PC Gamer Presents - PC Hardware Handbook - May 2018

AMD MOTHERBOARD

MSI X370 GAMING PRO

CARBON £190

AMD GPU

AMD RADEON PRO

WX 7100 £625

AMD MEMORY

32GB (4 X 8 GB)

CORSAIR

DOMINATOR

PLATINUM 2666

£465

Professional graphics cards may cost a lot more

than their gaming-focused brethren, but the

pay-off can be considerable in the right

applications. It’s all about drivers. The Radeon Pro

WX 7100 is a single-slot card in delightful YInMn

blue (Google it; the colour does more than look

good), with 2,304 stream processors, capable of

hitting an impressive 5.7Tflops.

Memory can make a considerable difference in a

lot of workstation applications, so spending

more on a quality kit makes sense. We’ve gone

for a set of the Corsair Dominator Platinum 2666

sticks here, as it’s a good compromise between

capacity, speed, and price. If you handle a lot of

large data sets, a 64GB kit may be a better idea.

There are plenty of good processors in the Ryzen

stack, but for a workstation-class machine, you

really do want to make sure you have the top dog.

Eight cores, 16 threads, running at a slight

overclock of 3.9GHz makes for a beefy heart for

any number-crunching activity. It’s only a fraction

of the cost of Intel’s top chip as well.

The Gaming Pro Carbon is our current favorite offering for any AM4 build. Solid,

stable performance, backed up by a rich feature set, and a reasonable price make

this a tough one to beat. Dual M.2 ports and six SATA connectors make for great

storage options, while a total of 16 USB ports give you plenty of connectivity, too.

AMD BUILD

AMD CPU

AMD RYZEN 7 1800X £310

PROFESSIONAL GRAPHICS CARDS MAY

COST A LOT MORE, BUT THE PAY-OFF

CAN BE CONSIDERABLE

FEATURE

AMD vs. INTEL