blueprint a part-by-part guide to building a better pc
THE BUILDS
THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES...
THIS MONTH’S BUDGET improvements are focused on the Intel build, as we rebuilt the AMD one last month and were unable to find any reasonable upgrades or cost savings. There’s a lot happening with Intel at the moment, including an extraordinarily priced CPU that means we can upgrade a few of the other components, as well as a new high-value GPU entry in the market. The first tweak is the Intel Core i5-12400F, the same processor featured in our $1300 build this month, minus the onboard graphics processor. You will need a discrete graphics card for this build, so if you’re unable to get one, or you’re holding out for whatever reason, be sure to look at the standard i5-12400 at $210. The i5-12400F, though, is only $25 more than the Intel Core i3-10400 we used to feature in this build but offers double-digit performance gains in both single and multi-core operations. It offers incredible bang for your buck, which is why we wanted to feature a build around it this issue.