POWER INGREDIENTS

CPU AMD RYZEN 7 3800X $549

A recent price drop makes the 3800X even more attractive. Yes, in a powerful build, there’s potential to use the 12-core Ryzen 9 3900X, but that would result in a significant price increase for only marginally better gaming performance. The 3800X is now less than $70 more expensive than the 3700X, but brings a significant increase to standard operating frequency while packing the same eightcore architecture. Fully unlocked for overclocking, PCIe 4.0 support for superfast SSD transfers, and a low 105W TDP all serve to sweeten the deal.

CPU COOLER COOLER MASTER MA610P $65

Surprise! We’re using air cooling for this build. There’s no stock coolers to be seen here, though; the Cooler Master MA610P is a stylish air cooler, with a tall heatsink flanked by two snap-on fans. In addition, it comes with brackets that enable it to be attached to either Intel or AMD platforms (no Threadripper, though). The two fans are uniquely shaped to give the MA610P a slick rounded form that eschews the blockiness of many air coolers.