ISSUE 379|COMPUTERSHOPPER|SEPTEMBER (^201961)
MID-RANGEPCs
PREMIUMPCs
MSIB350MMortar
★★★★★
£112•www.amzn.to/2zuBbF1
AMDRyzen71700
★★★★★
£140•www.amzn.to/2RhQGHp
INTELCorei9-9900K
★★★★★
£467•www.ebuyer.com
Both AMD and Intel
have recent mid-rang
chips, but with the
erstwhilehigh-endRyzen 71700 dropping
below £200, it’s agreat wayofadding
octa-corepower to aPCthat might otherwise
have had to make do with six cores.
Anear-perfect
motherboardfo
AMD Ryzen-bas d
microATX systems. It’s remarkablywell
equippedforconnectivityand upgradability,and comes close to
much more expensivemobos in performancebenchmarks.
Intel’s 9th-genchips see
it finally joining the
octa-coreclub,including
the flagshipCore i9-9900K.With Turbo
Boost speeds hitting 5GHz straightout of
the box, it’s ajust as potent in single-coregamingas it is in
seriousmultithreadedworkloads.
PROCESSORSOCKETAM4•DIMENSIONS244x244mm•CHIPSETAMDB350•MEMORY
SLOTS (^4) • PCI-EX16SLOTS (^2) • PCI-EX1SLOTS (^2) • PCISLOTS (^0) • USBPORTS2xUSB2,3xUSB3.1,
1xUSBType-C•VIDEOOUTPUTS1xHDMI,1xDisplayPort,1xDVI-D•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•
DETAILSwww.msi.com•PARTCODEB350MMortar•FULLREVIEWJul2018
SOCKETAM4•CORES (^8) • FREQUENCY3.0GHz•INTEGRATEDGRAPHICSNone•
WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•PARTCODEYD1700BBAEBOX•
FULLREVIEWJul2017
SOCKETLGA1151•CORES (^8) • FREQUENCY3.6GHz•INTEGRATEDGRAPHICSIntelUHDGraphics
(^630) • WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.intel.com•PARTCODEBX80684I99900K•
FULLREVIEWJan2019
COOLERMASTERMasterBoxK500
★★★★★
£50•www.scan.co.uk
MSIGeForceRTX2070Armor8G
★★★★★
£467•www.box.co.uk
NVIDIAGeForceRX20
FoundersEdition
★★★★★
£329•www.nvidia.com
THERMALTAKEView37
★★★★★
£110•www.scan.co.uk
Great looks, afull set of
pre-installedfans, high build
quality and aspaciousinterior:
the MasterBox K500 is acommendable
all-rounder.It’s not the best on storage capacity,
but you can still add at least acouple of SSDs
and hard disks each.
Whereasthe RTX
2080 and RTX2080
Ti charge exorbitant
amountsfortheir fancy ray-tracing
and anti-aliasingtech, the RTX2070
deliversthe same features at a
much more reasonableprice.Itcan also handle 4K gamingwithout
much fuss, and MSI’s versionstays very cool under load.
Aspacious,feature-rich
chassisforboth ATX- and
EATX-based builds, the View
37 comes with agull-wing side windowthat’s
perfect forshowingoff your handiwork.
CASETYPEMid-tower•MOTHERBOARDTYPEATX,microATX,
Mini-ITX•SUPPLIEDFANS3x120mm•MAXDRIVEBAYS3x3.5in,
2x2.5in•DIMENSIONS260xx190x280mm•WEIGHT6.2kg•
WARRANTYTwoyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.coolermaster.com•
PARTCODEMCB-K500D-KGNN-S00•FULLREVIEWJan2019
GPUNvidiaGeForceRTX2070•MEMORY8GBGDDR6•GRAPHICSCARDLENGTH155mm•
WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.msi.com•PARTCODERTX2070Armor8G•
FULLREVIEWMar2019
GPUNvidiaGeForceRTX2060•MEMORY6GBGDDR6•GRAPHICSCARDLENGTH229mm•
WARRANTYThreeyearsrepairandreplace•DETAILSwww.nvidia.com•PARTCODEGeForce
RTX2060FoundersEdition•FULLREVIEWMay2019
CASETYPEMid-tower•MOTHERBOARDTYPEATX,EATX,
microATX,Mini-ITX•SUPPLIEDFANS2x140mm•MAXIMUM
DRIVEBAYS7x3.5in,11x2.5in•DIMENSIONS525x261x538mm•
WEIGHT11.8kg•WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.
thermaltake.com•PARTCODECA-1J7-00M1WN-00•
FULLREVIEWDec2018
This is expensivefor a
mid-rangeGPU, but it’s
also very powerfulfora
mid-rangemodel. Besidesborderline
4K-ready core performance,this comes with the same ray-tracing
and DLSS bells and whistlesas Nvidia’s premiumRTXcards, so it’s
still pretty good value in the end.
nge
ropping
M
★★
£11
rtar
r
sed
bly well
MSIMPGZ390GamingEdge AC
★★★★★
£140•www.scan.co.uk
From built-in 802.11ac
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to
high-endaudio connectivi
the MPG Z370 GamingEdge AC is stuffedwith
features. Addinagood price,easy overclockingand awell-designed
BIOS, and it’s perfect forpremiumIntel-basedbuilds.
PROCESSORSOCKETLGA1151•DIMENSIONS305x244mm•CHIPSETIntelZ390•MEMORY
SLOTS (^4) • PCI-Ex16SLOTS (^3) • PCI-Ex1SLOTS (^3) • PCISLOTS (^0) • USBPORTS2xUSB2,2xUSB3,
1xUSB3.1,1xUSBType-C•VIDEOOUTPUTS1xHDMI,1xDisplayPort•WARRANTYOneyearRTB
- DETAILSwww.msi.com•PARTCODEMPGZ390GamingEdgeAC•FULLREVIEWApr2019
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ity,
with060