Mid-range. A game-ready machine that can also handle demanding work.
Following on from the budget range’s chaos, prices on our mid-range systems aren’t much better. Our AMD build has seen some decent price cuts, along with some increases...
Our joint case of choice, the H7 Flow, went from $189 to $205. Corsair’s memory and PSU have gone up slightly too. We’ve dropped the RMe PSU in favour of Thermaltake’s Toughpower GF1 2024 edition. It’s still fully modular, fully 80+ gold rated, and brings an extra 100W of headroom to the table. As a verty happy bonus, it’s $40 cheaper than the Corsair.
After a few months of listing the
EK-Nucleus AIO CR360 DarkAIO cooler for the Intel build, we’ve had to ditch it this issue in favour of the familiar and reliable Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L V2. As appealing as the EK system was, it’s just too dicult to nd in Australia and it’s just too complicated and expensive to import cheaply, too.
Memory has also seen a big shake-up. We’re starting to see a phenomenal amount of 6000 MT/s C30 kits hit the market. We’ve gone with two new kits because of it: the Adata XPG Lancer kit for our AMD build, coming in at $209, and Team Group’s T-Create Expert for $196 on our Intel system. Both are incredibly classy kits, although you’ll be forgoing RGB lighting if you do go that route.
Speaking of Intel, our motherboard of choice, the MSI Z790 Gaming Pro WiFi, has gone up by $30. Unfortunately, there are no better-value motherboards right now, certainly not with this level of features and connectivity. There are cheaper boards if you’re on a shoestring, but bear in mind that you’ll be giving up expandability.
Be careful, particularly with memory. As we mentioned, there’s a number of 6000 C30 kits out there, but we did spot a 6000 C42 kit and a C30 kit at with identical heatsinks and naming schemes, so pay attention to the ne print. Otherwise, it’s been a tight month for these builds, with our AMD system dropping by $135, and our Intel system up by $86.
“Our AMD build has seen some decent price cuts, along with some increases... ”