4K gaming rig

MYTHICAL, BEAUTIFUL, LUMINOUS. TAKE A LOOK AT OUR CASTLE IN THE SKY

LENGTH OF TIME: 1-2 HOURS

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: EASY TO MEDIUM

IN JARRED’S TECH TALK this issue (see page 15), he went into great detail about the shortages we’re seeing in the industry right now. Thanks to a multitude of different factors, the world of computing is fragmented in terms of stock, and it’s only snowballing further. There’s a massive disconnect between the RRP and the actual price you can buy these components for now, and it’s all due to demand far outstripping supply, with some unscrupulous agents in the middle to boot.

We live in unprecedented times, and in a world so connected to its technology, especially for enthusiasts, professionals, and hobbyists like ourselves, we’re suffering because of it. That’s why for the first time, we’ve included two price lists in our ingredients table at the beginning of the feature—one for the actual RRP that these things should be selling for, and the other to indicate the current street price you could theoretically buy the parts for today.

Now let’s just start by saying this: do not buy this today at its current price. Encouraging scalpers only leads to more of it happening in the future, further driving up costs for us all and putting what are meant to be affordable parts way out of reach of the everyday enthusiast. What we’re looking at here is an example of what can be built and achieved when stock finally comes back into existence again—something that should hopefully occur by this summer.

This build’s also a bit of a special one for us, for a number of reasons. First up, it was actually meant to be in the last issue of Maximum PC. The reason why it wasn’t was because this editor came down with COVID, and Christian is also out due to health concerns. You’ll also notice that there’s a ton of Corsair stuff in the build too. Corsair sent us the 5000D Airflow long before the NDA was due to lift. In fact, the whole idea was that we’d have this kick-ass AMD build ready, colorcoordinated, and illuminated in the mag, right on time for the case’s NDA to drop. If you work in print media, let us assure you, meeting an NDA is like gold-dust, and something we almost always pursue. Obviously, that didn’t quite go to plan, but that’s not stopping us from putting this epic build together for this issue.

This time around, again due to that pesky pandemic, we’re going to show you some of our favorite highlights from this system, what considerations we made, and how we put the whole thing together. It’s a bit more unorthodox than our usual builds, but sadly COVID restrictions are also having an effect in our workplace, and we’re no longer allowed in the same room as our tech-savvy photographer while we actually do the build.

So let’s go through this 4K gaming build, take a look at this awesome system, and explain how we forged every element of it.

1 DOING THINGS DIFFERENTLY

CORSAIR’S 5000D AIRFLOW is a behemoth. It’s not quite full-tower level, but it’s much larger than the 4000D midtower case. This is in part thanks to its ridiculous amount of compatibility for cooling components. Inside you’ll find a cable-tidy bar, cable grommets, full-length PSU cover, vertical PCIe mounts, push-pull support in the roof, plenty of ventilation, and cable-management features in the rear. There’s even support for side-mounted radiators.