Computer Shopper - UK (2020-10)

ISSUE392|COMPUTER SHOPPER|OCTOBER 2020 47

COMPONENTS

AMD Ryzen93 9 00X

★★★★★

£440•www.scan.co.uk

AMD Ryzen73 7 00X

★★★★★

£298•www.amzn.to/2nFtHMC

Forget the Intel Core

i9-9900K –this 12-core

monster ofaCPU performs far better

forsimilar money.There is adrawback, in that it’s not very

overclocking-friendly,but that’s partly because it’s so fast to begin

with. Pair it with some good RAM, and you’re already most of the

waytoacapable home workstation.

This octa-core chip has all

the single-core strength of the

Ryzen 93900X,with mutlitasking

power that still puts it well beyond its Intel rivals. Lowpricing and

power efficiency areadditional highlights: the Ryzen 73700X only

draws up to 65W,atiny amount forthis many cores.

SOCKETAM4•CORES (^12) • FREQUENCY 3 .8GHz•INTEGRATEDGRAPHICSNone•WARRANTYTwo
yearsRTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•PARTCODE 100 -1 00000023 BOX•FULLREVIEWNov 2019
SOCKETAM4•CORES (^8) • FREQUENCY3.6GHz•INTEGRATEDGRAPHICSNone•
WARRANTYTwoyears RTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•PARTCODE100-100000071BOX•
FULLREVIEWDec 2019
THERMALTAKEView37
★★★★★
£130•www.scan.co.uk
Aspacious, feature-rich chassis
forbothATX-and EATX-based
builds, the View 37 comes with a
gull-wing side window that’s perfect forshowing
off your handiwork.
CASETYPEMid-tower•MOTHERBOARDTYPEATX, EATX,microATX, Mini-ITX•SUPPLIED
FANS2x 140mm•MAXDRIVEBAYS7x 3.5in, 11x2.5in•DIMENSIONS525x261x538mm•
WEIGHT11.8kg•WARRANTYThreeyears RTB•DETAILSwww.thermaltake.com•
PARTCODECA-1J7-00M1WN-00•FULLREVIEWDec2018
ASUS ROGStrixFlare
★★★★★
£155•www.box.co.uk
Besides being a
comfortable and
responsive gaming keyboard,
thanks to its reliable Cherry MX Redswitches, the ROG Strix Flare
is loaded with useful features and extras: there’s aset of dedicated
media controls and aUSB2 pass-through port, among others.
KEYBOARDSHAPEFull size•NUMBERPADYes•CONNECTION1x USB2•MEDIAKEYSPause/
play,mute, skip,volume•USBPORTS2x USB2•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.
asus.com/uk•PARTCODE90MP000MO-BOEA00•FULLREVIEWOct2019

01

Youdon’thavetospendmuchtobuy

adecentgraphicscardthatcandrive

multiple monitors. The AMD Radeon RX 550

costs about £100, forexample,and whileit

isn’t suited to playing the latest games in Full

HD,itisperfect forwatching videos,

browsing the web and playing basic games.

02

You’ll need to spend more moneyif

you want to playthe latest games.

Agood mid-range gaming graphics card is

the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, which is

powerful enough to playall modern games

at Full HD resolution.

High-powered cards tend to be more

expensive,soexpect to payover £400 if

you want to playgames in Ultra HD at the

highest quality settings.

Choosinga... Graphicscard

03

Check that your chosen card has

the graphics outputs you need.

Only low-end cards now have VGA

outputs, but many come with aDVI-to-VGA

adaptor.Depending on your monitor,you

mayalso want an HDMI output or even

DisplayPort connection.

Bear in mind that AMD’s Eyefinity

triple-monitor gaming mode requires at

least one DisplayPort monitor,which

means your AMD graphics card must have

at least one DisplayPort output. Nvidia’s

Surround three-monitor mode needs only

DVIand HDMI ports.

04

The amount of memory acard has

is important if you want games to look

their best at high resolutions. Unless you’re

on atight budget, get acard with 4GB of

RAM, as this should allow you to select the

highest-quality textures in games.

05

Acard’ssize,noise output and

power requirements are the final

considerations. Make sure your PC’s case

has enough room to accommodateyour

chosen card. Double-slot cards with large

fans tend to be quieter than single-slot

cards with small fans but will block other

expansion slots on your motherboard.

Also check that your power supply

can provide the power the card needs

and that it has the right connectors.

Many cards require asix-pin PCI Express

power connector,and some also need an

additional eight-pin connector.

AMD RadeonRX5700

★★★★★

£334•shop.amd.com

NZXT KrakenX53

★★★★★

£120•www.scan.co.uk

AMD’s 7nm GPU is cheaper

than the GeForce RTX2060

and the RTX2060 Super,yet is

just as comfortable with gaming at 1080p and 1440p.This price only

seems to apply forthe reference design rather than partner versions,

but the blower-style cooler is the only real downside.

Not only is the Kraken X53 one of the most effective

AIO watercoolers out there,it’s also among the

easiest to installand the easiest to customise.

It works with lots of different Intel and AMD sockets too, so you

can upgrade older PC builds as well as newer ones.

GPUAMDRadeon RX 5700•MEMORY8GBGDDR6•GRAPHICSCARDLENGTH268mm•

WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.amd.com•PARTCODERadeon RX 5700•

FULLREVIEWOct2019

TECHNOLOGYClosedloop•FANS2x 120mm•SOCKETIntel LGA2066/2011-3/2011/1151/1150/

1155/1156/1366,AMD AM4/TR4(TR4requires separatebracket)•RADIATORDIMENSIONS

(NOFAN)123x275x30mm•WARRANTYSixyears RTB•DETAILSwww.nzxt.com•PARTCODE

RL-KRX53-01•FULLREVIEWMay2020

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