AMD RYZEN 5 3400G 1TB INTEL 660P M.2 PCIE 3.0 SSD

$149 $120

Yep we’ve gone with AMD for this build, purely because its Ryzen APUs are fairly competitive when it comes to both cost and performance. With four cores and eight threads lined up over two core complexes, it’s a fantastic chip for those looking to build something that’ll work on a budget. Alternatively, if your heart’s set on Team Blue, you could opt for an Intel Core i3-8300 for about $142, but you’d lose access to that hyperthreading, meaning you’d only have four cores, and you’d have to put up with slightly inferior integrated graphics performance compared to Intel’s 9th-series processors.

Now first let’s start by saying this isn’t the best PCIe 3.0 drive in the world. It’s based off of QLC NAND flash tech, which is a heck of a lot less impressive than the alternatives. It’s got lower overall endurance and slower performance than the likes of SLC, MLC, or TLC flash. That said, there’s no denying just how much bang for the buck you get. We’re talking sequential read and writes up to 1800 MB/s, making it a fairly proficient budget drive for those not looking to render massive video files on a daily basis. Combine that with a fairly helpful 1.6M hours mean time between failures, and it’s perfect for everyday office use.