blueprint a part-by-part guide to building a better pc

THIS MONTH’S STREET PRICES...

OUR BUDGET MACHINES may not be the best of the bunch, but the fact you can piece together a whole machine costing around two-thirds of the price of just one 4090 is crazy. And that whole machine is capable of 1080p gaming on ultra settings too—it’s a whole lot better value for money. After our previous two budget  builds, we decided it was time to bring some new components into the mix. Our recent Intel and AMD cover build proved they could game at 1080p ultra, so we added those GPUs into both builds. While the Intel Limited Edition Arc A750 8GB can game at 1080p, the RTX 4060 we tested recently does so at much higher frame rates. With the help of DLSS 3.0, we reached over 200fps on Cyberpunk withray tracing and we won’t get that with the Intel card. The MSI VENTUS 2X BLACK OC costs $70 more, but it’s worth every cent for the consistent Nvidia support and AI tech.

We’ve kept the impressive entry-level Intel Core i3-13100F CPU that we introduced last time. At $110, it’s a great way to experience 13th-gen Intel technology, it’s power efficient and works well in a 1080p gaming machine. Another component we introduced was the recently reviewed Lexar NM790 SSD. This 1TB drive comes in at $70 and doubles our capacity for an extra $10 over the Corsair SSD. We also added the Lexar to the AMD side and a new PSU to both. The Corsair CV450 was out of stock so we swapped it out for the 600W EVGA 600 GD and an extra $10.