Guy Cocker

LAST MONTH, we built a brand new Nvidia/Intel-based system for under a grand. This issue, we’re doing it again, but with AMD, in our cover build, masterminded by our in-house expert Sam Lewis. Just as the RTX 4060 finally enabled us to get down to the magic three-figure budget with Team Green, so does the Radeon RX 7600 for Team Red, allowing 1080p gaming on high settings in titles such as Dead Island 2, Cyberpunk 2077 and Resident Evil 4.

We paired this $299 card with the $160 Ryzen 5 5600X processor, which is no slouch when it comes to everyday computing. It’ll chew through any CPUheavy task you throw at it, and should be good for years to come. We have our reservations about graphics cards with only 8GB of video memory, such as the Radeon RX 7600, but this system will be upgradable down the line thanks to a roomy chassis that’s easy to build in. On the plus side, AMD’s card comes with an AV1 hardware encoder that allows you to stream your gameplay at super-high quality with little to no impact on your gameplay performance. All in all, it’s a nice little system at a great price, and you can find out how to build it yourself from page 16, including mine and Sam’s video chat in the Story of the Build.