GETTING READY TO BUILD

WE’RE NOT GOING to lie: Getting the gear in for this build was something of a mission. You might imagine that cheaper components are easier to get hold of, but manufacturers are always more eager to push their newest, most expensive hardware. Counting the coins with a build like this produces far more of a challenge for us, and in spite of our best efforts, this isn’t a truly budget build. A cheaper processor was certainly an option; an Athlon 200GE would likely be the most affordable option, or a Pentium Gold from Intel.

Looking at our budget breakdown, we arguably overspent on our motherboard. The B450M Steel Legend is a great board, but it’s the most expensive component in this build; only the 2200G CPU even comes close. In a build like this, there’s little need to spend more than 15–20 percent of your budget on your mobo, but we’ve gone ahead and used more than a quarter of it. Good budget boards can be tough to come by, but if you’re patient, and keep and eye on the sales, you should be able to snap up a similar B450M board pretty cheaply.

The most important part of this build – and, indeed, any project with a tight budget – is getting the most out of the money you’re spending. The RAM, case, and SSD we’re using are all particularly good value; we challenge you to find a nicer case for the price, and Crucial’s BX series is just ridiculously good value. When it comes to elements such as the HDD and PSU, don’t be afraid to cannibalise a part from an older build. This rig really isn’t remotely demanding, and if you’ve got an old hard drive lying around, the SPEC-05 can easily accommodate it.