Maximum PC - USA (2022-03)

96  MAR 2022

a part-by-part guide to building a better pc

blueprint

THE BUILDS

THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES...

CORSAIR’S WONDERFUL 4000D AIRFLOW CASE is up $8 this month,

sound the alarms! It’s still a solid choice of case at that price but,

hopefully, we can make some small savings elsewhere. For the

AMD build, we’ve got a new power supply: the TUF Gaming 550W

from Asus, which is cheaper than Corsair’s CV550 and brings

Approximate Price: $1,217 or $1,636 Approximate Price: $937 or $1,535

AMD INGREDIENTS INTEL INGREDIENTS

PART PRICE

STREET

PRICE

Case Corsair 4000D Airflow $88

PSU 550W Asus TUF Gaming 80+ Bronze NEW $38

Mobo MSI MPG B550 Gaming Plus AM4 NEW $87

CPU AMD Ryzen 5 3600 $271

GPU MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT 12 GB MECH 2X $480 $899

RAM 16GB (2x 8GB) Crucial Ballistix CL16

@ 3600MHz NEW

$91

SSD 512GB XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite

PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD

$70

HDD 4TB WD Blue 5400 HDD NEW $60

OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM

(Windows 11 Compatible)

$32

PART PRICE

STREET

PRICE

Case Corsair 4000D Airflow $88

PSU 550W Corsair CV550 80+ Bronze $40

Mobo MAG B460M Mortar WiFi NEW $89

CPU Intel Core i3-10400 $155

GPU MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 3060 12GB $330 $928

RAM 16GB (2x 8GB) Crucial Ballistix CL16

@ 3600MHz NEW

$91

SSD 500GB Samsung 980 NVME

M.2 PCIe 3.0 SSD

$60

HDD 4TB WD Blue 5400 HDD NEW $60

OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM

(Windows 11 Compatible)

$32

to the table all the usual trimmings for a cheap but reliable PSU.

We’re talking dual-ball fan bearings for improved lifespan, 0dB

technology for quiet operation, and an 80+ Bronze efficiency rating.

The budget AMD system is treated to a new motherboard this

month, courtesy of a sale on MSI’s MPG B550 Gaming Plus. This

won’t net a massive performance boost, but it’s a steal at $87 and

comes equipped with RGB lighting and an M.2 heat shield for better

SSD thermals. The Intel machine gets a new mobo too; with MSI’s

B460M-A PRO Micro no longer on sale, we’ve swapped it out for the

similar (but military-styled) MAG B460M Mortar WiFi from MSI.

We’re not messing about the CPUs and GPUs of these budget

builds this time; the Intel Core i3-10400 holds steady in price at $155,

while the Ryzen 5 3600 has seen a slight drop to $271. GPU pricing

continues to stabilize, so there’s not much to comment on there. A

number of Radeon cards still have a deal on for one free month of

the excellent PC Game Pass, which we’d recommend checking out.

We’ve traded out the previous G.Skill memory in both builds due to

a price increase, replacing it with a 2x 8GB 3,600Hz kit from Crucial

that should perform similarly. Note, this is the white version of the

Crucial Ballistix—the black and red models are both inexplicably

$1 more expensive. We didn’t have to sacrifice RGB lighting here

either, the Ballistix comes with 16 RGB LEDs per DIMM.

Lastly, a little storage tweak. A banging sale combined with

a bonus promo code made Western Digital’s 4TB 5400rpm Blue

HDD just $60 on Newegg.com, giving us a whopping amount of

secondary storage in both of these systems for a reasonable price.

BUDGET