98 MAR 2022
blueprint
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PRODUCED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.OUR AMD SYSTEM was hit hard this month. Not only are we effecting
the same changes to the GPUs as we did in the mid-range machines
(a new RX 6900 XT card from ASRock, and a corresponding Gigabyte
RTX 3080 for the Intel build), but the Ryzen 9 5900X rose by $50
while the Core i9-12900K held steady. We trimmed a few dollarsoff the overall cost by swapping to the Aorus Elite mobo from the
Gaming X, but it’s a drop in an ocean of rising prices. Like many X570
motherboards, the Aorus Elite may need a BIOS update to work with
Ryzen 5000 series chips. New boards should come pre-updated.
In an effort to keep the price down, we replaced the Corsair AIO
cooler used in both builds for an MSI model, the MAG CoreLiquid
360R ARGB. With three 120mm ARGB fans and a rotatable
illuminated pump block, it’s one of the better-looking AIO coolers—
and, thanks to a $10 rebate, only costs $130. A current deal sees a
free LGA1700 bracket included with your purchase. The AM4 socket
in our AMD machine is supported as standard.
The Ripjaws DDR4-4000 memory remains the best value at that
performance level for our AMD system, but the end of the sale
on Corsair’s DDR5 Vengeance means another price hike. We’ve
opted for the Kingston FURY Beast kit, clocking in at a hefty $350.
That’s a 2x 16GB kit at 5200Hz with a CAS latency of 40 (which feels
alarmingly high but is par for the course with high-frequency DDR5
RAM). Reclaiming the FURY memory brand from HyperX has clearly
gone well for Kingston, with great performance across the board.
A discount on the 1TB Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 saw us switch it for
the more expensive 7000s variant, knocking $60 off the total price
of our Intel machine. Sequential read speeds take a 2GB/s hit, but
most users won’t notice that difference when the regular Aorus
Gen4 reads at 5GB/s. Write speeds take a smaller hit of 600MB/s.
We didn’t see fit to change anything else; the Samsung 980 Pro
is still one of the best PCIe 4.0 SSDs available right now, and while
the 6TB Western Digital Blue hard drives have risen a little in price,
they’re still better value than similar offerings from Seagate.Approximate Price: $2,663 or $3,163 Approximate Price: $2,654 or $3,518
AMD INGREDIENTS INTEL INGREDIENTSPART PRICESTREET
PRICECase Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2
Tempered Glass
$220PSU 750W Be Quiet! Pure Power
11 FM 80+ Gold NEW
$115Mobo Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite NEW $184CPU AMD Ryzen 9 5900X $557Cooler MSI MAG CoreLiquid 360R ARGB NEW $130GPU ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT
Phantom Gaming D 16GB NEW
$999
$1,499RAM 32GB (2x 16GB) G.Skill Ripjaws V
32GB @ 4000MHz
$136SSD 1TB Samsung 980 Pro M.2 PCIe 4.0 $170HDD 6TB WD Blue 5400 HDD $120OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM
(Windows 11 Compatible)
$32PART PRICESTREET
PRICECase Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2
Tempered Glass
$220PSU 750W Be Quiet! Pure Power
11 FM 80+ Gold NEW
$115Mobo MSI PRO Z690-A WiFi LGA1700 $240CPU Intel Core i9-12900K $617Cooler MSI MAG CoreLiquid 360R ARGB NEW $130GPU Gigabyte Gaming OC GeForce
RTX 3080 10GB NEW
$700
$1,564RAM 32GB (2x 16GB) Kingston FURY
Beast DDR5 @ 5200MHz NEW
$350SSD 1TB Gigabyte Aorus Gen4
M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD NEW
$130HDD 6TB WD Blue 5400 HDD $120OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM
(Windows 11 Compatible)
$32TURBO