TIGHT BUDGETS DEMAND CREATIVITY TO PRODUCE SOMETHING SPECIAL

WE GET TO PLAY with a lot of high-end gear here. Our cupboard is bursting with premium processors, expensive graphics cards, superfast SSDs, feature-rich mobos, and everything else that goes into producing the best machines we can put our minds to. If we need to build a rig for a specific use, we can generally lay our hands on the core components quickly, and piece together a PC that excels at the task at hand.

There’s a bit of a disconnect between having all this gear to play with and building in the real world, though, and this is most obvious when we’re building to a tight budget. It’s rare that we have everything we need for a budget build, for a couple of reasons: Firstly, new tech tends to appear in top-end components initially, and that’s the gear that makes it into our labs and cupboards. More budget-oriented hardware tends to come later, and it can be hard getting our hands on it. This is compounded by the fact that when there’s less profit to be had, there’s a general reluctance to promote the gear.

Which brings us to our cover feature: our $350 kick-ass budget build. When we were working out what we were going to do for this feature, we priced up a number of budget machines, but eased back on the crazy low price points, because we didn’t feel that they would produce the kind of performance that we demand. It isn’t just about building the cheapest machine you can; it’s about checking that “great value” box as well. So, while there are cheaper CPUs, we felt that too many of them were too compromised to be considered. To find out what we did end up building, turn to page 24. The final rig was impressive, and can stand on its own, or form the basis of a more capable system.

There is one element of this build that we always consider far longer than we probably should: the OS. We’re mainly about Windows here. We talk about Linux lots, and when it comes to specific tasks, it can often be hard to beat, but for general-purpose computing, our preference is still Windows 10. It’s just so easy to use, so predominant, and has so many great tools.

There’s just one problem: cost. While you can argue that Windows is great value for money because of how well supported it is, it’s difficult for Microsoft to compete with operating systems that cost zilch. Of course, you should donate money when you download Ubuntu or whatever, but you’re not forced to, and it makes no difference to the software whether you do or don’t. Which means it comes down to $0 versus $100. It’s not hard to see which one gets the nod from us; something that is made easier by the fact that the latest versions of Ubuntu are incredibly straightforward to use, even for novices. Still, if you can afford an extra $100, upgrading to Windows 10 makes sense. Enjoy the issue.