BUILDING A MONSTER PC and blowing the budget sure is fun, but for most of us, the more realistic challenge right now is constructing something to a lower price. Whether that’s because you’ve got other purchases to worry about, or you can’t source all of the components right now, you might be holding off building something for work, school or pleasure when you really don’t need to.
So we decided to set ourselves a challenge: could we build something we’d be proud to have on our desk to a $600 budget? Something that would not only offer bang-for-buck performance, but also use quality components that will stand the test of time? Something that can handle everyday tasks, while also looking sleek doing it?
In starting our build, we first looked at where we could make obvious savings. We figured that one of the best components to start with would be a CPU that includes an integrated cooler and graphics— in effect, we’re getting three components for the price of one. So, we chose the Intel Core i5-10400 with Intel UHD 630 graphics and a stock cooler. Avoiding the need to pay for an AIO will inevitably save money, leaving a decent chunk of the budget to be allocated to the remaining parts of the build. That’s what we’re aiming for anyway.
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Denne historien er fra March 2022-utgaven av Maximum PC.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
NZXT C1500 Platinum
Top-tier performance and efficiency
Nvidia DLSS vs AMD FSR
Which AI upscaling technique has the edge?
World of Goo 2
Goo-d enough for two
BenQ X300G 4K Short Throw Projector
Priced high, yet punchy
Hyte Thicc Q60
Almost more mobile phone than CPU cooler
Remove stalkerware from your PC
ACCORDING TO KASPERSKY’S LATEST ‘State of Stalkerware’ report, over 40 percent of those surveyed worldwide said they’d experienced stalking or suspected that they were being stalked.
BUILD AN IT SUPPORT HUB
Discover how to use RustDesk to provide remote assistance and control your own devices remotely with Nick Peers
AMD's turn to drop the ball?
WITH INTEL'S RAPTOR LAKE CPUs falling over, the company firing around 15,000 employees, and cancelling its 2024 innovation event, AMD must have been enjoying the view - until its new Ryzen 9000 desktop CPUs rolled out. So, is AMD's CPU a minor stumble or game-changing fumble?
Intel issues fix for Raptor Lake degradation
EARLIER THIS YEAR, I wrote about difficulties I was having with a Core 19-13900K processor (see MPC230 Tech Talk). Little did we realize that we were only seeing the tip of the iceberg. While most complaints have involved the unlocked Core i9 Raptor Lake CPUs, it appears the instability problems build up and potentially impact many Raptor Lake-13th and 14th Gen Core CPUs, with Intel identifying 22 different desktop parts.
AMD Ryzen 7 9700X
The new Zen 5 CPUs are here—time to benchmark!