GAMING POWERHOUSE

We set out to assemble a powerful eight-core system for gaming. Break out the LEDs!

- CHRISTIAN GUYTON

WE STARTED OUT with a budget for this. Our initial idea centered around an eightcore CPU and a Radeon RX 5700 XT, but this was soon scuppered by the arrival of a beautiful, mirror-fronted RTX 2070 Super FE at the Maximum PC office. The price rose, and our CPU/GPU cost ratio skewed, so up we went from a Ryzen 7 3700X to the 3800X—sticking with our eight-core plan.

Of course, a gaming PC needs more than just a good CPU and powerful graphics. We needed an X570 motherboard to support that chip, and those don’t come cheap. The addition of memory and a non-stock cooler drove us over our original budget. And so, this build shifted; no longer a sensibly priced machine, but a gaming powerhouse. Treasure this rare glimpse into the inner workings of Maximum PC, where the temptation to throw money at a build is ever-present.

We didn’t go too overboard; this isn’t a Dream Machine, after all. So, 16GB of high-speed RAM and lots of storage— 3TB, to be exact. If you can’t download your whole Steam library, what’s the point? High-speed 2.5G Ethernet and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity from our mobo mean that downloads shouldn’t even take too long (if your Internet connection is up to scratch).

We’re also opting for the full “gamer” treatment, which means RGB lighting, of course. We’ve got some specific fans in for that, courtesy of Fractal Design—a few to replace the existing fans in our Thermaltake case, and a couple of extra ones to improve the case airflow. Our CPU likely won’t be bearing the bulk of work done by this PC—with a gaming rig, auto overclocking for the GPU is important— so overall airflow is more significant than dedicated CPU cooling.