Blueprints

Bangs for few bucks.

Both budget builds have seen small increases this month, with the AMD system just managing to remain the cheaper option. We’ve made plenty of changes here; first, both motherboards are now Phantom Gaming 4 models from Asrock. The Intel build has received the Z390 motherboard because it’s the most affordable option, but the AMD build has given us a chance to both upgrade and make a saving with a new B550 board, bringing us forward a generation.

This should see minor general improvements in performance and power management, but the crucial addition is PCIe 4.0 support, allowing us to use 4th-gen M.2 SSDs for maximum transfer speeds. We’re not doing that yet, though. Why? Because this is a budget build, and currently the smallest PCIe 4.0 drives available are all 500GB models costing upwards of $250. Still, there’s a good range of cheap, low-capacity SATA III SSDs available now, so we’ve swapped the boot drives in both builds for 120GB Teamgroup GX1 SSDs. If cheaper PCIe 4.0 SSDs become available soon, we’ll take advantage of them.

The GPUs didn’t need changing, and we’re sticking with the EVGA GTX 1660 Super Black Gaming for now. The 5600 XT is still slightly expensive for our liking, but it does perform well. We’ve also coalesced back down to a single PSU for both builds, with the ever-reliable EVGA 450 BR. While similar power supplies are sometimes cheaper during sales, the EVGA 450 BR remains an excellent deal.

The last change we’ve made is the memory in the AMD system, with a switch to a different 2x16GB kit to shave a few dollars off the price while keeping the same frequency and CAS latency. Performance isn’t improved hugely in either system this month, but we’ve gained some small boosts here and there.

“The AMD build has given us a chance to both upgrade and make a saving with a new B550 board, bringing us forward a generation.”