Christian Guyton is testing, testing, one two three…

WE’RE FINALLY DOING IT, folks. For years now, we’ve been running the same set of benchmarking tests in our build tutorials and system reviews, and enough is enough. It’s time for new numbers; specifically, the numbers that comprise our system zero-points for testing. No more will we be comparing shiny new gaming PCs to old hardware and testing years-old games. No, it’s time to update our benchmarking process and make it relevant for 2022. We’ve actually wanted to do this for a while, but such a mammoth project takes time, and we’ve always had other pressing concerns. But no longer!

Sharp-eyed readers will no doubt already be aware that we have three sets of system benchmark zero-points, each targeted at a different resolution for gaming and general performance. That means we need three new PCs for comparison, one specced for 1080p, one for 1440p, and lastly a 4K gaming monster. We also have a separate set of figures for machines running on integrated graphics, but we’ll be updating those in a future build.

Assembling three new systems inside of one issue is a big ask, but never let it be said that the Maximum PC team shies away from a challenge. Over these next 16 pages, we’ll be walking you through the process of building these three rigs, discussing the hardware we’re using, and of course testing the living daylights out of them. Going forward, you’ll see the figures that we use in all of our featured PC builds and desktop system reviews. Excited yet? Let’s get cracking.

THE 1080p BUILD COMPONENTS

CASE

NZXT H510

WWW.NZXT.COM

The ever-dependent H510 is one of our favorite PC cases, with a modern front I/O and a simple but clean design incorporating a glass panel and a PSU shroud. It’s also an easy case in which to assemble a system and that will help us speedrun these three builds. • RRP: $90 • Street price: $80

MOTHERBOARD

ASUS ROG STRIX B550-F WIFI

WWW.ASUS.COM

A standard B550-chipset motherboard with all the basic features we’ll need for this rig. Nothing fancy, just good support for all the rest of our components with PCIe 4.0 and an M.2 SSD heat shield. Okay, there’s RGB too—so it is just a little bit fancy. • RRP: $210 • Street price: $179

GRAPHICS CARD

XFX SPEEDSTER QICK308 RADEON RX 6600 XT 8GB

WWW.XFXFORCE.COM

Yep, that GPU price debacle isn’t quite over yet. Costs aside, the RX 6600 XT is an excellent all-rounder card for 1080p gaming, which uses AMD’s new Navi 23 GPU, with 8GB of VRAM. The RDNA 2 architecture also leverages the nifty Infinity Cache feature to effectively boost the available memory bandwidth, which helps to improve 1080p performance • RRP: $379 • Street price: $647

POWER SUPPLY

450W CORSAIR CX450M 80+ BRONZE

WWW.CORSAIR.COM

With the relatively low TDP of our assembled components (thanks AMD!), we were able to choose an affordable power supply for this build. We’ve gone with the Corsair CX450M, which should offer sufficient total wattage and has a semi-modular design that will enable us to cut down on cable clutter. • RRP: $60 • Street price: $60

MEMORY

16GB (2x 8GB) XPG GAMMIX D45 DDR4-3200

WWW.XPG.COM

XPG’s latest Gammix RAM is quite unassuming, with a simple black aluminum heat spreader and a speed of 3,200MHz. We’re using a 2x 8GB kit, which has become the norm for many versatile PCs. That’s enough memory to handle a variety of workloads without costing the world. • RRP: $60 • Street price: $60

STORAGE

1TB ADATA LEGEND 840 M.2 SSD

WWW.ADATA.COM

The B550 chipset and Ryzen 5 5600X processor mean we have full PCIe 4.0 potential unlocked for this build, which is swiftly becoming the norm. The Legend 840 Gen4 SSD from ADATA is an ideal pick, and helpfully comes without the included heat spreader already attached, since we won’t be using it. • RRP $108 • Street price: $108

PROCESSOR

RYZEN 5 5600X

WWW.AMD.COM

The defacto best chip right now for mid-range gaming builds, the Ryzen 5 5600X has freed itself from the mire of high CPU prices and is now available for a reasonable $230. Six cores and 12 threads offer solid performance in both single-core and multi-core workloads, with a sensible 65W TDP and PCIe Gen4 support. • RRP: $300 • Street price: $230