PC Gamer Presents - PC Hardware Handbook - May 2018

Ballistix Sport LT 16GB

(2x8GB) – 2666

Crucial £167

This is the cheapest 2666 16GB kit out there,

and perfect for any midrange build.

MID-RANGE

BUILD

Our recommended build for

playing the latest games

TOTAL

£1,854

MasterLiquid Lite 240

CoolerMaster £45

This 240mm, dual-fan, all-in-one liquid CPU

cooler is ludicrously cheap, but performs

well and stays quiet, too.

Z370 Tomahawk

MSI £140

This is a nice-looking bit of kit at a good

price. Couple that with two M.2 slots, and it’s

the perfect place to house that Core i5.

Core i5-8400

Intel £180

Intel’s latest boasts six of its Coffee Lake

cores, with great single-core performance. It

even gives last-gen’s i7 a run for its money.

GTX 1070 SC Gaming ACX

EVGA £530

Trying to balance prices, we’ve opted to drop

down to an SC Gaming card. Don’t worry, you

only lose out on a very minor overclock.

850 EVO 250GB

Samsung £83

Samsung retains its top spot on the SSD pile

with the fantastically priced, very speedy

850 EVO. Still the best price/performance.

RMx 650W

Corsair £81

There’s nothing like having a quality power

supply. Get a decent cable kit for this one

and you can easily spice up your rig.

Alloy FPS Cherry MX Blue

HyperX £93

This crisp keyboard from HyperX ticks all the

right boxes. It may lack RGB, but those clicky

keys will keep you happy for years.

Castor

Mionix £47

The Castor is a dream to use and supportive

like a glove. With clutter-free software and an

optical sensor, it’s hard to go wrong.

Eclipse P400S TG

Phanteks £78

The clean lines, intuitive build features and

fantastic price cements the Eclipse as our

mid-range case of choice.

WD Blue 1TB 7200RPM

Western Digital £40

SSDs are great, but they’re still far from

cheap. This 1TB HDD will hold as many

games as you will need.

AGON AG251FZ

AOC £300

Not only does this 1080p monitor have a

lightning-fast 240Hz refresh rate but it

produces decent image quality, too.

HyperX Cloud

Kingston £70

Despite the budget price, we recommend

this headset. There’s simply nothing better

for the money.

NEW

ENTRY

NEW

ENTRY

MOTHERBOARD

PROCESSOR

GRAPHICS CARD

COOLER

MEMORY

POWER SUPPLY

SSD

HDD

CASE

DISPLAY

KEYBOARD

MOUSE

HEADSET

Buyer’s Guide

HARDWARE