maximumpc.com SEP 2020 MAXIMUM PC 85
Sponsored byAGAIN, WE HAVE SMALL SAVINGS ON BOTH mid-range systems this
month. An excellent deal on the Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4-
3200 has given the memory in the AMD build a minor speed bump
(of 200MT/s, with no change in CAS latency) and knocking a few
bucks off the price too. Meanwhile, the Intel system has adopted
Approximate Price: $1,312 Approximate Price: $1,323
AMD INGREDIENTS INTEL INGREDIENTSPART PRICECase Fractal Design Meshify C $85PSU 650W EVGA 650 BQ NEW $80Mobo Asus TUF Gaming X570-Plus NEW $165CPU Ryzen 7 3700X $280Cooler Noctua NH-U12S NEW $65GPU MSI Radeon RX 5700 8GB $330R AM 16GB (2 x 8GB) Corsair Vengeance
LPX @ 3,200MT/s NEW
$67SSD 500GB Corsair Force MP600 $110HDD 1TB Seagate Constellation ES
ST1000NM0001 HDD
$30OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM $100PART PRICECase Fractal Design Meshify C $85PSU 50W Cooler Master MasterWatt NEW $90Mobo MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC NEW $190CPU Intel Core i7-9700 NEW $320Cooler Phanteks PH-TC12DX $58GPU Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2060 OC 6GB NEW $320R AM 16GB (2 x 8GB) G.Skill Ripjaws V
Series @ 2,400MT/s NEW
$60SSD 500GB Western Digital WD Black
SN750 M.2 PCIe SSD
$70HDD 1TB Seagate Constellation ES
ST1000NM0001 HDD
$30OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM $100the same memory as its budget counterpart: Performance is
basically unchanged, but we’ve saved a few bucks. Since memory
speed has little to no impact on Intel CPU performance, there’s no
need to splash out—capacity and latency are all that matter.
A price hike on the Corsair CX650 made us opt for two new 650W
power supplies. The AMD system gets EVGA’s semi-modular 650
BQ, while the Intel machine gets the MasterWatt 650 from Cooler
Master, equipped with a low-noise Silencio fan. Speaking of fans,
we saved a bit more cash by swapping to the Noctua NH-U12S
CPU cooler for our AMD build. This is a slight downgrade—the
NH-U12S only has one fan as opposed to the previous Corsair
A500’s two—but Noctua’s coolers are always a good choice.
The Ryzen 7 3700X isn’t going anywhere, but the Intel Core
i7-9700 is actually now cheaper than the i7-9700F. It’s a strange
turn of events, since the chips are near-identical, save for the
9700F’s lack of integrated graphics. The i7-9700 is joined by a new
motherboard too, the MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Edge AC, saving us
another $20. The AMD build also scored a new mobo: The Asus
TUF Gaming X570-Plus, which is excellent value at $165.
We shopped around for different Radeon GPUs, but the MSI RX
5700 dropped by 10 bucks, securing its place as the best-value
5700 available right now. Our previous RTX 2060 rose by the same
amount, so we’ve shifted over to Gigabyte’s factory-overclocked
model to keep our price level. Elsewhere, small savings made us
stick with the parts we had already. Both SSDs dropped by five
bucks, and Fractal Design’s Meshify C case remains a great choice.MID-RANGE