Maximum PC - UK (2019-09)

maximumpc.com SEP 2019 MAXIMUMPC 97

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

WE DIDN’T REALLY WANT to admit it, but yes, an AIO cooler for this

build was overkill. We’re out to make some savings this month, and

a pricey cooling solution represented the perfect place to trim the

fat in this build. To that end, we’ve opted for AMD’s high-end air

cooler, the Wraith Max, which comes with RGB lighting and near-

silent fan operation, while still providing sufficient heat dissipation

for all but the most savage of overclocking attempts. We’re putting

that cooler on to a different board, too: the MSI B450M Gaming

Plus, a slight upgrade from last month’s B450-A for just two

dollars more. The key change here, though, is going from Nvidia

to AMD with our graphics card. For no extra cost, the RX 5700

provides slightly better performance and an extra 2GB of VRAM for

your system. Right now, it comes bundled with a three-month pass

for Xbox Game Pass on PC, too.

CHANGES ACROSS THE BOARD were minimal for the budget build this
month, so it’s unlikely you’ll see much difference in performance.
The key alteration was the switch from the conventional Ryzen 5
2600 to the 2600X version, with its expanded overclocking
potential. The 2600X was inexplicably cheaper this month, even
though neither item was on sale with any of the big online retailers.
The max boost frequency is 0.3GHz higher, and despite swapping
out to Geil’s Evo Potenza RAM, the overall performance should be
slightly superior to last month’s setup. The 2600X also comes with
a beefier cooling solution; the AMD Wraith Stealth is replaced by
the taller Wraith Spire. We’ve also shifted from Gigabyte to EVGA
on the GPU front; we’re down from two fans to one, and the boost
clock is a little less impressive, but the EVGA GTX 1660 XC Black is
quieter and currently the cheapest GTX 1660 card on the market.

INGREDIENTS INGREDIENTS

PART PRICE

Case Fractal Design Meshify C $90

PSU 550W Cooler Master MasterWatt 550

8 0+ Bronze

$55

Mobo MSI B450M Gaming Plus NEW $102

CPU AMD Ryzen 7 2700 $200

Cooler AMD Wraith Max NEW $40

GPU Sapphire Radeon RX 5700 8GB NEW $350

RAM 16GB (2x 8GB) Team T-Force Vulcan Z

@ 3,200MT/s NEW

$70

SSD 250GB Samsung 970 Evo Plus M.2 PCIe $75

HDD 1TB Seagate Constellation ES 3.5-inch $36

OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM $100

PART PRICE

Case BitFenix Nova TG $85

PSU Corsair VS450 80+ White 450W NEW $42

Mobo ASRock B450M R4.0 AM4 $65

CPU AMD Ryzen 5 2600X NEW $160

GPU EVGA GeForce GTX 1660 XC Black 6GB NEW $220

RAM 8GB (2x 4GB) Geil Evo Potenza

@ 3,000MT/s NEW

$37

SSD 120GB Crucial BX500 2.5-inch $20

HDD 1TB Seagate Constellation ES 3.5-inch $36

OS Ubuntu Desktop Linux 18.04 LTS 64-bit $15

Approximate Price: $680 Approximate Price: $1,118

BUDGET MID-RANGE