Maximum PC - USA (2022-06)

98  JUN 2022

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Maximum PC (ISSN 1522-4279) is published 13 times a year,

monthly plus a Holiday issue following the December issue, by

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BOTH OF OUR HIGH-END processors saw price hikes this month,

though not disastrously so. We’re keeping both CPUs, although

if you’re willing to sacrifice integrated graphics you could save

a few bucks by opting for the i9-12900KF in the Intel build. Good

Z690 motherboards remain expensive, but we were happy to see

$10 shaved off the price of the MSI mobo in our Intel turbo system.

Conversely, the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite WiFi rose by the same

amount but remains good value for money for an X570 board.

The AMD turbo build gets a new power supply and a new CPU

cooler—the Cooler Master MWE 850 V2 and NZXT Kraken X72,

respectively. This PSU brings the AMD system up to 850W of total

power, bringing it in line with its Intel counterpart. That NZXT AIO

is on sale at the time of writing, making it cheaper than the LGA

1700-compatible MSI MAG AIO cooler we’ve added to the Intel rig

this month. Neither machine got a new GPU, because both the ones

we had in place dropped by over $100. The semiconductor shortage

is finally easing, with graphics card stock coming home to roost.

With our bump from 16GB to 32GB of RAM in the mid-range

builds, it seemed appropriate to put those GPU savings to good

use here too, so both systems are getting an upgrade to a hefty

64GB of memory. The AMD build sticks with DDR4, getting G.Skill’s

RGB-illuminated Trident Z Neo kit at 4,000MHz. The Intel system

forgoes colored LEDs in order to keep the price down with a Corsair

Vengeance kit. DDR5 is still expensive, even more so when looking

at 64GB kits, so stick to 32GB if you want to save some cash.

HDD storage (particularly at lower RPMs) seems to be getting

cheaper, with Western Digital’s 6TB Blue drives dropping to $80.

PCIe 4.0 SSDs at higher capacities are getting cheaper too, with the

excellent Samsung 980 Pro 1TB on sale for $130. The AMD build

gets this M.2 drive, while the Intel turbo system enjoys a WD Black

SN850 to match its hard drive. While our doubled-up RAM raised

the cost of these builds, savings elsewhere meant that the overall

prices totals didn’t increase much, so we’ll consider that a win.

Approximate Price: $2,841 / $2,992 Approximate Price: $3,612 / $3,812

AMD INGREDIENTS INTEL INGREDIENTS

PART PRICE

STREET

PRICE

Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2

Tempered Glass

$190

PSU 850W Cooler Master

MWE V2 80+ Gold NEW

$100

Mobo Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite WiFi $190

CPU AMD Ryzen 9 5950X $650

Cooler NZXT Kraken X72 360mm NEW $130

GPU ASRock Radeon RX 6900 XT

Phantom Gaming D 16GB

$999

$1,150

RAM 64GB (2 x 32GB) G.Skill Trident Z Neo

DDR4 @ 4000MHz CL18 NEW

$340

SSD 1TB Samsung 980 Pro M.2 PCIe 4.0 NEW $130

HDD 6TB WD Blue 5400 HDD $80

OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM

(Windows 11 Compatible)

$32

PART PRICE

STREET

PRICE

Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2

Tempered Glass

$190

PSU 850W Corsair RM850 80+ Gold $118

Mobo MSI PRO Z690-A WiFi LGA1700 $240

CPU Intel Core i9-12900K $610

Cooler MSI MAG CoreLiquid

360R V2 360mm NEW

$140

GPU EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3

Ultra Gaming 24GB

$1,500

$1,700

RAM 64GB (2 x 32GB) Corsair Vengeance

DDR5 @ 5200MHz NEW

$565

SSD 1TB WD Black SN850 M.2 PCIe 4.0 NEW $137

HDD 6TB WD Blue 5400 HDD $80

OS Windows 10 Home 64-bit OEM

(Windows 11 Compatible)

$32

TURBO