BUILD IT
AMD’s refreshed mid-tier machine
Is the new Radeon RX 6650 XT worth adding to your rig?
SAM LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH OF TIME: 2-3 HOURS LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY
THE CONCEPT
IF WE HAD TO NAME our favorite aspects of PC building, it’d be the individuality, craftsmanship, and customization that come naturally when creating your own computer. Although you may start out with a rough idea of the PC you’d like to build, there are plenty of variables during the process that mean it doesn’t always go to plan. There are almost infinite combinations of kit to select from, but budget, availability, compatibility, and component clearance can rip up the ideal build with no regard for your emotions.
A good way to start a build is to think about futureproofing. If you can’t get hold of everything at once, you can always swap out components down the line and there are parts of a machine that you can save some money on initially.
One of the key parts we’ve saved money on initially is our Phanteks P400A case—a universal and budget-friendly case that supports ATX, Micro ATX, Mini ITX motherboards, and even E-ATX (up to 272mm wide). With plenty of space, fan capacity, cable management solutions, and a simplistic black design, it should pair well in most environments and house a wide variety of builds. Sure, the beauty of custom PCs is that this can be swapped out down the line but, for now, it’s a reliable enough case.
What we’re aiming for is a rig that is good enough to game on from the get-go, but with room for improvement down the line. We have a powerful CPU and one of the latest Radeon budget to mid-tier GPUs to test out, both by AMD. Hopefully, in our conclusion, we’ll find out whether this is a good starting point for this rig.
THE INGREDIENTS
WE’VE ALREADY MENTIONED the chassis for this build, but what about the components within? The AMD Ryzen 9 3900X CPU should be futureproofed, regardless of the incoming AM5 socket. With 12 cores, 24 threads, and a clock speed of 3.8GHz, it’s a dependable and powerful chip. Alongside this, we have AMD’s Radeon 6650 XT—specifically, an MSI Radeon RX 6650 XT Gaming X 8G, which comes with 8GB of GDDR6, PCI Express Gen 4 x8, and a memory speed of 17.5 Gbps. This revamped budget GPU should provide a solid gaming experience.