Maximum PC - USA (2020-09)

(Antfer) #1

86 MAXIMUM PC SEP 2020 maximumpc.com


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BEFORE WE GET INTO THE NITTY-GRITTY of this: At the time of w r iting,
Death Stranding on PC is free with both of the EVGA 2080 Supers
we’re using in these two builds (the KO Gaming in the AMD build,
and the Black Gaming in the Intel build). Snap that up! Anyway...
high-end power supplies seem to be stabilizing somewhat in

the price department, so we’d recommend grabbing a Corsair
RM850x at just $165 before the price rises again. You can see the
same PSU in both turbo builds this issue.
In the AMD machine, we’ve upgraded our motherboard to the
excellent MSI MEG X570 Unify. Some dedicated readers among
you may remember this as one of the first X570 mobos we got
our hands on, and it’s still a great choice for any 3rd-gen Ryzen
build. We’ve also swapped out our memory, sticking with G.Skill’s
TridentZ range but now opting for the newer, flashier TridentZ Neo.
As we mentioned earlier, we’re using EVGA’s RTX 2080 Super KO
Gaming in this machine now. Lastly, the 1TB model of the Corsair
Force MP600 SSD is no longer the most affordable option for a 1TB
PCIe 4.0 drive; Patriot has come in strong with the Viper Gaming
VP4100, providing up to 5GB/s transfer speeds for just shy of $200.
The Intel system is getting a far more concrete improvement
this month: A shiny new CPU, with the Intel Core i9-10900K. This
is selling fast, but hopefully will be restocked by the time you read
this. With 20 threads across 10 cores clocked up to 5.3GHz, this
should show a solid performance boost when combined with the
new Asus ROG Strix Z490-E Gaming motherboard. Fortunately, the
LGA-1200 socket is compatible with LGA115X coolers meaning we
have plenty of choice for coolers. That said we’ve gone for Fractal
Design’s Celsius+ S28 Dynamic X2 AIO cooler, which sports an
omni-compatible CPU bracket. Finally, a tasty $60 discount on
the Samsung 970 Evo Plus made a very persuasive argument for
changing up our SSD. This drive effectively offers the fastest SSD
storage available on Intel platforms, at least until Intel introduces
PCIe 4.0 compatibility with its future processors.

Approximate Price: $2,813 Approximate Price: $2,634


AMD INGREDIENTS INTEL INGREDIENTS

PART PRICE
Case NZXT H710i $170

PSU 850W Corsair RM850x NEW $165

Mobo MSI MEG X570 Unify NEW $300

CPU AMD Ryzen 9 3950X $700

Cooler Corsair iCUE H115i RGB Pro XT 280mm $140

GPU EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Super KO
Gaming 8GB NEW
$730

R AM 32GB (2 x 16GB) G.Skill TridentZ Neo
@ 3600MT/s NEW
$179

SSD 1TB Patriot Viper Gaming VP4100
M.2 PCIe SSD NEW
$199

HDD 6TB Seagate BarraCuda
ST6000DM003 HDD
$130

OS Windows 10 Homes 64-bit OEM $100

PART PRICE
Case NZXT H710i $170

PSU 850W Corsair RM850x NEW $165

Mobo Asus ROG Strix Z490-E Gaming NEW $300

CPU Intel Core i9-10900K NEW $550

Cooler Fractal Design Celsius+ S28 Dynamic
X2 PWM Black 280mm NEW
$151

GPU EVGA GeForce RTX 2080
Super Black Gaming 8GB
$730

R AM 32GB (2 x 16GB) Corsair Vengeance
RGB Pro @ 2,666MT/s
$148

SSD 1TB Seagate BarraCuda 510
M.2 PCIe SSD NEW
$190

HDD 6TB Seagate BarraCuda ST6000DM003 HDD $130

OS Windows 10 Homes 64-bit OEM $100

TURBO

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