DECEMBER 2020 PCWorld 135but the DS4 goes on sale regularly.)
Overall, we’ve laid a solid foundation for
our PS5 build, with some room to do more
PC-like upgrades in the future. (We’re already
itching to do a RAM upgrade given our
browser tab habits, truth be told.) Again, the
only component not yet locked down is the
graphics card.
Cost comparison
So how did we do on price? Contrary to the
internet’s predictions, you’ll pay quite a bit more
than $800 for a PS5-like PC build. As mocked
up with an Nvidia RTX 3070, our parts list
exceeds that estimate by $700. Even when
comparing against the $500 disc-version of the
console plus a $480 eight-year subscription for
online play (assuming this generation lasts that
long), the gap still stands at $500.
XBOX SERIES X BUILD
(ROUND 1)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (go.pcworld.
com/r737), $305
Motherboard: Asus TUF Gaming
X570-Plus (Wi-Fi) ATX (go.pcworld.
com/570p), $180
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB DDR4/
3600 (2x8GB) (go.pcworld.com/rpjw), $64
Graphics 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: Cooler Master N400 ODD ATX
Mid-Tower (Black) (go.pcworld.com/n400),
$60
Optical drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/
DVD/CD Writer (go.pcworld.com/wh14), 55
OS: Windows 10 Pro license, $40
Controller: Xbox Series X controller (go.
pcworld.com/xcon), $60
Total: $1,559Build 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
Our preliminary take on an Xbox Series X PC
largely follows the PS5 build’s lead, but with a
couple of minor tweaks to accommodate
physical media. Because the Series X doesn’t
have an all-digital variant, we can’t entirely
skip a Blu-ray drive. We will fudge it, though.
Now, a proper 4K Blu-ray drive would
actually duplicate the Series X’s capabilities,
but little has changed since we last
attempted to put one in a PC three years
ago (go.pcworld.com/3ago). You still need
an Intel motherboard that supports Intel
Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX) for it
to work properly, and dealing with SGX is
still kind of a headache. While processor
and motherboard support has improved,