DECEMBER 2020 PCWorld 133Graphics card: Nvidia RTX 3070 (go.
pcworld.com/nv37), $500
Storage: Sabrent Rocket 1TB NVMe Gen
4 SSD (go.pcworld.com/sbrk), $200
PSU: Cooler Master MasterWatt 750W
80+ Bronze (go.pcworld.com/mswt), $95
Case: Metallic Gear Neo Air ATX Mid-
Tower (White) (go.pcworld.com/mtne), $60
OS: Windows 10 Pro license, $40
Controller: Sony PlayStation DualSense
Controller (go.pcworld.com/dlsn), $70
Total: $1,514
Build notes
Hardware prices current as of November 8,
- OS license was purchased from shop.
pcworld.com (go.pcworld.com/shpc) during
a sale in October 2020.
Build breakdown
On the whole, this PC sticks to
the basics. The matching focuses
on specs, upgradability, and
performance output. It does not
try to adopt the PlayStation 5’s
smaller footprint, nor does it
attempt to be as quiet or cool.
(You can of course tackle those
aspects if you choose, but since
most PC builders won’t focus on
those things, we’re skipping
them. Check out our YouTube
version of this PS5 PC [go.
pcworld.com/pspc] for a fancier,
more ambitious build.)
Most parts on this list are fairly self-
explanatory. The PS5’s custom AMD APU
sports eight Zen 2 cores clocked at 3.5GHz,
so its counterpart in this PC is an eight-core
Zen 2 Ryzen 7 3700X, which has a base clock
of 3.6GHz. We’ll use the included Wraith
Prism cooler, which performs well for a stock
cooler and even comes with a touch of RGB.
(Though for this PC, we only need the blue.)
To replicate the PlayStation 5’s PCIe 4.0
SSD support, we had to opt for an X570
motherboard. B550 mobos only support a
single Gen 4 SSD, and we require two M.2
slots capable of such speeds. Plus, we need
Wi-Fi 6 support—and so this $180 Asus model
fits the bill as the cheapest option. (Pairing a
non-Wi-Fi motherboard with an add-in card
ended up costing more.) As for the storage
drive, we picked the most affordable 1TB GenOur placeholder GPU. The cost could drop or even rise,
depending on what’ll ultimately best match the PS5 and Xbox
Series X’s gaming performance.