Maximum PC - USA (2021-Holiday)

98 MAXIMUMPC HOL 2021

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

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LAST TIME AROUND, it worked out better for both turbo builds that

we chose two 3 TB hard disk drives from Western Digital as this

was cheaper than buying one 6 TB HDD. However, the stars have

aligned and, thanks to another Newegg sale, our builds can benefit.

Western Digital’s Blue 6TB HDD is on sale at $110, which works out

cheaper than two 3TB drives. For our main storage, we have stuck

with the same speedy PCIe 4.0 SSD’s for both Intel and AMD turbo

builds. These are great drives, both with 1TB of storage. On the AMD

turbo machine, the price of the Samsung 980 Pro seems to have

stabilized, only being $ 8 more this time. The Gigabyte Aorus Gen 4

7000s SSD for the Intel PC price hasn’t—it now costs $20 more.

The big change for the AMD rig is a swap of motherboards. Out

goes the MSI MPG X570 Gaming Edge Wi-Fi and in goes Gigabyte’s

X570 GAMING X. MSI’s board was no longer on offer and is nearly

$30 more expensive than Gigabyte’s alternative. Both are great

boards, but we are sticking with the more sensible choice for now.

Not many changes have been made on the Turbo builds overall.

We can’t wait to add Alder Lake chips to our top-tier Intel build

but, for now, we’re sticking with the monster Intel Core i9-1 19 00K

chip. Although it has risen in price by $20, it’s still one of the best

Intel processors. AMD’s Ryzen 7 58 00X is equally impressive and

deserves its spot in the AMD turbo build. At just under $400, it is

nearly $1 50 cheaper than Intel’s offering. Other than the mobo and

HDD, everything else remains the same for team AMD, though

Corsair’s iCUE H 150 i ELITE CAPELLIX AIO 360mm rises by $20.

On the Intel rig, there was just one alteration, other than the

HDD. The Fractal Design Ion PSU from the previous issue was out

of stock, resulting in a change to Corsair’s RM (2 019 ) falling into the

machine. A cheaper unit with the same specification, it made sense

to fit it in, even though this is far from the budget build. Last but not

least, GPU issues. Yes, we sound like a broken record, but we can’t

recommend paying the extra. It’s your decision, of course, but at

more than double the RRP, that makes us quake in our boots.

Approximate Price: $2, 219 or $3, 169 Approximate Price: $2, 675 or $3,27 6

AMD INGREDIENTS INTEL INGREDIENTS

PART PRICE

STREET

PRICE

Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2

Tempered Glass

$160

PSU 750W NZXT C750 80 + Gold $123

Mobo Gigabyte X5 70 GAMING X NEW $188

CPU AMD Ryzen 7 58 00X $394

Cooler Corsair iCUE H150i ELITE CAPELLIX

AIO 3 60mm

$190

GPU Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 10GB NO STOCK $700 $1,6 50

RAM 32GB (2x 16GB) G.Skill Ripjaws V

32GB @ 40 00MHz

$137

SSD 1TB Samsung 980 Pro M.2 PCIe 4. 0 $185

HDD 6TB WD Blue 5400 HDD NEW $110

OS Windows 10 Home 64 -bit OEM $32

PART PRICE

STREET

PRICE

Case Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2

Tempered Glass

$160

PSU 750W Corsair RM (2 019 ) 80 + Gold NEW $109

Mobo MSI MAG Z590 Tomahawk Wi-Fi $220

CPU Intel Core i9-1 19 00K $545

Cooler MSI MAG CoreLiquid 360R AIO $140

GPU AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT 16GB NO STOCK $999 $1,6 00

RAM (^) 32GB (2x 16GB) G.Skill Trident Z
Neo @ 4000 MHz
$170
SSD 1TB Gigabyte Aorus Gen4 7 000s
M.2 PCIe 4. 0
$190
HDD 6TB WD Blue 5400 HDD NEW $110
OS Windows 10 Home 64 -bit OEM $32

TURBO