APR 2022MAXIMU MPC 67
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Frankenbuild!
Turn Old Into New
SOME OF THE BIGGEST items in our stock cupboard were cases,
so I had a few options. My first choice was the gorgeous NZXT H1,
an Xbox Series X-style case we featured on our September 2020
cover. However, as a Mini-ITX case, it would limit my choice of
motherboard, cooler, and maybe even graphics card. Ultimately,
I settled on the Corsair 4000D Airflow, a standard size case.
The motherboard and RAM came together as an item, so had
probably featured in another build from a previous issue. The
Asus ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi is a mid-range board
with plenty of features, including Wi-Fi and double M2 SSD slots,
while the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X is a high-end processor that comes
with an air cooler, although locating the latter proved impossible.
Luckily, we had a couple of AIO cooler options for the CPU. I
wanted to use the Raijintek EOS 360 RBW, but it was too large to
fit in the case. So I went for a Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX
360, a smaller cooler we’ve recommended many times before.
The graphics card was an easy choice, as there weren’t many
around. The Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 GAMING OC 8G is a few
generations old, but still has plenty of grunt. The power supply
caused the most grief. I chose the Seasonic PRIME SSR-600TL,
but alas, it wouldn’t turn on so I settled on the EVGA SuperNOVA
1200 P2, an overpowered 1200W PSU for this build, but it works.
I had loads of options for RAM but settled on 32GB of 3733MHz
HyperX Fury RGB. The SSD was a Corsair Force Series 2TB M2
drive, which will be more than enough. I toyed with adding a 4TB
WD Red SATA SSD or a 12TB Seagate BarraCuda 3.5-inch hard
drive but couldn’t find the mounting for the case. C’est la vie!IF THIS CASE LOOKS FAMILIAR, it’s because it’s been
our Budget Build recommendation in every issue since
Holiday 2020, when we introduced it as “simple but
effective”. I’d add stylish and sturdy, and it even features
a USB 3.1 Type C port in its I/O. Crucially, it has space
for a full-size 360 AIO cooler at the front, there’s plenty
of room to work in, and the cable ties keep everything
tidy. The retail package comes with two Corsair 120mm
AirGuide fans, although in the spirit of the Frankenstein
build, only one was in the case. So I took the side panels
off, kept that fan as the exhaust, and left the roof of the
case empty, but ready for more fans if needed.I HAD THE CHOICE of two AIO coolers from the cupboard,
the Corsair iCUE H150i Elite Capellix 360 ($170) to match
the case, or the cheaper Raijintek EOS 360 RBW AIO Water
CPU Cooler ($120). Both offered RGB lighting, although
the Raijintek didn’t come with a lighting controller like
the Corsair. We’ve never built with the Raijintek, so I went
for that, but disaster struck—it was too tall to go into the
case because the front-mounted I/O cabling blocked it.
We tried the Corsair instead, which fitted perfectly. This
cooler is the one we use in our high-end turbo build and
is overkill for this build. For something more modest,
we’d recommend the Enermax Liqmax III 240 RGB for
$50 mounted to the ceiling, or even just the stock cooler
included in the retail AMD Ryzen 9 3900X package.AWARD-WINNING BUDGET CASE AIO PROBLEMO
INGREDIENTS
PART STREET PRICECase Corsair 4000D Airflow $80Motherboard (^) Asus ROG X570 Crosshair
VIII Hero Wi-Fi
$390
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 3900X $445
GPU Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070
GAMING OC 8G
$630
Memory HyperX Fury RGB 32GB
(2 x 16GB) 3733MHz
$195
PSU EVGA SuperNOVA 1200 P2 $220
Primary
Storage
Corsair Force Series Gen.4 PCIe
MP600 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD
$286
CPU Cooler (^) Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE
CAPELLIX 360
$160
OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM $32
Total $2,438
THE INGREDIENTS