overall it’s not too expensive, and not ridiculously cheap
either, but it should have more than enough going for it to crush
frame rates at 1440p and below. Let’s take a look at how to put
this back-to-basics beast together...

WE’VE FINALLY reached the precipice folks! Here you see

Cor sair’s l atest Car bide 110R budget chassis. Clocking in

at $70, it’s definitely on the budget-end of the spectrum,

but that hasn’t stopped the Californian company from

pushing what it can fit into this thing to the absolute limit.

There’s a fantastic full-sized PSU cover, intelligent cable

routing, a fully tempered-glass panel, good support for

AIO solutions, and perhaps most impressivly of all, a

5.25-inch disk drive compartment.

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a chassis with

a disk drive; in our age of digital streaming

and beyond, it’s a device that’s

seemingly been

relegated to the

history books.

Many who still

use them push

the device to an

external USB

dock instead.

Nonetheless,

its interior

looks mighty

fine, and with a

pseudo brushed-

aluminum finish

on the plastic front

panel, it’s pretty

classy too.

AS USUAL, THE FIRST THING we recommend you do

with any new build is strip down the case as far as you

can go. Hiding away any outward-facing panels in the

chassis box will ensure they don’t get scratched during

the building process, and will make your brand-new rig

all the easier to build in, as it’ll give you more clearance,

and be lighter in the process. We’ve also gone and

removed the hard-drive caddy here too, as we know we

won’t be using any drives in this build, and it gives us a bit

more room to play with when installing the PSU. A quick

peek around the back and you’ll find slots for 2x 2.5-inch

drives, and plenty of cable management.

THE NEW RETRO? STRIP DOWN

INGREDIENTS

PART STREET PRICE

Case Corsair Carbide 110R $70

Motherboard Asus ROG Strix Gaming B550-F Gaming $210

CPU AMD Ryzen 3 3300X $127

GPU Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 8GB

Windforce 2X

$400

Memory 16GB (2x8GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX

DDR4 @ 3600

$70

PSU 760W Fractal Design Ion+ 760p

80+ Platinum

$122

Storage 1TB Intel 665P M.2 PCIe 3.0 SSD $115

CPU Cooler be quiet! Pure Rock 2 Black $45

OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM $24

Tot al $1,183

AUDIO READY