blueprint a part-by-part guide to building a better pc
THE BUILDS
THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES...
AT THE TIME OF WRITING, a whole new range of chips and GPUs are available. Exciting times, then, for our new blueprint machines? Well, yes and no. For the mid-range and turbo machines, yes, but unfortunately we don’t get to add these new toys into our budget machines just yet. For now, our budget CPUs and GPUs don’t alter.
For team Intel, that means that the trusty Core i5-12600K is once again at the wheel, although it does partner up with a new GPU. Yes, we know we just said nothing had changed, but hold on, it’s nothing to get too excited about. Fluctuations in pricing mean that we swap out our previous MSI graphics card for a similarly specced Zotac one. This GPU is an RTX 3060 OC like the MSI and has 12GB of GDDR6 to play with. It’s nothing revolutionary but is still a great buy for under $400.
Aside from that, the PSU is swapped out for an Asus ROG Strix unit that has the same wattage but a higher efficiency rating. Now we get to see an 80+ Gold PSU instead of an 80+ Bronze one—and for the same price too.